Louis James Tebbs Welch

Oct. 2, 1933 – Oct. 12, 2025

Son, brother, sweetheart, husband, dad, grandpa, gpa and great-grandpa are just a few of the names that Louis James “Jay” Tebbs Welch has been known by in his family. He passed away surrounded by family Sunday afternoon on October 12, 2025, shortly after partaking of the sacrament at his home in Lovell. His family had just celebrated his 92nd birthday with him.  

Jay was born on October 2, 1933, the second child and first son of Louis Belmont Welch and Hazel Tebbs Welch, at their home in Cowley. 

There was a beautiful girl from Lovell that he fell in love with. Carol Joyce Sessions and Jay were married March 25, 1953. They were sealed for time and eternity in the Idaho Falls Temple in 1957. They lived a full, laughter-filled life and were deeply in love.

Before Carol passed away earlier this year, she had jotted down an obituary for Jay. She started out with “BEEN THERE – DONE THAT!!”  Most of this is from her notes.

There are 23 exceptional grandchildren and 42 great-grandchildren. Family meant everything to them, and they loved having family around them.

Jay grew up milking cows and doing other chores every morning and evening, with various other responsibilities. Through junior high and high school he was on a winning basketball, football and wrestling team. He was one of two from Cowley High School that were named all-state basketball, and man, could he wrestle. In fact, one time Jay wanted to use the car. His father, Louis B. Welch, challenged Jay to a wrestling match. Jay won and took the car, and his father went to Billings the next day and bought boxing gloves.

Carol and Jay were incredible dancers, many times becoming the center of attention on the dance floor. While attending Montana State University, they had the opportunity to dance to Louis Armstrong, who came up to them after the dance and told them how impressed he was with their dancing.

After Jay’s father became ill, he returned to Cowley to run Welch Construction Company. Some of the projects included building Worland High School, the gypsum plant, cabins in Yellowstone at Lake and Canyon Village and gas stations throughout Northern Wyoming. They also worked on various large additions and remodeling projects. Many young men worked for the company for summer employment.

Jay had a strong testimony and held various church positions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of his favorite positions was teaching the 9-year-olds for quite a few years in Cowley. The class had many parties of which some were tobogganing, evening parties and wiener roasts. The class had to have perfect attendance to qualify for a party. Finally, Jay had to change it to perfect attendance for a month to qualify for a party, which they definitely qualified for with 100 to 135% attendance each month. He also served as Scout Master for many years. He developed a great love for the youth of the church, employing many during the summer months.

Jay also held many community positions, some of which included school board, town councilman, chairman of Cowley Pioneer Days and temporary justice of the peace. Everyone knew that they could come to the house any time of the day or night for help or assistance.

They were members of the Cowley Riding Club and enjoyed many exciting outings. Jay was an avid hunter and always looked forward to their annual hunting expeditions. They had many friends, enjoyed square dancing, playing cards and playing pranks on each other. 

When they moved to Utah, Jay had a job working for Jacobson Construction, traveling the western states building/remodeling LDS churches. Every two weeks they would fly Carol to Jay or Jay back home. One of the jobs was building a new addition to Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City. One day, while on top of the building, he watched a tornado touch down a block away.

Jay purchased a building lot in South Jordan, drew up his own plans and built the home of their dreams. After a two-month retirement an opportunity came up, and he went for it. This became one of his most memorable jobs, helping supervise the new construction of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Conference Center. He met with various church authorities on a weekly basis and often the prophet. He has various memorabilia, including a piece of oak from the podium, a rarity (Even the sawdust was vacuumed up and saved).

He was always known throughout the family and community for his ear biting (chewing on their ears). When talking to anyone that knew him, and having experienced it, the memory always puts a smile on their faces. It was a fun way of teasing and showing his love because it was always accompanied with a hug.

Jay has always enjoyed figuring out manual puzzles, jigsaws and mind teasers. It was amazing how he could solve them all. He has a pretty full collection of John Wayne movies, authenticated autograph and three limited edition pictures. (Please, no more, kids!) That is the Cowley cowboy in him.

Carol said he had lost his hearing tone (only his wife’s voice - LOL). Jay had been blessed with exceptional good health and work ability, outworking and outlasting most younger guys, even with his bulging stomach muscles (LOL). He was so strong that even his grandkids would not arm wrestle with him.

He was preceded in death by his beautiful wife, Carol Joyce Sessions Welch; son Mark Sessions Welch; granddaughter Wendy Forbush; parents Louis Belmont Welch and Hazel Tebbs Welch; sisters Alyce Welch Jones, Linda Welch Croft and Joan Welch Welch; and brother Richard William Tebbs Welch. 

Jay is survived by his children: daughter Debra (Craig) Forbush, sons Louis Gary Welch and Wendell (Heidi) Welch and daughters Nancy Jo (Bert) Nazer, Tracey (Brad) Haskell and Terri (Dusty) Brosious; two grandchildren they helped raise, Bradley (Julie) Welch and Bailey Welch; nephew Jon Strahan; 23 grandchildren; and 42 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held November 8 at 10 a.m. at the Lovell Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel with visitation from 9 to 9:45 a.m. Interment will be at the Cowley Cemetery.

Jay struggled with kidney failure for many years, and the Lovell senior bus transported him three times a week to the dialysis center. With this in mind, the family would ask that in lieu of flowers a donation be made to the Lovell Senior Citizens Center.

The funeral will be available for watching on Facebook through Haskell Funeral Home page.