JARED MILLER Star-Tribune capital bureau | Posted: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - When Martha Healy fell ill and nearly died just before her 90th birthday, she pressed her family not to make too much fuss about her life once she was gone.
Never a sentimentalist, Healy wanted people to focus on the facts, not on nostalgia or an inflated legacy.
Healy fought off her illness and lived two more years before her death last month in Worland at age 92. Now that she is gone, family and friends are trying to honor her earlier wishes, but it's tricky: They say she was genuinely an amazing person.
�She was a combination of great dignity and lightness of being,� said Grant Ujifusa, a longtime family friend from Worland who now lives in Chappaqua, N.Y. �She was also, in the best Wyoming sense of things, nice.�
Martha Omenson Healy grew up in Thermopolis in the 1920s and '30s, during an era when people came from miles away to take �the cure� in the piping-hot mineral pools.
Her family eventually owned two hotels, and the high-spirited youth with the midnight hair and sparkling blue eyes spent much of her spare time waiting tables, entertaining the children of hotel guests and guiding tourists around the hot springs.
Decades later, Healy could still recite the spiel she gave tourists about the number of gallons of water that spew from the hot springs every day, according to her daughter Cathy Healy of Washington, D.C.
After graduating from Hot Springs County High School, Healy shot to the top of academia, attending Cornell University. A natural athlete, she was on the fencing team at Cornell and played tennis.
It was rare for a woman in those days to attend such a prestigious school, but she was �very, very smart,� and family members back home were making great sacrifices so she could stay in school despite the financial hardships of the Great Depression, Cathy Healy said. Martha Healy graduated with a degree from Cornell's School of Hotel Management in 1938.
During summer vacations, Healy returned to Wyoming and worked as a tour hostess for a passenger railroad in the Big Horn Basin. A charming and beautiful woman, Healy was always a hit with the passengers.
Healy's quick wit and flawless looks later helped propel her to the title of Miss Wyoming. She represented the state at the San Francisco World Fair, where she donned a Western outfit that the family eventually donated to the state.
Healy's Ivy League education, her worldliness and her beauty never went to her head, said Debbie Hammons, a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives from Worland, and Healy's daughter.
Healy had always assumed she'd return home after college, and she did. In June 1940, she married rancher Dan Healy of Worland.
About a year later, Dan Healy was called to serve in World War II, and Martha Healy returned to her parents' home to raise the couple's first child while her husband served three years in Italy.
In some ways, Healy was a typical member of �the greatest generation,� Hammons said. She was dedicated to her community, her country and to those who supported her.
When Healy's husband returned from war, the couple set about giving themselves to causes and building their community.
They were involved in the creation of the Coconuts Club dance club and the local golf course. Healy volunteered at the hospital and helped swab throats during an outbreak of fever in the community.
Healy, who had attended Cornell on scholarship, started a financial program to help Thermopolis high school graduates attend the University of Wyoming. She also quietly helped dozens of people who needed a hand, and loved to deliver flowers from her beloved garden to those in need of cheer.
�It was always small acts of kindness for people,� said Hammons, who discovered her mother's habit of helping those in need when she started taking care of Healy's finances in her final years.
�I've had many people who said that in difficult times of their lives Mom just quietly, secretly helped them,� Hammons added.
As a mother, Healy taught her children ethics and good manners, but her methods were creative, not preachy.
Once when Hammons came home from school with a juicy tidbit of news about a classmate, her mother prodded her to disclose the source of the information. When it was clear that the source was unreliable, Healy drove home a lesson about the pitfalls of gossip, which she found distasteful.
�Don't go around believing it, or spreading it,� Healy urged her daughter, according to Hammons.
Healy was a good wife, but she was an equal to her husband, who was known for his strong will and opinions.
On one occasion, Healy discovered that her husband was thinking of sending their son, Mike, to study agriculture at an out-of-state college. She quietly lobbied on behalf of her son, who she knew had other plans for his future, and prevailed. Mike learned about the incident some time later.
�What I hadn't known then was that my mother was standing up for me, saying that I should be able to go to school wherever I wanted to go,� Mike Healy said. �She was such a strong supporter.�
During her life, Healy grew and stayed connected with a vast network of friends across the country. Her Christmas card list was legendary.
She loved Big Band music, novels and the 15-minute naps she managed to sneak in after lunch. She always put on a skirt to go into town, and she tried never to say an ill word about anyone.
Even in old age, Healy never slowed down. She loved to golf with her friends, and she hit a hole in one at age 78. During a day of golfing, she once killed a rattlesnake by skillfully decapitating it with a golf club.
After her death, Healy's family submitted a brief obituary to the newspaper in which they listed a few of her accomplishments and a sketch of her life. Nothing too fancy; just the facts. As Healy wanted it.
In conversation, however, they were sometimes less restrained.
�I can't think of anyone richer or more blessed than my mom,� Hammons said. �She got it right.�
Reach capital bureau reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at {M3jared.miller@trib.com.