Kathy Howard

Early in the morning on Sunday, February 9th, 2025, Kathy Rae Christensen Howard, age 70, passed away peacefully in her home. Kathy was born on June 24th, 1954, in Rexburg, Idaho, to Nolan H. Christensen and Ruth Ellen Forrey. Kathy was the 3rd child of 6 in the Christensen home.

Kathy spent her childhood summers riding bikes, playing night games with the neighborhood kids, and going to the swimming pool. Her time with her siblings was filled with trips to Yellowstone, family reunions, camping trips, and weekends skiing with Dad. Her uncle Paul nicknamed her “Chatty Kathy,” and she spent her time at Washington Elementary and Madison Jr High living up to her nickname. Her enormous love for music was instilled at an early age, singing with her parents at church and in roadshows and holiday programs.

She attended Madison High School and loved to tell her granddaughters she was the homecoming queen her senior year. She was a Madison Pep Club member, making Kathy a “pepper.” She worked as a car hop at R&B in Rexburg in high school. She fell in love with a fancy car and its owner, Micheal, during her senior year. After graduating from Madison High School, she married that guy with the fancy car on August 10th, 1972. A year later, Micheal and Kathy welcomed their first son, Danial, on August 10th, 1973. In short order, Kim and Derek followed. 4 years later, Courtney came along, and in 1984, their family was complete with Daris. Mike and Kathy settled in Newdale, where she grew into her favorite role, a mother, and she was so so good at it.

She loved being a mother. She spent her days sewing clothes and blankets for children. She told us it was her therapy. Kathy made birthday cakes and costumes, and in between driving kids to piano and guitar lessons, she tended to her peonies in her little white house in Newdale. In 1982, Mike and Kathy moved to their brick home on the farm, where she welcomed countless friends, family, and teenagers for the rest of her life.

As her kids grew older, she held down the fort while Micheal and the older kids worked harvest. In the winter she loaded her kids into her mandatory Newdale suburban and headed to Targhee for Saturdays on the slopes. Boating was her favorite summer activity, as well as camping and spending time in nature. She got a job at the fabric store “for some going to town money,” but that money never left the fabric store; she just bought more fabric.

Much to her dismay, all her kids grew up and went to school, so her Wednesdays were filled with Ladies’ Day at Targhee and going back to work as a nail tech at her sister Lori’s salon. It was the beginning of her counseling career. She just didn’t know it yet. Kathy, along with Danial and Derek, joined her parent’s family “3rd Generation” band She harmonized while the boys played the guitar and her dad played the bass.

She was a teenager at heart, so it was only natural her house was the cool house where so many of her kid’s friends found themselves on the weekends. Everybody knew her house was cool because Kathy was cool. It was effortless for her to fit right in with anything thing they were doing. Mario Cart, a game of spoons, you name it, she held her own with them.

Her love for teenagers extended beyond her home to her church service. She served for many years as the Ward and Stake Camp Director. She was anything but business when it came to that calling. Pranks were her specialty, and no one was safe, even her fellow counselors. Her ability to laugh at herself made her an easy star of countless girls’ camp skits. Her love of music was infectious, and if you were lucky enough to go to the girl’s camp when she was in charge, you couldn’t help but catch the bug.

In 1995, Mike and Kathy bought a cabin in Island Park. She loved it there, in every season. She loved being in the mountains and being on the lake with her family. Singing around the campfire and just being in nature filled her soul.

If Kathy was great at being a mother, she excelled at being a grandmother. Her first granddaughter was born in 1996, and 18 months later, her second granddaughter was born. After her second granddaughter, the grandkids came like a faucet you couldn’t turn off, topping off at 17 grandkids and 1 great-grandson. She was the loudest in the crowd, cheering them on at games, concerts, plays, graduations, and anything her grandchildren loved. She hardly ever missed the things her grandchildren were involved in. She loved what they loved, and Kathy was their biggest supporter.

Her love for children wasn’t just reserved for her family. In 1995, Kathy went back to school and earned a teaching degree at Lewis and Clarke College. She taught the fourth grade at Hibbard Elementary. After teaching for four years, she went back to school for an official Master’s Degree in Counseling from Idaho State University. She went on to work at Madison Middle School for 13 years. The ‘friendship club’ where kids could come sit by her at lunch if they didn’t have a friend to sit by was just one of the many ways she served her students. We’ll never really know the ripple effect of her kind, steady, loving influence on those little bobcats.

After she retired from Madison School District in 2019, Kathy filled her time by traveling to Boise, Coeur d’Alene, and Maryland to spend time with her kids and grandkids. When she wasn’t traveling, her weekends were spent with Daris and his family on countless adventures: boating, camping, mountain drives, and trips to Jackson and Yellowstone Park. Sleepovers at Grandma’s were a regular thing for the “little Howards.” We really don’t know who loved it more, Grandma or the kids.

Kathy was a dedicated member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She served in countless Relief Society Presidencies, Young Women leadership roles, and Primary callings. She taught Sunday School with Micheal as her co-teacher to the 14-year-olds. She was a member of the Newdale Ward for 50+ years, and her contributions are indelible.

We will miss her. Her laughter, her treats, her adventurous spirit, her jokes, her welcoming home, but her love, her support, her wisdom, her gentleness, and her steadiness are those things we get to keep. We see her gentleness in her granddaughters. Her adventurous spirit in her grandsons. We will hear her words of wisdom when we need advice. We’ll feel her support and love when we accomplish something important to us. Her steadiness when the world feels unsteady. The things that made Kathy, Kathy, we get to carry those with us the rest of our lives.

Kathy is preceded in death by her husband, Micheal Robert Howard; her son, Danial Micheal Howard; her parents, Nolan H Christensen and Ruth Ellen Forrey; her brother, Mark L Christensen; her Father-in-law Lucine Otto Howard, and Mother-in-law, Wanda J Roberts.

She is survived by her Children: Kimberly (Jared) Hill of Meridian, Idaho; Derek (Tracie Jeppesen) Howard of CDA, Idaho; Courtney Howard of Crofton, Maryland; and Daris (Sara Archibald) of Ririe, Idaho. And 17 beautiful grandchildren: Siblings Craig and Barbara Christensen of Seattle, Washington; Joy and Kerry Brower of Tremonton, Utah; Charlene and Marcus Jenkins of Seattle, Washington; Lorie and Rob Matthews of Gilbert, Arizona.

A celebration of Kathy’s life will begin with a viewing at Flamm Funeral Home on Sunday, February 16th, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm. A Celebration of Life will be held at the Newdale Ward Building on Monday, February 17th, at 11:00 am, with visitation from 10:00 to 10:45 am.

Newdale Chapel
350 Church Street
Newdale, ID

Flamm Funeral Home
61 N 1st East
Rexburg, ID

After the service, she will be laid to rest in the Newdale/Teton Cemetery