Charlene Kay Steinbach Fordyce Swiger

Charlene Kay Steinbach Fordyce Swiger
January 4, 1941 to September 17, 2025
  Charlene Kay Swiger, 84, passed away September 17, 2025 in Emmett, Idaho.
  Born and raised in Boise, Idaho, to Carl and Maxine Steinbach on January 4, 1941, Charlene spent most of her life in Boise and Eagle. She graduated from Borah High school spring of 1959.
  That fall, she married Jack C. Fordyce, the first love in her life, on September 20, 1959. In today’s language, their marriage would be considered impassioned. During their marriage they had four children, lived in and around Boise, landing the last four years out in the country where mom tended a huge garden, harvested, and canned produce. She kept us in homemade noodles too. The family had horses, a cow, a pig, chickens, rabbits, and various dogs.
  She loved visiting with her sisters and mom over pots of coffee. The kids were always told to “get outside and play!” She was on several bowling leagues, earning many 200 pins and other trophies and awards. She coveted Avon and wigs. We never knew what mom would look like when we returned from school. Her niece, Cheryl says, “I’ll never forget the frosty pink lipstick. Your mom wore it so beautifully. I still wear it, Covergirl Frosty pink.”
   Throughout this marriage, (ended in 1974) Charlene showed immense creativity. She was a phenomenal seamstress and kept herself and daughters in matching polyester or corduroy outfits, complete with vests and blouses with puffy sleeves. There were also dozens of flannel nightgowns with matching sleeping caps like on Little House on the Prairie.
  She enjoyed fishing and hunting also. In fact, she made gorgeous flowers out of the duck and pheasant feathers. Her talent was quite amazing.
  In the fall of 1975, Charlene married the second love of her life, Roger E. Swiger. Embracing Charlene and her four kids, he traded his chopper motorcycle for re-enlistment in the Army for the benefits, then moved the family to Fort Lewis, Washington. She continued her creativity working at the youth center, teaching ceramics, on the Army base. Eventually, the family moved back to the Boise area. They were married until 1982.
She went through many creative phases where everyone knew exactly what they’d get for Christmas i.e. bean bag frogs of every size (her mom loved frogs), ceramic teddy bear or bunny banks that played music when a coin was dropped in, Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, exquisite Barbie doll clothes (my sister and I wish we had them to this day), and ceramic Garfield cats.
  Charlene was always industrious. She worked as a waitress, in a meat processing facility, at retail stores, housekeeping at the hospital, and eventually had a full-time business as a residential housekeeper. She would do whatever it took to complete a task. In fact, all you had to do was tell her she couldn’t do something, and she’d prove you wrong. Eventually, her back and knees forced her to stop the heavy lifting.
Her artistic endeavors moved into embroidering complicated pictures of ships, plants, geese, and other works of nature. You’d find her sitting on her front porch watching the hummingbirds, squirrels and children playing. She loved squirrels so much she allowed people from outside the area to rehouse their squirrels to her home.
  She found this same admiration for nature in her third love, Kim Baxter. He too, loved a beautiful yard and adorning it to fit the homeowner. Together they designed and built a water pond that attracted wild ducks, kept the squirrels’ thirst quenched, and doubled as a bath for the variety of birds they enticed with different flowers, seeds, and colorful decorations. It was a horrible loss to Charlene when Kim died.
  Their landscaping efforts brought joy, especially to the grandkids. There were treasures placed around: colored rocks collected from camp trips, driftwood from the ocean, hidden bird nests, tinkling chimes, pots of flowers, a story behind each, and swinging chairs to relax in while the pond sounds swirled in the background.
  She was a voracious reader of novels of all genres, she loved doing laundry AND ironing, family photos filled every space of her walls, all her clothes coordinated down to her socks and slippers…then came the fish and dolls. 
  LOTS of fish and dolls. She’d search through bins at garage sales and second-hand stores, searching out Cabbage Patch dolls and Hugga Bunch dolls. She had a knack for cleaning them up, repairing them, even replacing hair, and then sewing new clothes for them. She also collected China dolls that filled several display cases.
  For years she had too many tanks of fish to count. The sound of the pumps reverberated throughout her house. Once, she had a few mommy fish who birthed hundreds. She scooped them up and took them to the fish store to trade for other fish UNTIL she heard the clerk tell another customer he just had a bunch of “feeder” fish come in. She forced the clerk to bag up all her babies and took them back home. She loved her fish. A young grandson (Robby, now Robert) poured bubbles (thought he was feeding them) into several tanks and all those fish died. Encouraged by his big brother, Jason, and uncle Chuck, the boys laid the fish out on a tray, from smallest to largest. Arriving home from work, she cried at the loss (while we all still laugh at the memory).
