Jane Kirby, a long time deputy with the Boundary County Sheriff’s Office and former Boundary County Commissioner Walt Kirby’s beloved “Road Dog ” for 73 adventurous years, passed away at her Moyie Springs area home in the early morning of March 26, 2024, one week into spring. She was a youthful and vibrant 90 years old. At her request, no service will be held.
In 1984, bored at age 50, she signed on for a class to become a reservist with the sheriff’s office. She had attended only the first class when she was summoned into Sheriff Ron Smith’s office. Crestfallen and sure she was about to be let go because of her age, she was instead hired full time and told to report to dispatch the next day.
She was proud to be a sheriff’s deputy for the next 30-odd years, retiring as county civil deputy with the rank of sergeant at around the time Walt began his tenure as Boundary County Commissioner in the early 2000s.
Jane’s was the calm voice on the phone through countless emergencies, each handled in a professional manner, but with a friendly neighborliness that helped sooth even the most intense of crises.
Jane was training a new dispatcher on the morning of August 21, 1992, when the call came in from a U.S. Marshal’s Service detail that they were pinned down and under fire, and she able to step in and handle the call for the badly shaken trainee, who decided right there the job was a little too intense. Jane activated and coordinated the initial response to the “Standoff at Ruby Ridge,” and while the trainee never returned, Jane seldom left through the ensuing 11-day siege.
After retiring, she continued serving her community, sitting as a member of the Boundary County Planning and Zoning Commission and the county Youth Accountably Board.
Having laid her son, John, to rest at age 17 in 1979, Jane made it a point to learn the names of every mother in Boundary County who’d lost a child and offer her unwavering support and solace. They were always in her prayers.
Jane loved where she lived. She doted on her daughters, Marcia, Sandia and Carnan, held fast to the memories of her beloved son, John. She never lost the twinkle in her eye for her husband, Walt. She blessed her many friends with her beautiful smile and big hugs, she didn’t abide fools.
The epitome of the quintessential Boundary County woman, she will be long missed.