Ken Estep of Arbon died at Pocatello on January 29, 2021. He was 71. The Idaho State Journal printed his obituary on February 3, and on February 7 it carried a news story about his years of public work, with tributes from people who had served alongside him. Together they give the outline of a life spent mostly in Arbon Valley and in the business of Power County.
Three generations in the valley
Ken was the third generation of his family in the valley. His grandfather, Luther M. Estep, a native of Pulaski County, Kentucky, settled near Pauline about 1915, farming leased land at first and later a place of his own. That family's arrival is told in Somerset to Arbon. One of Luther's sons, Luther Jr., known as Louie, married Eileen Ward in 1947, and the two of them farmed at Arbon, raising grain and beef cattle, until they retired. Eileen's side of the family is followed in The Wards between Malad and their Arbon farm.
The couple's first child, Ken, was delivered at the Oneida County Hospital in Malad on September 3, 1949; his sister Pamela was born roughly five years after him. Except for one year of classes in Malad at the start, his schooling up to eighth grade took place in Arbon Valley's two-room schoolhouse. An undated class picture on this site's schools page names a "Kenny Estep" in the back row. He finished high school at American Falls in 1967. Bowling began for him there, alongside football and wrestling, and as a junior he went to Gem Boys' State.
Bowling, Pocatello and the farm
He studied political science at Utah State University and came away with a degree, along with encouragement to turn professional as a bowler. For a time he traveled the country on the national tour; his family's account credits him with numerous perfect 300 games. Pocatello came next, where he worked as an insurance agent and financial advisor before going back to full-time farming. The obituary gives no dates for these years.
Two other newspaper items probably refer to him. In March 1981 the Journal reported that a Kenneth Estep of Pocatello had paid $66,000 at a state land auction for 120 acres in Arbon Valley near Pauline. In July 1991 an Associated Press story from Arbon Valley quoted a farmer named Ken Estep who had watched Mormon crickets strip four acres of safflower. That story is retold in Grasshoppers and Mormon crickets. Neither item says more, but the name, place and timing fit.
On June 11, 1994, Ken married Valaree Jenson at his parents' home in Arbon. Their acquaintance went back to childhood: her family, the Jensons of Malad, spent summers farming in the valley. Valaree has since written for this site, including her account of a range fire, Fire in the Valley!.
County commissioner
For fifteen years Ken held a seat as a Power County commissioner. In that time the Mills-Adler Award came to him from the Idaho Association of Counties, and he was also a member of ICRMP's board. His family's notice singled out his gift for working through disagreements without losing the friendship of the people on the other side. This site followed him as a candidate: in May 2010 Hank Fitch interviewed him about a proposed power line through the valley, new county rules for feedlots, and how he meant to represent Arbon. That December the site invited neighbors to an appreciation and farewell open house for him at the Power County Courthouse on December 27, 2010. The papers read here do not give the years he held office.
Speaking to the Journal in 2021, Jim Jeffries, a former sheriff of the county, said a "big part of the way Power County is today" traced back to what Estep did on the commission. Each year the sheriff and the commissioner worked out the office's budget together, and Jeffries listed what came of it: deputies got new rifles, along with Tasers, bean-bag rounds and other less-lethal equipment. The jail remodel and the courthouse's improved security were also, in Jeffries's telling, largely Estep's doing.
The health board
Several years before he died, Ken took a seat by appointment on the governing board of southeastern Idaho's regional public health district, and in time he led it as chairman. The coronavirus outbreak of spring 2020 multiplied what that job asked of him. Maggie Mann, who directed the district, said in the Journal that the two talked daily, and she described him as practical and fair-minded whenever hard choices had to be made. He held the chair to the end.
Close to home
The obituary also recalled his place in the valley's daily life. He kept up friendships of a lifetime at the Arbon store at Pauline, very probably the store that the Daniels family kept from the 1940s into the 1970s. He operated the Arbon scales for the community, and when the shared dumpster filled up, he was the one who phoned for the garbage truck. The obituary does not say what the scales were or how long he ran them.
Travel was a shared pleasure for him and Valaree. Their trips covered 41 states, with visits to the Estep relatives in Kentucky among them, and took them abroad to Scandinavia, the British Isles, Canada, Mexico and Panama. Their goal of reaching every one of the fifty states went unmet.
His graveside service was set for February 6, 2021, at the Malad City Cemetery. The family suggested memorial donations to the Power County Historical Museum rather than flowers.
On this site: Eileen Ward Estep's obituary, the Ward family, and Pauline and West Fork, where the Esteps first farmed.
The story as reported
Idaho State Journal, February 3, 2021, page 4. The original article is under copyright; this is our own report of what it said.
The Journal's obituary column reported the death of Kenneth Luther Estep of Arbon, who died suddenly of sepsis from an infection on Friday, January 29, 2021, in Pocatello, with his family at his side.
A son of Luther and Eileen Ward Estep, he was born in Malad on September 3, 1949, and grew up on their wheat and cattle farm at Arbon, where he had one sister, Pamela. Malad gave him one year of school, and the two-room Arbon Valley school the rest through eighth grade; he went on to American Falls High School. He graduated there in 1967, having played football, wrestled, started bowling and gone to Boys' State as a delegate.
A political science graduate of Utah State University, he bowled professionally around the country for a time, and the obituary mentions awards, records and numerous 300 games. Off the tour he was a fine golfer and a league bowler, and he was an Elk in the Pocatello lodge. Pocatello was his base for a period of insurance and financial-advisory work, after which farming took him back to Arbon full time.
On June 11, 1994, at his parents' house in Arbon, he married Valaree Jenson. The Jensons had farmed in the valley in summertime, and the two first knew each other then, as children.
The obituary listed his public service: fifteen years as a Power County commissioner, an Idaho Association of Counties Mills-Adler Award, a seat on the ICRMP board, and many boards serving agriculture and the cattle industry. At his death he chaired the Southeast Idaho Health District board, to which he had been appointed. In the valley itself he kept the Arbon scales running and called for the garbage truck when the dumpster was full, and he prized the friends of many years he had at the Arbon Store in Pauline.
The couple had traveled widely, in 41 states and abroad, and visited his Estep relatives in Kentucky.
Among the survivors were his wife, Valaree, of Arbon; his sister, Pamela Christensen; and other relatives. His parents and his wife's parents, Vernon and Rhea Jenson, had died before him. A graveside service was set for 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 6, at the Malad City Cemetery, with COVID-19 precautions asked of those attending. Memorial gifts were to go to the Power County Historical Museum.