Cody businesswoman and 55-year resident Ethel S. James, 80, died Sunday, January 26, 1997, at West Park Hospital.
She was born January 30, 1916, in Red Cloud, Nebraska, the daughter of Lola Mabel and Henry Strayer, a blacksmith and Quaker preacher. As the second youngest of 12 children, she left home at the age of 11 because of financial needs of a large family. She lived with her Uncle and attended high school in St. Paul, Nebraska and received her teaching degree from Kearney College in Kearney, Nebraska. She came to Wyoming as a schoolteacher in 1940 and spent her first year teaching in Dubois. Her second teaching position was at Clark County School, which brought her and her first husband, Bill Clark, to the Cody area. She soon had to find year-round work as her husband became ill with cancer.
Frank William James hired her at his "Sani-Dairy" store in the summer of 1942. The Sani-Dairy store was on the 1300 block of Sheridan Avenue.
On December 17, 1946, they married in Salt Lake City, Utah. The married business partners purchased the Diamond Bar, a grocery store with a trailer park, which was on the corner of Stampede Avenue & 17th Street and rental properties in the 1200 block of Sheridan. Also, she purchased two buildings in the 1300 block of Sheridan, which are now the Olde Faithful Bicycles and the Mable Room. They soon sold some their properties to get started in the motel business and at one time they owned three small motels, the Stockade, Rodeo and the FJ. Since the death of Frank on April 10, 1968, Ethel and her daughter Fran built and operated the Buckaroo Motel, now the Carter Mountain Motel.
Mrs. James was a member of Highland Baptist Church, now Stampede Avenue Church, for 36 years. She served on the finance committee and as a trustee for 28 years, as the church treasurer for 19, years, and adult Sunday school teacher for 12 years. Other positions she held were Sunday school superintendent, Building Committee chairwoman, training union director, women's missionary union president and Girls Auxiliary director.
In June 1991, she became a charter member of New Hope Southern Baptist Church and was active in this new work until the time of her death.
Mrs. James is survived by her daughter and family, Fran and Ken Swope and grandchildren Eric, Erynne, Evan and Eli all of Cody, her son and his family Frank and Harriette James and grandson Lance of Basin, sister and her nephews Lola Laurent, Larry, Leroy and Keith (Pete) and families of Oklahoma city, sister-in-law Shirley Strayer and numerous nieces and nephews and their families of Longview, Washington.
Funeral services will be 10:30 am Tuesday, January 28, at Ballard Funeral Home with pastors Don Peel and Joe Stewart officiating. Interment will follow at Riverside Cemetery with her son Frank James, son-in-law Ken Swope, four grandsons Eric, Evan, and Eli Swope and Lance James serving as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers are Bud Webster, Wayne Messenger, Ed Webster, Herb earnest, Bob Frisby, Cecil Legg and Lloyd Palmour.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, 1807 Capitol Ave., Ste. 109, Cheyenne, 82001. Taken from Obituary.
The following information is from Carol Strayer. Granddaughter of Miley & Elmira Strayer, and great granddaughter of Martin & Rachel (Raylla) Strayer.
She was born January 30, 1916, in Red Cloud, Nebraska, the daughter of Lola Mabel and Henry Strayer, a blacksmith and Quaker preacher. As the second youngest of 12 children, she left home at the age of 11 because of financial needs of a large family. She lived with her Uncle and attended high school in St. Paul, Nebraska and received her teaching degree from Kearney College in Kearney, Nebraska. She came to Wyoming as a schoolteacher in 1940 and spent her first year teaching in Dubois. Her second teaching position was at Clark County School, which brought her and her first husband, Bill Clark, to the Cody area. She soon had to find year-round work as her husband became ill with cancer.
Frank William James hired her at his "Sani-Dairy" store in the summer of 1942. The Sani-Dairy store was on the 1300 block of Sheridan Avenue.
On December 17, 1946, they married in Salt Lake City, Utah. The married business partners purchased the Diamond Bar, a grocery store with a trailer park, which was on the corner of Stampede Avenue & 17th Street and rental properties in the 1200 block of Sheridan. Also, she purchased two buildings in the 1300 block of Sheridan, which are now the Olde Faithful Bicycles and the Mable Room. They soon sold some their properties to get started in the motel business and at one time they owned three small motels, the Stockade, Rodeo and the FJ. Since the death of Frank on April 10, 1968, Ethel and her daughter Fran built and operated the Buckaroo Motel, now the Carter Mountain Motel.
Mrs. James was a member of Highland Baptist Church, now Stampede Avenue Church, for 36 years. She served on the finance committee and as a trustee for 28 years, as the church treasurer for 19, years, and adult Sunday school teacher for 12 years. Other positions she held were Sunday school superintendent, Building Committee chairwoman, training union director, women's missionary union president and Girls Auxiliary director.
In June 1991, she became a charter member of New Hope Southern Baptist Church and was active in this new work until the time of her death.
Mrs. James is survived by her daughter and family, Fran and Ken Swope and grandchildren Eric, Erynne, Evan and Eli all of Cody, her son and his family Frank and Harriette James and grandson Lance of Basin, sister and her nephews Lola Laurent, Larry, Leroy and Keith (Pete) and families of Oklahoma city, sister-in-law Shirley Strayer and numerous nieces and nephews and their families of Longview, Washington.
Funeral services will be 10:30 am Tuesday, January 28, at Ballard Funeral Home with pastors Don Peel and Joe Stewart officiating. Interment will follow at Riverside Cemetery with her son Frank James, son-in-law Ken Swope, four grandsons Eric, Evan, and Eli Swope and Lance James serving as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers are Bud Webster, Wayne Messenger, Ed Webster, Herb earnest, Bob Frisby, Cecil Legg and Lloyd Palmour.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, 1807 Capitol Ave., Ste. 109, Cheyenne, 82001. Taken from Obituary.
