Doralee Rydalch

Doralee Bowen Rydalch, beloved wife, devoted mother, friend, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, and faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, surrounded by her loving family at her home in Idaho Falls. She was 94 years old.

Doralee was born Feb. 5, 1932, in Salem, Idaho, to Grant Reese Bowen and Guinevere Lucy Jensen Bowen. Her Grandma Jensen delivered her.

Doralee was the sixth of 11 children. She loved being part of a big family because there was always someone to play with. She was raised on the family farm in Salem where she learned the value of hard work – carrying wood, gathering and cleaning eggs, weeding potatoes, thinning beets, and milking cows. She especially loved riding horses to her piano lesson.

She attended Sugar-Salem High School where she enjoyed participating in plays, singing in the school choir, and playing in the high school band. During her senior year, she served as vice president of the student body.

Doralee met Don Rydalch, with his blond curls and freckled nose, in the eighth grade in Sugar City. Their first date was attending a gold and green ball. That dance marked the beginning of a beautiful love story that would span more than seven decades.

After graduation, Don accepted a scholarship to play football at the University of Utah. Doralee attended Ricks College for one year and then worked at the Bank of Commerce for two years. She rode with Don’s parents to Utah to watch him play in several football games.

Their love continued to grow through the years, and on Aug. 7, 1953, Don and Doralee were married in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple.

After Don graduated from the University of Utah, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Air Force, and together they began their adventure as a military family. During these years, Doralee lived in Malden, Missouri; Big Spring and Victoria, Texas; Panama City, Florida and Sumter, South Carolina, while Don learned to fly jets and played football on an Air Force football team.

After Don was discharged from the military, Doralee supported him as he started his coaching career at Granger High School in West Valley City, Utah, and later at Ricks College. She could often be found cheering from the bleachers or listening to the game on the radio at home with the children.

A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Doralee found solace, purpose, and strength in her faith. She served faithfully in many church callings, spending much of her time serving as a Blazer teacher in the Primary. She also served as a temple worker and sang in the ward choir. Despite all of her responsibilities, Doralee always found time to serve others in her neighborhood. She willingly helped many to learn new skills, found babysitters for those who needed them, and lifted others during challenging days. She always had ice cream cones or homemade bread and jam to share with neighborhood children.

Doralee worked tirelessly to raise a large family on a tight budget. One year, the family harvested 1,700 ears of corn from the large garden they planted each year. She picked raspberries and sold them by the case to others. She also picked boxes of cucumbers and sold them to the local grocery store. She bottled fruits and vegetables so her family would have them to eat through the winter months. While Don was working on his doctorate degree in Provo, Doralee and some of the older children picked cherries to earn additional money for the family. She also sold Avon while expecting her 9th child. She also enjoyed sewing clothes for her children.

Doralee served as vice president and later president of the Ricks College Faculty Women’s Association. She also participated in the Rexburg Civic Club, a member of the Utah Daughters of the Pioneers, and supported in the Kennedy Elementary School PTA.

Of all the roles Doralee filled throughout her life, few brought her greater joy than being a mother. She wholeheartedly embraced the joys and challenges of raising her 11 children, including Melodie Rydalch of Taylorsville, Utah, Laurie (Barry) King of Idaho Falls, Shelley (Brad) Liljenquist of Alpine, Utah, Jeff (Lynne) Rydalch of Rexburg, Jolyn (Mike) Peterson of Farmington, Utah, Shane (Julie) of Pleasant View, Utah, Ryan (Kari) Rydalch of Leavenworth, Kansas, Maryann Housel of Riverton, Utah, Jason (Maurie) Rydalch of Pleasant View, Luci Atkin of Herriman, Utah, and Rachel Hall of Idaho Falls.

Doralee’s light, faith, work ethic, and example will bless generations of the Rydalch family yet to come. In addition to their 11 children, they have 50 grandchildren, 95 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild, whom Doralee had the opportunity to hold just a few days before her death. She loved that moment.

Through the years, Doralee and Don fostered deep family connections and created traditions and memories that will continue for generations.

Doralee served three LDS missions with Don. From 1986 to 1989, they served in the Missouri St. Louis Mission, where Don presided as mission president with Doralee serving right beside him. They later served a mission serving young adults in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, from 1998-1999, where Doralee organized a young adult choir that performed at meetings and events throughout the mission. Their final mission call came to serve on Temple Square in Salt Lake City from 2002–2003. At the time of Doralee’s passing, five of her great-grandsons were serving missions around the world – a continuation of the legacy of faith, hard work, and service that meant so much to her.

Doralee was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Donald Rydalch; her parents, Grant Reese Bowen and Lucy Jensen Bowen; her father and mother-law, Roy and Mary Rydalch; her grandson Hayden Sean Housel; her sisters, Guinevere Bowen Taylor and Barbara Bowen Love; and her brothers, Lyle Bowen, Grant Morrell Bowen, Reed Bowen and Dwight Bowen. She is survived by three sisters, Norma Bowen Pieper, Suzanne Bowen Critchfield, and Kay Bowen Parkinson, a brother, John Bowen, and a sister-in-law, Janice Rydalch Jeppesen.

Doralee’s sweetheart, Don, passed away Sept. 19, 2025. During the nearly 11 months they were apart, she has missed him terribly. She looked for him in his chair every day after he died.

Perhaps no words better express the love Doralee and Don shared, or the reunion for which she longed:

“If you should go before me, dear, walk slowly down the ways of death, well-worn and wide, for I would want to overtake you quickly and seek the journey’s ending by your side.”

After more than 72 years as husband and wife, Doralee has followed her sweetheart home.

There will be a viewing in Rexburg Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Flamm Funeral Home at 61 North 1st East.

The funeral service for Doralee will be Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026, at 11 a.m. at the Summerfield Ward Chapel at 3721 Shadow Mountain Trail Road, Idaho Falls, ID. A viewing will precede the service from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.