CHEYENNE - A well-known Cheyenne couple, Helen and Ethan Levine, died New Year's Day in an apparent double-suicide.

The Casper Star-Tribune and the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle in Cheyenne both received obituaries for the Levines on Tuesday. The couple apparently mailed them from their home at 1055 County Road 110 A W. in Cheyenne before killing themselves.

Ethan Levine, 50, was the former manager of the Frontier Mall in Cheyenne and was a marketing consultant. Helen Levine, 73, was public information officer for the Wyoming Department of Health for 12 years and wrote a column for the Casper Star-Tribune for the last six years.

In a final column submission to the Star-Tribune, also received by mail Tuesday, Helen Levine reminded readers about her support of "death with dignity."

"On January 1, 2005, my husband, Ethan, and I, chose to leave this world together through self-deliverance," Levine wrote. She did not specify how they planned to commit suicide.

Levine's submission went on to tell of their major health problems - his multiple sclerosis and diabetes, and her heart disease.

"Neither of us could live without the other," she wrote.

She also wrote that the couple had "experienced insults in our employment" and criticized President Bush for the war in Iraq and on other issues.

The Laramie County Sheriff's Office, meanwhile, received a letter about 1:25 p.m. Tuesday concerning the Levines, spokesman Gerry Luce said. About 20 minutes later, deputies arrived at the address in the letter and found two bodies in the house.

The official cause of death and identities of the deceased would have to come from the county coroner's office, he said.

Laramie County Coroner Bill Ryan, contacted later Tuesday afternoon, said he knew nothing about the Levines.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal's press secretary, Lara Azar, said Freudenthal was shocked to hear about the Levines' deaths.

"Calls from the press were the first he had heard of it," Azar said. "He is frankly just shocked."

She said the governor had been friends with both Ethan and Helen Levine for a long time.

"This is not something he was expecting," Azar said.

Helen Levine worked on Freudenthal's 2002 election campaign and appeared in one of his campaign ads. The governor appointed her to the Wyoming Senior Services Board.

A friend of the couple, Lee Weirauch of Cheyenne, said she met Helen Levine through their volunteer work.

"I don't think I've ever known a couple who loved each other more than they did. They were so close. They were soulmates. They lived for each other," Weirauch said.

In the last few years, both went through some bad spells with health problems, she said.

Weirauch said Helen Levine mentioned suicide off and on when they would have lunch together, and on one occasion, they talked about a column she wrote in April about assisted suicide. But then she would pull herself together, laugh and carry on, she said.

When they first came to Cheyenne, the couple worked at radio station KLEN, then owned by Phil Noble, now director of the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources.

"I don't think anybody would have guessed this would happen," Noble said.

"They were both great people. They were a very loving couple despite the difference in age. I'm devastated," Noble said.

In a letter to selected friends, Ethan Levine explained multiple reasons for the couple's decision. He mentioned the 1978 suicide of his brother, Steve, who had left no note but a lot of unanswered questions.

Their decision, he wrote, was not done quickly or on a whim, but was the result of a long, complex process and planning, culminating this fall with a target date.

The obituary said cremation had been arranged earlier and there would be no services.

The Levines suggested contributions to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, or any wildlife protection organizations.

The obituary mentioned surviving family members in California and Michigan.

Capital bureau reporter Bill Luckett contributed to this report.

Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at joan.barron@casperstartribune.net.