The following obituaries appeared in the March 24, 2021 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.
Brandon Burke Jackson was born on May 16, 1984 in Afton, Wyoming to his parents Burke A Jackson and Jolene Smith Jackson. He joined a family of four sisters Chantell, Nicla, Christy (deceased) and Sheena. One more sister, Ashley, joined the family five years later. He died from kidney failure resulting from Type 1 diabetes on March 20, 2021. For the last five years he was so strong in his effort to strive for a pancreas and kidney transplant but due to constant medical complications was not able to achieve that goal.
He grew up in Afton until the age of seven at which he moved with the family to Centerville, Utah. There he attended school and matured into a young man. He loved the outdoors and all the scout outings and adventures. Many stories about him and scouting have been told and are cherished memories. He loved to skateboard and even broke his arm riding on the half pipe. He was an adrenaline junkie on anything with wheels. He loved to ride his BMX bike on dangerous courses which terrified his mother. He enjoyed working on motors but his favorite was working on restoring a 1978 TransAm. He loved going fishing with his dad and camping was always an adventure. He enjoyed traveling.
Brandon was a very witty, comical and loyal individual to all his family and friends. He was very giving when asked. He tried to help others as much as possible. He had a compassion for those less fortunate than himself. When he was 13 and diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes he became a strong valiant young man independent with his medical needs and always wanting to be self reliant.
He moved to Oregon on the West coast side living in Coos Bay. He loved the ocean and the beach. Many times he would call home and beg his parents to move there with him. He had to return home for medical help when he was diagnosed with kidney failure in December 2015 at which time he started dialysis.
He is survived by his mom and dad, Jolene and Burke, sisters Chantell McDowell (Vurtis), Nicla Dolar (Shane), Sheena Hess, Ashley Kotlov, and his grandma Marge Tishner and 18 nieces and nephews.
He is preceded in death by grandparents Joe LaDee and Raeona Smith, Rodney Jackson, his sister Christy Jackson and niece Ruby Jolene Dolar.
Funeral Services will be held on Friday March 26, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. at Schwab Mortuary in Afton, with a viewing prior to the service starting at 12:30. Burial will take place in the Bedford Cemetery.
Lenore Hoopes Clark, 95, was born Friday Nov 13, 1925 to parents Riley William and Della Grace Rigby Hoopes. She was greeted by her Grandma Johanna Christina Hoopes and Grandma Eliza Rebecca Rigby, and family Doctor G.W. West to help her mother with a very hard delivery. She weighed in at 10 lbs. and came breech. She wondered how her Mother survived the birth. She was welcomed into this world by sisters Hazel and Maybell and brothers Vearl and Melvin. Eighteen months later a brother Frank was born, Eighteen months after Franks birth another brother Lowell was born. Her mother called them her “triplets”, eventually two sisters, Lillian and Jual joined the family.
She had a very happy childhood growing up in Fairview, at that time the second largest town In Star Valley, surrounded by grandparents, many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.
Her father was a freighter, hauling supplies over Crow Creek road to and from Montpelier, Idaho. After he stopped freighting, he sheared sheep each spring.
She attended grade school in Fairview and graduated from Star Valley High School in Afton. She met Lyle Evan Clark at a high school dance. They dated for a while and then corresponded while Lyle was in the U.S. Merchant Marines during World War II. They were married in the Idaho Falls Temple on July 17, 1946.
They lived in Etna, until the next spring, when they moved to Afton where Lyle got a job at a service station. He later went to work for the Star Valley Creamery Co. They bought a home in Afton where they lived for 19 years, and where all their children were born.
In about 1958, they bought the old Moser place in Bedford, but did not move there for another four years, but only for the summers. They moved back to Afton in fall because the old house was not livable during the winter. In the summer of 1965, they bought a house and had it moved to the 160 acres making Bedford their permanent home. Their only regret was that they had not moved there sooner.
Lyle died suddenly in 1985. After his death, she took over running the mail route from Thayne to Bedford and Turnerville, six days a week. She also managed the farmland and cattle, eventually turning these things over to members of her family.
Lenore liked to read, sew, bake, can fruits and pickles, knit sweaters, put puzzles together and play games with her family. She made beautiful quilts for her children and grandchildren. She crocheted each of her 23 grandchildren an afghan for high school graduation. The last few years, she really enjoyed sitting on her deck and just looking at the surroundings, keeping track of her son’s horses, and visiting with family.
She loved seeing and holding babies, especially her own children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren. She also loved gardening and having colorful flowers in her yard, traveling with family and friends, and going camping, especially up Greys River.
She always liked to travel especially with the map in her lap. She always had a good Atlas close by, so she could look up a new place she had heard or read about. She traveled to Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, Hawaii, Israel, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, and most of the United States.
Lenore was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in October 1934 in Crow Creek when she was almost nine years old. Baptisms were only held when there were quite a few people to be baptized.
She attended church regularly all her life until the COVID pandemic. She was looking forward to restrictions being lifted so she could go back to church. She was so faithful in all her callings in the stake and ward. She served as MIA president for around ten years in the Bedford Ward. She served a Family History Mission in Salt Lake City at the vault in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Her last calling was serving in the ward library into her 80’s.
She is survived by her children: Elaine and Dennis Sullivan, Bruce and Terrie Clark, Neil and Alison Clark, Brandt and Gloria Clark, Nord Clark, and Kathy and Jed Izatt, 23 grandchildren, 55 great grandchildren, sister-in-law, Nelda Loftus, and bothers-in-law, Lynn Loftus and Ray Gee, one great-grandchild and her first great-great grandchild will be arriving soon.
Preceding her in death were her husband Lyle, daughter Julie (stillborn), her parents, all her brothers and sisters and their spouses, Lyle’s five sisters, two brothers-in-law, and a great-grand-daughter, Nellie Clark-Gregg.
