Debra Jean Daniels Waddoups

Debra Jean Daniels was born in Driggs, Idaho, on June 15, 1954. She passed away January 9, 2026, in Idaho Falls, Idaho. She was the third child of Grant and Reta Daniels. She was raised in Driggs, Idaho until just before her freshman year of high school when her family moved to the Antelope Valley. Here she enjoyed farming and ranching with her dad, riding horses, rodeoing, softball and track. Debbie graduated from Butte County High School in 1972. On February 19, 1972, she got engaged to her sweetheart Keith Waddoups.

While in high school, Debbie was a national champion barrel racer, and she held many state records in track and field. Although Debbie was short, she did an amazing job at hurdles and could run really fast for her height. She was very athletic which came in handy when it came to working on the farm and raising her children. Debbie loved barrel racing, goat tying, cow cutting, cheerleading, drill team and was an awesome softball player. Her favorite position was short stop.

Debbie and Keith were married on December 22, 1972, in the Leslie church in Leslie, Idaho, they were later sealed together in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple. After the wedding they packed as many belongings and gifts as they could into their Oldsmobile Cutlass and headed East across the countryside back to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where Keith was stationed in the Army. It was here that they had their first-born daughter, Sarah Faye.

In March of 1977, Debbie and Keith and little Sarah came back to the Lost River Valley to help Keith’s dad on the farm. Shortly after returning home, they welcomed their second daughter Jeannie. The family continued to grow with the addition of three more boys, Danny, Lake and Blair. Along with raising her sweet family Debbie was known to help Keith immensely moving pipe, baling hay and all types of farming, driving spud trucks during harvest, and working cattle. While doing all of this she had to take her kids alongside her before they were old enough to go to school. She also coached the church volleyball team and softball team for many years.

Later in her years, Debbie loved children so much that she bought a house and opened her own daycare. She cared for many children in the Lost River Valley. She had her daycare for eight years after which she changed professions and became the local mail carrier. Debbie loved driving around town talking to all the neighbors as she delivered their mail. She did this until she retired from the Postal Services in 2012 but continued to help on the farm and help take care of her grandchildren.

The last few years of Debbie and Keith’s lives they enjoyed traveling across the desert to go shopping, visit Sarah and Chris at their shop, and go to dinner. They loved riding horses together and riding in the side-by-side up in the hills. Every Christmas Eve the Daniels family would get together for dinner; Debbie and her siblings continued this tradition.

Debbie is preceded in death by her husband Keith Waddoups and her parents Grant and Reta Daniels. Debbie is survived by her five children Sarah Hymas (Chris), Jeannie Waddoups-Hamm, Danny Waddoups (Zeeni), Lake Waddoups (Dana), Blair Waddoups (Maria) and fourteen grandchildren. Her three sisters, JoAnn, Jackie and Sally and older brother Greg.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, January 17, 2026, at 11:00 AM at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Moore Idaho Stake Center, 3100 N. 3350 W.  Moore, Idaho. The family will receive friends from 9:30 to 10:45am prior to the service at the church. Interment will be in the Lost River Cemetery under the care of the Anderson Family Funeral Home.