Lydia Deanna Chambers

Lydia Deanna Liston Chambers, passed away at Highland Estates in Burley, Idaho on

Monday, October 21, 2019, at the age of 80. She was born March 14, 1939 to Lydia Larsen Liston and La Von Liston, in Salina, Utah.

She grew up and attended schools there, helping her mother tend her siblings, and their
thousands of laying hens. After graduation she moved to Twin Falls, and later to Hazelton,
where she worked as a hair stylist for several years. In 1971 she married Ferrell Chambers of Hazelton and became a full working partner in his sheep and cattle operation. The following is a personal memoir of those years:

Deanna came into Ferrell's life in 1971, when they were married. He had 3,000 to 3,500 head of ewes at the time, and ran them in Dubois country in summer, and back at his place in fall and winter. In lambing time, Deanna worked in the sheep sheds, watched the drop at night, and kept the crew fed with home-cooked meals every day. No jobs were too hard, nor the hours too long. Ferrell would never have managed without her help.
 
Ferrell had those sheep and a small herd of cattle. They had half the room and sheds,
and half the help they needed. He would hire anybody that was looking for work, especially kids, from 10 to 25 years old.

In later years, they would talk about their lives and work. Ferrell would tell of some of the
kids that helped, and the problems (of working with them). Deanna would always stick up
for the kids, especially. Duane Ellis, Lynn Standlee, and Kevin Gergen, and she would say,
"They were just little kids. And you thought they were grownups." Then they would both
laugh and go on. Those little kids got to be part of their family and many came back over the years to visit. Then when his health started to fail, Ferrell and Deanna leased their farmland to Kevin, and that partnership has lasted to this day.

Deanna was a hard-working, strong willed woman. But no one had a bigger heart than she
did.

Deanna was preceded in death by her husband of many years, Ferrell John Chambers; her
parents, two sisters, Charlotta and Vickie and one brother, Albert.

She is survived by one sister, Janet, and one special nephew, Dave, plus several other nieces and nephews. She is also survived by Kevin and Rally Gergen, Kristopher, Megan, Opal and Kane Gergen, the family that she considered her own.
 
Deanna didn't believe in idle hands and kept busy with quilting, crocheting, knitting, and an unusual art she taught herself - intricate Indian beading. She took great pride in making and giving away many of those items to friends. She loved reading (especially Westerns), and to
 cook and bake.
 

In her later years, she enrolled in the CSI Community Outreach Program in Burley, and took computer classes, pottery/ceramics, fitness and exercise classes, and oil painting, among others. Of all her classes, she loved painting best, and as her skills grew, so did her gallery. Many of her pictures decorated her walls, and those of friends, family and neighbors. She also made lasting friendships with classmates during this time, among them her art instructor, Shirley Stauffer, and special friend, Leta Baker.

Deanna was a believer in the old saying, "One person's junk is another person's treasure". So, over the years she gathered so many treasures she ran out of any place to put them. She solved that problem by making use of another of her many skills

-carpentry- and built more room on her house to store them!

Hardly a week passed without a visit from Deanna, or a call to those she cared about. She will always be remembered as a good neighbor who could be counted on for help when there was a need that she could fill. Those are rare qualities in today's busy world, and Deanna will be forever missed.

Special thanks are given to the staff and members of Highland Estates, and Intermountain Hospice
Center in Burley for their kind and dedicated care during these past several months.

Graveside service will be held 1:00 p.m. Monday, October 28, 2019 at Hazelton Cemetery in Hazelton. Arrangements are under the direction of Morrison Payne Funeral Home.

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