Obituary for Nancy Louise Huish Archibald

Nancy Louise Huish Archibald, 69, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, beloved wife to Larry Call Archibald, passed away peacefully while sleeping after a long and difficult struggle with congestive heart failure and lung cancer.

Nancy was born on December 22, 1955 in Burbank, California to a single-mother named Lorrayne Holquist, who placed Nancy for adoption. It was a difficult decision for Lorrayne, but at one-week old Nancy was adopted by Ted and Ethel Huish of Douglas, Arizona. Ted and Ethel were already parents to four boys, but desperately wanted a little girl. They drove all night long to get to Burbank in time to adopt Nancy before a different couple was called.

While growing up in Douglas, Arizona Ted and Ethel made sure Nancy wanted for nothing. Her parents owned a small ranch, a professional laundry and dry-cleaning service, and a Dairy Queen. She started piano lessons at 5-years old, which began a love of music and piano that remained throughout her life. At age 8, Ted taught Nancy how to ride a horse, and she grew into an accomplished rider (western style). She rode horses throughout her childhood, teen, and young adult years. After school, Nancy would go straight to the ranch, saddle-up her favorite gelding Bob (or even forgo the saddle and ride bareback), and return home for dinner, dusty, sweaty, and grimy from riding for hours. Nancy learned how to sew and became an accomplished seamstress. During the summers, she, her mom, and her grandma, would go up to the Huish family cabin in the Chiricahua Mountains in southern Arizona and spend a couple of weeks sewing her school clothes for the upcoming school year. She developed a deep love of sewing and in teaching sewing to others, which she refined throughout her life – making everything from her daughters’ ballroom dance competition costumes, to drapes she hung her home, to beautiful quilts to keep her children and grandchildren warm.

In high school Nancy joined the school choir and fell in love with choral singing. Her senior year she sang with the Arizona All-State Choir and auditioned for the America’s Youth in Concert Choir. She was granted a position in the chorale and toured throughout Europe and the United States performing. She continued singing and directing choral music throughout her life, serving as choir director in her community and church whenever she could.

She attended Rick’s College as a music major, where she met her husband, Larry Call Archibald. They were both singing in the Rick’s College Acapella Chorale when they met. While at college she also started performing in musical theater productions and performed at the Playmill Theater in West Yellowstone for one summer.

Nancy married the love of her life, Larry Call Archibald, in the Mesa Arizona Temple on the 30th of May, 1975. Nancy loved children and always wanted to be Mom. Their first 6 children were born in seven years, with their seventh child born seven years later. She raised her children to love music, dancing, essential oils, gardening, and the delicious Mexican food that she grew up cooking and eating in southern Arizona. She was an accomplished and gifted cook – she could make delicious, hearty meals from scratch and baked her own bread throughout the years.

Gardening was one of her greatest hobbies – she covered her entire backyard in berry patches, apple trees, and vegetable gardens, always with a chicken coop in a corner. She canned and preserved the food her family grew, using that food to make the family meals.

In about 2002 she got her real estate license, eventually becoming a real estate broker. She truly enjoyed working in real estate and helping people find their homes.

Nancy adored her grandchildren and being a grandma. She loved cuddling with them, feeding them, reading to them, and singing to them.

She is survived by her husband, Larry Call Archibald; her children, Desirée (Carson Ward), Ashley, Lacey, Chase, Chelsea (Wington Brito), Savannah (Jacob Kidd), and Joseph Dallin “J.D.” (Savanna Ketcham Archibald); and her beloved grandchildren, Rushton, Coco, Thatcher, Bodie, Ronan, Vianna, Isla, Ainsley, Riordan, Declan, Jonas, Zavian, and Thorin; her mother, Ethel Nalley Huish; brothers Larry, Roy, Ron, and Billy Huish; and is preceded in death by her father, Ted Huish.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Monday, November 24, 2025, at the East View Ward, 2349 Virlow, Idaho Falls. The family will receive friends one hour prior to services at the church. Burial will be at the Lincoln Cemetery under the direction of Coltrin Mortuary, 2100 First Street, Idaho Falls. Condolences may be sent online to www.coltrinmortuary.com.