Alta M. Hartley

Alta Marie Hartley, 82, of Boise, Idaho, went to her Savior Jesus Christ on Wednesday, January 6 ^th , 2021. Alta was born April 15, 1938 in The Dalles, Oregon to Esther and Lester Peck. The second born of five, Alta loved growing up in the Peck family. Her stories and memories of her childhood were her favorite thing to revisit. She graduated from Boise High School in 1957 and attended Northwest Nazarene University for a year as an art major. Alta soon met and married David Hartley, the nephew of her pastors at Boise First Nazarene Church. Alta wanted to be a mother more than anything and was eventually gifted with a son, Michael Lee in 1962 and a daughter, Renee Kay in 1964. Alta’s marriage dissolved in 1966 and she became a single mother, struggling to provide for her family. After working at Head Start and other daycare programs Alta went on to employment as a Homemaker/Home Care provider with the Department of Health and Welfare and then with Boise State University, from which she retired in 2000.

Alta was devoted to her family and her church. She lived a life of faith, trusting Jesus with her life and her future as she drew on that belief for very real strength and peace. She depended on Christ, but also the strong extended family He gave her to walk beside. Neither failed her. Alta’s big passion through the years has been children. Whether it be her own, her grandchildren, her nieces and nephews, or her great-nieces and nephews… or any child at all, she loved them. She spent countless hours caring for them. Playing with them. Creating with them. Alta had a unique, almost childlike take on this life and the things of this world that helped her see and experience things that others did not. She saw promise in everyday things to be beautiful. She spent years creating bulletin boards at her church and decorating for different events. She painted, hot-glued, and sewed items for weddings, homes, children’s gifts… there was always something being made at her table.

Alta was preceded in death by her parents Esther and Lester Peck; sister Juanita Franz; brother-in-law Ray Burk; sister-in-law Janet Peck; nephew Ryan Peck; and nephew Donald Burk. She is survived by her sister Bonnie Burk; sister Shirley Howard; brother-in-law Quentin Howard; brother Bill Peck; son Michael Hartley; daughter Renee Wall; son-in-law Brian Wall; three grandsons, Bradley and his wife, Wendy; Christian; and Austin and his wife, Cacey; and three great-grandchildren, Micaiah, Eliana, and Kuyper.

We want to thank Visiting Angels and Idaho Home Health and Hospice, and all those who went the extra mile in their care of her over the last two months. A small service for family and her long time friends was held in her honor on Saturday, January 9 ^th at The Well Church in Boise because of space restrictions and social distancing. Memorials can be made in her honor at Love Inc of Treasure Valley.