Longtime Bear Lake resident Melba Crane Bartschi, 88, passed away at her home in Nounan, Sunday morning, Feb 23, 2025, succumbing to the effects of old age. Melba was born June 20, 1936, to George and Gladys Peterson Crane in Montpelier, Idaho. She was a 1954 graduate of Montpelier High School. She married Don Bartschi while both were attending Utah State University January 20, 1956, having the marriage solemnized in the Idaho Falls Temple, January 20, 1968.
After raising a family on the ranch, she returned to USU and earned a Master’s Equivalency Degree in Education.
She will be remembered most for her 35 years as a passionate teacher where she was employed at Georgetown and AJ Winter’s Elementary Schools, and both Bear Lake Middle and Bear Lake High schools. Her teaching experiences ranged from instructing a blind student to teaching the sciences in middle and high school. She loved her classroom days and often reminisced, after her retirement, about the friends she had made with her colleagues and students. They were always a part of her fond memories.
She loved dancing, reading, crosswords, travel, Jeopardy, family gatherings, playing games, puzzles, storytelling, going for drives with Don, and chocolate.
As an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she served in several leadership and other callings where she could once again use her teaching abilities in a different setting.
Melba was preceded in death by her husband, Don F. Bartschi.
They are the parents of five children, Jeff (Elyse) Bartschi, Georgetown; Toni (Mel) Pearce, Buhl; Lori Bartschi, Nounan; Erin (Holly) Bartschi, Soda Springs; and Sean (Jamie) Bartschi, Nounan.
Her legacy carries on as a grandmother of 10, a great-grand mother of 17, and a memory to her many friends and students. She will be missed by all whose lives she touched.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, March 8, 2025, at the Georgetown Ward, Georgetown, Idaho, with a viewing starting at 10:30 a.m.
The program will begin at noon.
Interment will be in the Montpelier Cemetery.
Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at Matthews Mortuary.