Obituary of Harold Lloyd Hilliard

Harold Lloyd Hilliard, age 88, died March 3, 2024, in Boise, Idaho.

Harold Lloyd Hilliard was born in Nebraska City, Nebraska on November 15, 1935, to Isac Lloyd and Ruby Ellen Hilliard.  He was the oldest child of six brothers and four sisters.  His parents referred to him as their ‘Sonny Boy’ and the nickname ‘Sonny’ was adopted by his entire family.  Around 1938 his family moved to Idaho.  He spent his school years in the Fruitland and Payette area where he played football, tennis, and participated in FFA.  He graduated from Payette High school in 1954.  He married Jean Rule, the love of his life, on November 15, 1958.  They began their lives together in Payette where Harold worked at Van Patten Lumber company and was also a member of the Idaho National Guard reaching the rank of Sargent.  In 1971 they moved from Payette to Ontario, Oregon for about a year and then to Boise, Idaho in 1972 when Harold began working for Boise Cascade and continued there for 28 years holding various positions.  Harold and Jean were very happy in Boise.  They raised three children and lived the rest of their lives on a small acreage and home they built together.

For most of his life Harold was a hardworking, capable, supportive, honest, steadfast husband and father.  He could seemingly make or fix anything made of wood.  He built or remodelled three homes, two shops and several storage buildings over his lifetime.  He developed a wide range of construction skills which he used to help provide for his family. 

Harold enjoyed RV camping and spending time with family and friends.  He loved recreating whether it was boating, fishing, camping, ATVing, snowmobiling, or just sitting around the campfire. He also enjoyed bowling, playing games, playing cards, and puzzles.  He could spend hours working on or planning a project or tending to his fruit trees and grape vines.

Harold cared about his family deeply.  He loved watching his kids, grandkids, and great grandkids compete or participate in anything.  He was one of the strongest supporters of his family that you can imagine.  Through the last days of his life, he wanted to ensure his family was going to be okay.

Harold was a very involved and supportive parent, grandparent, and great grandparent.  As a parent he attended many choir concerts, band concerts, marching band competitions, basketball, and football games.  He became an avid fan of Boise State football and travelled the region for games.  As a grandparent, Harold became a Boy Scout leader and led or participated in meetings, ceremonies, outings, and fundraisers.  As grandparents and great grandparents, he and Jean attended seasons of choir and musical concerts, football, lacrosse, basketball, volleyball, tennis matches and baseball games.  He was always ready and willing to help with whatever his kids, grandkids or great grandkids needed.  He loved his family, and his dog Chumie, more than anything.

A bit later in retirement Harold along with Jean joined the Capital Gypsies Good Sam Club and began camping with friends throughout the state and surrounding area.  As ‘Good Sammers’, they became the game coordinators and developed a real knack for getting people involved and ensuring everyone was having fun.  They developed lasting friendships traveling and camping with members of the club. 

Harold was a loving husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather.  He lived a long and blessed life and will be greatly missed; may he rest in peace.

He is survived by his daughter, Pam Ziegenfuss (Joel); his son, Jeff (Laurie); and his son, Kim (Sharla); seven grandchildren: Eric Ziegenfuss, Holly (Shawn) Toller, Whitney, Brandon, Devin, Marissa, and Mariah; five brothers: Dean (Judy) Hilliard, Vern (Millie) Hilliard, Larry Hilliard, Galen (Donna) Hilliard, and Dave Hilliard; three sisters: Shirley Connor, Phyllis Knapp, and Dianne Stemple; three great grandchildren: Audrey Ziegenfuss, Loren Ziegenfuss and Tanner Ziegenfuss; and the best companion ever, Chumie. Harold is preceded in death by his wife, Jean; his infant son, Leslie; his parents, Lloyd and Ruby; one brother Bob, and one sister, Ethel Hilliard.

'Memories from Harold'

