Cynthia Lynn Boruff
3 MIN. READ
Heaven gained a choir director just after midnight on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, with the passing of Cynthia Lynn Boruff (formerly Cindy Beck), a resident of Trinity County of Weaverville, California, since 1980.
Born November 18, 1949, in Terre Haute, Indiana, Cindy was raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where she was a champion swimmer, symphony clarinetist, marching band member, rodeo queen, and life-long church worship team musician (playing the piano or plucking the bass fiddle) and choir director.
Boruff attended Anderson University (Ind.) where she received a Christian Liberal Arts education and earned multiple degrees and certificates on her way to becoming a teacher credentialed to teach every subject to students in every grade.
Cindy later played in the orchestra at Arizona State University’s Grady Gammage Auditorium while working on her upper graduate coursework. She also attended Northern Arizona University, and finally finished her master’s degree in education at Humboldt State University.
As the wife of an Army soldier who was deployed twice to Vietnam, Cindy lived in 24 states, including Alaska, where she continued to participate in music ministry and teach while swimming on a synchronized swim team and learning to sculpt with Alaskan clay. At the end of her travels, she had lived in or visited every state in the Union except North Dakota.
Cindy was a long-term substitute teacher at Hayfork High School before accepting a job at Hyampom Elementary School. Two years after the family moved to Hyampom, jobs in Hayfork brought them back there and to the ranch east of Hayfork where Cindy lived the remainder of her years.
Cindy was known for using humor, silly songs, and costumes to teach life lessons, often employing puppets or her companion “Mortimer” (a ventriloquist dummy) to help kids understand difficult topics.
She opened her home several times to friends and family who needed a place to live in order to regain sobriety or recover from lost jobs. Multiple family and kids’ camps were held on her ranch, during which community members were invited to camp, fish, paddle boat, play music, and eat.
Cindy founded a private school and later ran a continuation school in Hayfork (Valley High) that was a hands-on, alternative education choice for kids and adults who wanted to earn their high school diplomas.
Cindy taught at Hayfork High School and Hayfork Elementary School. Every spring break, for nearly a decade, she hiked 50–60 miles in the Grand Canyon. She directed multiple drama productions and kids choirs, and she also led many groups into the Trinity Alps and was later a docent at Mount Lassen, creating their outdoor education curriculum.
After retiring from teaching music and English at Hayfork Elementary School, Cindy started a charter school in Hayfork and later went on to finish up her 46-year teaching career at Trinity Center Elementary School.
Most recently, Cindy was the music teacher, tutor, and costume seamstress at Trinity Dance and Fitness Studios in Weaverville. At the time of her passing, she had been evacuated from her beloved ranch to Klamath Falls, Oregon, due to the threat from the Monument fire.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Lavera Long Boruff and Kinsey Culmer Boruff Jr. (Phoenix, Ariz.); her childhood sweetheart and first husband Danny Brainard; her nephew David Knight; and her grandson Takota Beck (Hayfork).
She is survived by her children, HHS graduates Daniel and Timbre Beck; siblings Kindra Hossack (Ariz.), Thomas Kent Boruff (Oregon), and Randy Paul Boruff (Utah); grandkids Aria Beck-Wines (Hayfork), Daniel R. Beck (Calif.), Kaitlynn and Garret Beck (Idaho); nieces, nephews, and hundreds of former students who think of her as their mom and credit her with changing or even saving their lives just by showing them their “infinite worth.”
Cindy also has dozens of people in Trinity County who consider her their sister because of close interactions through church camps and community service events during which Cindy led music, skits, prayer groups, etc. She was known for visiting hospitals and rest homes to play music during the holidays.
She loved to garden, raise cattle, wrestle with her grandkids, hunt, fish, paint, sew, bake, and play music at the Trinity County Fair Homestead. She also co-wrote several plays and programs that teach kids how to read.
Anderson University is on a mission to educate students for lives of faith and service, offering more than 60 undergraduate majors, 30 three-year degrees, 20 NCAA Division III intercollegiate sports, alongside adult and graduate programs. The private, liberal arts institution is fully accredited and recognized among top colleges for its business, computer science, cybersecurity, dance, engineering, nursing, and teacher education programs. Anderson University was established in 1917 in Anderson, Indiana, by the Church of God.