- Date Of Birth: May 18, 1915
- Date Of Death: January 13, 2010
- State: Idaho
Vivian was born May 18, 1915, in Ferdinand, Idaho, to Shirley Fox Tarbet and G.W. Tarbet. She graduated from Cottonwood High School in 1932 and completed her teaching degree at Lewiston Normal College. She student taught in Lapwai, Idaho, then taught school in northern Idaho until joining the U.S. Marine Corps in 1942. In one of her teaching positions, she taught at a one-room schoolhouse near the confluence of the Snake and Salmon Rivers. In that position, a horse (transportation), firewood (heat) and staples (flour, milk, and eggs) were supplied by the local ranch families. On the weekends, the schoolhouse became the social center for the community.
During WWII, Vivian was a “field cook,” directing the baking staff of a mess hall at Camp Pendleton, California. She left the military with an honorable discharge at the end of the war and used the GI Bill to complete her B.S. degree in Dietetics at the University of Idaho. It was there that she met Edward W. Owens; they were married August 17, 1947.
Vivian had several stories of their courtship, including a ride in the mountains where, at times, they used horse power to get up steep slopes by holding on to the horse’s tail. For their honeymoon, they went fly fishing on the Madison and Fire Hole Rivers in Yellowstone National Park. At one of the motels, they spent the entire night picking bed bugs and disposing of them in the kerosene lamp.
In 1976, Vivian and Ed moved to Parma, Idaho. After Ed died in 1978, Vivian continued to live in Parma, where she was a well-known and well-loved member of the community. She was involved in the historical society, local garden and card clubs, the Parma Senior Center, and the Canyon County Council on Aging. In the fall of 2008, she moved to Valley View Retirement Community in Boise.
Vivian is survived by her daughter, Elizabeth D. Owens and son-in-law, Bill Brock of Urbandale, Iowa, her daughter-in-law, Laura Owens, of Boise, Idaho, and her grandson, Jonathan E. Owens, of Portland, Oregon. She is also survived by her sisters Cleo Carlson, of Portland, Oregon, and Shirley Tarbet of Eugene, Oregon, and her brother, Wilbur Tarbet, of Lewiston, Idaho. She was preceded in death by her husband Edward W. Owens and her son, William E. Owens.
