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Avona Chance Duncan
July 28, 1928 ~ October 14, 2020 (age 92) 92 Years Old
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Avona C. Duncan was born July 28, 1928, in Spokane, WA, to William Dale Chance and Shirley Avona Hinton Chance. She died at home Wednesday, October 14, 2020. She was educated in schools throughout the Pacific Northwest, as her family moved for jobs during the Depression. Avona graduated from Laramie University High School in Laramie, Wyoming.
As a young girl, Avona became a Baha’I, following in the footsteps of her beloved grandmother, Solveig Corbet, who was a pioneer for the faith. Avona was happy that she and her grandmother were able to make a journey to the Baha’i temple in Nauvoo, IL, after graduating from high school. This was one of many trips Avona enjoyed with her grandmother.
On January 1, 1948, she married John M. (Jack) Duncan in the Student Union Building on Boise Junior College Campus where Avona was enrolled. Jack and Avona made their first home together in a Quonset hut that Jack had converted into a home. Their first home had well, no indoor plumbing and an outhouse in the back yard. In October of their first year in that home, Halloween pranksters tipped over outhouses in their Boise Bench neighborhood. Mom and Dad laughed often about the shock those pranksters experienced when they hooked onto the Duncan outhouse only to incapacitate their vehicle. Jack had used old timbers from a barn to build the outhouse. Theirs was the only outhouse in the neighborhood which was still standing when the night’s revelries were ended.
Jack was employed by the Idaho Power Company soon after they were married. Their oldest daughter, Leigh, was born while they were at Swan Falls Power Plant. After moving to Twin Falls and the Shoshone Falls Power Plant, their second daughter, Coleen, joined the family. Their son and youngest daughter, M. Chance Duncan and Judy Duncan Suydam, were born while Jack and Avona were at C.J. Strike Dam in Grand View, Idaho. After many years in Grand View, the Duncan family moved to American Falls and finally to Boise as Jack was transferred. They retired in Boise, spending time with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Avona was a skilled seamstress who made many of the dresses her daughters wore and shirts for her son and husband. She loved quilting and made full-size and miniature quilts which were given to her children and grandchildren who treasure them today. Nearly every room in her house has examples of her craft with quilts and needlework displayed.
Avona was preceded in death by her husband, Jack Duncan, her parents and sister, Omeda Keiss. She is survived by her children, Leigh Duncan-Timm of Aubrey, TX; Coleen Duncan Dudley (Mike) of Boise; M. Chance Duncan (Karen) of South Carolina; and Judy Duncan Suydam of Boise; 10 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
Because of COVID constraints, the family will gather privately to celebrate her life. She will be interred beside her beloved husband at Dry Creek Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to a favorite charity.
Services
Service
Saturday October 24, 2020 11:00 AM Dry Creek Cemetery 9600 Hill Road Boise, ID 83714