  The first thing out of most people’s mouths about Charlene is, “I always loved her,” followed by a ‘remember when…” story. Yes, she is already missed. She was considered eccentric and a bit OCD.
She was known to search out caterpillars and watch for their cocoons. Then she’d carefully snip them from their spot and super glue them to picture frames inside her house. Why? Later, she’d have live butterflies flitting around her living room.
  She would’ve been a terrible poker player as her face and words literally could not hide her thoughts. Audrey shares, “I always loved my grandma’s raspy voice and animated facial expressions. She has iconic phrases that anyone who’s spent any amount of time with her has heard, especially if they’re being sarcastic with her, ‘yeeeees!!!’, ‘well that too is true,’ and the best of all, ‘Oh Foui, Doui, Loui!’ (Or however you spell those 3 guys’ names).”
  A couple other OCD memories: she raked her shag carpeting and hated footprints in it, so bad, she’d follow guests to the couch, raking out their footprints as they walked. My dad shared that many times, he’d get up at night to use the bathroom and when he came back, his side of the bed was made. That was long before the comedians started using that as a joke. We kids had to make sure all our chores were done before we could get on the school bus. We still wonder how she kept laundry items so white. But as Carma shares below, “She was the Clorox queen.”  She made a great housekeeper for her clients.
  She enjoyed visits from her friends, family and the neighborhood children at her long-time home in Eagle where she lived forty years until her health started changing. Rick watched over her for the last ten of those years. Then she moved to Priest River, Idaho to live with daughter, Peggy and her husband Bill. There she enjoyed the hummingbirds, deer and other wildlife at her doorstep. She was able to spend time with her grandchildren and great grandchildren from that area and Washington while there. After that, she moved to Colorado to live with Kelly and Mike and spent time with her other grands and great grands, where she worked on puzzles and took walks with them. She then moved back to her Eagle residence, living with her niece Jenny, until her final move when she needed extended care.
  Charlene was blessed to make many new friends at Apple Valley Residence in Emmett. Thank you for the love and care by all the staff and Marilyn, the director.
  Grandson Josh says, "I'm thankful she was there for me and my sister and helped my mother and father when I was little. She was always kind and had an open door. I really enjoyed visiting with her. Her home was always a safe space."
  She was a second mom to Cyndi and Dell, several cousins, and many other friends of her children and around her neighborhood.
  Your mom always made me laugh,” said Celynn (niece). “When I took her a pecan pie EVERY Christmas for years, she would always say, ‘I ain't sharin' it with no one." I'd laugh & she'd say, "I'm serious." It'll always be a fun memory for me. Celynn, mom always looked forward to your Christmas pecan pies.
From niece Marcy: My favorite memory about Aunt Charlene was when we would all get together and make divinity and Christmas cookies. All us girls would miss school once a year for this tradition. Plus, she would wear her hair in dog ears. That's what she called ponytails, and she always smelled like Avon bubble bath.
  From niece Carma: I remember she was queen of Clorox, and she ALWAYS wore panty hose with her shorts. One time she was cleaning the floor with Clorox, on her knees and the Clorox burned holes in her panty hose as well as burned her lungs. But her floors were clean by golly.
  Thank you, Carma, Cheryl, Marcy, and Celynn, for helping mom with all your visits, gifts, and trips to doctors. 
 Charlene was preceded in death by son, Chuck (50); grandchildren, Alisha (9) and Jason (23); her parents; her sisters, Linda and Carla; and brother-in-law Ferrell; her brothers, Gary and Harley; Roger Swiger and Kim Baxter.
  She is survived by her first love Jack C Fordyce; her children, Kelly (Mike) Martindale, Rick Fordyce, Peggy (Bill) Blewett; her grandchildren, Robert, Audrey, Christina, Ricky, April, Christina, Nelson, Josh, Jake, Charlene (Cece), Madison and Macy; great grandchildren, Annah, ZoeAnn, John, Jason, Gavin, Mason, Braiden, Liam, Daisy, Terrence, Rayin, Rylan, Greyson, Addison, Madeline, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Lilly Ann. She loved Brandon, Ashley (Lonnie) and their girls, Devona and Lexi, as her own. She is survived by her Aunt Patsy, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.
  Charlene loved Jesus. We’re grateful to the Lord that she is now healed from every burden, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She is free.

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