People called Steve Lawrence the "Voice of the Buffalo Bison" for his nearly four decades broadcasting high school athletics.

But those who knew him say he was also the voice of the town itself.

"You trusted Steve for your news, your weather, you woke up with him in the morning," said his friend Don Twing.

From 1970, when Lawrence took a job with KBBS radio station in Buffalo, to his death in June, residents relied on him for music, news and sports. He earned accolades for his work - including an induction into the Wyoming Radio Broadcasters Hall of Fame - and received offers to work elsewhere. But he loved Buffalo and chose to spend his career at one station.

"Moving up, making more money, going to a bigger station, didn't really appeal to him," Twing said. "The town was home and the radio station was home."

Although he wasn't a Wyoming native, Lawrence spent most of his life in the Cowboy State. He graduated from Cheyenne Central High School in 1967, and went to Sheridan College, where he met his future wife, Janet Jackson. The couple married in 1971 and eventually had three children: Branden, Travis and Heather.

After attending the broadcasting school at Marquette University in Milwaukee, he returned to Wyoming, where he took a job at KBBS. His start in sports broadcasting came soon after he joined the station.

His timing couldn't have been better.

"Everyone else quit," explained Janet. "He didn't have any training in announcing games, but he grabbed the telephone and went and did it."

Lawrence, who was 58 when he died, called Buffalo High School football and basketball games. He became known as a knowledgeable storyteller who offered a wealth of information on the student athletes.

"That was just his passion," said Twing, who worked as Lawrence's color man." He was a consummate professional on the air."

The work took him all over Wyoming. He broadcast one game from the back of a pickup in Kemmerer and called another contest from the hood of a car in Thermopolis, using a cell phone.

"It didn't matter the circumstances, Steve always managed to get the job done," Twing said.

The work helped Lawrence develop relationships all over the state, said Johnson County Superintendent of Schools Rod Kessler, who also did color work for Lawrence. Whenever Lawrence would pull up at a field, everyone from groundskeepers to coaches would stop to chat.

"You could go on a road trip for a ball game, I don't care if it was a little Mexican restaurant in Rawlins or a fabric store in Thermopolis, he could walk in and people would know who he was," Kessler said. "I was always amazed by that."

Back in Buffalo, Lawrence also hosted the "Community Speaks" program, a live, hour-long show on the issues of the day. He had a knack for being easy to talk with. Janet Lawrence remembers people approaching her after an interview to describe how comfortable her husband made them during the interview.

"Steve made it easy," she said.

As the superintendent, Kessler was one of Lawrence's interview subjects. The veteran broadcaster wasn't afraid to ask hard questions, but was always fair, Kessler said.

Nearly four decades in Buffalo didn't dull his passion for the town. He enjoyed the people and the slower pace of life, his wife said.

Neither did his long career dull his interest in high school athletics.

"He thoroughly enjoyed the kids," Twing said. "There was a real connection between him and the kids he covered."

After Lawrence died, 500 people attended his funeral at the Buffalo High gymnasium. It was a testament to an easy going man who "connected people to people," as his friend, Kessler, describes it.

"He could have a conversation about absolutely anything, with anybody."

Reach Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@trib.com.