Mrs. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, Requiescat in pace.

There are two things I know about Helen Chenoweth-Hage: She kept her promise to serve only three terms in congress even though she could have been re-elected again and again, and she was a better person than those who attacked her.

I'm guessing now that The Whole Truth has been revealed to her, she will be content to know she was closer to It than those who called her names were.

BOISE - From the tips of her boots up to the blue collar of her denim shirt, Helen Chenoweth-Hage approached every issue from a uniquely Western perspective.

Many loved her, others hated her.

Who can forget that rude protester who splattered Congressman Chenoweth with rotten salmon at a Montana hearing in 2000 -- an incident she handled with humor and grace.

"She didn't want to stop the hearing," remembers daughter Meg Chenoweth Keenan. "She said, 'let's keep going with the hearing.'"

Nobody in Idaho was indifferent about this Sagebrush Republican rebel, who died at age 68 in a one-car accident Monday in Nevada.

Years ago we asked her why that was. "I really don't know," she said in 1996. "I find that much of what is said about me by the opposition is untrue."

Now, as they cope with her sudden death, Chenoweth-Hage's daughter and son say the truth about their mom is simple.

"She was a very real person, very genuine," said daughter Meg. "What you saw was really Helen Chenoweth. She had real passions,real loves, and she knew where all that came from."

Chenoweth-Hage called for the disarming of federal resource agents in 1995 after claiming that they had landed black helicopters on private land in eastern Idaho to enforce the Endangered Species Act. The claim drew national criticism, and she later conceded she had never personally seen the now-infamous gunships.

When elected to Congress in 1994, she promised to serve only three terms -- and kept her word -- although she compared it to jumping from a moving train.

"It was hard for her to jump," said her son, Mike Chenoweth. "Her constituents didn't want her to jump, they wanted her re-elected. But she promised, and so she jumped off that train."

"She was very clear, very straight up with voters," said Gov. Jim Risch. "A lot of people didn't agree with her on things, but they always knew where she stood."

Helen Chenoweth-Hage lost her husband Wayne to illness in June, then her sister Charlene passed away in August. But her children say faith got their mom through rough times.

"My mother did not fear dying," said Meg. "She knew she would step from this life into the next one."

Helen Chenoweth-Hage will be buried at a private service on her Nevada ranch. A public memorial service will be held Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. at the Capital Christian Center at 2760 E. Fairview Ave., Meridian. (Thanks to KBCI in Boise for this obituary.)