I was born November 15, 1935 at Nebraska City, Nebraska.  My mother, brother and I moved to Idaho when I was about two years old.  My father had already made the trip when times were very tough. My father hitched a ride on the freight train, because they had no money. There were no government handouts for help then. He worked on a farm near Payette, Idaho and earned the money to send, for us to come to Idaho. We lived with grandpa and grandma Hilliard for a while. We lost my first baby sister to Red Measles at that time. The first I can remember is living in Payette above the Canal. I started to school at five, when they found out when my birthday was I had to drop out at this time. There were four children in the family at this time. Our family ended up being ten children, seven boys, three girls plus the one we lost. My mother was quite a woman to have that many. One story I can remember was when I put oil on my brother’s head, because I had seen the men do that to the hogs to kill lice. It didn’t do any damage. We moved from the home above the canal to a place North Payette, about two acres. We had to pump water from the outside well and carry into the house. The toilet was outside (a four feet by four feet shed), with a seat across and one hole in the middle. The house had two rooms. I was about ten years old by now. We built a room about twenty by twenty feet, which my two brothers and I slept. No windows for a year. We thought it was great, three of us in one bed. Some games we played were Annie Over, Hide and Seek, Marbles, and ball games of all kinds. We rode the neighbor’s workhorse too. We always raised a large garden. We spent a lot of time working in our garden to grow our food. With the large family we sure needed it. With a large family we did not know what being bored even meant.  We had no TV just radios. There was a time when we milked cows about ten all by hand out in the open pasture. We had to herd the cows along the side of the road for grass to eat and it kept the sides of the roads trimmed too. We raised chickens, hens for eggs and fryers for eating. Every Saturday we butchered chickens. I chopped the heads off. We had to heat the hot water on the stove to dunk or scald the chickens in to make it easier to pull off the feathers. My dad would go to town and sell eggs and chickens to his customers. My father was always fair. We owned one flock of chickens for us kids, about twenty five. We would have maybe two hundred chickens at a time. We had to clean the chicken house weekly, gather eggs daily, and feed and water the animals. The chickens would lay eggs in twelve by twelve wood boxes up two feet high. At night they got on a roost about two feet high to sleep. We also raised pigs. We would come home from school and we would cook cull potatoes to feed the pigs. When they grew to the right pounds, we would take them to the animal sale and sell them. We would pay off the food charge account once a month at the grocery store like most people did in those days. We use to run a lot, sometimes to school sometimes home, about two and one half miles. When walked to town we would go to the back of the place and walk along the railroad track. Those days there were several passenger trains every day. They were allowed to dump the toilets when they were moving so you had to watch where you were stepping. I remember during World War II black outs, which meant everybody’s lights were turned off by the power company. I guess they thought that Japan was going to attack us. Our next move was to a farm ranch on Little Willow east of Payette. There we farmed with horses, like the big ones you see in the parades. I remember at this place we had a lot of bull snakes that helped keep the mice count controlled. From this place we made one trip to town on Saturday for food, clothes etc. We didn’t live there too long and moved again. The next move was south of Fruitland, Idaho on a small farm. We milked cows with an electric milking machine and raised hay for their feed. We had a bull. He had a chain in his nose, which would help control him. If he would run too fast he would step on his chain and slow him down from the pull chain in his nose. I remember rolling the tractor we had on this farm. No one got hurt just the tractor. We only lived there for about one year then moved back to Payette. I played football at Fruitland one year and Payette one year. I played tennis one year at Payette. I had cut my thumb in wood shop and could not throw a ball, so I played the girls game Tennis: Ha. I found out Tennis is just as challenging as who is on the other side of the net. We did FFA all years of high school having an animal was no problem. I was on the hog and chicken judging teams. I remember when Chevrolet came out with their first V-8 engine it was 1955. We burned wood and coal for heat and cooking. We would take blocks of different sizes and make our play trucks. We did some mice hunting. Dad had lined one building with Celotex (a soft board) the mice made holes in it. We would take our Beebe guns and wait for them to show through a hole and then try to shoot them. What a game, it thinned out the mice and gave us a game too. I remember shaking potato vines at a young age, twelve, and picked potatoes at age fifteen with a belt and sack. Later I bucked potatoes on a truck. I had a morning paper route before school, which helped me buy a new Columbia bike. It was black and silver very pretty. The first car I drove was a Model A Ford. It was a coupe. My brother and I went to Little Willow to stay and help a friend harvest his hay season. I remember the great harvesting meals we had while living there. All we wanted to do was eat. Our next two seasonal jobs we had, were lighting and filling orchard smug pots with coal and wood to keep the fruit from freezing in the orchards and I worked in the potato and onion packing shed too. I am eighteen now and graduated from school. My uncle and I traveled to Moses Lake, Washington to work in a pea company, making pea seed bins later in Milton Free Water, Oregon in a pea company as a lift truck driver. I had joined the Army National Guard while I was in high school. Later, after high school, I went to school at Fort Knox, Kentucky. After returning home, I worked one summer helping to build a bridge out of Vale, Oregon. Next job was Van Patten Lumber Company in Payette, Idaho as a truck driver. I delivered lumber and coal. I had to shovel a lot of coal them days. I did not drink or smoke, but I had no peer pressure from any friends. I lived alone in a hotel room. My family had moved back to Nebraska. Jobs were plentiful if you wanted to work. We were not losing jobs to the other countries. My first wages were ninety-five cents an hour; movie tickets were twelve cents. I met my dream girl at a home party in Ontario. After her graduation, she was a bookkeeper in the Payette Mercantile store and later at First Security Bank, we were married on my birthday. I have seen a lot of changes in the construction business, hammers changed to air-nail guns, floor joists to I beams, hand handling to lift trucks.