Constance Utahna Coil

Constance Utahna Coil, 93, beloved mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend, passed away February 7, 2026, in her daughter’s home in Pocatello, Idaho, in the company of several family members. She is now free from the pain, weariness, and physical limitations of advanced age and of a lingering illness. She will be sorely missed by her immediate descendants and relatives and by many friends and former educator colleagues.

Connie was born at home on March 30, 1932, in Twin Falls, Idaho, to Joseph M. and Hazel H. Gardner (Wooldridge) in the third year of the Great Depression. She is the eldest of four children: Connie, Marlene, Patricia, and Travis. Jobs and resources were scarce, and her father’s machinist trade took them to western and southern Idaho and to many northern Nevada mining operation sites during her grade-school years, which sometimes involved her attending as many as two schools in two different states in the same school year. She was grateful for the time when the family made their final move in her junior high years to American Falls, ID, where her parents began their machinist/repair and hotel operation businesses. It was here that she was blessed with making many life-long friends who would eventually support and inspire her in her maturing years and in upcoming life difficulties. She loved learning and was the Valedictorian of her Senior High School class.

Disappointed by the lack of funds, she could not attend higher education. She then began work in the banking industry in Idaho. In her early 20’s, she met and married Donald E. Coil, and she began her family of three children in American Falls and with a short residence in Las Vegas, NV. Don’s abandonment of her and his children eventually led to the dissolution of this marriage. This circumstance left her and her very young children financially and emotionally destitute for several years, but she struggled forward by trying to gain meaningful employment. Her life-long school friends helped her and them at a critical time and she never forgot it.

Economic frustrations finally led Connie to make the difficult and daunting decision in 1967 to attend Idaho State University and to obtain a BA degree in elementary education. She accomplished this in the normal cadence of four years while not only attending classes via a difficult commute but also while maintaining a household with children entering their pre-teenage years, while often studying or writing papers into the early hours of the morning. She signed her first contract in 1971 to teach at Pershing Elementary in Rupert, ID, where she also often taught summer school. She returned to American Falls to teach fourth grade at Hillcrest Elementary in Fall 1980, and she remained there until she successfully retired in 1997. She has recently mourned many friends’ passings and has really missed Delta Kappa Gamma events. She especially missed her Bridge Club buddies.

Connie impacted many children’s lives as a teacher. She taught them not only a basic education but also to love their country and freedoms, to believe in their abilities, to respect their communities and friends, to reach for the best that can be sought for, and to be a moral person. She was a champion for the underdog and for the less fortunate. Her children and grandchildren are some of the biggest recipients and adherents of her belief structure given their academic, professional, life and societal achievements. The same attributes and desires will soon thread through her great-grandchildren. This is her greatest legacy.

Preceding her in death are her parents, her sister Patricia (Joe) Ruschetti (both deceased), her brother Travis “Butch” Gardner, her son Jerry Dean Coil, her nephew Philip Ruschetti, and her brother-in-law Robert “Bob” Walters.

Surviving are her son Thomas Bradley (Susan) Coil, daughter Teresa Dawn (late Sherman) Olson; sister Marlene (Lonnie) Clarkson; grandchildren Chad Coil, Dillon Coil, Meredith Morphis, Kristina McNeill, Jann Cook; many great grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; sister-in-law Susan Gardner; and daughter-in-law Connie Coil.

The family gives special appreciation to Heritage Home Health & Hospice for their care for Connie in the final months of her life, in particular to Venita, Sara, and Jakob.

Cremation has taken place. There will be a graveside service at Falls View cemetery in American Falls, ID, on a Saturday yet to be decided in mid-May or in early June of this year. In lieu of flowers, please make any donations to the education foundation of your choice.

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