What do you do if you have a good life in Illinois but feel the call of mountains? You get in your car and head west to Jackson, Wyoming. That is what Bev Hofmann did in 1973.

She had been here with her parents when she was five years old and remembered not only the mountains, but also things like someone playing a calliope outside the doors of the Pink Garter Theater on Deloney street. and bears raiding the garbage cans outside their cabin in Yellowstone.

The first day after her arrival in 1973, because of her typing ability, she found a job at the Jackson Hole Guide, where she worked as a typesetter for three years before moving on to other work at the Alpenhoff and the Aspens. In the late 70’s, she moved to a job at the Valley Shop in Jackson, an office supply store. Also, in the 1970’s, she started doing needlepoint and started her own business, Beverly Designs.

Like most artists, she needed other work, as well. In 1981, she met a woman who worked in medical records at the hospital and Bev decided that job would be a good match for her. She was right—she worked in medical records for 30 years and for the last 6 years before she retired, she worked as a Revenue Cycle Coordinator for the hospital. She also continued her design business.

In 1990, artists were sought to design and make needlepoint chair covers for dining chairs in the Wyoming Governor’s Mansion. 24 chairs were commissioned in total, one chair for each county in Wyoming. Bev designed the Sublette county chair, because there was no one from Sublette county to do it. It wasn’t a quick task—it took her a year to complete it. 

Bev has sold an original design to a catalog company and continues creating them, but needlepoint design isn’t her only creative activity. She has managed craft shows, created amazing mod-podge items, bead work, jewelry, and more. She has worked with copper netting, plastic canvas, and ribbons.

Lucky us to have her in our midst!

Once upon a time, not too many years ago, there lived three sisters in eastern Wyoming. The youngest of these, a pretty and bright little girl, was 22 months old when the three sisters were adopted by a western Wyoming couple who lived near Afton. The couple was happy to have these little girls and after a few years, had four more daughters born to them, so there were seven sisters in the family. The young 22-month-old toddler grew up to be our neighbor here at Legacy, Grace Merritt.

Grace liked living on the farm in Star Valley where she grew up and where her mother was a school teacher. She also liked seeing things grow and appreciated the family’s big garden. Grace liked books and read almost anything she could get. She fondly remembers reading while lying outdoors in the grass. She still likes to read and always has books near at hand in her apartment. A farm is a busy place and Grace learned to work early in her life. Each of the family’s daughters had many tasks (such as feeding calves, pigs or chickens) and were assigned to prepare some of the family’s meals.

Grace met LaMar, the man who became her husband, at a roller-skating rink. He had just come home from his stint in the Army. They married in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple when she was still a teenager. She finished high school after their marriage. Later, she and her husband bought a farm near Bedford where they had around 35 dairy cows that had to be milked, both morning and night. They also raised wheat, barley, and alfalfa on the farm.

Tragedy came into their lives when Grace was still a young wife and mother—her husband was run over by his tractor. The large rear wheel rolled over much of his lower left body. There was no one in Afton who could do anything, but his life depended on receiving help rapidly. With Grace and two others alternating driving and trying to care for her husband, they made the trip to Idaho Falls, over 90 miles away, via a graveled road in 68 minutes. He survived and lived for many more years.

Back on the farm, Grace did all the farming for a time while her mother and mother-in-law helped with the home and children. Later, Grace worked at a creamery which was popular not only for cheese, but also for the pies people could buy there. One of her jobs was to make the pies, often 100 of them a day, which everyone liked a lot.

Grace and her husband had five children. Three of them live in Star Valley and two are in Logan, Utah.

I’m sure we all appreciate Grace’s creativeness—not everyone could make a tin can man, fashion a woman’s head from a bowling alley pin, or create some of the other wonderful arrangements outside her apartment.

• Written by Jeanie Mebane

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Who do you know who lives here, is originally from Pontiac Michigan, has multiple talents and is a quietly modest person?

It’s Stan Emery—our cartoon artist in residence.

Shortly after Stan graduated from high school in Pontiac, Michigan, he joined the US Air Force. He went to Scott Airforce Base in Illinois where he specialized in and studied ground radio communications. About half-way through school there, he volunteered to go overseas and was sent to Misiswa Air Force Base in Japan. He worked there three years, repairing radio systems, before returning to Fort Meade, Maryland.

When his four years in the Air Force ended, he reenlisted with the agreement that he could choose where he would be stationed. He chose to return to Japan—there was a reason and her name was Iko Sasaki. They were married and stayed in Japan for a time before moving to Portland, Oregon, where Stan worked as an electronics technician.

Stan’s career also took him to Redwood City, California, where they lived for fourteen years before moving to Florida. Moves after that took them back to California and to Washington. After Iko died in 1995, Stan moved to Arizona where he continued to work in electronics.

Stan has two sons, Eric and Robert. Eric lives in Seattle, works at a hospital and has authored five books. Robert, who lives in Jackson, has a snowboard company and is the father of Stan’s two fine grandsons.

Back to cartoons—Stan started drawing when he was nine years old but didn’t pursue that talent for many years. Now he enjoys it as a hobby—see the following…

Interviewed and written by Jeanie Mebane

Doris Budge

Take heed Legacy folks! Have you heard about the largest fish caught in Wyoming in 1983? We should all know, for it was caught by our good friend and neighbor Doris Budge.

However, Doris and her family have a role in the history of this area that goes far beyond fishing. Doris’s father was a Wilson, part of a family that moved here from Utah when this area was just being settled. As you may have guessed, the town of Wilson was founded by one of her ancestors and the very land where we now live was owned by a Wilson, whose brother rode for the pony express. Doris’s father had an important role in building the road to Hoback and on through the canyon using horse-drawn equipment.

Doris was born in Jackson on a New Year’s Day and a few years later, started to school here. However, because her heavy equipment operator father often had jobs in other Wyoming places, she also attended school in Dubois and other towns. She had two younger siblings and one of them, her brother, helped develop the Rafter J subdivision.

In high school, Doris played basketball and was courted by Clint Budge, whom she married in a wedding at her family home, a house around the corner from the current Maverick Station.

Clint played hockey in Idaho Falls and once, on their way home, they got stuck in Rexburg by a big snowstorm. They spent days there along with several other people. They all got together and tramped down the snow at the airport by foot. A plane was able to land and brought them back across the mountains to Jackson. Here it landed on a field where The Virginian now stands!

Doris and Clint both worked—Doris worked at a restaurant, drove a truck for her Dad or husband, delivered for a local dry cleaner, became a specialist in cleaning silk wedding dresses, and developed management skills which helped her when she worked at a lumber company where she did nearly everything, as needed. Like Doris, Clint had a variety of skills. He was also a volunteer fireman. Life changed for them with a fire in the Wort Hotel in 1980. Clint was seriously burned on both hands and legs while helping fight the fire and save the hotel.

Clint could not stand the cold on his hands after that, so they bought a motor home and traveled to Havasu City, Arizona. They had a house built there which they enjoyed for many years. Sadly, Doris was widowed early.

At some point Doris developed significant artistic ability (see pictures). Now Doris continues to enjoy her many friends, as well as her children and grandchildren. A handmade wooden plaque on her wall reads, “GREATEST GRANDMOTHER AWARD, to say thanks for all the time, love, cookies and juice you’ve invested in us.”

Interviewed and written by Jeanie Mebane