Nancy Carol Ballard

     Nancy Ballard passed on to Heaven on Friday August 5, 2022 in Gooding, Idaho at the age of 84. 

     Nancy Carol Ballard was born on December 24, 1937 to parents Elmer Bland Ballard and Gertrude (Reynolds) Ballard in Fairfield, Idaho.  Growing up in Fairfield on Soldier Creek was her ideal childhood.  There was a lot of work, but also boundless amounts of fun and outdoor adventures.  This suited Nancy just fine.  She loved all animals – she broke an old cow to ride and even trained her cat to pull a little cart – but her love of horses and riding was absolutely her passion.  She and her childhood best friend, her horse Flick, were an inseparable team.  They probably knew every inch of the beautiful and rugged mountains that surrounded their homestead.

     Nancy was smart as a whip; and proved throughout her life that there wasn’t much she couldn’t do.  She graduated as Valedictorian of her class at Fairfield High School and went Boise Junior College (now BSU) for a year.  It was then she took bit of time off to work and save money to finish her degree.  First, she worked for a short time at the ASCS office in Fairfield.  Following that, she went on to work for Orie LeaVell of LeaVell Cattle as probably the best all-around cowhand he ever had.  In addition, she was his bookkeeper and saleyard office manager.  Adventures went everywhere Nancy went at this time…. from taking on a horse with a broken leg and nursing him back to health to jumping in a cattle truck and learning how to drive it enroute.  She rode and worked cattle in 11 different states across the West.  And she did it all with a dry wit, a stiff upper lip and ferocious tenacity.

     She worked for LeaVell Cattle close to 10 years, then decided it was time to finish school.  She returned to her college career at Boise Junior College and received her degree in accounting.  She worked for Producers Livestock as the office manager/accountant of their two saleyards in Ellensburg and Quincy, Washington.  There she met and married cattle buyer Bud Kasper.  They moved back to the Magic Valley, where Nancy went to work for the Gooding accounting firm of Walston & Spackman and completed the requirements for her CPA license.  Several years later, after being offered a partnership in the accounting firm, Nancy decided to branch out on her own and started her own private practice in Gooding.  

     Nancy was an excellent accountant and truly enjoyed working with numbers.  She didn’t fully retire until about 80 years of age. She always manually calculated and prepared tax returns and preferred to use her brain over that of the computer, although she did modernize to a computer along the way.  But it was really only for her employee to use as a double check against her calculations and for printing purposes. One year she actually caught an error in the tax software program’s calculation on farm income averaging.  The software company was quite grateful that she caught the glitch so they could make the correction. She especially like working with small ranchers and farmers, for whom she provided accounting, tax prep and bookkeeping services.  She understood all the needs of the agricultural industry and her extensive knowledge made it a great fit.

     While living in Gooding, Nancy and Bud welcomed their son Bland in 1974.  Although they divorced a few years later, Nancy and Bland remained in the Gooding and Fairfield area, where her parents were still residing.  There was nothing Bland enjoyed more than spending summer nights out camping in the sheep wagon with his Granddad, but Nancy and Bland had an incredibly close relationship. She passed her love of horses on to her son – and was there teaching, filming, and cheering him on at every event she could attend from his high school rodeo career on through his PRCA career. And she of course used her accounting skills to calculate points for District 5 High School Rodeo.  Bland was always her greatest pride and joy…. Until Evan came along, of course!  Her eyes would truly light up whenever she spoke about Evan.  Later in life, Nancy was overjoyed at the chance to be re-united with her daughter Carol and get to know her family as well.  All of them meant so much to her.

     Nancy was an incredibly strong, hardworking, generous person who was a fiercely loyal friend and family member.  She was independent and tough; she was caring and kind.  She was the epitome of a cowgirl to her last day – she lived her life on her own terms and made her own rules.  She was truly ONE OF A KIND.  She was loved by many and will be greatly missed.

     Nancy is survived by: her brother - David (Marie) Ballard; and her sister - Dawn (Floyd) Crandall; her son - Bland Ballard and Grandson - Evan Ballard; her daughter - Carol Phillips and Grandchildren - Brandon, Kristen, Lauren, Reagan, Autumn and Caroline Phillips, and Great Grandson - Wyatt and many other nieces and nephews and extended family members.

     A graveside services will be held at 11:00 am on Friday August 12, 2022 at Mountain View Cemetery in Fairfield, Idaho.  

     Funeral arrangements are under the care and direction of Demaray Funeral Service – Gooding Chapel.

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