Lewis Probart

Lewis L. Probart, 91, passed away Tuesday, February 02, 2010 at Caring Heart Assisted Living Center. Lewis was born in a log cabin on March 11, 1918, near Ririe, Idaho, the second child of Leo and Josie Hill Probart. The Probart family moved to Pocatello in 1923 when Leo took a job with the Union Pacific Railroad and Lewis was five years old. The Probarts lived on South 3rd Street, where the family grew to eight. Lewis joined the U.S. Navy in 1937, where he served with his brother, Ted, on the U.S.S. Colorado. His Navy enlistment ended in early 1941, months before the beginning of World War II. After returning to Pocatello, Lewis went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad and began seeing Wilma Drake. They were married on February 24, 1942. Only a few months later, Lewis was drafted back into the Navy, where he trained Naval troops at Farragut Lake, Idaho and served in the naval rail yards in New Jersey. After leaving the Navy again in 1945, he returned to Pocatello and resumed his employment with the UPRR as a switchman and brakeman. In 1947, the family moved to the South Bannock Highway area of Pocatello, where they raised Morgan horses and other livestock before housing development occupied the area. Lewis and Wilma raised one son, DeVern, and four daughters, Judy, Susan, Bonnie and Debra. The family spent many hours as the children grew up riding horses in the hills west of Pocatello and on horseback camping and hunting trips in the Salmon and Yellowstone areas. He was also a founding member of the Pocatello black powder shooting group, the Portneuf Muzzleloaders, and was frequently seen in Pocatello parades dressed in buckskins and riding his beloved Morgan stallions in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a lifetime member of the NRA. His hobbies include horses, hunting, shooting, camping, fishing, traveling, horse pack trips, and loved spending time with his family. Lewis retired from the Union Pacific Railroad in 1984 after 43 years. He lost his bride, Wilma, in 1997 to complications of a stroke. In November of 1998 he married once again, this time to Mary Stoner of Swan Valley. He was preceded in death by his wife, Wilma J Probart: son, Capt. L DeVern Probart; parents Leo Josie Probart; brothers, Ted and Gerald Probart; infant sister, Arletta Probart; sisters, Leola Kortum and Zelda Bohney. He is survived by his wife Mary; children, Judy (LeRoy) Long, Susan Probart, Bonnie Probart and Debra (Rick) Cheatum, Penny (Terry) Barnes, Randy Stoner. Memorial services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, February 6, 2010 at Colonial Funeral Home, 2005 S. 4th Ave, Pocatello. Military honors will follow at the funeral home by the Pocatello Veterans Honor Guard. The Lewis' Probart family would like to thank Caring Hearts Assisted Living Center Creekside Home Health Hospice for their loving care they extended to our DAD.