Lois J. Moser
Lois Jean (Nuehring) Moser, 85, of Idaho Falls, passed away April 14, 2022.
Private family services will be held at a future date to honor, celebrate, cry, laugh, eat, and tell stories of Lois; mom, grandma, great grandma, aunt Lo Lo, sister, neighbor, and friend.
Lois was born Jan. 20, 1937, in Guttenberg, to Marvin and Bernette “Sis” (Kann) Nuehring. The second child of seven, she grew up on the family farm, where she herded milk cows from the woods, pumped barrels of water, made mud pies covered with beet juice colored dry lime frosting, played hide and seek with her siblings in the barn, jumped in the hay, ate “big greenie apples” in the apple orchard, and sang songs with her mom and sisters.
She attended schools in Guttenberg and graduated from St. Mary’s Catholic High School in 1955, where she was a cheerleader, homecoming queen, and a representative for Girl’s State.
While in high school, she met Claire Martin Moser at Patzner’s Dairy where he worked delivering milk and she babysat for his sister, Fern. Claire and Lois became high school sweethearts and then long-distance sweethearts after Claire joined the Navy and moved to San Diego, California in 1954.
On Oct. 1, 1955, she married Claire in Guttenberg. While stationed in San Diego, Lois and Claire welcomed their first child, Randy Allyn in 1957. After being honorably discharged, they returned to Iowa, where Claire attended college and Lois cared for Randy and babysat other children, sometimes as many as 10 children at once. In 1960 they welcomed their second child, Ronda Jean. Upon Claire’s graduation, they moved to Lincoln, Nebraska where Claire attended graduate school. In 1967, Lois and Claire moved to Idaho Falls, ID. They welcomed their third child, Misti Ann in 1968 and their fourth child, Kristi Dawn in 1974. Lois took great pride in being a good wife, a gifted homemaker, a loving mother, and a good neighbor. She filled her life with music (Elvis Presley, Kenny Rogers, and Anne Murray), flower gardens, art lessons, knitting, crocheting, sewing, canning, cooking, baking, candy making, and crafting. She was very proud of the baby sweaters she hand-knit and the clothing and formal dresses she sewed for daughters.
Lois was renowned for her homemade Christmas candies. She would deliver plates of candies and cookies to all of her friends and neighbors and even some strangers. She would remember everyone’s favorite treat and would customize their plate just for them (you know who you are). The candies she made included chocolate fudge, white fudge, caramels, dipped chocolates, haystacks, peanut brittle, English toffee, peanut clusters, bologna candy, rice crispy date balls, Albert’s nut brittle, molasses candy, sugar cookies, icebox cookies, and molasses cookies.
Lois celebrated holidays through the eyes of a child. Christmas in the Moser home was a magical time. A mysterious visit from Saint Nicholas the evening of December 6th was the beginning of the Christmas magic. A loud knock at the back door revealed stockings filled with candy, nuts, and oranges. There were handmade Christmas decorations and a 10-foot Christmas tree dripping with ornaments, tinsel, and icicles, and underneath the tree, special gifts for her family, friends, and neighbors. On Christmas Eve, the family would pile into the car and drive around Idaho Falls to see the Christmas lights and decorations. They would return home to discover that Santa Claus had filled the stockings and delivered gifts and candy. The family would open their gifts and then go to Midnight Mass at Christ the King. Pure, unforgettable magic.
Lois always enjoyed art. She took formal art lessons in color theory, charcoal and pastel drawing, water color, oil, and acrylic painting; learning still life, figure, and landscape genres. She really enjoyed creating landscape oil paintings which she proudly shared with her Iowa family. All family members had at least one of Lois’s paintings. She even took her oil paint supplies to Iowa and shared her love of painting with her sisters and mother by teaching them how to create landscape oil paintings of mountains, trees, lakes, and barns. When Lois’s grandchildren were old enough, she loved drawing with them and teaching them the finer points of perspective, light source, shading, and colors. She also enjoyed making many crafts and selling her creations at local craft fairs. In her later years she spent many hours making jewelry with Czech glass beads and sorting beads with her friend Lisa. Lois loved Lisa like a daughter.
