Valarie E. Hopkins, age 92, formally of East Freetown, MA, passed away peacefully on August 12, 2026 at St. Luke’s Hospital after a brief illness.

Val was born during The Great Depression era in a farmhouse in the town of Danube, NY. She was the daughter of John and Anna Obertanec, both immigrants who came to the United States from Czechoslovakia entering Ellis Island, New York. During her formative years, she attended Holy Trinity, Yonkers City High School and the Yonkers School of Commerce.

As a teenager, she fell in love with her future husband John (Jack) F. Hopkins who predeceased her on November 21, 2020. Their love transcended their young lives and throughout Jack’s Marine Corps service in Korea during the Korean War. The love letters they wrote to one another while apart are a declaration of their everlasting devotion to one another. They married on December 5, 1954, and were bookends for 66 years.

Val wholly supported her husband throughout his career and moved across the United States many times during her life, eventually settling down in Verona, NY in 1969 where her children attended school.

Val worked her entire life as a devoted wife, and mother of five children. Her greatest gift was the love she gave to all. Family was the center of her world and she found her greatest happiness in nurturing, caring and attending to those she loved. She taught religious instruction for many years at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, enjoyed watching her children at school and sporting events, crafted ceramics, traveled with her husband, children, grandchildren and sisters, and enjoyed gardening, cooking, playing Bingo, attending concerts, shows, and movies. She was especially adept at instilling core values in her children that became the foundation of each of their lives.

In 1984 she and her husband moved to Freetown, MA, where they lived out the remainder of their lives on the Southcoast. Here she found great joy sharing and filling her home with family and loved ones. They hosted many holidays and family gatherings for children, grandchildren and relatives. Val had a remarkable way of making everyone she met feel welcome and special with her kind words, gentle spirit, and generous heart.

Val’s endless devotion to her family will remain with her five surviving children; Steve Hopkins of Chittenango, NY (Shelley Chapman-Hopkins), Kathleen Russ of Valdosta, GA (John Russ), James Hopkins of Valdosta, GA (Nichole Hopkins), Christine Gelinas, S. Dartmouth, MA (Claude Gelinas), and Mark Hopkins, Hudson, NH (Sherry Newton). Nine grandchildren: Jason, Larissa, Valarie, Katelyn, Matthew, Tyler, Aaron, Zachary and Jessica and ten great-grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, August 29, 2026 at Saint Mary's Catholic Church, 440 Main Street, Fairhaven, MA at 11 am. Following mass will be a Memorial celebration for family and friends at The Seaport Resort & Marina, 110 Middle Street, Fairhaven, MA at 12 pm. Valarie will be interred beside her husband at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne at a future time.

The family respectfully requests that flowers be omitted and instead of a memorial donation in her memory to simply extend an act of love and kindness toward another person.