People & Peoples

Mary Godat Bellamy, Wyoming’s first woman legislator, was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1910, where she sponsored bills aimed at improving the lives of women and children. She was active as well in the national movement for votes for women.

Lucy Morrison Moore, “The Sheep Queen of Wyoming,” was a leading sheep producer during the heyday of public-land sheep ranching from the 1880s to 1920s. Smart, tough and slightly eccentric, she and her family survived brutal, isolated conditions and attacks from cattle ranchers.

Lillian Heath, Wyoming’s first woman physician, practiced medicine in and around Rawlins, Wyo., beginning in 1893. As a teenager, she trained with Union Pacific Railroad surgeon Dr. Thomas Maghee, and assisted Maghee and Dr. John Osborne in their post-mortem investigations into the brain of outlaw Big Nose George Parrot. Later she won a medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Keokuk, Iowa, where she specialized in obstetrics. She retired after 15 years of practice, but remained keenly interested in medicine until her death in 1962.

Lester Hunt was elected to the House of the State Legislature in 1932, elected Secretary of State in 1934 and 1938, and elected Governor in 1942 where he served until 1949.

Leslie Miller was elected Governor in 1932 to serve the last two years of Governor Emerson's unexpired term. Reelected in 1935, Governor Miller served until 1939.

Three-time All-American Kenny Sailors, of tiny Hillsdale, Wyo. led the University of Wyoming’s 1943 men’s basketball team to an NCAA championship in Madison Square Garden. Sailors was only 5 feet 10, but he was a great jumper and shooter, and highly skilled with a weapon of his own invention—the jump shot.

Joseph Hickey was elected Governor and served two years before resigning in January 1961 to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Senator Elect Keith Thomson.

President Grant rewarded the ambitious Joseph M. Carey with the appointment of U.S. District Attorney for Wyoming. He served as the U.S. Associate Justice to the Supreme Court of Wyoming, delegate to Congress for the Wyoming Territory, the first U.S. Senator from Wyoming on November 12, 1890 and was elected Governor for the 1911-1915 term.

President Grant appointed John Thayer Governor of the Wyoming Territory in February 1875 and he took the oath of office March 1, 1875.

John Osborne was elected Governor and served from January 1893 to January 1895. He was also a member of Congress from March 1897 to March 1899,