Idaho State Journal, 06/09/09


DINGLE - Emma Lou Schmid Skinner, 69, our beloved wife and mother, returned to her Heavenly Home on Saturday, June 6, 2009, after struggling for many years with her health.
She was born on January 19, 1940, to Robert and Nellie Schmid in Bern, Idaho. She was the youngest of 10 children. Emma Lou attended Montpelier High School where she was very active and involved in cheerleading and drill team. She was very outgoing and had a lot of friends. She worked in Salt Lake City following her graduation in the central operations department for First Security Bank.
She decided that the long distance relationship was not what she wanted so she returned to Bear Lake to be with her best friend, our Dad. They dated and were married in the Logan LDS Temple on February 2, 1959.
Kent and Emma Lou made their home in Dingle, Idaho, where they worked hard to raise their six children and to give them opportunities and a good life. Mother worked with our father on their ranch, but she also worked hard as a janitor for the church.
Mother loved working with people and dedicated many years to studying health. She wanted to always be learning and studied many years to become an iridologist and a nutritional consultant. We were so proud of how smart our mother was. Many of our memories are of people coming to our home seeking our mother's help.
Emma Lou was a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She spent her life serving in many different capacities in the church. She and Kent worked hard to support three of their children while they served missions. She had the opportunity to be a stake missionary and the president of every auxiliary but her favorite calling was teaching the Primary children that she loved so much.
Mother loved people. She wanted to be involved in her community. She was a good organizer, and she was dedicated to her causes. She loved working with the Oregon Trail Rendezvous Pageant, and she also helped to establish the Bear Lake County Mosquito Abatement District.
Emma Lou is survived by her husband, Kent, and their six children, Gregory C. from Dingle, Alan Kent, from Georgetown, Brent Robert, from Dingle, Lou Ann and Mark Budge, from Paris, Susan and Colton Crane from Lander, Wyo., and Angela and Edwin Eschler from Roy. She has 23 grandchildren and six great-grandkids, with three more on the way.
She was also an honorary mother and grandmother to many children that she loved. It was very important to Mom to make each of her children and grandchildren a hand-made quilt. Her last project was assigning our sweet aunt Nancy and cousin Conra to finish her quilts for the little babies that she would never see. We all knew she loved us.
Emma Lou was preceded in death by her mama and papa, Robert and Nellie Schmid, her sisters, Julia Schmid, Dorothy Gilgen and Anna Vigos, her nephews, Lonnie Bridges, Robert and Darren Schmid, her mother- and father-in-law, Clifford and Golda Skinner, and her brother- and sister-in-law, Kirk and Janet Skinner.
As a family we would like to thank the staff at Bear Lake Memorial Hospital for the excellent care and kind and loving patience you gave our mother. She loved you all!
Funeral services will be held on Friday, June 12, 2009, at noon at the Dingle LDS Chapel. Friends may call prior to the services from 10 to 11:45 a.m., also at the church. There will be a night visitation from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 11, 2009, at Matthews Mortuary in Montpelier, Idaho. Interment will be in the Dingle Cemetery.