EHS grad's promising writing career
cut short by spring break car wreck
As Printed in THE EXPESS May 20, 1997
Seamons' life
reflected joy,
curiosity and courage
Frank Thomason,
The Express
______________________
EAGLE- January 1, 19 year old
Jeff Seamons, a promising writer and freshman earning A's in the honors program at Boise State University, wrote "Come April" an essay about the approaching Hale Bopp comet.
"What if the comet were to annihilate us?" he wrote, "with four months to live" until it's arrival, "how am I going to do it?"
Jeff's writing presaged the rash of books and movies about killer comets that accompanied the appearance of Hale-Bopp. He may also have predicted his own exit from life.
"Death is just a beginning, a doorway to another dimension or whatever may lie beyond" he wrote in the same essay.
"Just three short months after writing those words, Jeff's life was cut short in an automobile crash March 28, 1997,Good Friday. During spring break, he and three other friends were returning from a party near Coeur d'Alene,ID when his car took a corner in the unfamiliar darkness too fast (42mph). His tires caught the gravel and the vehicle reached the edged and tipped over into a lake.
Three of the boys escaped the 22 degree water, but Seamons, who was probably unconscious from the impact,did not. He was still in the car when it continued to sink and move out into the lake.
A member of Eagle High Schools first group of graduates in the class of 1996, the 5'9", 140 -pound youth transferred from Meridian High the previous fall to play football at the brand-new EHS.
"He loved all sports, including little league as a youngster,"said his mother, Beckie Seamons. "But he had not played football in high school before - he was too small. So, he went to Eagle where he could play and lettered in football"
Seamons also lettered on the Meridian High Ski team 2 years and Eagle high ski team in his senior year. But this athlete-scholar also practiced random kindness and senseless acts of beauty. His license plates read, "R U Kind"
Jeff Seamons, who died in a March car wreck in Northern Idaho, was a model of living life to it's fullest, overcoming obstacles, achieving and promoting the necessity to be kind to others, as evidenced by his car's license plate `R U Kind?'
`Death is just a beginning, a doorway to
another dimension or
whatever may lie beyond.'
Jeff Seamons,
from his essay `COME APRIL'
He also always worked. He loved his job selling shoes at JC Penney in the mall and the family owned business Heart Of Idaho gourmet foods. "We all worked around his schedule," said his mother
His mother was no stranger to tragedy when he was taken from the family. One of his two older sisters, Stephanie, died of SIDS in January 1977.
His parents had wanted two children so they canceled a planned birth controlled procedure. Jeff was conceived on March 28, 1977 and born one year and after his sisters' death.
His family knew this was a special child. In the first grade in Blackfoot, in eastern Idaho, Seamons' IQ tested out at 157. He was a writer from the age of 6 and an A student as well as an avid athlete despite his size.
His literary output was prodigious and impressive.
"Jeff did a lot of inspirational stuff". said his mother"He put is writings on his computer in chapters" He was planning to dedicate his first published book to his sister,mother and best friend and soul mate, Tara .
"He was my `retro' baby who wore tie-dyed shirts and listened to led Zeppelin, Doors and the Grateful Dead.
He was an unusual teenager who cared about all people and took the time to show it." said his mother.
"He had a great love of life and tried to
live each day as if it were his last and thought everyone else should too".
Tara said she and Seamons met when both were students at Meridian Middle School. They transferred to Eagle High together.
"We were really close the last year," she said.
How did they spend their time? "We watched sunsets a lot," she said. Seamons toted lawn chairs in his car trunk for that reason. "He was always smiling. If he wasn't smiling, there was really something wrong."
From his conception until his untimely death, proved to be exactly 20 years. His parents divorced when Jeff was eleven and his father stayed in eastern Idaho,so his passing leaves his mom and sister Jennifer,23, here in the valley.
His short life and tragic death have touched many in the community.
"Jeff's family have been patients of mine for a couple of years," said Eagle Chiropractor Todd Cramer. "He touched our lives very much."
Cramer and his wife sponsored a memorial fund raiser to help endow the scholarship set up in Jeff's name at Boise State University Foundation.
Donations are accepted on an on-going
basis at the Boise State Foundation.
A sample of Jeff's prose: "As long as you are in my life, as a poet, I shall never retire."
"Endless smiles, for miles and miles, I must again thank you for making me smile."
His loved ones miss him terribly.
"He was my` retro' baby who wore tied-dyed shirts
and listened to Led Zeppelin, the Doors and the
Grateful Dead. He was an unusual teenager who cared about all people and took the time to
show it."
Beckie Seamons
