Fern Frances Hopper Yoder
Dec. 30, 1921 - Dec. 28, 2008
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 10:30 AM PST
Weiser
Fern Frances Hopper Yoder was born Dec. 30, 1921, to Georgia (Crim) and Frank Hopper in Weiser. She grew up on a farm on the Oregon side. She graduated from Ontario High School in 1939. In 1939, she married Vance Johnson and lived in La Grande, Ore. Vance was in the military during World War II and died in 1944. Fern served in the Women’s Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1945.
Fern married Harold Johnson in 1946. They raised three children on a farm on Gray’s Creek between Mesa and Indian Valley. Fern worked at the Agricultural Stabilization Conservation Service office in Council from 1958 to 1973. In 1959, the family moved to Indian Valley. Fern was an active member of the Hiawatha Rebekah Lodge of Indian Valley.
Fern became the post master of the Indian Valley Post Office in 1973. During this time, Fern and Harold divorced. She married David Yoder in 1976. After Fern retired from the post office, she and Dave became snowbirds migrating between Arizona and Idaho. In 1998, they permanently relocated to Payette.
Fern passed away peacefully at the St. Luke’s Hospital in Boise on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008.
She is survived by her brother, Dale (Edith) Hopper, Grenada, Calif.; children, Marva (Tom) Vogel, Cambridge, Idaho, Chris (Jim) Poff, St. Joseph, Minn.; Bill Johnson, Baker City, Ore.; and her stepchildren Bob (Gretchen) Yoder, Colville, Wash., Peggy (Bill) Gillispie, Tom Yoder, Mike Yoder and Jim Yoder, of Spanaway, Wash.; nine grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Fern was preceded in death by her parents; sister, Irene; granddaughter, Lori Ann Vogel, and husbands, Vance Johnson, Harold Johnson and Dave Yoder.
Memorial services for Fern will be held at 3 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 2, 2009, at the Haren-Wood Funeral Home in Payette. Memorial donations to the Hiawatha Rebekah Lodge No. 123, P.O. Box 42, Indian Valley, ID, 83632 or the Cambridge Ambulance preferred in lieu of flowers. The on-line guestbook may be signed and private condolences may be sent to the family at www.Haren-Wood.com.
