Jan DeRousse

Janet Gayle DeRousse passed away peacefully at home at the age of 87 on February 10, 2026, with family. Happy gardening Gran; there are no weeds in heaven.

She was born June 2, 1938, in Dayton, Washington to Frederick and Rebecca Baird. Upon her father’s death in 1940 she was moved to the Boise area where she later attended and graduated from Boise High School. Jan married Kenneth Earl Root in 1957 and through the years their family grew to six children including two boys and four girls.

Jan led a full life as a wife, mother, artist, master gardener and hybridizer, seamstress, teacher, leader, horseman, dog enthusiast, rockhound, and craftsman. These skills and passions she shared with many of her children. She worked many jobs throughout her life including Union Farm and Garden, Tandy Leather, and finally spent 20 years with Hewlett Packard.

Jan especially loved her horses and dogs. Over her lifetime she raised and showed champion blood stock German Shepards, Basenjis, and Border Terriers. Later in life she spoiled many red and blue heelers as well as all of her grand dogs. In more recent years she took up the sport of agility with her favorite grand-dog, Rusty.

Horses were a passion for Jan as a young girl and remained that way throughout her life. She and Ken were leaders of the Dry Creek Wranglers 4-H Club and touched the lives of many young people in the valley. Recently she was awarded her 45 year 4-H volunteer achievement where she was a horse leader, fair superintendent, leathercraft teacher, and had her children and grandchildren participate in too many projects to list. Jan also spent many years teaching leathercraft in the community education program and at Tandy Leather.

Jan was an avid seamstress throughout her life. She loved to sew. She sewed our clothes while we were showing and rodeoing with our horses. Boy, did we have some great parade outfits and rodeo shirts. We later unearthed some trunks and mom’s retro shirts hit the shows and rodeos on a whole new generation of youth. Jan later turned that interest to quilting. Quilting was her primary winter project. Several of her children and grandchildren also love to sew and quilt. As we sort and clean, we find many projects mom has left for the girls to complete and share memories—you see, mom liked to create the quilt blocks, not the whole quilt.

Jan was a master gardener. She loved plants and to be outdoors. Flowers were her passion. As a kid I remember her love for roses. They surrounded our home up in Dry Creek, both big yards filled with roses. The horses, goats and gophers loved them too.

She married Vern DeRousse in 1986 and moved to her home in Middleton, Idaho. She continued to raise Appaloosa horses and planted an ever-increasing flower garden, Rainbow Ridge, full of iris and peonies and many others to fill in gaps. As long as the flowers were growing you could find Jan and her daughter DeAnna somewhere in the massive garden where they share their love for peonies and dirt.

Upon hearing of Jan’s passing, the American Peony Society (APS) Board of Director’s voted unanimously to award her the APS Medal in recognition of her many years of outstanding service to the peony community.

Jan loved her grandkids. She attended football games at BSU to watch Jarrell play. She never missed a home game. She spent many hours at horse shows, rodeos, and 4-H events while Chelsie, Shai and Erin share her love for horses.

Granddaughter Chelsie shares her memories of gramma:

“Heaven gained another rose for his garden last night. My mom drove all day to make it in time to say goodbye. (Mom waited for her arrival) My Grandma made me matchy-matchy rodeo shirts, so mom and I matched. She made all my mini-mite Rodeo Queen shirts and dresses. Then she made them for me all through High School rodeo too. She made me a quilt with pictures of my grandpa on them for graduation. Our Christmas stockings and tree skirts are all handmade by her. Kids all have cowgirl and cowboy shirts made by her as well as 100 pillowcases for every season. She sent us homemade jelly; blackberry is my fave. I recall hiding in the berry bushes, eating berries, when they couldn’t find me. Costume class at Idaho State Fair was a favorite and showing her foals. She had the biggest garden ever with the beautiful roses, iris, and peonies, all of which I am poor at growing. We got a Breyer Horse every Christmas and birthday, my collection is quite significant, same with the mini versions of each in the form of a Christmas ornament. My tree has many themes each year.

I have lots of memories. I will cherish them even more now. I hope she gave grandpa a big hug for me when she crossed over. Love you Gran.”

Jan was an avid reader and life-long learner; she had a house full of books and magazines for our whole lives. She took all kinds of classes for quilting, sewing, gardening, horsemanship, and most recently dog agility. She was a student, a teacher and loved sharing her knowledge with others.

She led a very full life and is survived by her six children including Dony (Barbie) Root, Susie (Bob) Schaefer and their children Chelsie (Jeff) Herian and Shai Lynn (Kyon) Kruetzer, DeAnna Root and her son Jarrell (Emily) Root, Deb Root, Shari (Frank) Lyle and her children Ashley, Josh, Amber and Jacob (Rocki) Adams, and William Root, his daughter Erin and numerous great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband Vernon DeRousse, her grand daughter Chyann Rai Schaefer, Kenneth Root, and both of her parents, Frederick and Rebecca Baird. A celebration of life will be held later this spring when the garden is in bloom.

I must thank my family for helping to make mom’s final year as full as possible. My brother Dony called her multiple times per week just to chatter with her. Susie called frequently as well. DeAnna was ever helpful using her knowledge and experience as a hospice nurse to help all of us through the really difficult medical challenges but, foremost she diligently spent hours in the garden with mom. The garden is in great hands. Bill was always available when we called. I am especially thankful for Erin who made mom breakfast daily, kept her medicine on track, shared the care duties day in and day out and was always a vital part of our support team.

We also are so very appreciative of Maria for her daily care of mom so we could continue to work and know that mom was in great hands. Maria cared for mom as if she were family and it is so appreciated. Her husband Rodrigo helped to take care of the property and it never looked so good. Mom loved it. It takes an army to care for loved ones through their end of life, a commitment of time, resources, and patience. We also want to thank Horizon Hospice for their care in mom’s final weeks.

Safe travels mom.

Arrangements are under the direction of Bowman Funeral Parlor of Garden City.