Evelyn Jean Thirkill Skinner, our loved wife, mother, and grandmother, passed away peacefully at her home in Fremont County, Idaho, with family members by her side, on August 10, 2017, due to complications from colon cancer.

Jean was born on her father's ranch at Eight Mile, Idaho, on July 27, 1932. She was the daughter of Howard E. Thirkill and Evelyn Stucki. She attended school in a one-room schoolhouse a few miles from the ranch, where her mother was her first schoolteacher. She attended Soda Springs High School and was active in drama, choir and band. After graduation she enrolled at Idaho State University where she studied home economics.

On March 7, 1953 she married Dennis E. Skinner, and they began their life together in Newport News, Virginia, where Dennis was stationed in the Navy. In 1954 they were sealed in the Logan Utah LDS Temple. For the next 26 years they lived in Utah, New York, Nevada, California, Idaho, Maryland, and South Carolina. In 1979 they returned to Idaho, making their home in Ammon; in 1998 they built a beautiful new home on the Egin Bench in Fremont County, Idaho.

In 1994 she served with Dennis in the London England Mission. Following their mission they spent one year teaching at the Petroleum University in Guangzhou, China.

Jean and Dennis served as Temple Workers in the Idaho Falls and Rexburg Temples. She was an active member of the LDS Church, serving faithfully in many callings. She enjoyed genealogy work and was a member of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.

Jean and Dennis were married for 64 years. She dearly loved her husband and children, and spent her life serving her family as a talented homemaker. She baked and decorated many beautiful wedding cakes for family and friends, and was a talented seamstress—creating everything from prom dresses to fishing nets.

Her living family include her husband Dennis; her children, Laurie (Robert) Francis, Kris (Carolina) Skinner, Bill (Ronda) Skinner, Jeff (Debra) Skinner and Kim (Darin) Caldwell; 23 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, and her sister, Mary Lou Lambourne.

Funeral services will be held 11:00 a.m. Monday, August 14, at the Parker LDS Chapel. The family will receive friends Sunday evening from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. at Flamm Funeral Home in Rexburg and Monday from 10:00 to 10:45 a.m. at the church prior to services. Interment will be in the Parker Cemetery.