John T. DeForest

John Terry DeForest

John was born April 9, 1957, in Aberdeen, Idaho, to Gilbert and Geneva Deforest. John was number 8 in a family of 10. On John’s first birthday his dad Gilbert passed away and that was always a bad spot in John’s life. But John made up for it with Halloween and Christmas. He would decorate his yard like nothing you have ever seen. On Halloween, he gave out the best candy, (we are taking the large candy bars), he always looked forward to those times.

John started his education in Aberdeen until his middle school years when Geneva bought the farm in American Falls, John’s first experience on the farm was a skunk, which kept him out of school for a week. John liked his high school years in American Falls. He played football and was very good at it.

John developed a very strong work ethic young. He started to work at Hillcrest Truck Stop which was owned at that time by the Evans family. Next it was on to Lamb Weston and Simplot Potatoes where John got into the maintenance department. While at JR Simplot, John came up with a procedure they were doing that caught the eye of JR Simplot himself with a letter of appreciation, a handshake and photo with JR himself. John was pretty proud. Meant a lot to him to be recognized. John retired from Simplot and started doing painting and odd jobs around the area until his health started to fail him. John loved the outdoors and liked to fish and camp as much as he could.

John passed away on December 28, 2025, in Pocatello, Idaho. He is survived by his son Adam of Layton, Utah, and his two sisters, Pat (Larry) of Emmett and Ruby of North Carolina, John was preceded in death by his parent and his brothers and sisters.

A visitation will be from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Sunday, January 4, 2026 at Davis-Rose Mortuary, 170 Idaho Street, American Falls, Idaho. There will be a second visitation at 1:00 p.m. Monday, January 5, 2026 at the Mortuary with the funeral starting at 2:00 p.m. Interment will follow at the Neeley Cemetery.