Aften Flake Rencher

Aften Flake Rencher, 92, died peacefully Wednesday morning, Oct. 1, 2008. Funeral services will be held at 10 o’clock this morning (Oct. 8) at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Main Street Chapel, located at 84 N. Main in Snowflake, with a visitation one hour prior. Interment will be at the R.V. “Mike” Ramsay Memorial Cemetery in Snowflake.
   In her own words Aften records, “My sojourn on earth began in the Blue Room upstairs in the Big Flake House. I was born August 8, 1916, the sixth daughter and thirteenth child of James M. and Martha Smith Flake. My mother was the second wife of my father after his first wife, Nancy Hall died of pneumonia, leaving him with nine motherless children. That made me number twenty-two child of my father.”
   Aften’s childhood and school days were spent happily and busily in Snowflake, highlights being her love of her family and her musical talents. Aftens’s saddest moments were when her mother died just two days after her fifteenth birthday.
   Aften married Joseph Lynn Rencher on her 18th birthday in 1934. She and Lynn lived in “road camps” while he worked as a powder man in road construction. In 1939, they moved to California, living briefly in Hermosa Beach and then settling in Manhattan Beach, where they lived until June 1948. They then lived 10 years in Farmington, N.M., four years in Bolder, Colo., and 23 years in Canon City, Colo. No matter where they lived, Aften was a dedicated wife and mother, an outstanding homemaker and a thoughtful friend.
   Soon after celebrating fifty years of marriage, Lynn and Aften and one son, Dwaine, returned “home” to Snowflake, where Aften spent the last 23 years of her life.
   Aften cherished her Snowflake pioneer heritage, her family, including extended family, and her mem-bership and service in the LDS church.
   Her “turn on earth” has ended, but her love and strength and good example will continue to bless the lives of innumerable family and friends for years to come.
   Survivors include one sister, Fern Fairbourn of South Jordan, Utah; one sister-in-law, Marjory Flake of Snowflake; six of her seven children, Marilyn (Julian) Ralph, Lureen (Kenneth) Orchard, Ronald Rencher, Valden Rencher, Velda (Kenneth) Anderson and Dennis Rencher; 23 grandchildren; 29 great-grandchildren; 19 special in-laws; and numerous nieces and nephews, and great-nieces and nephews.
   She was preceded in death by her parents, James and Martha Smith Flake; her husband, Lynn Rencher; one son, Dwaine Rencher; and one grandson, Gregory Roberts.
   Owens Livingston Mortuary of Show Low is in charge of the arrangements.