There is no greater bond than a bond between siblings. This is especially true for twin siblings. Growing up alongside each other and sharing the same milestones is the reason twins share a bond that is unique and unlike others.
This is the case for Maurice and Marcel Gentillon. Maurice and Marcel were born on Jan. 15, 1929, and have been inseparable ever since. As the youngest of a family of eight, the twins were double the trouble, and twice the fun.
Growing up alongside each other in East Idaho, the tales of the Gentillon twins are plentiful. The twins were born in Firth, where they lived on a family farm, and went to Riverview Elementary School and Firth High School.
Their earliest memories together go back to the family farm where they learned the ins and outs of farming. “We’ve worked since we were little,” Marcel said. “We were milking cows at 5 years old.”
While the twins were working hard, they were playing hard, too.
“Our teacher told Dad we need to study this year or they won’t pass the fourth grade,” Marcel said. “Dad comes to us and he says, ‘You guys need to study. I’ll buy you a new bike if you pass the fourth grade.’ So we studied, and we passed the grade. He bought two brand new bikes for us.”
The parents of the Gentillon twins were immigrants from France who came to the United States in 1906 and 1910. “We had to learn English when we went to school,” Maurice said. “Our folks talked French to us all the time.”
During their time in high school, the twins continued to work hard and play hard in the fields and at school.
“We pulled tricks on everybody. When we were in high school, I was going with another girl and my wife asked her, ‘How do you tell 'em apart?,’” Marcel said. “My older brother tackled me in grade school, and I chipped my front tooth, diagonal. I went to the dentist in Shelly and he said, ‘Well, I can fix it, but I had to put a gold piece on the bottom of your teeth just to fasten it off.’ So, I had a lot of gold on my front tooth and she says, ‘Get him laughing and you can see that gold tooth.’”
Pulling tricks were the twins specialty, and especially Marcel’s. “One time a state cop caught me for speeding and I knew I hadn’t renewed my license yet,” Marcel said. “He asked me if I had my social security number so I gave him Maurice’s number. He called in to Boise and he let me go.”
After graduating from high school in 1947, Maurice and Marcel both married their high school sweethearts. Maurice married in 1949 and Marcel married in 1950, the same year he was drafted into the army, and the first time the twins ever separated.
“They were going to draft both of us, but Dad said he wanted one of us to stay home. He went down and talked to the draft board and told them that they could only have one. I just went and enlisted and didn't tell Maurice,” Marcel said. “That was the first time we ever separated.”
“Then they quit drafting two weeks after he got in,” Maurice laughs.
While Marcel was enlisted, Maurice continued working on the farm back home with their dad and eventually bought his own farm. “I got married and worked on the farm while Mac was in the army,” Maurice said.
When Marcel returned a year later, he got right back to work on the farm and both of the twins started their own families. Marcel had his first baby girl in 1951 and went on to have three more daughters and one son while Maurice had his first baby in 1952 and had four daughters and two sons. “I got married in 49 and I didn’t have kids for three years,” Maurice said. “I couldn’t have kids so we both took IVF shots and finally got it working. Then we couldn’t get it stopped.”
Years later, the twins embarked on a new adventure together that proved to be a significant part of their journey. In 1967, Maurice, Marcel and four of their former classmates bought a ranch on the Blackfoot Mountains where they worked long days juggling the farm and their families.
When they were prompted with the idea of purchasing the ranch by Walt Vanderford, the two joined forces with four other guys who later backed out of the deal. “Vanderford was selling his ranch and one of the guys told us, ‘I’m going to buy you a New York steak and tell you how we’re going to do this,’” Maurice said. “We borrowed money from the FHA, got all the papers ready and then they backed out. So we got four boys we went to school with that had farms and cattle. That’s how we got the ranch.”
“We worked all hours but we liked that,” Marcel said. “It taught us to be cowboys.”
And that, they were. For 37 years, they operated and worked on the ranch until they sold it in 2006. Days were spent raising horses, farming with shovels, flood irrigating and everything in between.
After selling the farm, the twins went on to focus on being husbands, fathers and grandparents. “The grandparents were tickled to death when every baby came,” Maurice said. “My kids are special and so were my two wives.” In 2012, Maurice remarried after the passing of his first wife in 2007, a memory that he remembers fondly.
In recent years, both Maurice and Marcel have moved to live at Fairwinds-Sand Creek, an assisted living facility for seniors where they enjoy spending their time reading. “We read a lot of books,” Marcel said. “We read everything,”
Throughout their lives, Maurice and Marcel have accomplished many things and more importantly, they’ve had each other to lean on since day one through each milestone.
“We’re together,” Marcel said. “We’ve done everything together.”
