William Lee 'Bill' West

William Lee ‘Bill’ West made his way home to Cowboy Heaven, passing away peacefully at his home on Memorial Day, May 27, 2013.

The family asks that you join them for a celebration of Bill’s life at 11 a.m., June 17 at the Springs of Living Water Free Methodist Church in Bonners Ferry .

Born in Spokane, Wash., on July 14, 1923 to George Gillard and Etta Mae West, he was the fifth child out of six. He graduated from John Rogers High School in 1942. He then joined the Army and served from 1943 to 1946 as an Army medic. During that time, he met his bride, MaryLee Westbrook, and they were married in March 1946. They had three children: Sherri, Tom and Tim.

Bill held down many different jobs throughout his life, starting with being a paper boy in high school. After his Army days he was a landscaper, supplied sawdust to more than 1,500 businesses in and around Spokane for heating and was a brakeman for Great Northern Railway.

In 1960, they moved to Priest River, Idaho, where he did some logging. In summer 1961 Bill moved to Bonners Ferry where he operated the Bert Peterson dairy in Moravia for a few years and eventually purchased the Tren Jones place in Naples and started his own dairy.

In 1965 the government was buying out dairies so he decided to make a career change and went to work for Boeing in Auburn, Wash.

The family relocated to Renton, Wash., then eventually to Port Orchard, Wash., where Mary Lee passed away in 1972 from cancer.

He met Rachel Brewer and they were married in June1984. In 1988, he decided to retire from Boeing and moved back to Idaho, where they bought the old Wyatt ranch on Cow Creek road.

Before retirement, Bill had purchased some quarter horses and and moved them to Bonners Ferry where they continued raising, breeding and showing horses for many years and winning many competitions.

He was well known around town for his involvement with the horse shows in Bonners, helping work them, giving of himself in his knowledge and love for horses. If raising horses wasn’t enough work, he also did custom haying with a couple of friends around Bonners.

Other activities he loved doing through the years was hunting, camping and fishing in the mountain lakes and streams when he had time, and on the ocean before he left Washington, as well as wood working. He especially loved making furniture for his grandkids and great grandkids, and only recently gave up on that because of age and health.

The two things he loved most, horses and woodworking; Bill had to be the one to “retire” from those hobbies on his own time.

In 2006, he and Rachel decided to get out of the horse business as it was getting to be too much. So, they took a leap, sold the ranch, and moved to Libby, Mont, where he resided until his death.

He will be sorely missed by the people who really knew him, worked with him, and just hung out with him.

Bill was preceeded in death by his parents, brothers Kenneth, Eugene, and Jack, and his sister Margaret.

He is survived by sister Katherine of Sequim, Wash.; his daughter Sherri (Roger) Miller of Moyie Springs; son Tom (Mary) of Auburn, Wash., and Tim (Lisa) of Bonners Ferry, stepdaughters Diana (Dennis) Spragg of Tacoma, Wash., and Karen (David) Depue of Everett, Wash.

Also surviving are 16 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.