Sandra Ann Maggi

Our Mother, Sandra Ann (Nyre) Maggi, was born on July 2, 1940 in Reader, ND to her father, David Nyre and mother, Delia (Neggard) Nyre, a strongly Norwegian family.

On April 15th, Sandra succumbed to the onslaught of cancer. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ronnie Maggi, in 2012 just shy of 50 years of marriage. She is survived by her two daughters, Tobi and Elaine, her two granddaughters, Baylee and Riley, her Son-in Law and Tobi’s husband, Scott Jackling, her younger sister, Linda Cope and Linda’s daughter, Charmaine, and Linda’s husband Perry.

Sandra and Linda grew up mostly in Coeur d’Alene and Sandra told us stories of days spent at the lake’s beaches, jumping of the rocks at Tubb’s Hill and working at Louie’s In and Out as a waitress on roller skates. And oh the cars of the 50’s and 50’s music – those were her favorites.

Sandra was a teacher. She garnered her Teacher’s Certificate by attending the North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Eastern Washington University. She began her educating career early on teaching Sunday school and bible study in Coeur d’Alene. Her first school teacher job was in 1960 at the little Cocolalla School in northern Idaho. She also taught first grade in Bonners Ferry beginning in 1962 and then she and Ron moved to Troy in 1969 where Sandra taught school for a total of 42 years. She has touched the lives of many students and has inspired them to do good work. Her passion was teaching and encouraging kids to read. She spent countless hours building up her personal library of classic children’s books for her students to have access for open reading, silent reading, and book reports and for opening their minds to encourage them to follow their dreams.

Sandra also loved to bring new experiences into her classroom. Special cooking classes and distant cultures and costumes were often part of her curriculum. She loved the color purple and color coordinated outfits with ensembles of matching shoes, earrings, bangles and the works and she did not shy away from bling and sparkly accoutrements. She will be remembered for her bold bulletin boards laden with crepe and construction paper in vibrant colors of spring, fall, winter, national days of recognition and every holiday imaginable. Halloween was possibly one of her favorites and many students will remember being just more than a little frightened by her elaborate and sometimes pretty scary costumes. She loves her students, and contrary to today’s limitations, in her day, she freely doled out hugs to whoever was in need of one.

Ron and Sandra moved our family to the banks of the Kootenai River in 1970 and she has lived there with all her family close by until her death. Our mom loved to garden and spent many hours up bright and early tending flowers and finishing up in the last vestiges of twilight. Her gardens, flanked by the forest of Kootenai Vista, are now overseen by an assortment of wood nymphs, fairies, angels and gnomes.

Always adventurous, she and Ron travelled to Port Angeles, Washington to visit Tobi and explore the Olympic Peninsula and they travelled to Charleston, South Carolina to walk the beaches and historic south while visiting Elaine and her girls, Baylee and Riley. She loved to be able to say that she dipped her toes in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. She instilled in us all a sense of wonder, an appreciation of natural beauty and a strong sense of family. She loved words and poetry and literature and would read for hours on while resting on her deck overlooking the river.

As kids, she filled our lives with special birthdays; trips to the lake in a station wagon filled with friends, dogs and inner tubes and finished the outings with ice cream for all. She made it to our games, plays, concerts and graduations and stanchly stood by us during our life’s travails and offered always a soft place to land. We knew we could always come home to mom. She taught us to make lefsa and her very special and delicious homemade chocolate cake. She was a dedicated mother, grandmother and wife. She was the aunt and sister-in-law to Ronnie’s family in northern Idaho and leaves behind those nieces and nephews and their children who will also remember the hugs and kisses she insisted upon them. In her retirement, Baylee and Riley kept a steady stream of friends and teenagers in and out of her home that she shared with them and she was “Nana” to them all. And she loved her son-in-law Scott and kept him busy with lots of little projects, battery changes and fix-its and he always happily obliged.

Our mom. She is our beacon, our source of direction and will be so sorely missed. We are thankful for her teaching us all to find our way.

A celebration of Sandra’s life will be planned for July 2nd, 2017 at a location to be determined in Troy. Students and friends will be welcomed and encouraged to share. More information will be forthcoming.

Arrangements are by Schnackenberg & Nelson Funeral Home in Libby. Online condolences and memories may be shared at www.schnackenbergfh.com.