Longtime Moscow resident Roberta “Bobbie” Foy passed away peacefully Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, with her loving family by her side at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Boise. She was 92 years old.
The younger of two sisters, Roberta Luciele Wheeler was born in East Randolph, N.Y., to Gretchen and Merle Wheeler on Dec. 16, 1929. As a young child, Bobbie and her sister, Kathryn “Kay,” could be seen riding a small pony-drawn cart around their rural home. Like many families during the Great Depression, the Wheelers grew their own vegetables and the family pony served double duty helping to till the garden. Her love of horses blossomed during adolescence when she could be seen riding her mother’s horse around town after school.
She graduated Randolph Central School as class salutatorian in 1948 and traveled to New York City where she spent two years modeling in Manhattan. During a visit home in 1950, she met her future husband, John “Vail” Foy, who worked summers as a lifeguard at Red House Lake in Allegheny State Park. She was drawn to the confident, tan World War II vet and he to Bobbie’s vibrant smile and deep brown eyes. They shared a love of history and literature and were married Sept. 9, 1950, at a ceremony in nearby Salamanca. They traveled west to Moscow in the fall of 1952, where Vail joined the University of Idaho’s Humanities Department as a professor of American literature and composition. Over the years, Bobbie took advantage of that U of I association by obtaining both a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in counseling.
In 1962, the young Foy family moved to its permanent home east of Moscow, where there was room to grow and room for Bobbie to resume her interest in horses. In the newly-fenced pasture, Bobbie began teaching her two young children the fundamentals of riding as she cultivated a generations-old vegetable patch where she grew her favorites — zucchini, corn and asparagus. Vail and Bobbie had dreamed for years of getting an Irish Setter. One Saturday morning in 1962, the family loaded into the station wagon to travel to Spokane, where breeders and lifelong friends David and Sandra Shardlow had a female puppy that was destined to become the adult “Deirdre” from which generations of AKC-registered Red Fire Irish Setters would grow. Vail was interested in a bird dog but when Bobbie had some early success showing Deirdre, her life was transformed. Deirdre easily completed her AKC Championship and was promoted to the rank of CH Red Fire Deirdre. With her husband’s support and encouragement, Bobbie’s interests in reading, gardening and horses eventually took a back seat to her all-consuming passion for breeding and showing dogs.
Bobbie joined and was active for most of her life in The Palouse Hills Dog Fanciers, The Irish Setter Club of America and the American Kennel Club. She looked forward each year not only to following proceedings at the Westminster Dog Show but to the annual running of three-year-olds at the Kentucky Derby, The Preakness and The Belmont Stakes. Many Palouse dog owners will remember the obedience classes Bobbie taught at the National Guard Armory Building in the ’60s and ’70s. In these sessions, the goal was to teach dogs to be better companions to their owners. Barring that, it was hoped that the dogs could at least be trained to control their owners just a bit more gently.
She spent her final days in Boise blissfully watching an eight-month-old puppy she co-owned compete at the Idaho Capitol City Dog Show. Red Fire Burning Bright at Soraj, or “Finn,” picked up a Best in Breed among three victories that awarded him 10 of the 15 points required to achieve the rank of AKC Champion — an impressive feat for a puppy that’s not yet reached its first birthday. Bobbie was both widely popular and respected within the national Irish Setter community and by all accounts was enjoying the time of her life on that beautiful October weekend.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Vail. She is survived by her son, Joel, of Green Valley, Ariz.; her daughter, Melora, of Moscow; and her beloved sister, Kathryn Grover, of Brooklin, Maine. Also surviving her are a dynasty of three nieces, six nephews and countless cousins extending from Boise to New Mexico, Florida and New York.
During her long and active life, Bobbie volunteered as a driver for the local Meals on Wheels program from its 1971 inception until it was discontinued in 2012. She also donated generously to a variety of wildlife, humanitarian, environmental, pet rescue and veteran’s charities. Her lifelong love of wildlife and animals remained vibrant to the end. There is no service planned but her legacy of giving will be long remembered. For those wanting to acknowledge that legacy, the family suggests a small donation in her name to The Humane Society of the Palouse.
