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Antonia ('Annie') Halstead, 75

| November 29, 2023 1:00 AM

Antonia (“Annie”) Beatrix de Bruyn Sawyer Halstead, 75, of Priest River, Idaho, sadly left us suddenly Thanksgiving evening, Nov. 23, 2023.

She is survived by her three children, Andrew Sawyer and his wife Elsa Sawyer of Kellogg, Idaho, Corrina Kumpe of Denver, Colo., and Margaret Fitzmorris and her husband Donald Fitzmorris of Priest River. 

She is survived by her siblings, Nellie Tegtmeier, Pieter de Bruyn, Cornelius de Bruyn, Carol Mae Pridmore, and Maxine Leyva; her grandchildren, Stephen Sawyer, Janice Sawyer, Travis Sawyer, Emma Sawyer, Isabel Sanchez, Jaime Sanchez, David Sanchez, Keith Fitzmorris, Sawyer Kumpe, and Cézanne Kumpe; and nine great-grandchildren.

Annie was a military wife to her first husband, Stephen Sawyer, and to her second husband, Everett Halstead. She lived in California, Holland, Hawaii, and was a proud Idahoan, having lived in the state for more than 40 years.

When she moved to Idaho, she and her three children lived in a log cabin where they were introduced to homesteading with no electricity or running water. During that time, she raised her three teenage children alone, built out the interior of her home, learned how to plow snow on her road, took up square dancing, quilting, gardening, crafting, and bible study, and was a quiet but steadfast member of the HooDoo Valley community.

A service to honor her memory will be held Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, at 11 a.m. at the Evergreen Cemetery in Priest River. The service will be followed by a community remembrance at the HooDoo Valley Grange.