Joseph, Oregon
Montia Coval Stephens died May 20, 2007, at the Vancouver Veterans Hospice Center, from cancer surgery complications. He was 64.
Mr. Stephens was born Dec. 30, 1942, in Cottage Grove. He graduated from Joseph High School in 1960. Immediately after high school he enlisted in the U.S. Army.
His service included Officers’ Candidate School, tours in Korea and the Dominican Republic and in the White House as a communication specialist and on the presidential press team during President John F. Kennedy’s term. He also worked in the Pentagon. He left the army as a Captain.
Mr. Stephens remained in the communication field as a radio disc jockey and as a singer in a country band.
He also served for a short time as an interim pastor at a small church in The Dalles.
Mr. Stephens wanted to make a difference in this world and his death gave him an opportunity to donate his body to the medical community in hopes of finding a cure for cancer. Mr. Stephens was deeply loved and will be deeply missed.
He was preceded in death by his parents Lawrence M and Eloine Witty Stephens; uncles Robert Witty and Howard Stephens and Aunt Dorothy Stephens Spaulding.
Mr. Stephens is survived by son Robert Stephens; daughters: Tonya Draper, Alice Pittman and Kris Conrad; three step-children Michelle Clubb, Dawn Poe and Chester Clubb; three sisters Darlene Conyers, Sheila Biegel and Laurel Deardorff; 12 grandchildren; one great grandchild and Aunt Jerry Robertson.
Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. on May 26 in the chapel at the Calvary Baptist Church, in The Dalles. Interment will be held at a later date in Pendleton. Charitable donations suggested to the Gideons International Memorial Bibles.
Wallowa County Chieftain, May 24, 2007
Contributed by Dixie Ricker