 His body was buried at the State Mausoleum near the Sabah State Mosque, Kota Kinabalu.Stephens was born on 14 September 1920 in Kudat.His father, Jules Stephen Pavitt (later known as Jules Pavitt Stephens), was half-Kadazan and half-British, born and brought up in Akaroa, Canterbury, New Zealand who migrated to British North Borneo hailing from Papar district in the West Coast Division with paternal ancestry roots in Essex, England.