Valda Kay Hemming

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Valda K. Hemming, 87, of Sydney (Australia), Poway, (California), Washington (Utah), and Ammon (Idaho) passed away May 10, 2026, at her home in Ammon. She was under the care of her loving children and grandchildren, with the unflagging support of Eden Home Health and Hospice of Idaho Falls.

Valda Hemming was a tough-minded, assertive, wildly creative, inventive and entrepreneurial woman who rose well above her childhood circumstances to raise a large family while moving frequently around the United States and working part-time to support the family. In parallel, she created multiple home businesses, exquisitely knitted clothing, prize-worthy gardens, delicious home-baked bread, along with many other endeavors. She was a passionate speaker at her church and was generous with her support for her friends and fellow members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Valda was born March 1, 1939, in Cronulla N.S.W., Australia, to Charles H. Stammers and Florence E. Stammers. She grew up in Sydney, living in poverty with her mother and brother, Tommy Stammers. Valda was a highly intelligent woman, and despite the challenges of her upbringing, she flourished in her role as a medical clerk in the Women’s Royal Australian Air Force. She met Leland Hemming, a visiting US Navy sailor, at an LDS church dance in Sydney. Leland later proposed, necessitating that Valda take both a long ocean voyage and a swim across the Tijuana River to San Diego to seal the deal. (Valda always liked to say that she was an authentic “wetback.”) Valda always cherished her Australian heritage and never lost her accent -- probably by design. In the early 1980s, though, she proudly earned her U.S. citizenship and, later, served a 14-month term as a member of the Superior Court of California’s Grand Jury, serving as a “watchdog” overseeing the workings of the U.S. Federal government in San Diego County.

On April 24, 1959, she married Leland Hemming in the LDS Los Angeles Temple. Frequent moves made necessary by Leland’s profession meant that Valda and Leland lived in several different towns in California, Illinois, and Georgia. The family eventually settled in Poway in 1974, long enough for all Hemming children to graduate from Poway High School. Valda turned the family’s backyard into an exquisite garden with Australian native plants and fruit trees; developed a catering business with a dear friend; began work on an invention (the nursing shawl) that earned her 2 patents; was deeply engaged in service to her church; all while raising her six children.

After 22 years, Valda and Leland were, again, forced by Leland’s company to move from Poway -- by then considered to be their family hometown -- to Mesa (Arizona) in 1996. The family mourned the move by taking part in a joint binge on Girl Scout cookies on the Big Blue Couch (ask a Hemming child for details). After Leland’s retirement in 2003, Valda and Leland moved again to Washington (Utah) where the largest number of grandchildren resided. For 20 years, Valda thrived in the warm community of friends she made, including knitting hundreds of hats for Navajo school children, working at the local LDS Family History Center, and playing rowdy games of Bunco with her girlfriends. The desert heat of southern Utah could not defeat Valda’s green thumb and the 72 rose bushes she planted on her corner property bloomed extravagantly. Eventually, in 2023, life brought Valda and Leland to Ammon to be near Charlie and Kathy Hemming’s family. Valda and Leland very quickly found a loving community among their neighbors and fellow church ward members. Valda is known in her Ammon community for her many stories and tendency to boast about her children. Her final request was that her children and grandchildren host an afternoon tea party for her Ammon friends, as a stand-in for her life-long bucket list wish to experience High Tea at Harrod’s in London. While she was ultimately too ill to participate, she was satisfied by hearing the well-attended event take place through her bedroom door.

Valda was a life-long member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While complaining all along, Valda was committed to excellence in her Church service. She distinguished herself in her Georgia and Poway Stakes through her capacity for preparing enormous quantities of food for church events. Her eldest child remembers one instance in 1972, when a month ahead of a ward spaghetti dinner, Valda began carrying out a mass production of homemade spaghetti sauce, filling milk jugs with the finished product and storing them in the family’s deep freezer. Valda was also a gifted Seminary teacher, rising at 5 a.m. in time to start 6 a.m. classes at the Poway chapel, Monday-Friday, dragging her teen-aged sons with her, for five school years. In time, however, she and Leland became known for their expertise in genealogy. Among other accomplishments, they served a mission at the Mesa Temple and Family History Center. Later, in Washington, Valda dove into the task of indexing difficult-to-read records. She successfully indexed tens of thousands of records before moving to Ammon.

One of Valda’s traits was her tendency throughout much of the children’s up-bringing to complain about the family animal menagerie, giving the impression of ambivalence toward the family’s cats and dogs. Her actions belied her words. Her eldest child remembers the day, in Doraville (Georgia), when a couple of neighborhood children came to the family’s front door looking for a home for the tiny calico kitten they found before their father drowned her. Brooke remembers Valda cuddling the tiny kitten atop her belly, 9 months pregnant with her brother, Danny. She agreed to keeping the kitten who she named, “Tickles.” Tickles stayed in the family, moving with them four times, and twice further with Brooke, until she passed of old age. Valda loved to complain about the family cats and their sometimes-nutty antics. Muffin, one of Tickles’ kittens, traumatized Valda when she saw him lying in the gutter while Georgia red clay-infused water poured over him. She leapt from her car and rushed to him, saying, “Muffin, you CAN’T be dead!” to which Muffin responded by standing up and strolling up the hill to home. She complained that Sugar, the family’s all white, long-haired male cat, was as dumb as a box of hammers, as he leapt from the peak of patio roof to the backyard lawn -- something he did routinely. Later in life, Valda became outwardly sentimental about her cats. At the end, her dear friend -- an adopted cat named, “Toby” -- attended to her in her sick room, watching from the adjacent bed, available when needed for a caress and a purr.

Valda is survived by her beloved husband, Leland H. Hemming of Ammon, ID; Brooke L. Hemming (Simon L. Clegg) of Durham, NC; Blithe L. (James) Ottesen of St. George, UT; Leland E. (Laura) Hemming of Port Saint Lucie, FL; Charles H. (Kathy J.) Hemming of Ammon, ID; Daniel J.B. (Christina) Hemming of Turlock, CA; Chalice L. (Ronald) Gustaveson of Clearfield, UT; her half-sister, Kay L. Stammers of Cooya Beach, Queensland, Australia; 13 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Memorial services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, May 16, 2026, at Ammon LDS 11th Ward, 1100 South Tiebreaker, with Bishop Brandt Pullins officiating. The family will visit with friends from 10-10:45 a.m. prior to the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Humane Society of the Upper Valley.