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Featured Local News Obituaries

Independent Obituaries: May 14, 2025

The following obituaries and death notices appeared in the May 14, 2025 edition of the Star Valley Independent.

For more area obituaries, please visit Schwab Mortuary.

For more resources including headstones, please visit the Star Valley Historical Society.

Valerie Hepworth

Valerie Hepworth

Valerie Hepworth, 74 passed away on May 10, 2025. She was born May 18, 1950 in Afton, Wyoming to Fay Edmund and Florize Hepworth. She was the eighth child. She lived in Grover, Wyoming until she left to go to Ricks College.

She served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the New England States Mission. She worked for the Church in the Family History Department. She went back to school and became a paralegal while working for the church.

She held many callings in her Ward and loved working in the Primary. She was a worker in the Salt Lake and Jordan River Temples. She loved serving and helping others. She was kind and loved keeping track of all her nieces and nephews and their families.

She was preceded in death by her parents, three brothers (Waldo, Milan, and Kendall) and two sisters (Arnola and Wilma).

She is survived by five sisters (Marva, Janet, Rosanna, Zina and RaChel).

Her funeral will be held Friday, May 16, 2025, at 11 a.m. with a viewing starting at 10 a.m. It will be at the Chapel at 5422 South Sara Jane Drive Kearns, Utah. Burial will be in the Grover Wyoming Cemetery at 4 p.m.

Ray Coderre

Roy Coderre

Raymond (Ray) Coderre of Blackfoot, Idaho and formerly of Jackson, Wyoming, passed away in Blackfoot on May 7, 2025 surrounded by his family.

Ray was born February 2, 1944, in Putnam, Connecticut to Roland and Noella Coderre. He was the youngest of six children. Ray was predeceased by three of his brothers, Maurice, Edgar, and Paul, and sister, Jeanine. He is survived by one sister, Pierrette Bernier of Webster, Massachusetts.

He is also survived by his loving wife, Helen, daughter Julie Morley and husband David of Blackfoot, and daughter Sherry McCarthy and husband Chuck, of Thayne, Wyoming, sister-in-law Fran Brodeur of Worcester, Massachusetts, and several nieces and nephews.

Ray met the love of his life, Helen, in 1965 and they married in July 1966, and raised their daughters in Thompson, Connecticut. Ray and Helen built their dream home in the White Mountains of New Hampshire but ultimately sold it in 1998 to fulfill their dream of travelling the country in a 33-foot motor home. They fell in love with the west and eventually settled permanently in Jackson, Wyoming. Unfortunately, Ray’s illness required them to relocate to Idaho in 2022 for medical treatment not available in Jackson.

Ray worked in manufacturing most of his life but the job he loved the most was as a tour guide for Flagg Ranch near Yellowstone National Park where he touched the lives of many visitors with his charismatic, entertaining, and thoughtful personality. Ray was also an avid and passionate wildlife photographer. His favorite subjects were the grizzly bear which earned him the nick name “Code Bear”, the majestic bald eagle, and all the other wild animals of the area. He respected and loved nature and the land. He was happiest with a camera in his hand and a tripod on his back.

The family asks in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Ray’s name to organizations he was passionate about, either the Vital Ground Foundation in Missoula, Montana or the Buffalo Field Campaign in West Yellowstone, Montana.

A funeral service will be held at St. Joseph Catholic Chapel in Pocatello, Idaho, on May 15 at 3:00 p.m. A memorial service will be held at Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church in Jackson, Wyoming, on May 28 at 1:00 PM with internment at Our Lady of the Mountains Columbarium immediately following.