Kass

With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of our beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend, Kathy Ann “Kass” Richins, who passed away peacefully on August 19, 2026, at the age of 73, surrounded by her sweetheart, Rulon, and their eight children.

Kass was born October 25, 1952, to Barton and Swede Hickman. She spent much of her younger childhood moving from place to place before her family eventually settled in Kemmerer, Wyoming, when she was in the sixth grade. Kemmerer became the place where Kass would finish her school years and, more importantly, where she would meet the love of her life.

Kass had met Rulon Richins only briefly the night before, but the next morning she spotted him standing outside the breakfast shop before heading off to work. Kass pulled up in a rusty farm truck, looked at the handsome young man with the beautiful muscle car, and simply asked, “Why don’t you let me take your car for the day?” Without hesitation, Rulon reached into his pocket and tossed her the keys. They planned to have dinner together that night, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Kass made very good use of that Dodge Charger. She spent the day racing just about anyone she could find around town. Years later, she would often joke that if she hadn’t had eight children, she would have been a NASCAR driver.

Kass and Rulon married and began building their life together. After eight years of marriage, they moved to Henefer, Utah, the small town where Rulon had grown up. Kass quickly made Henefer her home. It was there that they raised their eight children, six boys with a daughter on each end, their two girls serving as the “bookends” of the family.

Kass was, in every sense of the word, a homemaker. She made a home that was busy, creative, warm, and almost always smelled like something wonderful was baking. She constantly had a project underway and, more often than not, several loaves of homemade bread rising or coming out of the oven. Around town, Kass became known as one of the very best cooks, especially for her homemade breads and soups.

But Kass rarely cooked only for her own family. If there was a meal being prepared in the Richins home, there was often a second pan or several quart jars of soup beside it, along with a few extra loaves of bread waiting to be delivered to another family in town, someone who was sick, someone who had experienced a loss, someone who needed a little help, or sometimes simply someone who needed to know they were being thought of.

For Kass, service was not simply something she believed in. It was something she wanted her children and grandchildren to experience for themselves. She would load the car with casseroles, cinnamon rolls, homemade bread, soup, or whatever she had baked that day and drive them to the homes of people who needed a little love. Then Kass would stay in the car. She wanted her children and grandchildren to be the ones who walked to the door. She wanted them to carry the food, knock, look someone in the eye, and experience what it meant to serve another person.

Kass and Rulon taught their children that serving others was simply part of life, not something done for recognition, but something you did because people needed one another. Kass felt deeply that service was one of the most important things she could pass on to her family. She did not only want her children and grandchildren to remember the service she gave; she wanted them to become people who served.

Her hands were almost always creating something. Kass was a talented seamstress and artist, and she saw beauty everywhere she looked. She loved color and often said that God was an artist himself, why else would we have so much beauty around us? That appreciation for beauty found its way into everything she made. Over the years, she sewed blessing dresses, dozens of Halloween costumes for her children and later her grandchildren, costumes for roadshows, hundreds beautifully pieced quilts, and countless other creations. Her creativity touched nearly every part of her life and home.

Above everything else, Kass was a mother.

She poured herself into raising her family, loving her children, and eventually loving an ever-growing collection of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her family was the center of the life she and Rulon built together.

Kass loved her Heavenly Father deeply and was a devoted member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her faith was not simply something she practiced; it was woven into the way she lived her life. She loved Jesus Christ and felt a deeply personal and close relationship with Him as her brother. Her love for Christ shaped the way she saw others, the way she served them, and the way she taught her family to live.

Throughout her life, Kass served faithfully in many church callings, including as Young Women president, stake Relief Society president, an Activity Days leader, among many others. Yet some of the most meaningful expressions of her faith never came with a title. They came through the quiet, everyday ways she tried to live as Christ taught: feeding people, caring for them, noticing when someone needed help, and teaching her children and grandchildren to do the same.

She was loved by many because she loved so many.

Kass is survived by her sweetheart of nearly 54 years, Rulon Richins; their eight children, Hannah (Ed) Wilde, Josh (Terri) Richins, Daniel (Andrea) Richins, Micah (Camie) Richins, Jordan (Ashlie) Richins, Jess (Lindsey) Richins, Monte (Brittany) Richins, and Kathryn (Jolene) Richins; 34 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren, with two more great-grandchildren on the way.

She was preceded in death by her parents Barton and Mary Margaret “Swede” Hickman.

Together, Kass and Rulon built something extraordinary out of an ordinary life: a marriage that lasted more than half a century, a family that grew from two young people in Kemmerer to generations of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and a legacy of creativity, faith, generosity, service, and love.

A viewing will be held on Sunday, August 23, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Richins residence, 250 S 213 W, Henefer, UT 84033.

A second viewing will be held on Monday, August 24, from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 709 S Main St, Henefer, UT 84033. Funeral services will follow at 11:00 a.m.