Barbara Kay Koetter

 Barbara (Barb) made her appearance in this world in 1939 as the second daughter born to Howard and Fern (Kitt) Stinnette. She and her sister, Wanda, were raised in Wauneta, Nebraska, surrounded by grandparents, aunts, and uncles on both sides of the family, which Barbara visited frequently on their farms. In 1952, the family moved a short distance to McCook, where Howard had been operating his grocery store for two years. Barb graduated with honors from McCook High School in 1956, having been active in band and holding offices in Business Professionals of America and a 130-member pep club of which she passionately served as president her senior year.

In the summer of 1955, while watching an American Legion baseball game, the young man playing shortstop caught Barb’s eye as he was having a heated conversation with the base umpire. Mutual friends later introduced her to Jim Koetter, and soon after they began dating, eventually marrying and beginning their 68-year journey through life together.

After high school graduation, Barb worked as a bookkeeper at McCook National Bank, a job which involved posting checks and deposits to individual accounts; each check or deposit was picked up separately and entered on a customer’s ledger sheet. Her work was then reposted and checked for accuracy as she did the same for a coworker’s postings. This required a great deal of accuracy in order for both postings to balance. A silver dollar was given for a perfect posting, and Barb earned many. After 18 months at the bank, she decided to join Jim at McCook Junior College where he had been going to school and playing football, basketball, and running track. It was during this time while Jim excelled in sports that Barb began what would become a lifetime pastime of keeping scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, pictures and other memorabilia documenting the achievements of Jim and each of their children.

In 1958, Jim and Barb moved to Pocatello where Jim had been offered a scholarship to play football for Idaho State University and coach Babe Caccia. Barb worked in the athletic offices in Reed Gym until the first of their three children, Dirk, was born. They lived one year in married student housing which was old, renovated, uninsulated sheep lambing sheds consisting of two rooms. These were eventually torn down and were replaced with the parking lot now serving Davis Field.

After Jim graduated, they moved to Aberdeen where Jim was hired to teach and coach. Adding to the excitement of a new job and move, their second son, Brent, was born. When Highland High School opened in 1963, they moved back to Pocatello where Jim continued to teach and coach. Their family was completed with Jill’s birth.

Barbara took an active part in the children’s lives as they participated in flag football, city league basketball, swimming and dance lessons (Jill) and taking them and their friends to Highland football practices. She was active in Syringa Elementary School PTA, serving as president one year during which many fundraisers were successful in raising money to aid the school. Her greatest delight was in providing music for her children’s classes. This involved selecting, typing the words to fun, patriotic, or seasonal songs, making copies, and accompanying the students on the piano.

During this time, she taught piano lessons and took night and summer classes at Idaho State, eventually earning her B.A. in Secondary Education and in later years her M.A. in Business Education. Her first priority, always, was caring for her family with home cooked meals, ironed clothes and mended jeans!! She has noted how Dirk and Brent could have been trend setters in today’s fashion with holes in the knees of their jeans!

Barbara accepted a full-time teaching job at Highland in 1976 after being a substitute for two years. She taught Shorthand and Typing; her Shorthand classes were her delight. She derived great pleasure watching her students enter the class not knowing what the “little squiggles” were, work hard, challenge themselves and at the end of the year note their accomplishment of taking dictation and transcribing it into a mailable letter. It saddened her when Shorthand was dropped from the curriculum and her teaching assignment changed to teaching computers. This assignment presented a new challenge as computers were just being introduced into the curriculum, and the small lab had three different kinds of computers. With nightly study and a great deal of help from colleague Phil Willey, Barbara gradually adapted to the computer teaching assignment and found enjoyment in teaching both programming and application classes. Barbara retired from teaching in 1998.

Barb attended all of Dirk, Brent and Jim’s games including those that were out of town. Her total support was demonstrated in the “snow cone incident”. While watching Dirk playing in a poorly officiated (in Barb’s opinion) basketball game, the official called a foul on Dirk which prompted Barb to take the snow cone from Dan Deagle, who was sitting beside her, and throw it at the official. It found its mark and brought the game to a temporary halt while the official looked for the origin of the snow cone. The game resumed when the perpetrator wasn’t immediately located. It made for a tense ride home from the game with Barb wondering what Jim’s reaction would be, but when he and Dirk arrived home, Jim said nothing; Dirk later said, “Nice arm Mom”. Jill played volleyball, basketball, and ran track and had Barb’s support as well in all her endeavors. Barb has many fond and cherished memories of times spent with Jill as they traveled to Jim, Dirk, and Brent’s football games throughout the years. It was also pleasing to Barbara that their children were not only good athletes but also excelled academically.

When Barb retired, she and Jim had the new experience of having time to enjoy weekly dinners with former colleagues and forge new, long-lasting friendships. Also in her retirement years, Barb was able to continue helping when new grandchildren arrived, and she was able to spend more time on her family photo albums which began with the arrival of their first grandchild, Kaylee. She later used these albums to compile each grandchild an album of pictures of their own featuring their lives from birth through high school graduation. She and Jim also traveled to watch Dirk and Brent’s football teams play and, of course, spend time with the grandchildren! Yearly gatherings of their family in McCall, which started in 2000, were the highlight of her year. When failing health made travel no longer possible, she enjoyed reading and listening to music. She also appreciated her Physical and Occupational Therapists Heather, Brent, and Scott whose weekly visits provided her with not only physical exercise but mental stimulation and enjoyment, and nurse Jen, with her wise guidance, care and concern. In the last few years, Barb’s nursing care came from Lynell and Michaela and home caregivers Yadi, Amanda, Amelia, and Meghan from Cornerstone Caregiving. Her care was under the guidance of Dr. Jordan Bailey and Symbii Health Care whom she and the family appreciated a great deal.

Barbara was a member of the Holy Spirit Catholic Community. Over the years she served as a Lector, Eucharistic Minister, Parish Council representative, and organist/pianist.

Barbara is survived by her children Dirk (Kim) Koetter, Brent (Cari) Koetter both of Boise, Idaho, and Jill (Stan) Latimer of Pocatello, Idaho; grandchildren Kaylee (Peter) Prigge, Derek Koetter, Kendra Koetter, Davis (Callan) Koetter, Joe (Evie) Koetter, Robyn (Jeffrey) Johnson, Jamie Koetter, Stanton (Shyann) Latimer, and Nathan Latimer, great grandchildren Lincoln Paige, Josie May, and Scottie James Johnson, Shiloh June and Shepherd Lake Koetter, Peyton Jerome Prigge, Colt James Koetter, her sister in law Sharon Koetter, and several nieces and nephews and special cousins.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 68 years, Jim, her parents, Howard and Fern Stinnette, her sister and brother-in-law, Wanda and Larry Wareham and great grandson James Luis Koetter.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Wilks Funeral Home, 211 West Chubbuck Road, Chubbuck, ID. A memorial service will take place at that location on Monday, April 13 at 10:00 a.m. with a reception following.

In lieu of flowers, and to those who wish to remember Barbara with a gift, please consider donating to the Eastern Idaho Youth Sports Commission Koetter Scholarship.

The family encourages you to share your memories of Barb in her Guestbook below.