Over the course of a year, the Star-Tribune is publishing 40 profiles of women, both historic and contemporary, who’ve left their marks on our state. The series examines not only the contributions these women made to Wyoming but also the personal characteristics that helped them succeed. Look for it on the front pages of our Sunday editions and online at Trib.com.
Below are condensed profiles of some of the women the Star-Tribune has chosen to chronicle.
Mary Strand
Born in 1944, Mary Strand was raised on a Wyoming ranch. Over three decades ago, she acquired over 100 empty acres of her parents’ ranchland and started a business from scratch that continues to this day. She never looked back.
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Industrious and proud, Strand has raised, trained, boarded and hauled horses, picking up myriad awards along the way.
“I worked in a man’s world an awful lot of my life,” she said. “There’s very few women on ranches that you find do what I do. The majority of them, they work with their husbands but don’t do the physical labor. But, like I said, I like it.”
The 75-year-old spry rancher maintains scrupulously tidy barns too. Every waking moment she tries to spend outdoors.
“I hate to ask anyone for anything,” she said. “I am very, very independent. I am pretty much a loner, and it’s by choice.”
— Camille Erickson
Liz Byrd
Elizabeth “Liz” Byrd was the first black woman to serve in Wyoming’s state Legislature. She was a fourth-generation Wyoming native, her husband served as the state’s first black police chief, and her son served in the state legislature as well.
Byrd went to college in West Virginia to be a teacher, but when she returned to Wyoming to put her degree to use, she was denied a job with the Laramie County School District because of her race. So she took a job teaching courses at the F.E. Warren Airforce Base instead. In 1959, the Laramie County School District offered Byrd a job, a decade after she was first denied the position.
She stayed with the district for 27 years as an elementary school teacher. She was Wyoming’s first fully certified black educator.
Byrd served in the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1980 to 1988 and in the Senate from 1988 to 1992. During her time as a lawmaker, she sponsored legislation that ultimately led to the state adopting Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an observed holiday, under the condition that it also be referred to as Wyoming Equality Day.
Her legacy has been well-documented by the University of Wyoming and in a photo book called “I Dream a World” celebrating black women’s contributions to history, produced by the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker.
She died in 2015 at the age 88. She was living in Cheyenne at the time.
— Morgan Hughes
Lillian Heath
As Wyoming’s first female medical doctor, Lillian Heath had mountains to move. Some patients wouldn’t see her or expected her to treat them for free because she was a woman. But Heath didn’t let that get her down.
After her family moved to Rawlins from a small town in Wisconsin when she was young, her father befriended a Rawlins physician and often watched him while he worked. Heath enjoyed tagging along.
This early exposure to medicine encouraged Heath to attend medical school. When she graduated, she was one of only three women in her class. She returned to Rawlins, degree in hand, and began her practice.
When Heath went on late-night house calls, she did so in men’s clothing, with a pistol tucked snugly into her jacket pocket. Heath’s practice was wide-ranging. She provided everything from obstetrics to amputations and often had to ride 40 miles on horseback in any direction to provide these services.
Heath’s career wasn’t the only way she eschewed the norms of her day. She never had children and wasn’t married until her early 30s. That marriage — to Louis J. Nelson, a decorator and former member of William McKinley’s honor guard — lasted more than 60 years.
A little over a decade after getting married, Heath retired from her medical practice and began modeling clothes for the Denver department store Daniels & Fisher.
Heath died in 1962. She was 96 years old and had lived through both world wars and the start of tensions in Vietnam. She’d endured the Great Depression and watched technology advance in medicine, transportation and everything else. She saw women earn the right to vote and 18 presidents take office. And through all of it, she secured her own place in history.
— Morgan Hughes
Beth Williams
To those who knew Beth Williams best — or really knew her at all — it wasn’t her brilliance that struck them so much as her brilliance coupled with patience, a willingness to mentor and a desire to collaborate with anyone who could help solve wildlife diseases. Williams is renowned for her discovery of chronic wasting disease, now one of the most serious wildlife diseases facing deer, elk and moose in North America.
Williams was a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Wyoming for more than two decades, where she published more than 100 papers, mentored hundreds of students, served on committees with the United Nations and U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and contributed frequently to places like NPR’s Science Friday. She studied diseases in creatures as charismatic as bison and elk and as overlooked as the Wyoming toad or even seagulls at the local landfill.
Williams and her husband, Tom Thorne, died in a car wreck on icy roads in northern Colorado just before Christmas in 2004. She was 53. Thorne was 61.
“There’s a saying that nobody is indispensable, but when it comes to Beth, I’m not sure that was true,” said Walter Cook, a wildlife health professor at Texas A&M University who completed his Ph.D. under Williams. “There really was no one else like her.”
