JanNeil Butterworth

JanNeil Harrison Butterworth, 92, received God’s kiss and was welcomed into Heaven while sleeping peacefully on March 3, 2023.  JanNeil was born on January 2, 1931 to Leland Aldwin Harrison and Lenora Steed Harrison on her grandfather’s ranch near Auburn, Wyoming.  She told of the local doctor having been summoned as there were difficulties during the delivery, and that she believed she was the first baby born in Star Valley that year.

JanNeil was raised in Star Valley where she started school.  She was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Star Valley Creamery.  She was the oldest of four children.  Her siblings include:  Rex, Christine and Marilyn.  She told of difficult winters and pleasant summers as a child in Star Valley.

The family moved to Logan, Utah, and in her late teens she began working at the Bluebird Café.  It is there that she met Paul Rudeen, a student at Utah State Agricultural College (Utah State University).  They were married on December 19, 1949, in Logan.    Paul and JanNeil relocated to a farm several miles west of Jerome, Idaho.  JanNeil took a supportive role, assisting in all aspects of farming, including cooking and serving fieldhands during harvest.  While at the farm, Kevin was born in 1950, and Randy in 1954.  JanNeil told of driving their car from Jerome to Logan with the boys to visit family without knowing how to back up the car!

Paul began a wheat broker business in Michaud, Idaho, in 1956.  The family relocated to the edge of the Shoshone-Bannock Indian Reservation.  Being resourceful, JanNeil assisted wherever possible during harvest when trucks full of grain would wait to be weighed and emptied.  She was particularly good with math and had an accounting ability, allowing her to “do the books” for the business.  She was particularly busy at that time, also raising two rambunctious boys.  She firmly believed feeding them copious amounts of cooked onion would keep off the  “blood tics”, a home remedy the boys challenged daily!  Teresa added to the dynamics of the family in 1959, and they eventually moved to American Falls, Idaho.

Divorce required JanNeil to be more resourceful in raising the family, working in several roles before meeting Quentin Lee Butterworth.  They were married on March 17, 1972, in Franklin, Idaho.  She relocated to Franklin and expanded her role to be a mother of seven, with the addition of Quentin’s children:  Brenda, Marsha, Diane and Blaine.  She continued her efforts to help support the family by working in retail sales.  She took a position in the Purchasing Department with Utah State University where she worked for 25 years.

Widowed following Quentin’s death in 1993, she later retired and relocated to Meridian, Idaho, to be near her children and grandchildren that lived in the Treasure Valley area.  JanNeil loved doting upon her children and grandchildren.  She loved growing roses, particularly Peace roses, which surrounded her home.  She also enjoyed traveling, which took her to Germany to see Randy, who was stationed with the Army near Nuremberg.  She also went on several trips with Kevin, with Washington, DC, being the most exciting to visit.  JanNeil was a warm and gracious woman who made friends easily.

JanNeil is preceded in death by Paul Rudeen and Quentin Butterworth, her sister Marilyn, and four grandchildren:  Blake (Kevin) Rudeen, Katie (Diane) Zollinger, Ashley (Teresa) Anderson and Jessica (Randy) Rudeen.  She is survived by brother, Rex Harrison, sister, Christine Smith, and from her blended family, Kevin (Kathleen) Rudeen, Randy (Kathleen) Rudeen, Teresa (LaMont) Anderson, Brenda (Stan) Schow, Marsha (Eric) Bastian, Diane (Alvin) Zollinger and Blaine (Donna) Butterworth.  She also is survived by 22 grandchildren and 41 great-grandchildren.

Services will be held on Friday, March 10, 2023 at 11 a.m., at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 5900 West Castle Drive, Boise, Idaho.  Interment will take place at Dry Creek Cemetery, Boise, Idaho.