Emil John Tvrdy, 75, life long resident of Buhl, passed away

Monday, February 3, 2003 in Yuma, Arizona.

Born December 29, 1927 in Buhl, Idaho to Frank and Mary Kusie Tvrdy, number 6 of 7 children - Otto, a half brother, Alice, Lillian, Helen, Eddy, and Rosie. He was born and raised on his family homestead south of Buhl and throughout his life he just moved up the road until November of 2001 when he moved to Twin Falls.

He married Myrna Fife on November 17, 1948 in Jerome, Idaho. They are the parents of three daughters - Vicky, Pam, and Terri. Even the family pets were female. Eventually the daughters married and brought 3 sons-in-law to the family.

Emil's entire life was devoted to agriculture and providing for his family. He kept busy with farming, raising cattle, custom farming and lambing ewes. Emil's work ethic was a driving force in his life. You worked for what you needed and did not take a dole. He would drop everything and help his neighbors and friends if they needed it, though. Honesty was another virtue that filled his life.

He loved to read, work with his hands in wood and fly-tying; and fish, when he would stop long enough to relax. Teaching his grandchildren to handle the fishing pole was often frustrating, especially when they kept "catching Idaho" instead of the fish.

He often referred to himself as just a dumb farmer, but he was extremely successful in all his farming endeavors. He was proud of his straight rows, weed free fields, and bountiful harvests. Sunday afternoons were often spent on family rides checking out the neighbors.

He was not afraid to get his hands dirty and greasy. If something needed to be repaired he would fix it or build something that would work instead, often asking his cousins Joe and Alvin Machacek for help. Myrna would get so frustrated trying to get the grease out of his shirts and pants.

Emil had to quit school during his junior year to help on the farm. If he had gone on to college he wanted to be a veterinarian. He had a keen interest in airplanes and took lessons until he had an accident in his car and had to spend money getting the car fixed instead of finishing lessons. Every trip that the family would go on, sometime was always spend at the airport watching the planes take off and land.

Emil was punctual to any function or meeting. His philosophy was if it warranted getting dressed up to go, then getting there 10 -15 minutes was necessary. Leaving was more of a problem, because the whole family inherited his gift of gab. The only event he seemed to have a hard time getting to on time was meals because of work.

Over the years Myrna and Emil enjoyed many hours with friends at various functions involving ballroom dancing.

The purchase of a motor home later in life provided a lot of traveling opportunities. He and Myrna visited Missouri, North and South Dakota, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Utah, Nevada, California, Mexico and earlier on, Hawaii. Winters were spent south in Arizona. They became members of Good Sammers and thoroughly enjoyed those camping trips .

Emil "retired" and sold the farm equipment in the 90's. He and Myrna discovered that one of the natural misfortunes of getting older was that the health starts to go downhill. Myrna found herself spending more time in Twin at the doctors than at the home in Buhl, so they put the house and acreage up for sale and moved to Twin in November of 2001.