Clear, 60° F
(Feb. 18, 2007)
Funeral services will be at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 23 at the LDS Stake Center in Lovell for Dorcas Lea (Waltman) Hopkin, 83, who died early Sunday, Feb. 18 at North Big Horn Hospital in Lovell.
She was born Sept. 4, 1923, on the Indian Reservation at Hominy, Okla. She was the youngest of 10 children of Carl Wesley Waltman and Lillie Mae (Balkey) Waltman. There were 22 years between Dorcas and her oldest sibling, Troy.
When she was 16, she moved with family members to Wyoming. She attended Powell High School for a short time until she met Fredrick Wilson Hopkin.
Dorcas and Fred Hopkin were married Sept. 28, 1940, in Billings, Mont. Fred baptized Dorcas a member of the LDS Church on June 1, 1941. Their union was later solemnized in the Salt Lake City Temple April 5, 1944.
To this union were born four daughters, Nancy, Janet, Kathi and Debbi, and one son, Carl. Fred and Dorcas raised their children on a dairy farm at Penrose.
The loves of her life were our Heavenly Father, her religion, her family, her music, her sewing and her cooking. When she was 12, she sang on the stage of the Grand Ole’ Opry. She served in many positions in the LDS Church, among them Ward Chorister and Stake Missionary.
Fred and Dorcas left Wyoming in 1974 and moved to Modesto, Calif. There, she took great pride in being the head seamstress at Gotchoc’s, an exclusive clothing store. They later moved to Casper, Ryegate, Mont., Lovell, Byron, back to Penrose, then to Gillette, and finally settling in the New Horizon Care Center in Lovell in 1998.
She was known for her quick wit. She loved her caregivers at the care center.
Survivors include her daughters, Nancy Smith of Powell, Janet (John) Kobielusz and Kathi (Dennis) Pittman, both Gillette, and Debbi (Dave) Keele of Lovell; her son, Carl Hopkin of Littleton, Colo.;14 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and numerous step-great and great-great grandchildren. Also surviving are Burchell and Ruby Hopkin, Zona Roper and Alice Hopkin, as well as many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; her twin granddaughters, Hope and Faith Kobielusz; and all her siblings, Herb, Troy andWayne and sisters, Bertha Montgomery, Doris Reiter, infant twins Violet Faye and ViolaGaye, Audrey Dunaway and Wanda Wilder. Also preceding her in death were in-laws, Mary Simian, Fay and Jim Smith, Sam Roper and Harold (Whitey) Hopkin.
Viewing will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Haskell’s Funeral Home and Friday from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. in the Relief Society Room at the Stake Center.
For those who wish, memorials may be sent to New Horizons Care Center in Lovell.
