One of the last links to the heritage of Sun Valley, Marjorie Brass Heiss, 97, died Tuesday, Oct. 9, in Hailey.
She was born in 1910 in Caldwell, Idaho, and moved with her family to Ketchum two years later. Her father, Ernest Brass, a rancher, bought 3,300 acres to ranch east of the small mining town of Ketchum, from Horace Lewis, one of the town's founders. In 1936, he sold the land to Averell Harriman and Union Pacific railroad company. It's on this land that Sun Valley Resort and a good portion of Elkhorn now sit.
"We had that whole 3,300 acres," Heiss said in 2004. "We rode all over it. There were five of us—four girls and a boy. Roberta and Richard were twins. They were two years younger than me."
The Brass Ranch ran cattle, sheep and horses, and where Ernest once planted potatoes the Sun Valley Lodge now sits, a fact that always amused the family. Heiss and her sister Roberta delivered mail and supplies on horseback to the ranch's sheep camps.
Heiss went to grade school in Boise, and high school in Caldwell, where she lived with her grandparents.
While she was a student at the College of Idaho in Caldwell, she met Clark Heiss, a Jerome native who was then working as a banker in Hailey.
"My sister was once talking me up to Clark," Heiss recalled. "When I came home in June from college we met and started dating. I had to do a semester at a time, then work, to pay for another semester."
The Heisses were married in October 1933. Sadly, Clark Heiss died in 1969.
"He was a nice husband," Heiss said in 2004. "He didn't leave his clothes on the floor. He could cook. He was so handy. I had a real nice married life but he passed away too soon."
When Count Felix Schaffgotsch came to Ketchum in 1936 in search of a ski resort site for Harriman, Roberta and Heiss strapped on the 11-foot-long wooden skis they used to ski across their property and took the well-outfitted Austrian on a tour of the land. Not long after, her father sold the land for Union Pacific's new development.
"My folks still lived in Ketchum, so we spent a year in Hailey," she said. "It was the country we loved. After that we moved to Jerome, but I always came back, in the summer especially. I cried when we left. I didn't want to leave my mountains."
Her love of horses, the mountains, rivers and countryside informed her life.
"Horses are my first love and fishing is my second," she said.
The Heisses returned to Jerome so that Clark could join W.A. Heiss, an investment firm founded by his father in 1908.
"The Heisses had a tremendous influence on Jerome and on our lives," said Leroy Craig, a friend and business associate from Jerome. "They were energetic and fun. She was someone you liked being around. A beautiful smile. And there was nothing like the voice of Marge. She was not afraid to work and had a sense of humor. To know one Heiss is to know them all. They do so much together."
The couple had three daughters, Cheryl, Lynette and Jo. Though they lived in Jerome, they spent summers and holidays in Ketchum. In 1945, their cabin was moved to a lot next to the senior Brass' ranch house on the east side of Ketchum next to Trail Creek, where St. Thomas Episcopal Church is now located.
In 1976, Heiss built a larger home next to the cabin. Her daughters and their husbands and children used the cabin over the years as did guests and friends who came to visit. In 1958, Ernest and Mary Hemingway rented the cabin, while he worked on the memoir "A Moveable Feast." Located at the corner of Spruce and Second Streets, the cabin was moved several years ago south of Ketchum.
The Heisses headed back to Jerome for the beginning of the school year each fall.
"We had no trailers then," she said. "It took two days. I made the round trip probably six times. I was accustomed to go out riding. As long as I was on a horse I was happy."
Heiss introduced Peruvian Pasos and Tennessee Walkers to the Wood River Valley. For years she and her daughters were seen together riding in the annual Ketchum Wagon Days Parade on the smooth-gaited horses, while holding full champagne glasses.
On Sunday, during the annual Trailing of the Sheep parade, her granddaughter Michelle Pabarcius, on horseback, led Heiss' 30-year old Peruvian Paso tacked with an empty saddle, symbolizing a warrior who can ride no more.
Heiss always credited her longevity to the Wood River Valley.
"It was being raised in the good fresh air and the clear skies."
She was known as an incomparable horsewoman, outdoorswoman, wife, mother and grandmother, who lived an adventurous life in full color, humor and style.
At a "Celebration of Life" at the Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood in Ketchum on Monday, Cheryl Morrell sang "Climb Every Mountain," a fitting tune that Heiss herself had chosen for her service. Her granddaughters and great-granddaughters donned Heiss' many chic hats. Her fishing tackle, well-worn waders and her beautiful Western saddle adorned the altar.
Son-in-law Forrest Hymas kept the congregation chuckling as he recalled riding trips with the "fearless foursome," as he called Heiss and her three daughters.
"She was an inspiration to us and many others," said daughter Jo Heiss. "She was her daughters' best friend, companion and playmate. We all traversed the high mountains together, camped and fished. She wanted to ride every mountain and see over every ridge. That was her essence."
In 1999, she was named grand marshal of Ketchum's Wagon Days Parade, in which she rode her horse rather than ride in a wagon. In 2004, the Blaine County Historical Museum nominated her to the Heritage Court, for which she rode in several parades with her fellow ladies of the court.
"She really was the grande dame," said family friend Elizabeth Tierney. "We all treated her as thus. She mentored many of us by example. How to be a lady. Manners. What we never learned though was how she could ride all day in a hat, take it off and look like she came from the beauty parlor."
Two of her granddaughters spoke at the memorial service as well. Pabarcius, who lives in London, recalled visits in Europe with Heiss, who she said also adored her travels to Africa.
"She taught us all to dream," she said.
Her sister Nicole Hymas added, "God bless her cowgirl soul. We'll miss her."
Pastor Bob Henley finished the celebration of Heiss' life by reading a spiritually and intellectually searching prayer that she had written.
"She had a need to understand knowledge as a larger concept with an eternal perspective," he said. "Her story is so much a part of this valley."
Photo courtesy of The Community Library Regional Library
Marge Brass Heiss, circa 1938.
