Steven Leslie Derbyshire

Steven Leslie Derbyshire was born Harry Starr Slape to Grace Payne and William Starr Slape on February 10, 1944, in Beaverton, Oregon. When Harry was five-years old, he was adopted by extremely loving parents, Andrew Leslie Derbyshire and Laura Dimler, and they renamed him Steven Leslie Derbyshire.  His dad said that he sat in the middle of the bed repeating his full name over and over and over, “My name is Steven Leslie Derbyshire…”  Then his dad said that five-year-old Steven went around the house pointing and repeating, “Is this yours?”  It broke his new father’s heart when he realized that the only things that were Steven’s in the whole house were the clothes on his back.  Steven grew up in the Sugar House area and later moved to Bountiful, Utah.  He graduated from Bountiful High School in 1962.  He served in the Army Reserve right out of high school, and later served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Northern England.  He was a gifted musician with an amazing ability to simply hear a song and sit down at the piano and play it.  He learned to love music from his mother, father, sister Laurel and Uncle Maurice.  While on his mission he taught himself to play the guitar and he had a beautiful singing voice.

In 1968 he married Norma Dean Hyatt in the Manti Temple.  They had three beautiful sons, but later divorced.  In February 1979 he met Shauna Worthen Watson at an LDS Young Special Interest party celebrating Valentine’s Day, that everyone called the Superman Party.  They were married in Caliente, Nevada on February 21, 1979.  He was blessed with two beautiful red-heads, a daughter and a son, then later welcomed two amazing daughters.  They were sealed in the Jordan River Temple a year later.  Through the years Steven was a temple worker in several temples, and he loved Our Lord and Savior.

Steve had many interests along with being gifted and able to play 62 different instruments; he composed music, taught karate for 40 years, studied herbal medicine, loved astronomy, hot rods, was a member of the Cheyenne, Wyoming Gun Slingers and was the Queen’s Bard in the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA).  He didn’t simply read his books and the scriptures, but he studied them in depth with over 6,000 books in his personal library.  Steve passed away December 31, 2023, after a long and painful battle with Dementia/Alzheimer’s.  He fought for every breath of life from this mortal existence.  He was loved deeply and will be desperately missed.

Steve is being welcomed home by his Heavenly Father, his mothers, his fathers, and many loving family members.  He is survived by his previous wife (Norma Hansen), wife (Shauna), sister Laurel Bailey, sister Edie Boren, son Mason (Jeremy), son Troy (Jennifer), daughter Julie Watson Russell (Sheldon), son Tyler (Stacy), son Rex Watson (Kate), daughter D’Arcy Derbyshire Sivertsen (Rory & Monica), daughter Lindsay Derbyshire Wilson Smith (Dustin), many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins.

A viewing will be held Friday, January 12, 2024, from 3:00 to 3:45 pm at Broomhead Funeral Home (12600 S 2200 W, Riverton, Utah, on the north side of 12600 S).  This will be followed by a graveside service at 4:00 pm at the Herriman City Cemetery (12600 S 6000 W (Pioneer St), Herriman, Utah).