Ethelu Stephens, 89, of Weldon Spring, Missouri, formerly of Sedalia, died Saturday, July 13, 2024 at the Progress West Hospital in O’Fallon, Missouri.

Graveside memorial services will be held Saturday, October 5, 2024 at 11:00 A.M. at Crown Hill Cemetery in Sedalia. Memorials are suggested to the Alzheimer’s Association, or Breast Cancer Research in care of McLaughlin Funeral Chapel.

Born October 6, 1934 in Sedalia, she was the daughter of the late Emmett L. and Dorothy Williams Vaught. On February 28, 1953 in Sedalia, she married Richard W. Stephens, and he survives of the home.

Also surviving is a son, Todd Anderson Stephens of Mount Juliet, Tennessee; three daughters, Leslie Anne Stephens of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Kathryn Elizabeth Kemp of Winfield, Missouri, and Stefanie Jo Hochstadter of St. Louis; two grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; a sister, Jo Ann Cavanaugh of the state of Wisconsin; and two step-sisters, Margie Ann Davis and Virginia Lee Wilson, both of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. She was preceded in death by one brother, Roy Vaught.

Mrs. Stephens worked as a medical secretary at various hospitals, primarily at St. Luke West Hospital in Chesterfield, Missouri until her retirement. She had moved to the St. Louis area in 1972 from Sedalia.