— Christine Peterson
Judy Shepard
Judy Shepard became a prominent activist for LGBTQ rights after her son was beaten and killed in one of the most notorious hate crimes in Wyoming’s history.
Her son, Matthew, was a gay University of Wyoming student at the time of his murder in 1998. The murder made national news and sparked a movement across the country, led in part by Judy and her husband, Dennis.
After Matthew’s death, the Shepards founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which promotes education and advocacy for LGBTQ issues. The foundation has grown monumentally, and Judy Shepard has led marches and events in D.C., been invited to speak before President Barack Obama, and was a key voice in getting the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed into law.
Judy and her husband live in Casper and are still advocating for local and federal policies to protect members of the LGBTQ community. The Shepards recently attended a panel discussion at Casper College about the state’s need to better document hate crimes in Wyoming.
When speaking to a Star-Tribune reporter about her loss and the work she’s done in the aftermath, she said this: “You just build your life around the loss and figure out how to move on. … It doesn’t get easier. It just gets different.”
— Morgan Hughes
Susie McMurry
Susie McMurry has been many things in her nearly 73 years — daughter, teacher, mother of two, faithful foster parent, nana, tireless volunteer, philanthropist and visionary when it comes to the needs of a community.
She has known tragedy — deep and soul-sucking. She is a widow, having lost her beloved partner Mickey to suicide in March 2015. She is the mother of two daughters, the youngest of whom she describes as a “lost person,” after multiple times in residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation.
“I honestly don’t know how I did it,” she says of the time immediately following Mickey’s death. “Giving up for me was never an option. That came from my parents. Such kindness was shown to me, and I will never forget it. I tell you it does take strength and courage. I could never have made it without my family.”
The legacy that the McMurry Foundation has left on Wyoming in incalculable. Kids with nowhere to go after school, piccolo players in a marching band, grieving families needing food after a funeral, all and thousands more have benefited from Susie McMurry’s volunteerism in addition to her checkbook. Children and health care have been the primary focus of the McMurry Foundation’s generosity through the years.
— Sally Ann Shurmur
Photos: Women of Wyoming share their own stories on Instagram
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I am a woman of the west, strong, bold and free. I am a welder by education and skill, Done everything from welding on the world’s largest truck beds to repairing busted farm equipment. I am a farmer by blood and by choice, Born to work the land and tend the animals. I am a woman and a Wyomingite by the grace of God, With the opportunity to affect change and write my own story.
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Raising girls in Wyoming is not without its pitfalls. In my own county, women average 63 cents to a man’s dollar for the exact same job with the exact same job experience and exact same level of education. When I brought this up to my girls, they were flabbergasted and infuriated. As we all should be. In the meantime, raising my girls in a landscape that inspires their imagination, their wildness, and their free choice makes my heart sing. Today, they believe they are single-handedly responsible for the ice breakup on Fremont Lake. It is up to us adults, male and female, to ensure their future equality and free choice. Let’s get it done, Wyoming.
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I married and moved to Wyoming almost 28 years ago. When my children were very young I was blessed to be able to stay home with them. Once they started school I began working full time. Although we moved around a lot because my husband works in construction I've never had a hard time finding employment and have worked in many different types of jobs. I've worked in schools, retail, driven semis in the oil field, and in various types of construction as well as other places, but you get the gist of it, I've worked with a lot of people. I have never felt discriminated against and was in fact greatly appreciated. I've naturally grown and learned so much throughout my years of working and am thankful I was able to do so in the great state of Wyoming.
I also have a passion for capturing the world through photographs and in return Wyoming has captivated me. Today I find solace in its beauty.
I truly believe that overall women are respected and appreciated. The women I grew up around worked hard, whether it be in a place of employment or within their homes. We need to remember that even if the people in our circle don't see our worth, there are plenty of people out there who will. You are Important! We are mothers, daughters, sisters and so much more. ⠀
The photos I've captured were taken in the Douglas hospital where my mama, Laura Mae, was cared for before needing to be moved to the Wyoming Medical Center and then into the Hospice House where she stayed until she moved on to live in Heaven. I'm thankful for all of the wonderful people who cared for my mom, many of whom were women.
Hug your mama, look your cashier in the eye and smile, tip your waitress, tell your nurse you appreciate her, be kind to people. It's the little things that make a difference.
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Kimber and Jacob branding a plank with their new brand during their unity ceremony at their family's Key Bar Ranch in Glendo.
