Margaret Viola Hunt-Toomey, 97

Margaret Viola Hunt-Toomey, of Sandpoint, Idaho, passed peacefully away in her sleep on Feb. 18, 2021. She was 97 years old but forever the youthful spirit and feisty, multi-faceted woman so many have come to know and love.

She grew up in Kingston, Idaho, where early mornings she would harness-up her father’s (Papa Tom) team of logging horses and hitch them to the stone boat. Margaret cooked in logging camps in the summer and was instrumental in raising her younger five siblings as she was the oldest and her mother Irene was gone often, working as a nurse.

Athletic, Margaret was the Kingston High School basketball captain. In these last few years, she attended her grandchildren, Katlyn Marie and Avery Lynn Summers games. She would sit in the bleachers yelling out instructions to the coaches and scolding the refs for their bad calls — she knew her Basketball. Kingston is where Margaret and James (predeceased) grew up together. They married after graduating high school and Jim returned home from serving in World War II.

James was already a skier in the 10th Mountain Division of the Army and Margaret became a skier too. They lived in Coeur d’Alene and skied Lookout Pass, Idaho, with a gaggle of children in tow: their children, neighborhood kids and extended family, now referred to as the “Snot Nose Brigade” by all who were there. Margaret packed lunches, wiped noses and mothered everyone along the way. When Mt. Spokane put in a chair lift, they started skiing there and hung out with the Selkirk Ski Group before relocating their home to Sandpoint and skiing Schweitzer Basin. Margaret will be remembered fondly by many now grown adults whom she took in hand and helped along to ski. In the 1960s, Margaret was one of the first women to Heli-ski the Bugaboos in Canada. She skied until her late 80s stopping only because she feared being knocked down by speedster youngsters.

Music, books and homemade bread … yet nothing compared to the "Red Dress" Margaret would put on when she was ready to dance. And dance she did with her lifelong partner and husband James. Together, they danced and skied and loved and lived the adventure. Their last helicopter ride was over Glacier National Park, Mont., because the year before they rode in on horseback for an overnight stay at a lodge. Thinking it would be all downhill to hike out, off they went barely reaching their car vowing never to do that again at their age of mid-80s. At their last wedding anniversary, Jim and Margaret left the main ballroom to try dancing one more time. Their feet and legs just wouldn’t "cut the rug" quite like they use too.

If Margaret skied in the winter, she boated and water skied in the summer. First in Squaw Bay on Lake Coeur d’Alene and later on Lake Pend Oreille. Between her outdoor sports, she was the proverbial mother involved in Blue Birds, Den Mother for Boy Scouts and 4-H Club. Yet, she made time for her own personal pursuits. She belonged to the United Methodist Church all her life, supporting the church through the United Methodist Women. She was a member of the local Sandpoint P.E.O. Chapter V, International Sisterhood. For all this, Margaret held a love of gardening, sewing … mainly quilts in later years, and the wonder of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her grandson, Chad Summers of Priest River, Idaho, talks of the special mother/son relationship they have had. Chad reminisces often of learning how to drive a car in Farragut State Park with his grandmother co-piloting, or learning how to make a Huckleberry pie from her, and of course skiing together.

Margaret lived her last years at The Bridge retirement home where she is fondly remembered by staff and associates as always being "color coordinated" in the appropriate seasonal attire. And her hair styled by her very own stylist granddaughter, Tara Kidd. This is where her great-granddaughter Cambria Kidd found many treasures of jewelry and discarded outfits to play dress-up. Margaret’s room was filled with books to read and jigsaw puzzles to play. And always a good "ol time" movie to watch on TV.

Margaret we will miss you.

Margaret is survived by her three children: James C. Toomey Jr. of Paradise, Mont.; Kathleen Toomey of Alpine, Calif.; and Teresa Olson (Dale) of Rathdrum, Idaho. Her three grandchildren are Chad Summers (Krista) of Priest River, Idaho, Tara Olson-Kidd (Chris) of Newman Lake, Wash., and Rory Olson (Janice) of Seattle, Wash. Her five great-grandchildren are Kaylyn Marie Summers-Ward (Colton), Avery Lynn Summers-Thompson (Dyllan), Brendon (Hannah) Kidd, Cambria Kidd and Camdon Kidd. She has four great-great-grandchildren: Aiden Kidd, Cecelia Marie Ward, Korbyn Wayne Thompson and Olivia Lynn Ward.

The funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, 2020, at Lakeview Funeral Home, 301 S. Olive Avenue, Sandpoint. Coffee, tea and cookies will be served before the service.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Idaho Panhandle Habitat for Humanity, P.O. Box 1191, Sandpoint, ID, in memory of Margaret.

Lakeview Funeral Home, Sandpoint, is handling the arrangements. Please visit Margaret’s online memorial at www.lakeviewfuneral.com and sign her guest book.