Lenore (Hoopes) Clark

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 Wy. 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 Wy, but did not move there for another 4 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 10 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: 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.