Rebecca "Becky Louise Kemery

Rebecca “Becky” Louise Kemery, 56, passed away on Saturday, August 18, 2012 in Sandpoint, Idaho. Funeral services will be conducted at 11:00 am on Saturday, August 25, 2012 in Coffelt’s Funeral Chapel. Pastor Jim Osman from the Kootenai Community Church will be officiating. Becky was born on April 25, 1956 in Cebu City, Philippines the daughter of Peter and Evelyn Kemery. She graduated from high school in Houston, Texas in 1973. After high school she received her bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois in 1977. In 1980, she graduated from Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia with her masters. Becky lived in many different places as a child. These include her first year in the Philippines, five years in India along with stays in California, New Jersey and Houston. Becky would travel and live in many different places in the Northwest before coming to Sandpoint in 2001. Two of Becky’s great passions were advocating for sustainable living and nurturing what she considered to be the sacred relationship between people and their natural environment. She did this in several ways: as a writer, author, editor, consultant, lecturer, community organizer and teacher. Her 2006 book, Yurts: Living in the Round, by Gibbs Smith, Publisher of Salt Lake City, gained her critical acclaim, and her expertise was quickly sought by many in the national yurt industry. To service this growing alternative architectural field in the United States, whose roots are found among the nomadic peoples of Central Asia, Becky founded a national yurt organization and maintained the largest international website on yurts – www.yurtinfo.org. Her final creative contribution to the field was produced three weeks before her death: an audio production entitled “Housing in the 21st Century” that was broadcast at a major festival in Virginia. But Becky also gathered her vital energies and creative visions and channeled them towards the beloved community she called home. The primary goal of her social activism in Sandpoint and North Idaho was to help make her own community a better place to live. She helped to organize the Sandpoint Forum for Sustainability, Sandpoint Transition Initiative Folk School, Inland Northwest Women’s Council and Medicine Circle Eco-Retreat near Priest River. She regularly taught courses, gave workshops for adults and youth and led retreats in organic gardening, permaculture, herbal medicine, and yurt construction. She mentored many people locally in the art of simple and sustainable community living and was an inspiration to all who knew her. One of Becky’s great joys in life was cooking for others. As a food caterer and baker for gatherings locally and throughout the West, she infused her healthy and wholesome meals with great love whether it was to serve one person of hundreds. Her hospitality was generous and always shared with kindness and a gentle smile. Becky is survived by her parents Peter and Evelyn Kemery of Sandpoint, ID; two brothers Tim (Erica) Kemery of Challis, ID and Jonathon (Estha) Kemery of St. Ignatius, MT; a sister Sarah (Robert) Garay of Katy, TX; along with numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her grandmother Frieda Thomas of Sandpoint, ID.