GEM COUNTY, Idaho — A memorial service is being planned for a former Gem County commissioner and his wife. The family of Lan and Pam smith told KTVB they were the ones who died in the plane crash in northwestern Nevada reported last week.
Officials said searchers found the wreckage in mountains south of Pyramid Lake after the plane crashed earlier Thursday, Sept. 19, after leaving Reno for Nampa, Idaho.
The tragic accident has ripped out a major part of the family’s life. The couple’s eldest daughter and her husband are trying to find peace after what happened to her parents.
Deanna Walker and her husband Michael said the two were a perfect match, first meeting in Garden Grove California in high school.
“My mom has a twin sister and my dad had taken his motorcycle to give my mom's twin sister, but my mom's sister was not there,” Deanna Walker said. “And so, my mom got the ride instead and so I guess her sister got jipped out of a boyfriend.”
After that, she said the two were inseparable. They spent a year apart from each other when in college but visited often. Eventually, the couple moved to Idaho where they raised their five kids.
“They moved here when Deanna was just a baby, so they lived here for about 40 years,” Michael Walker said.
The two loved to travel, hike, and do anything outdoors together. Deanna Walker said the two of them also loved to fly together, since Michael was a pilot.
“I really feel like my dad was a little daredevil at heart, he really had this excitement for crazy things,” she said.
From flying and traveling to taking the jet skis out on the water, and hiking in one of their favorite places, like Zion National Park. Deanna Walker said the two of them always seemed to be busy and doing something.
“He just really wanted to live life you know,” she said. “Experience all of those feelings and joys and things.”
Wanting to experience things is what brought the couple to Lake Tahoe in late September. The two had taken their honeymoon their more than 40 years ago and had yet to return.
“They had decided they wanted to go back and visit and reminisce their time together,” Deanna Walker said. “They just were spending the week together exploring and going back to that first time they were able to spend together.”
The flight on the way back is when tragedy struck. Details are still unclear at this time on what happened to their Cessna 182H, but it crashed and it killed both. They were the only two onboard.
"There is still an investigation, that is going on, so we don't have a whole lot of details on that,” Deanna Walker said.
Not only is the family of Lan and Pam hurting right now, but the whole Emmett community mourning alongside the family.
“Lan and Pam touched so many lives in this community, and so many people loved them and it’s a big void we're all feeling right now,” Michael Walker said.
Deanna Walker told KTVB what she is going to miss most from her parents.
“I feel like everything, first of all, but my dad’s laugh, he always had a smile on his face and his laugh was so cute,” she said. “I'm going to miss being able to call my mom because she always had an answer for my hard questions. In fact, several times this week, I wanted to call and ask her mom how am I going to plan this funeral.”
Both Michael and Deanna Walker reminisced on the example that Lan and Pam Smith set for their kids and grandchildren when it came to serving their community.
"They just lived a behind the scenes life of service, they never made a big deal about it and were always doing something nice for someone,” Michael Walker said. “I think the extension of love for your family easily translates to love for your community.”
Serving is what drove Lan Smith to run for Gem County commissioner in the 2000s. He served the county for eight years.
"He took that seriously and to heart that he felt an obligation after being elected to serve with the best of his ability to make this a better place and he did,” Michael Walker said.
In addition to that, Lan Smith spent more than 20 years with the Boise Fire Department. Lan Smith worked for the department from April 1979 to May 2001.
“He was just a great, great guy, great person to know. Always upbeat and always cheerful,” Former Boise Fire Chief Ren Ross said. “Walked into the room and always had a smile on his face and never had a down day.”
Ross worked with Smith from when Smith was first hired in 1979 until he left the department. They worked their way up through the ranks.
"Lan and I both worked on the line as firefighters and were both in the operations division for seven or eight years,” he said. “I went into the fire prevention bureau and Lan followed me about a year later.”
Ross remembered a specific story about Lan that he said truly shows the kind of person Lan was. It was one winter when Ross was sick in bed with the flu, and there was a bad snowstorm one night.
“Without even being asked on his way to work, Lan stopped at my house and shoveled my driveway out because he knew my wife had to get out to go to work,” Ross said.
The loss of Lan and Pam Smith not only affected their family, but also his former colleague.
“I went numb because I was shocked to hear it. It’s a huge loss, my heart and prayers go to his kids and family. It’s just tough, it really is,” he said.
Michael Walker said the couple is leaving behind a lasting legacy. From their work in the community to make Emmett a better place to live, to the way the two raised their kids and grand-kids.
“The example they set for all of us in how to live, and how to love and how to think of other first and how to serve,” he said.
While the loss of their parents and in-laws is tough and almost unthinkable, both Deanna and Michael Walker said they are trying to be at peace.
"I feel like my parents lived their life to the fullest and I don't think they left any regrets here,” Deanna Walker said. “So, I hope I feel peace that they are where they are meant to be right now.”
A memorial service is being held for Lan and Pam Smith. That service is going to be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Central Avenue in Emmett. There will be a gathering from 3:00 - 4:30 p.m., and the service starts at 5:00 p.m. The family said the service is open to the public.