Dennie Carpentier

Monday, September 22, 2014

Dennie Kay Carpentier, 45, left this earth to play in the big ball game in the sky on Sept. 18, 2014, at a residential home in Mountain Home.

Dennie was born on Oct. 6, 1968, in Loveland, Colo. His parents were Oliver "Babe" and Oneita Carpentier.

Dennie had many challenges in his life. He started his journey with almost impossible odds He was born with Cerebral Palsy, Microcephaly, and the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck in a breach birth. This left Dennie unable to walk and differently abled. The doctors said he wouldn't live to be a year old. Dennie showed them they were wrong.

Dennie went to school here in Mountain Home and was one of the first "pioneers" for the special needs program in the school district, as there was no special needs programs at the time he first entered school.

He attended East Elementary with Linda Cauffman as his teacher, who taught him to feed himself and even to do laundry at school. He rolled across the stage in 1990, to receive his certificate of completion of high school.

Although Dennie was unable to walk, he loved to watch sports. Everything from football, baseball, wrestling and gymnastics to ice skating and the Olympics. His favorite skater was Tara Lipinski.

He loved to sing and had an amazing voice though he didn't know many of the words, unless it came to Johnny Paycheck's song "Take This Job and Shove It." He loved Johnny Cash, cows and the color blue. He even liked to watch the home shopping network.

He loved for someone to read him books, play a game or throw the ball with him or even just to simply sing to him and b.s. for awhile. He liked to play hide and seek with whatever was lying beside him over his eyes so you couldn't see him. He loved a good joke and then to tell you the joke back. He also loved rodeos, especially the bull riding.

Dennie was a pure soul, with many lessons to teach all those who came into contact with him, even if it was only for a few minutes. He even influenced the lives of those kids who would run to ask the teacher to push him around in his wheelchair on the playground at school.

He had a smile so big you couldn't help feel the warmth and it seemed to brighten your day. He appreciated the beauty of women and was a huge flirt. If you were lucky enough to get one of his famous bear hugs, you were there until he was satisfied that you got a good hug, yet he was so gentle when it came to babies, which he loved.

His favorite food was a hamburger.

He loved trick o' treating and his Christmas tree.

Though Dennie will be missed very much, we know he is running around somewhere, playing ball and singing with Johnny Cash. He is now free to run and talk, go fishing with his best friend, Grandpa, and teach him how to drive on the right side of the road, all the things he couldn't do here.

He is survived by his brother, Gary, and Corina Carpentier of Elk City, Idaho, his sister, Carlene Young, of Mountain Home, his sister, Carrie Noe, of Astoria, Ore., and several nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Oliver II and Oneita Carpentier, two brothers, Alfred Sr. and Ronnie Carpentier, grandparents Bessie and Harris Cramer and Carrie and Oliver Carpentier I, brother-in-law Ralph Young and several uncles and aunts.

There will be a viewing on Wednesday, Sept. 24, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., at Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel. Graveside services will follow at 1 p.m. at Mountain View Cemetery in Mountain Home.