"He always had a smile on his face"; Family, friends remember Jack Yantis

A hard-working logger and rancher. A high school football star. A prankster. A family man. Those are just a few of the ways friends and family described Jack Yantis, the Council man who was shot and killed during an altercation with Adams County deputies in early November, at his memorial service Sunday afternoon. "He always had a smile on his face," said Buck Rekow, a friend of the Yantis family. "I never saw him in anything that wasn't a good mood." Jack spent nearly all his life in the small town. He graduated from Council High School in 1971, and worked as a logger and, more recently, a rancher until his death on November 1st. Friends and family remember him as a superb athlete and, as a boy, a bit of a troublemaker. Yantis' friends and his daughter Sarah spoke at the event, for which hundreds packed the Council High School gymnasium. People came from all over the state, including some from the Treasure Valley, to pay their respects. Some are sad and angry about Jack's death, believing deputies were in the wrong when they shot Jack that fateful night. With so much mystery still surrounding the case, others just want the community to be patient and stay strong through tough times...more