Arlene J. Rudy

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Arlene Joan Rudy, 87, of Burley passed away Saturday, June 15, 2024, in Pocatello.

Arlene was born in Cut Bank, Montana on October 7, 1936, to Joseph and Eva Bailey and joined her big sister, Faye. When she was one year old her family moved to Kalispell, Montana and then to Washington State in 1941. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor the family moved back to Kalispell where she attended St. Matthews Catholic School for eight years and then attended Flathead County High School through her Junior Year. She was a skilled baton twirler. She enjoyed growing up with her two sisters and a foster brother.

In June of 1953, her family moved to Pocatello, Idaho. She graduated from Pocatello High School in May of 1954. She married LaVon Muir in August of 1954, and to this union was born Brent, Theresa, Wendy, and Tony Muir.

Arlene was a working mom and was a great employee wherever she worked which included Southeastern District Health Department in Blackfoot and Pocatello, Pacific Finance Company, Farmers Insurance, the Green Triangle, and at the Village Inn.

In 1966, Arlene and LaVon were divorced and she and the kids moved to Kimberly. She worked at George Kay’s Restaurant and was pleased to be closer to her sister Faye and her family and was now a single working mom.

In the summer of 1967, they moved to Burley, happily closer to her other sister, Ardith, and she went to work at the Ponderosa Inn. Arlene was a single mom until February of 1972 and worked hard to provide for her four children. She met Thomas Rudy while working at the Ponderosa and on Valentines Day, 1972, Tom and Arlene eloped to Elko, Nevada. Their 46-year marriage was truly one of “in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, until death do us part” when Tom passed away in December 2018.

Tom Rudy’s children, Kimberly and GT, joined the family part-time.  We were a blended family indeed but not necessarily the Brady Bunch. Many adventures ensued.  Arlene continued to work in a variety of jobs including The B-Mary dress shop, part owner of Fashion Follies dress shop (she had a keen sense of fashion), some family business book-keeping, Gary Lee Realtors, and for the USDA Inspection service during each harvest from 1980 to 1990 as a potato inspector.

In 1986, one year old granddaughter, Jasmin Muir, became the 7th child to join the family.  Arlene noted when discussing her obituary many years ago that of all the jobs she held, being a mom was always her favorite. In 1989 after harvest ended, she became a stay-at-home Mom for the first time ever and said she loved it.  She was now able to be more involved with school activities, travel and those things she enjoyed most. Arlene said she felt lucky to have such a unique family.  Her family knows she was a strong woman to ride the roller coaster of that unique family life.

Traveling was one of Arlene’s favorite things to do.  She loved trips to Las Vegas, Disneyland, Disney World and Lagoon with the kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews.  Neither the big rides nor the big crowds frightened her! Hawaii, especially Maui, was another of her favorite places to go for exploring beaches, visiting aquariums and shopping. She loved baking, cake decorating and sewing and was amazing at them all.  She especially enjoyed baking and candy-making at Christmas and family and friends were always happy and grateful to receive the goodies.

Arlene was always an animal lover and had many dogs and cats over the years.  MANY!  Sometimes she’d find them and sometimes they would find her. She never turned them away. She really cared for all animals and had several donations to animal charities including horses, donkeys, tigers, whales, elephants, etc.  Name an animal, it was probably on the donation list.

In Arlene’s later years her memory started fading and she developed dementia.  This slowly robbed her of many memories of people, places and events.  She still mostly knew her children and was happy to have her caregivers present each day – most of the time. Although she didn’t often forget when we re-homed some cats! Thank you to all who helped throughout the years.

Arlene is preceded in death and sure to be warmly welcomed by her parents Joe and Eva, stepfather Coy McKenzie, sister and brother-in-law Faye and Karl Brown, brother-in-law Roy Land, foster brother Larry Christiansen, grandson Rick Wilcox and many aunts and uncles.

Those missing her on earth include her sister, Ardith, her children all named above, their spouses, 11 grandchildren, many great grandchildren and her beloved cousins, nieces, nephews and their families.

Arlene’s family would absolutely love it if you want to make a donation in her memory to any local animal shelter or to St. Nicholas school or to another servicing organization you deem appropriate.  She was very generous to help in this life.

Memorial services will be held 10:30 a.m. Monday, October 7, 2024 at Morrison Payne Funeral Home 321 East Main Street Burley, Idaho. Arrangements are under the direction of Morrison Payne Funeral Home.

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