Lois always had beautiful flower gardens. She spent many summer evenings watering and weeding her flowers and swinging on her patio enjoying all of the beauty she had created. She adored birds and found great joy in feeding and watching her birds. She loved Chickadees, Goldfinches, Lazuli Buntings, Blue Jays, and especially Cardinals. Whenever, Lois’s family thinks of a Cardinal, they think of her. Lois also had a knack for fixing things and her neighbors, friends, and family would seek her skills for gluing broken china and glassware, sewing torn or favorite worn-out clothing, fixing toys, repairing jewelry, and untangling knots.
Over the years Lois enjoyed summer visits to the family farm in Guttenberg. She loved spending time with her parents, sisters, brother, and their families. There were many hours spent playing cards, singing, laughing, shopping, sharing stories of their childhood, eating (breakfast, dinner and supper), and playing practical jokes.
One of Lois’s greatest joys and most magical skills was caring for babies and children throughout her life. She absolutely adored babies and children and there was not a single baby that Lois couldn’t win over with patty cake. Lois took pride in helping to raise all of her grandchildren, in reality they were all her babies. Her grandchildren have many wonderful, loving memories of their grammy including: her freezer full of creamies, her delicious bean soup, pancakes with smiley faces, birds nests made of mashed potatoes and gravy with peas, hearing her cheers during performances and sporting events (Way to go H!), eating your sandwich crusts because you believed it would help you whistle, playing school, planting countless plum and peach pits convinced they would grow into a fruit tree someday, decorating the top two-thirds of her Christmas tree, visiting on the patio swing during warm summer afternoons, helping weed her flower gardens, making and frosting sugar cookies, watching “her shows” (a.k.a soap operas), matching Christmas gifts, hand photo-shopped pictures, tricking her into eating sour candies time and time again, her fascination with miniature things, having girls night with pizza, playing board games like Catch Phrase or Balderdash, wearing pinky rings and bracelets, her warm smile, and her sideways glances.
Lois is survived by her daughters, Ronda (Greg) Rasmussen of Rigby, ID, Misti (Tom) Lillo of Idaho Falls, ID, Kristi Moser-McIntire of Idaho Falls, ID; sisters, Judy Brandel of Garnavillo, Marlene McLane, Bonnie Sue Clinton, and Mary Moser, all of Guttenberg; eight grandchildren, Ryan (Heather) McDaniel of Malabar FL, AJ (Bri) Rasmussen of Idaho Falls, ID, Michelle (Adam) Triplett of Boise, ID, Marie (Jasper) Williams of Salem, OR, Megan (Matt) Nielsen of Seward, Ark., Morgan McIntire, McKenzie (Kyle) McIntire-Williams, and Justin McIntire, all of Idaho Falls, ID; and five great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband; son, Randy Moser; her parents; sister, Jerri Ameral, and brother, Ronnie Nuehring.
She will be forever loved and remembered by her children and grandchildren as a sweet and sassy lady who was always happy, helpful, and caring. Her happy little giggle and child-like joy will be remembered by anyone who knew her. Her absence will be deeply felt during family gatherings, birthday parties, Christmas celebrations (her candies and cookies), Thanksgiving dinners (her pies), Easter celebrations (her brilliantly colored eggs), 4th of July barbecues (her potato salad), graduations, and weddings.
We love you Lois. You were a constant presence and source of unconditional love, support, and laughter. You were never on the sidelines. Life was not a spectator sport. You walked with us through the grit of life. Comforting, teaching and building. Your devotion was undeniable. THANK YOU for building each of us. You ARE cherished.
In lieu of flowers or if you wish to memorialize Lois, the family suggests donations to the Alzheimer’s Association at www.alz.org.
Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.woodfuneralhome.com.
