Deborah Bovie played cello in the symphony starting in about 1974 and was still in the orchestra as of the end of the 2023 season. This totals 49 years, making her the person who has served in the symphony the longest. She was usually assistant principal cello, but did pinch-hit occasionally as principal.

Andrea (Reynolds) DiGregorio, cello, joined the Casper Youth Symphony sometime during her junior high school years, younger than most students. She won the Civic Symphony Young Artist Competition when in high school.

Delores Thornton played second flute in the Casper Civic Symphony starting in 1976 for about four years, and then became principal flute. She continued as principal through the Casper Symphony years, and also well into the Wyoming Symphony years, retiring in 2021.

Dale Bohren played in the Civic Symphony bass section while in high school and later, during the Casper Symphony years, played in the orchestra including sometimes as principal bass. During the Wyoming Symphony’s first years he was executive director, pulling the orchestra out of a major financial slump.

Rebecca Hein began playing cello in the Casper Civic Symphony as a high school sophomore, in September 1971. She played all through high school, and as an import from the University of Wyoming through May 1977. From 1992 through 1999, she served as principal cello in the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra.

John Kirk was principal cello of the Casper Symphony Orchestra from 1981 to 1983. His position was the first of conductor Curtis Peacock’s project to supply the orchestra with key “core musicians:” professional-caliber performers whose job was to provide leadership for their section.

John Stovall played bass in the Casper Civic Symphony while in high school. Traveling further, geographically and professionally, than any other Casper classical musician, he ended up in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he still plays in the bass section.

Four years after finishing his second term as governor of Wyoming, Mike Sullivan was named U.S. ambassador to Ireland. Sullivan arrived in Dublin in 1999, when the ink was barely dry on the Good Friday Agreement, bringing peace in Northern Ireland after three decades of disastrous bombings, murders and political stalemate.

In May 1950, Louise Spinner Graf served as foreman on the first Wyoming jury, with one minor exception, to include women since 1871. Born in Green River, Wyo., she attended university and worked in local banks. After marrying George Graf in 1930, she quit working to raise their daughter, and remained active in the community the rest of her life.

In 1905, Caroline Fuller came to Thermopolis, Wyo., and entered a field usually reserved for men—dentistry. How she came to take dental impressions and pull teeth for sheep barons and cowboys in remote parts of Wyoming is only one phase of her interesting life.