Cloudy, 28° F
(May 30, 2008)
Albert Jones Wardell died Friday, May 30, at the New Horizons Care Center in Lovell, surrounded by his loving family. He was 83.
He was born Nov. 23, 1924 in Cowley, the first born son of Albert Dalton Wardell and Linnie Dalley Jones. He was commonly known as Jay Wardell.
Albert was raised south of Otto on the family farm where his family and the Ross Wardell family shared a small four-room house. His formal education started in a small two-room schoolhouse in Otto, where he completed the eighth grade. He completed his high school in Greybull, where he played football. He attended the University of Wyoming on a football scholarship. He met his future wife, Phern in Laramie and they were sealed in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple on Dec. 19, 1946.
Jay learned the masonry trade from his father and his uncle Ross. When Jay and Phern's children were young they lived in a homemade trailer house which they moved from job to job. When the children were old enough for school they bought a house in Lovell. Jay did masonry contracting and did the work on many buildings including federal buildings in Denver and Cheyenne, the Metra and the towers at St. Vincent's Hospital in Billings, the Math and Science Building at NWC and the rock work on the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody.
Jay enjoyed raising large gardens and sharing the produce with friends and family. He enjoyed reading Louis L'amour books and watching John Wayne movies. He hunted elk and deer in the Shell area of the Big Horn Mountains with his father and brothers, and his mother cooked for everyone in a kitchen tent with a wood stove.
He was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and served as a high councilman and as a counselor in the Bishopric. While on the high council he oversaw the remodeling of the Lovell Stake Building.
Albert was preceded in death by his parents, brothers Callis, Preston, and Lee, son Todd and two grandchildren, Robert J. Acton and Holly D. Good.
He is survived by his wife Phen; children Cheryl Wardell, Debora Good, Brenda Walton and Brent Wardell; siblings Irma Neves, Merla Henderson, Mack J. Wardell and Joan Butler; 16 grandchildren; 24 great-grandchildren and many friends and family members.
Services were held Wednesday, June 4 at the LDS Stake Center in Lovell.
