Carlene Walker

Effa Carlene Hurdsman Walker

On Wednesday, September 28, Effa Carlene Hurdsman, loving wife and mother of five boys passed away at the age of 74.  Carlene planned to be a nurse and started her training at the University of Wyoming in the fall of 1966.  Her plans soon changed when she met the love of her life, Mark Walker, at the LDS institute of religion.  Mark was smitten at first sight.  Carlene wasn’t like any other woman.  Not only was she beautiful but she competed with Mark in all kinds of sports and physical activities.  They were sealed for time and all eternity the following spring on June 7, 1967 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.  She was a woman of incredible and diverse talents.  She grew up on a ranch and was never content to be indoors performing more traditional tasks for girls at that time.  She got out in the fields, rode horses, branded cows, hayed, and fed the animals with the boys.

Carlene was the perfect mother for five active boys.  If it was an interest to them it soon became an interest for her.  She supported her boys in every sport you can imagine not just as a spectator on the sidelines but by getting involved as the coach, personal trainer, or equipment manager.  Seasons to her were not Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall, though she loved them too.  They were Football, Basketball, Baseball and Track. She shared her interests with more than just her family members becoming a 4-H leader, scout leader, girls basketball coach and so much more.

You can’t really picture Carlene without seeing her on the back of a horse.  She absolutely loved to ride and worked many summers in her adult life herding cattle in the forest.  In fact, she just couldn’t believe that someone would pay her to ride her horse on the mountain.  She was a champion team roper and skilled trainer.  Many of her favorite life stories reference horses including the time she accidentally spooked her grandpa’s team of horses causing them to run through the field banging up their harnesses and hay rake.  “Boy was Grandpa mad!” she would recount.

Carlene wasn’t afraid to try anything.  She had many interests and played many roles throughout her life.   She was a painter who mastered water color, oils, and acrylics. She was a sculpture, wood turner and carver, stain glass maker, archer, hunter, horse trainer, referee, umpire, leather worker, journalist, bus driver, scout leader, team roper, girls camp director, photographer, bird watcher, pool player, and anything else that needed to be done or just interested her.  Mark states that he could turn a table leg but Carlene could turn works of art.

Carlene took up pool playing when she had the opportunity to take her dad, a great player, to the local Senior Center.  Never one to sit on the sidelines, Carlene learned to play with the men and became a champion in her own right in a league that includes Evanston, Kemmerer, Green River and Rock Springs.

Carlene had great faith.  She brought her unique insight and talents to serving in many different callings at church.  In one primary lesson she thrilled her students by bringing a lamb, baby bunnies, and a calf to church.  She brought them right inside her classroom relating the baby animals to gospel principles and faith in Jesus Christ.

She is survived by her loving husband of 55 years and five sons Barry (Suzette), Shawn (Annie), Casey (Barbara), Todd (Bonnie) and Lance (Dena).  All together she has 19 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.  She also leaves behind a sister Jalynn and brothers Craig, Boyde and Shane as well as Uncle Glenn and Aunt Helen.  She also leaves behind a sister Jalynn and brothers
Craig, Boyde and Shane as well as Uncle Glenn, Aunt Helen and Aunt Tanya. She is preceded in death by both parents, Lawayne and Jacklyn Hurdsman, sister Tawana, and granddaughter Kaela Hernandez.

Viewings will be from 6:00 to 8:00 on Monday, Oct. 3 and 9:30 to 10:45 on Tuesday, October 4 in the Bridger Valley Wyoming Stake Center.  Services will be held at 11:00am on October 4 in the same location.