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Being a woman in Wyoming means being tougher than the rest. It means living for those early mornings before sunrise saddling horses in the barn to go to a rodeo. It means a love for riding a good horse on a high mountain plain. It means having callused hands of leather strong enough to swing a rope and stretch barbed wire but soft enough to quiet a skittish colt and soothe a crying child. It means shed your tears in the truck, suck it up, and get back at it. It means long days in all kinds of weather and sometimes long nights too. It means sometimes the best cowboy is you. And it means that our daughters will grow up knowing how to work hard, help others, and that success is always within your reach if you want it bad enough to work for it. Being a woman in Wyoming means feeling pride rise in your chest as you see Old Glory carried horseback into the arena for the National Anthem and bowing your head and giving thanks to the Lord above that we get to live in this great state in this great nation.
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Wyoming can be harsh, especially for women. But if you can find beauty in the small things, the adventure sure is worth it.
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Native American women have rarely been recognized for the part that they play and played in Wyoming society. For thousands of years up to the present, they have supported their families, local communities and cultures in general.
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Members of the "Shoot like a Woman" photography group based in the Bighorn Basin stop to capture images from an unexpected snowfall during their fall retreat at Ten Sleep Preserve.
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Wyoming women don’t fit the typical mold. We have been redesigning women from the beginning of statehood and continue to prove our toughness and resilience every day. I mean, where else can you find a woman that will put on lipstick one day and the next go out and doctor a cow by herself?
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“I don’t know where I am going but I sure know where I have been.”
Grateful to all the Wyoming women who blazed a path before me. Fearful but fearless, their tenacity and faith carved the way for me to take on new challenges. I am honored to follow in their footsteps and empowered by their spirit to stray from the beaten path.
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A wedding in the West.
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This is my daughter. She comes from a long line of tough women. Her great grandma, nana and I have always lived by the lyrics from a song called "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack. My daughter had her first dance recital tonight, and after I caught her dancing in the yard with her flowers. The sun was washing over her and it took my breath away. I whispered under my breath "And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance."
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My daughter, Kiley River, grew up riding the horse that no one could handle quite like she did, taming the calf who didn't like anyone but loved her, hand fishing the streams where no one could get a bite but she could fill her string. Gathering cattle on a 30 below zero January day when they had canceled school for bad weather, fixing fence in 60 mph winds in July. Don't tell a Wyoming ranch daughter she "can't" do something. She won't believe you anyway, because her life has shown her otherwise.
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I knew that Wyoming’s flag was designed by a young woman, and that the original had the bison facing the other direction – to signify freedom. I also knew that the flag design had been changed.
What I didn’t know was who made the change and why. It turns out it was another woman, a suffragist and head of the group that sponsored the flag contest, who made the change, slipping it by an unaware Legislature. She felt that the buffalo should be facing towards the staff, because they face into the wind.
We fly the Wyoming flag on a number of occasions, including when a baby buffalo is born into our backyard herd. We’ve been blessed to have two healthy calves this year, a girl and a boy. (Pictured here with their moms on Wyoming Statehood Day).
That two women were behind the meaningful design of the flag and how it flies seems appropriate for the Equality State. Bison are matrilineal, and both sexes have horns. The bull buffalo that adorns our state flag is a symbol of equality, no matter which way the wind blows.
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My husband and I own 20 acres off the Harriman exit near Vedauwoo. We took my nephew and his daughter up to see the property the other week. We all marveled at its wild beauty. This tree stands tall and strong despite the harsh weather conditions in this area. Just like women in Wyoming -- You have to be tough to live here.
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There is a certain well-deserved pride that Wyoming natives exude when they talk about the generations of Wyoming ancestors that came before them. I live in a place in Wyoming where no one has roots and the average stay is 3 years, but this place — F.E. Warren Air Force Base — is our source of historical pride. The oldest continuously utilized Air Force installation in the U.S., F. E. Warren has weathered wars, politics, trends, technological advancements and actual weather gracefully. I often think about the women who have called this place home year after year, assignment after assignment. They are Wyoming, too, and the sum of their experience would tell an amazing story of transition, adaptability, and tradition.
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Wyoming women don't need fancy cars, diamonds or pearls. Give her a couple of chickens and the contentment shines from her eyes, her face glows, and she sits quietly adoring the others as she holds her favorites. My great niece, 2 year old Brynleigh Marie.
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Beth Ferrier is one of the unique Women in Wyoming. She is an equipment operator and a member of a mine rescue team. Beth and her team members dedicate many hours to training for rescue. The training that took place on this day was a combination of training and relaxation at the lake with her team members.
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Best friends.
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My Wyoming Highway Patrol car, the best opportunity I've ever received.
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My daughter Savanna and our buckskin stallion Bandit. Both have a long Wyoming history and ties to each other several generations deep. Savanna's great grandfather raised a mare who was Bandit's grandmother. Family traditions holding strong with raising children and horses with good hearts and minds.
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Riki Kremers helping sort during a spring branding in Lance Creek.
