The following obituaries appeared in the March 18, 2020 edition of the Star Valley Independent.
For more area obituaries, please visit Schwab Mortuary.
David LaMonte Lee, born July 20, 1935 to George and Lois Lee in Raymond, Idaho. He was born in a cabin at the base of the Raymond mountain range. He grew up embracing the freedom of living life on horseback, herding livestock and ranching. My Dad was the fifth of eight children, he had two brothers and five sisters. He spoke often of his mother and the hardships she endured raising a family during the 2nd world war and the great depression. He inherited his father’s work ethic, teaching him the value of doing your best regardless of the job and do it with a smile on your face.
He always talked fondly about his siblings, the love they had for one another, the many shenanigans they found themselves apart of and, more importantly, how close they were and the combined efforts they all made in order to sustain their family in the most difficult of circumstances. He himself only had an 8th grade education and began working on a ranch in Geneva to help support his family around the age of 13. He loved to tell us about all the ways his siblings influenced his life and each story is full of love and admiration.
David married Phyllis Walker when he was in his early twenties. He said he decided he would get married one afternoon, he went and fetched his bride then went to the courthouse in Paris Idaho to make it official, all in a day’s work!! As a result of this hasty union, he became the father of 4 sons, Robert, Rocky, Jeffrey and Phillip. The family lived in Geneva for a short time and suffered the death of his oldest son Robert who had been hit by a car at the tender age of seven. The family moved to Grover Wyoming not long after, raising his boys in Star Valley where Phyllis’s family also lived. Sadly, as we know, life tends to throw in some unexpected heartaches and grief, Dad lost Phyllis to cancer about 25 years later.
My Dad had many occupations, he spent several years herding sheep and cattle, he worked on the railroad for a short time, he worked in the oil fields and he worked as a heavy equipment operator and foreman at the sawmill in Afton. He then met Linda Holt, who had recently moved to the valley from Nevada, she had the pleasure of working alongside him at the mill, he was her boss at the time. They decided they liked each other and were married in 1981 and had 4 children, Melissa, Stacy, Jake and Samantha.
Although his life contained a multitude of hurt and loss, he loved to shoot the bull and to make people laugh. He loved to talk for very long stretches of time, no matter who had the misfortune of waiting for him to move on with their life. He used many significant “sentence enhancers” in every conversation he ever had, making his point, telling his story, and people listened. He had his very own file of cuss words he was known to utilize anytime he shod a horse or chased a cow. Everyone I have ever encountered who knew him said “he is such a character.” He didn’t take life to seriously, he was always teasing and joking around, making life fun. He loved to sing when he rode, he sang songs he heard on the radio or made up his own little tunes, most are not fit to repeat, especially at school, where they had been recited on multiple occasions. One of my fondest, irritating memories was of Dad singing in the mornings in attempts to awaken the entire house hold and as you can imagine, he wasn’t always met with a smile or a pleasant attitude from us tired teenage folk. Dad endured many injuries throughout his 84 years, ranging from a car accident to countless incidents involving horses and the unpredictability of working often in close proximity with animals, but he wouldn’t have wanted to do anything else. This way of life had been instilled in him, giving him purpose and much happiness.
Dad’s existence, literally revolved around riding his horse on the range, herding livestock, and just being a genuine cowboy, creating a very unique childhood for his children. The memories and experiences we have of “cow camp” are priceless and will always be cherished. He taught his children many lessons about life, love and family. He is proceeded in death by his parents, his first wife Phyllis, his brothers Buck and Joseph, his sisters Pearl, Lila, and Georgia, his sons, Robert, Rocky, Jeff and Jake, and several nephews, great nephews and cousins.
He is survived by his wife, Linda Lee, his sisters Leola Peterson and Maxine Finch. His children, Phillip (Debbie) Lee, Melissa (Mike) Condon, Stacy (Eric) Jenkins, Samantha (Roy) Jorgensen, 18 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.
David LaMonte Lee lived his life as we all hope to, doing what he loved until the very end. The hardest thing for me to witness was watching his mind ravaged by dementia, knowing his heart and soul resided in the mountains he roamed, and realizing how lost he must have felt when he could no longer be who he was and not understanding why. His family and friends, grieved for him long before his passing, we take comfort in the fact he is now saddling up in the next life, fully aware and whole again. He left his mark, teaching those who knew him to recognize the simplicity of the world we live in and how to endure this life until the end.
Jack L. Stone, 85 of Thayne and Jackson passed away peacefully on March 9, 2020 in Riverton, Utah.
A viewing will be held on Friday, March 20, 2020 from 10:00-11:30 a.m. at the Skyline Ward – Skyline Building of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located at 2345 W 17th S, Idaho Falls.
A Graveside service will be held on Friday, March 20, 2020 at 12 p.m. at the Fielding Memorial Park Cemetery located at 4600 S. Yellowstone Hwy, Idaho Falls. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Jack Stone’s name to one of the following organizations: The American Heart Association, Primary Children’s Hospital or the Volunteer Fire Departments in Jackson or Thayne.
Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.LarkinMortuary.com
Zenith Samuel Merritt was born August 14, 1927 to Samuel Ulrich Merritt and Amelia Turner Merritt in Turnerville, Wyoming. He was the oldest of seven children. He passed away on January 24, 2020 at the age of 92 in Orange Beach, Alabama.
Zen attended the first eight grades of his schooling in a little, one-room schoolhouse which was also in Turnerville. Following that, he attended Star Valley High School in Afton, Wyoming. During his senior year, he asked his parents to give their permission for him to join the U.S. Navy, although he was only seventeen. He had enough high school credits to qualify for graduation and his diploma was awarded while he was in the Navy. He served at the end of World War II. When he returned home, he enrolled in college at the University of Wyoming. After two years of college, he was called into service in the Korean War, where he served as a gunner aboard ships in the Pacific. During his high school years, he worked at Call Air, where they built small airplanes and propeller-driven Snow Cars, a forerunner of snowmobiles. He also worked some summers in a sawmill that produced railroad ties.
Following his return from the Korean War, he married Marytherese Best on July 12, 1956. They adopted two children, Aline Elizabeth and Dennis Samuel.
Zenith graduated from the University of Wyoming with a master’s degree in Geology. He worked as a geologist and also was involved in real estate sales. He lived in Guatemala; Salt Lake City, Utah; Riverton and Casper, Wyoming and Orange Beach, Alabama. Zenith and Marytherese were divorced. He later married Dinah Conrad, who had three children: Clay, Cynthia (Cindy) and Dan. They made their home in Casper, Wyoming. As they aged and life became more challenging, Cynthia and Clay moved them to Orange Beach, Alabama where they both passed away. He was preceded in death by his parents, Samuel and Amelia Merritt; brothers, Rand T. Merritt and Rowan Levi Merritt and one sister, Roma Amelia Menges. He is survived by his son, Dennis, of Bolingbrook, Illinois and his daughter, Aline Myatt of Rittman, Ohio; two brothers, Leon T., Merritt of Afton, Wyoming and Hal Merritt of Hillsboro, Oregon; one sister, Libbie Loraine Wright of Kennewick, Washington and six grandchildren.
