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Show I ' ' ilAjMd mill Floyd R. Stephens Services Thursday for Floyd R. Stephens Floyd R. Stephens, known to his friends as "Steve", died February 2, 1976 in the I.W. Allen Hospital of Moab, of heart failure. Steve was just recovering from a severe heart condition that kept him in the hospital more than a month, and had been home only a few weeks until this attack. He was born June 3, 1918 in Hornell, N.Y. to Floyd R. and Clara Webster Stephens. In September, 1943 he married Virginia Clark in Hornell. He spent 17 years in the Armed Forces, and was a veteran of World War II. He came to Green River in the very early 1 . e ii. i,r::i r aays 01 me iviismic a:c as an employee of ARC. Both Floyd and Virginia liked Green River, and when his employment terminated with ARC in 1966, he ran for mayor and was elected, but had to resign a couple of years later because of a heart condition. By that time he had bought the Drug Store (Desert Edge) and was publishing a Green River paper, The Bulletin. He bought the Sundance Hardware, and for a while the family ran both stores. He sold the Drug Store to the Ramsays . and Tim Anderson bought the hardware store. This left Steve with time on his hands, and he decided to investigate refrigeration, since a breakdown in equipment at the Drug Store meant paying a tremendous mileage fee to a repair service. By studying various books, and with his acute observation and exceptional excep-tional ability, as well as some former knowledge of electronics, electron-ics, he became a fine refrigeration expert and made trips to Bull Frog Marina, the Tavaputs Ranch and Hanksville, Hanks-ville, and also did considerable local repair work. This developed devel-oped naturally into an ice-making ice-making business, and he made ice for the machines in town, setting up a garage where he could control the temperature for his ice-making machines. The Stephenses loved the west, and particularly this portion of it, and he soon owned a 4-wheel drive vehicle to travel the back country. Sometimes Virginia went with him, but usually he and Joe Baker set off with the two cars to tackle some hitherto unexplored unex-plored area. He knew the Canyonlands and Sinbad area like few people of the country did, and his on-the-ground knowledge of geology was extensive. He loved to travel, and he and Virginia often made trips throughout the country. They spent a part of the year in Florida a time or two, and he went with Jim Hurst on a long Canadian-Alaskan flight a year or two ago. Survivors hpsiHes his wife. Virginia, are two daughters, Mrs. Lonnie (Sharon) Kiser, Hendersonville, Tenn.; Mrs. Jay (Joanne) Ekker, Green River; 6 grandchildren and brothers and a sister, Mrs. Robert (Lottie) West, Lubbock, Lub-bock, Texas; Warren, Satellite Beach, Fla.; Dale, San Antonio, Anton-io, Texas; Harold, Ranchita, Calif.; and Glen, Rochester, N.Y. Funeral services will be Thursday at the LDS Ward Chapel, with interment in the Elgin Cemetery. The family asks that contributions be given to the Heart Fund Association, instead of floral arrangements. |