- Date Of Death: February 10, 2018
- State: Idaho
Heather Killgore of White Bird, Idaho passed away in Walla Walla, Washington at the home of her son Jeff Bolander on February 10, 2018 at the age of 74. Heather was born in South Gate, California in 1943 and lived in Southern California until she married Harry Bolander in 1963 and together they had two children, Jeff and Kim.
The family lived at Point Dume in Malibu, California, which was considered to be rural in the 1960’s. Heather and her family moved to White Bird, Idaho in 1969 purchasing a small resort/motel at the mouth of White Bird Creek. Here she really honed her love of fishing, hunting, and the outdoors. Heather and Harry divorced in 1974.
Heather remained at the White Bird property and ran the business from there on, and later married Les Killgore in 1975. They had two more children, Kortney and Kurtis. Les and Heather continued to operate the RV Park and Motel but also branched out into many more business opportunities over their years together. They successfully operated Killgore Excavating for many years, bidding and landing jobs all over the Northwest. During this time Les built Mom her beloved paddle tennis court. The favorable weather in White Bird allowed for paddle tennis play nearly all year long and many fond family memories stem from battles had on that court. As a child it was a real milestone to win a set off of Mom, she taught us all how to play, then she beat the heck out of us for as long as she could. Heather and Les maintained a second home in Lewiston for many years while raising their kids and running the excavating company.
At age 45 Heather fielded a recruiting call meant for daughter Kim. Jeff and Kim were in college and Heather was in her mid-40’s, Kim was offered to play tennis for LCSC from the LCSC coach. Kim declined, but Heather mentioned that she would be interested in joining the tennis team and she could “still beat Kim anyway” which was indeed true. Heather then began attending college full time taking business courses and played #1 on the tennis team that year and #2 for the next three years. Despite negotiating her way out of most of the conditioning drills in order to fulfill her role with the excavating company and raising her two younger kids, she still maintained the title as fastest girl on the team all four years. She earned a spot at the NAIA national tennis tournament during her collegiate tennis career more than once. Les and Heather would later partner with their son Kurt to form Killgore Adventures, a jet boat touring and fishing business operating out of Pittsburg Landing. They also formed Killgore Longhorns, purchasing cattle out of Texas.
Heather was a tireless engine, she loved a challenge, loved to work, and really knew that to take an idea and make it a success, you just had to never stop.
