On a snowy Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, Eleanor Irene Anderson Richardson flew home in the arms of her angels to Glory where her Lord greeted her with “Well done, faithful servant.”
Eleanor’s life on earth began June 16, 1928, in Aberdeen, Wash., where she was the fourth child born to Arthur and Hettie Anderson who had moved to the forests of Oregon to take advantage of the “money growing on trees.” When they had enough money saved, they traveled back by railroad to the mountains of Mackay, Idaho, where the Anderson family had mining claims. Her grandparents Charly and Anna Anderson were miners at what is now the ghost town of White Knob at the elevation of 10,500 feet. White Knob was a bustling town in the early 20th century. The Anderson children loved to go to pick up the mail, choose candy at the general store and go to school in a one-room school where at times the Anderson children were the only students. Eleanor was the last of the Andersons.
The Andersons continued in the cycle of leaving the valley to make enough money to return to mine for most of Eleanor’s life. She and her siblings spent the Depression and World War II traveling in a succession of Model A’s all over the West working in mines, fruit orchards, shipyards and lumber mills. Eleanor danced with soldiers at USO dances, as all the young people of her day loved to dance. At one dance in Twin Falls, she met a young man who took her eye named Everett Richardson. He was living with his family in Twin Falls working toward his pilot’s license having served as an airplane captain aboard the USS Enterprise during World War II. They were married June 26, 1948, wearing a wedding dress made of white parachute silk her brother Donald brought home from his service in World War II. The Anderson men, her dad and brothers built a “Honeymoon Cabin” for the newlyweds, which is now a point on the Mine Tour above Mackay. The cabin was renovated with funds and volunteer labor from the Forest Service and BLM with the help of the local historical society. Music was important and she and her siblings formed a country-western band who performed at dances and even on the local radio station in Twin Falls.
The Richardsons bought a home in Mackay about 1956 and raised five children. Everett worked for the local REA. In July of 1964, on a trouble call in Arco, Everett was burned by an exploding transformer and passed away from the injuries on July 25. He was 42. Eleanor worked at various jobs while raising the children with the help of her family who lived next door. As time passed each of the children grew up and graduated from Mackay High School, which had been the goal of their parents. Daddy had graduated from high school, but Mama didn’t with the family’s frequent traveling. As each child grew older Mom had the freedom to finish her GED. She won a scholarship to a correspondence art course. She took and excelled at correspondence courses from Idaho’s colleges and accumulated several years of college credit.
Mama loved her home and lived there until the cold winters took her, as she liked to say, north for the winters when most everyone else went south. Eleanor ran her own sign-painting business, and taught art to grades K-12 where her students called her Mrs. Smile. Her final job was painting signs for the local Forest Service in Mackay where she loved meeting the young people who traveled from all parts of the country to fight fires. Living in Potlatch she enjoyed a job working at WinCo Foods when it opened as a demonstrator, where she enjoyed visiting with each customer.
As the daughter of a World War I veteran, and the sister of a World War II veteran and a Korean War veteran as well as the wife of a World War II veteran, Eleanor was a proud member and officer of the American Legion in Mackay. She taught years of 4-H where the children of Mackay could always go to Eleanor’s house if you wanted to paint or create something. Growing from her creativity she learned to do ceramics and bought a kiln where she created many, many art projects. Having always loved dolls and being born the same year as Shirley Temple she collected dolls and her collection numbers in the hundreds. At thrift stores and yard sales she could not leave a poor doll or stuffed animal without taking it home. She regifted dolls to local children and the local children’s homes. She provided stuffed animals to the local police departments for giving to the children of trauma. She never forgot what it was like to only have one toy or doll — if you had room in the car or cabin for that. She remembered Christmases where the only gift was an orange and what a treat that was. She belonged to an area doll club where she spent many enjoyable hours. Her most important membership was to her local church wherever she lived. She and Daddy were saved when an evangelist visited the Methodist Church in Mackay in about 1960. She attended the Princeton Nazarene Church when she was in northern Idaho. Every spring her focus became getting back to Mackay for the summers where she and her family returned to the “Hill” whenever they could. Many enjoyable picnics happened where the watermelon was left to cool in the creek. Mom had a wonderful 90th birthday party with all her children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We returned to the Honeymoon Cabin for a wonderful day where Mom and her walker reigned as she called it “Queen for the Day.”
She was preceded in death by her husband Everett, her parents and her siblings Bonnie, Muriel, Donald and Kenneth Anderson, a daughter Hettie Jones, and two grandsons Joshua Nygaard and Daniel Morris. She is survived by four children: Linda and Don Nygaard, of Potlatch, Robert and Suzie Richardson, of Twin Falls, Kathy and Bill Morris, of Plummer, and Bill Richardson, of Phoenix.
She was blessed with 14 grandchildren: Jennifer and Melissa, Stacey, Paul, Peter and Christie, Stephanie, Jason, Brandon, Jared and Ryan, and Sarah Kate. A special joy was the addition of 24 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren.
A local memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, at the Princeton Church of the Nazarene, 1008 Gold Hill Road, Princeton. A dinner will follow.
A graveside service will be held in Mackay later this spring.
