Bertha McKeegan, 95

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Bertha May Orr McKeegan, 95, of Mountain Home, died Oct. 9, 2004, at Elmore Medical Center.

A funeral service will be held Thursday, Oct. 14, at 1 p.m. at Summers Funeral Homes, McMurtrey Chapel, Mountain Home. Burial will follow at Mountain View Cemetery, Mountain Home.

Bertha was born on Feb. 3, 1909. in Cheyenne, Okla., to William and Odessie Orr. Her family moved to a ranch in the Pine, Idaho, area in 1914, where Bertha's father was an outfitter and also worked for the highway district around the Pine and Featherville areas.

She married Clyde Love in 1936 and together they operated a ranch in the Pine area.

In 1954, Bertha married John McKeegan in Gooding. They operated a farm near Hammett until John's death in 1969. She then sold the farm and purchased a house in Mountain Home, where she tended her garden and grew beautiful roses.

Her family said that "Bertha loved animals and always had a dog by her side. She loved the outdoors, the mountains, fishing, gardening, and growing roses. She had many stories to tell about her pioneering life, and a visit with Bertha always included a story about the early times in the mountains or her farming life near Hammett."

Bertha is survived by: her brother, Vernice Orr of Idaho Falls and his wife, Grace, several nieces and nephews, and her friend, Cindy Jett, of Mountain Home.