Penny Lynn (King) Rooks

Penny Lynn Rooks, 74, of Ontario, Oregon passed away on Wednesday July 8, 2020 at Saint Alphonsus Hospital, in Boise, Idaho. She was surrounded by her spouse of 52 years and two children.

Her viewings will be held on Thursday July 16, from 7:00-9:00pm at Haren-Wood Funeral Chapel at 2543 SW 4th Ave, Ontario and on Friday, July 17, from 9:00-10:30am, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building at 1705 NW 4th Ave, Ontario. The funeral service will follow at 11:00am with Bishop Chad Hartley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officiating. Graveside services will follow at Evergreen Cemetery.

Penny was born at Holy Rosary Hospital in Ontario, Oregon to Ellen Bybee King and Lawern Ray King on March 13, 1946. She graduated from Ontario High School. She attended Brigham Young University where she met and married her eternal companion, Dewane J. Rooks of Blackfoot, Idaho on June 27, 1968 in the Idaho Falls Temple. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education. She taught as a “full-time” substitute teacher for all the elementary schools in Ontario for over 30 years. Miss Penny, as her students affectionately called her was often requested by teachers to sub in their classes because she was not only an excellent teacher but she adored her students. In addition to substitute teaching, she spent countless hours after school and during the summer tutoring 100’s of students at her kitchen counter. She was an active member of her church and began teaching in the primary at just 13 years old. She loved teaching and did it wherever she went whether it was in the classroom, playground, grocery store or in her home. No matter where she went you would find her with children gathered around her and the biggest smile on her face. A quote from a plaque in her home read, “A hundred years from now…it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove…but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”

Penny is preceded in death by her parents, Lawern Ray King and Ellen Bybee King, her brother Mark Allen King and her daughter Heather Rooks.

She is survived by her husband Dewane J. Rooks, children Aimee Ellen McClellan and her husband Tony McClellan of Smithfield, Utah and Shon Dewane Rooks of Boise, Idaho, 9 grandchildren Alexis McClellan-Hansen, Chandler J. McClellan, Landon Joshua McClellan, Porter Jayce McClellan, Meg Emily Rooks, Ben Jensen Rooks, Kate Ellie Rooks, Jack Shon Rooks, Malachi Jupiter Rooks and one great grandchild Carter Jack Hansen.

Pallbearers will be her grandchildren.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Penny Lynn (King) Rooks, please visit our floral store.