HOPE S. RICHARDS January 11, 1921 – November 11, 2018 Our loving Mother and Grandmother, Rachel Hope Simmons Richards passed away peacefully on November 11, 2018. Mom was born January 11, 1921 in Mesa Arizona where her mother and sisters were staying to avoid the cold, windy winter of Burley, Idaho. Burley was where Mom was raised as the last child in a family of eleven children.
For years, the Simmons family would have reunions in Burley and Mom loved to return for those reunions. She loved her family and loved Burley! Mom was before her time.
She started at Utah State at the age of 16. She attended the University of Washington and graduated from the University of Utah in 1941. She was a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and toured with the Choir until they arrived in San Francisco.
She fell in love with the city. Mom was working in San Francisco when WW II started. While she was there, she met our father, Jack A. Richards.
After a very brief courtship, Dad proposed just before he spent three years overseas. Mom turned him down, but agreed to marry shortly after his return. They were married in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple on October 14, 1946.
They enjoyed 60 years together until Dad’s passing in 2007. During the War years, she became a teacher at Burley High School where she taught and served as the Dean of Women. She loved her graduating class and would attend their high school reunions since she didn’t have a graduating class of her own.
Plus, her nephew Dean (who she viewed as a brother) was part of that graduating class. She also learned to fly airplanes and loved her little red convertible! She left the farm and her single ways when she married Dad and moved to Ogden where she raised eight children who survive her: Michael D. (Jan) Richards, Las Vegas NV; Jane (Kent) Miller, West Haven, UT; Ann (Bruce) Penske, Meridian, ID; Judy (Mike) Murray Casey, North Ogden, UT; Kathy Cribbs, Ogden, UT; Beth (Perry) Stamey, Tremonton, UT; Jon L. (Stephanie) Richards, Sandy, UT; and Royce J. (Maria) Richards, North Ogden, UT.
Mom loves her children, her 36 grandchildren and her many, many great-grandchildren. She also loved her neighbors and people in general. She always wanted to know more about people and was honestly interested in their lives.
She loved to played golf and was able to play until this last year. At times we thought she liked to find golf balls more than actually golfing but she could always hit the ball down the middle of the fairway. “It isn’t how you drive, it’s how you arrive!
” She loved to give parties and wanted all her family to attend. She loved to travel and visited the world. She always said, “You can’t make friends with your four walls!
” She loved to watch the Utah Jazz and she loved to fiddle with the Utah Old Time Fiddlers. She was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serving as Primary President, Relief Society President, a Church Education Mission with Dad to BYU-Hawaii and as an ordinance worker in the Ogden Temple for several years. Mom was preceded in death by her parents, all of her brothers and sisters and a son-in-law, Thomas H. Murray and great-granddaughter Lillian Orr.
She is survived by a special nephew, Dean Simmons of Burley, Idaho. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, November 20, 2018 at 11 a.m. at the North Ogden Stake Center, 626 E 2600 N. Friends may visit with the family on Monday, November 19, 2018 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Myers Mortuary, 845 Washington Blvd. and Tuesday from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the church.
Internment at the Ben Lomond Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to the LDS Perpetual Education Fund or the LDS Church General Missionary Fund.
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