Tim grew up in Marshall, MO and graduated from Marshall High School in 1992. After attending Missouri Valley College and Kansas City Community College, he received his Associates Degree in Mortuary Science in 1999. While attending mortuary school, Tim spent many years working in several funeral homes around the Kansas City Metro area learning and perfecting his skills. "I loved that I've worked under multiple funeral directors over the years and it has given me the ability to learn different techniques and ideas of which I could choose what worked best for me." For the last 18 years, Tim and his wife Sarah have lived in Grain Valley, MO. They have two children: Trevor and Keely who are very involved with sports and school activities. Tim became a member of the Hidden Valley Funeral Home team and the Kearney Community in July of 2014.
Tim and his family enjoy spending their spare time visiting family, volunteering for community events, spending time at the lake, and cheering on their kids at their sporting events. Tim is an active scuba diver, enjoys prospecting for gold, and gardening. He has been teaching himself Russian.
Payton has lived in Lawson for most of her life. Her family, all the way back to her great-great grandfather has lived and farmed in Lawson, since around the 1940's. Payton graduated from Wentworth Military Academy, and went on to study at Truman State University, graduating from KCKCC. She and her husband Jacob met at Lawson High School in 2008, and married in 2018. They have a daughter, two sons, and another on the way. They run a small business from their backyard garden selling fresh produce, homemade canned and baked goods. She loves living in a small town and eventually hopes to move to the country and expand their farm. She has her funeral director, embalmer, and preneed agent license which helps her assist all our families in different capacities. Payton previously worked for a funeral home in Raytown, but missed the sense of community that came with working in a small town. Her goal is to be able to help those closest to her in their time of need. Now that she is working with Hidden Valley Funeral Homes she is able to do that each and every day. Although seeing her likely means you're going through a hard time, she looks forward to helping you in any way she can.
John is an experienced funeral director, as well as a Preneed Agent and Insurance Broker, here at Hidden Valley Funeral Homes. He is our headstone specialist, being called on to service the sale of new headstones, headstone restoring, and military headstones. He loves to spend time outside of work with his family, friends, and his little Bichon Frisé dog, Ivy. He graduated from the University of Missouri with his Bachelor’s Degree in 2015. While attending college, he also played baseball for 4 years for the University of Missouri’s baseball team as a starting pitcher. Now he fills his need for competition with golf, which he enjoys playing with his father, brother, and friends. John has been with Hidden Valley Funeral Homes for 4 years and looks forward to servicing his families for years to come.
Sean is our resident “Military Brat” growing up all over the United States and Europe. His formative years in Germany, visiting many castles and historical sites throughout the area, created an intense interest in medieval history and culture, as well as an enjoyment of traveling. As an adult, Sean has lived in Illinois, Iowa, Mississippi, Washington, California, Tennessee and Missouri. His experience of over 22 years in business in the advertising, marketing, special events, and customer service gives Sean a unique perspective when it comes to assisting families.
“I always try to under-promise and over-deliver on what I can do for the families,” Sean says. “If I can make sure the family leaves here feeling a little more at ease with the process, then I feel I have done my job.”
Sean enjoys learning and experiencing new things, and has taken upon himself to learn Italian. His dream vacation is to spend a month traversing Italy, taking in the food and culture of the modern Italians as well as viewing the ancient artifacts in the country.
Joining the Hidden Valley team in 2015, Sean handles our advertising and website development, and works with Tim to manage our compliance and guest service initiatives. He became a Funeral Director in 2020.
Jay’s experience in city and county government allows for him to know many people in the community and offers a unique perspective on how to assist these families.
When not assisting families, Jay can be seen helping maintain the systems used.
Tina Rankin currently resides in Kearney, Missouri, but grew up in northern Missouri. She graduated from Cameron High School and attended Wentworth Junior College. She and her husband Mike have two daughters, Kryssa and Lola. Tina loves working as an Administrative Assistant for Hidden Valley Funeral Homes because it allows her to interact with the families we serve, but also to be active in her home community.
Shirley joined the Hidden Valley team in 2018 to assist with funerals and help support the team in Lawson. She is a Vibbard, Missouri native. She enjoys helping our families at services. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, cooking and making the team homemade candy. Before retiring, Shirley held many jobs in the area including the bank that was the original occupant of our Excelsior Springs location.
Donna joined the Hidden Valley team in 2020 as our funeral assistant in Richmond, Missouri. Donna is originally from Carrollton, Missouri, and is married to Ronnie. Today they call Richmond home. Donna enjoys family time and cooking for friends and family. Apparently her recipe collection is huge as she likes to cook mexican and italian food as well as making candy and baking.