Orville K. Wall

In April 1938 the #1 song in the USA was “I Love to Whistle” by Fats Waller, the #1 movie of the year was “Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs” by Walt Disney, and a curly-blonde-haired boy named Orville Karol Wall was born. He was born to Erma Lesta Wall and Ollis Karl Wall, as the 2nd of 4 children raised on a small farm SW of Jerome, Idaho. They were the original Wall6, including his siblings Betty, Norm, and Shirlene.

The small town of Jerome is where Orville would attend school, play sports, make life-long friends, and fall in love. Orville would often tell stories about his childhood and growing up in Jerome on the farm. He loved hunting and fishing with his dad and friends and playing basketball in school. He had some great stories about driving fast old cars, where he found a lifelong passion for Chrysler cars and almost anything with a Hemi engine in it. At one time he had a collection of almost 20 Hemi Chrysler and Desoto cars, it was a passion from childhood he would carry with him his whole life. Another story he told was when he was bird hunting with his brother, Norm, and accidentally shot him with his shotgun while shooting at a bird that tracked his way, but we all promised not to repeat that story.

Looking at Orville’s wedding pictures, you can certainly tell that he had his eye on his prize early in life. After graduation from Jerome High School, he swept Rosie Marie DeGraw off her feet at the age of 15 (hey things were different back then), and they were married on June 21, 1957. Although young, they were able to beat statistical odds and loved each other until Rosie passed away in 2016. Together they wasted no time in starting a family to share their love with, 2 boys and 2 girls to create a blissful loving forever family. Orville and Rosie were extremely blessed to have 2 Ginger children; Carol, who is beautiful and their oldest, would toil for the next years keeping the other kids in-line and out of harm’s way, and Troy, the youngest, who was such a good son that Carol toiled very little towards. In the middle were Terry, who the family voted “most likely to cause trouble”, and Tammy, who was voted “the peacemaker”. Their children fondly remember these years of thriving blissfully together with love, peace, and tranquility growing up in this household, affectionately known as the Wall6.

Early life in Jerome was spent making friends and having fun with the Taylors, Blakes, Scarrows, and Bartletts. Those, and many more families who would become life-long friends of Orville and Rosie and their family. We all still have fond memories growing up together and of camping in the Sun Valley area and the South Hills, and riding dirt bikes together all over the place. Rock Hounding with other families was a big part of our lives, and a hobby dad loved and would also enjoy for the rest of his life.

The family was raised in the Assembly of God church in Jerome, where Orville was always committed and involved. While the family was young, Orville would buy land across from the cemetery in Jerome and convince Rosie and the kids that they were talented and ambitious enough to all build a home on the land. It was all super easy with nothing ever going wrong, and everyone carried great lifelong memories of building something special together.

While the family was young, Orville loved to take his nightly walk around the cemetery. It was where he found peace from the Wall6, and we can still remember a figure out in the dark whistling his favorite tunes as he walked his nightly route. A friend once asked Orville if it spooked him walking around the cemetery at night like that, and he said, “the dead have never bothered me, it’s the living ones that you have to worry about”. This was our family home where Orville and Rosie would raise all their children and future generations.

While raising his children in that home, Orville would become their coach, baseball pitcher, basketball opponent, gymnast launcher, and wrestling throwing dummy at times; and was always involved in his kids’ sports and endeavors. Great sacrifices were made, driving everyone around to different sporting events all over the Northwest. With his calm nurturing nature, he was always able to guide and teach like a true Gentleman. There are fond memories of Orville at wrestling tournaments in the stands with Rosie watching his boys wrestle. While Rosie was the type who always seemed to be elbowing and wrestling with an unsuspecting person seated next to her, Orville always sat stoically and patiently watching the carnage unfolding in front of him.

After leaving the family farm, Orville pursued a lifetime career as a Carpenter. His work included all aspects of home building, although his favorite was finish work where he had a magic touch and created beauty everywhere he worked. Everyone around Orville benefited from his woodworking and carpentry skills, and an invitation to dinner was often followed by “hey dad don’t forget your tools”.

After retiring, Orville started working at River Birch Golf Course in Star, Idaho as part of the landscape maintenance group. Here he fell in love with grooming and manicuring the land as it reminded him of earlier years on the family farm, and he fell in love with the sport of golf even more. He promptly had a hole-in-one on hole #4 River Birch, humbling his son and playing partner, Troy, who hasn’t had a hole-in-one in 30 years.

Orville was a husband at age 19, a father at 20, a grandpa at 38, a great grandpa at 61, and a great great grandpa at 86. His direct family tree includes 4 kids, 13 grandkids, 17 great grandkids, and 2 great great grandkids. He is survived by his entire family tree, who will miss him every hour of every day.

Little known Fact: Orville was born the same year that the Ball Point Pen was invented. Symbolic because he kept the ball rolling smoothly his whole life and would go on to “write” a long blessed life where he would find true love, a lot of happiness, and a large family who cherished him and will miss him forever.

Until we meet again…

From the Family: We would all like to thank Ashley Manor and the staff there for looking out for Orville during his last years. Thank you all.

Funeral service will be held at 11:00 am, Friday, February 20, 2026 at Farnsworth Mortuary, 1343 S Lincoln Ave, Jerome. Burial will conclude at the Jerome Cemetery, across the street from their family home.

Memories and condolences may be shared with the family on Orville’s memorial webpage at www.farnsworthmortuary.com.