Tammy Kay Boyd, 57

Tammy Kay Boyd was born on Dec. 19, 1958, in Belleville, Ill., to Gary and Lorraine Boyd. She was the little sister to Gary Boyd Jr. (Buddy) and they spent their childhood as “Air Force brats” living in Bemidji, Minn., Port Austin, Mich., Sacramento, Calif., and Tacoma, Wash., before they finally settled in Rathdrum, Idaho.

Tammy enjoyed playing clarinet in the band, singing in the choir and working at the Hawk House with her best friend Doreen Meyer (Thomas) growing up. She always had a love for dogs and in many photos could be seen holding a beloved poodle or shih tzu. She had fond memories of summers spent at her grandparents’ Grimley’s Resort on Lake Swenson in Bemidji, where she would fish for walleye, the “best fish.” She graduated from Lakeland High School in 1977.

Tammy married her high school sweetheart, Don Coy, in 1979 and they had two daughters, Andrea Kay (Johnson) in 1981 and Jennifer Dawn (Kimball) in 1983. If you were to ask her family, her greatest accomplishment would be her devotion to her family and the great example she set as she raised her girls to learn the meaning of strength and integrity through the tough times which she demonstrated until the end.

Tammy enjoyed country music and this included line dancing at the Crossroads where she met her husband and friend William “Jim” Blake. They married in her favorite city, Las Vegas, in 2006. They adored her shih tzu “puppies” S’koshi and Kuma and their companionship meant the world to her when she lost Jim in 2013. Tammy loved being a grandma and her six grandchildren Nathan, Kaylee, Alyssa, Isabella, Reagan and Samantha loved their “Grammy.”

She was preceded in death by her sister, Tally Rae Boyd in 1963; father Gary Boyd Sr. in 2006 and her husband, William Blake in 2013. She is survived by her mother, Lorraine Boyd of Rathdrum; daughters Andrea Johnson of Dundee, Ore., and Jennifer Kimball of Coeur d’Alene and their husbands Ben and Levi and children. Her brother, Gary Boyd and his wife Mary of Redmond, Ore. Her significant other, Don Coy, who had recently come back into her life and her furry “kids” S’koshi and Kuma.

A private service will be held and the family has asked in lieu of flowers that donations be made in her name to the Hospice House in Hayden where she spent her final days surrounded by her close family and friends. “Honor her for all that her hands have done.” Proverbs 31:31.