The following information is from Carol Strayer. Granddaughter of Miley & Elmira Strayer, and great granddaughter of Martin & Rachel (Raylla) Strayer.
Cody businesswoman and 55-year resident Ethel S. James, 80, died Sunday, January 26, 1997, at West Park Hospital.
She was born January 30, 1916, in Red Cloud, Nebraska, the daughter of Lola Mabel and Henry Strayer, a blacksmith and Quaker preacher. As the second youngest of 12 children, she left home at the age of 11 because of financial needs of a large family. She lived with her Uncle and attended high school in St. Paul, Nebraska and received her teaching degree from Kearney College in Kearney, Nebraska. She came to Wyoming as a schoolteacher in 1940 and spent her first year teaching in Dubois. Her second teaching position was at Clark County School, which brought her and her first husband, Bill Clark, to the Cody area. She soon had to find year-round work as her husband became ill with cancer.
Frank William James hired her at his "Sani-Dairy" store in the summer of 1942. The Sani-Dairy store was on the 1300 block of Sheridan Avenue.
On December 17, 1946, they married in Salt Lake City, Utah. The married business partners purchased the Diamond Bar, a grocery store with a trailer park, which was on the corner of Stampede Avenue & 17th Street and rental properties in the 1200 block of Sheridan. Also, she purchased two buildings in the 1300 block of Sheridan, which are now the Olde Faithful Bicycles and the Mable Room. They soon sold some their properties to get started in the motel business and at one time they owned three small motels, the Stockade, Rodeo and the FJ. Since the death of Frank on April 10, 1968, Ethel and her daughter Fran built and operated the Buckaroo Motel, now the Carter Mountain Motel.
Mrs. James was a member of Highland Baptist Church, now Stampede Avenue Church, for 36 years. She served on the finance committee and as a trustee for 28 years, as the church treasurer for 19, years, and adult Sunday school teacher for 12 years. Other positions she held were Sunday school superintendent, Building Committee chairwoman, training union director, women's missionary union president and Girls Auxiliary director.
In June 1991, she became a charter member of New Hope Southern Baptist Church and was active in this new work until the time of her death.
Mrs. James is survived by her daughter and family, Fran and Ken Swope and grandchildren Eric, Erynne, Evan and Eli all of Cody, her son and his family Frank and Harriette James and grandson Lance of Basin, sister and her nephews Lola Laurent, Larry, Leroy and Keith (Pete) and families of Oklahoma city, sister-in-law Shirley Strayer and numerous nieces and nephews and their families of Longview, Washington.
Funeral services will be 10:30 am Tuesday, January 28, at Ballard Funeral Home with pastors Don Peel and Joe Stewart officiating. Interment will follow at Riverside Cemetery with her son Frank James, son-in-law Ken Swope, four grandsons Eric, Evan, and Eli Swope and Lance James serving as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers are Bud Webster, Wayne Messenger, Ed Webster, Herb earnest, Bob Frisby, Cecil Legg and Lloyd Palmour.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, 1807 Capitol Ave., Ste. 109, Cheyenne, 82001. Taken from Obituary.
The following information is from Carol Strayer. Granddaughter of Miley & Elmira Strayer, and great granddaughter of Martin & Rachel (Raylla) Strayer.
She was born January 30, 1916, in Red Cloud, Nebraska, the daughter of Lola Mabel and Henry Strayer, a blacksmith and Quaker preacher. As the second youngest of 12 children, she left home at the age of 11 because of financial needs of a large family. She lived with her Uncle and attended high school in St. Paul, Nebraska and received her teaching degree from Kearney College in Kearney, Nebraska. She came to Wyoming as a schoolteacher in 1940 and spent her first year teaching in Dubois. Her second teaching position was at Clark County School, which brought her and her first husband, Bill Clark, to the Cody area. She soon had to find year-round work as her husband became ill with cancer.
Frank William James hired her at his "Sani-Dairy" store in the summer of 1942. The Sani-Dairy store was on the 1300 block of Sheridan Avenue.
On December 17, 1946, they married in Salt Lake City, Utah. The married business partners purchased the Diamond Bar, a grocery store with a trailer park, which was on the corner of Stampede Avenue & 17th Street and rental properties in the 1200 block of Sheridan. Also, she purchased two buildings in the 1300 block of Sheridan, which are now the Olde Faithful Bicycles and the Mable Room. They soon sold some their properties to get started in the motel business and at one time they owned three small motels, the Stockade, Rodeo and the FJ. Since the death of Frank on April 10, 1968, Ethel and her daughter Fran built and operated the Buckaroo Motel, now the Carter Mountain Motel.
Mrs. James was a member of Highland Baptist Church, now Stampede Avenue Church, for 36 years. She served on the finance committee and as a trustee for 28 years, as the church treasurer for 19, years, and adult Sunday school teacher for 12 years. Other positions she held were Sunday school superintendent, Building Committee chairwoman, training union director, women's missionary union president and Girls Auxiliary director.
In June 1991, she became a charter member of New Hope Southern Baptist Church and was active in this new work until the time of her death.
Mrs. James is survived by her daughter and family, Fran and Ken Swope and grandchildren Eric, Erynne, Evan and Eli all of Cody, her son and his family Frank and Harriette James and grandson Lance of Basin, sister and her nephews Lola Laurent, Larry, Leroy and Keith (Pete) and families of Oklahoma city, sister-in-law Shirley Strayer and numerous nieces and nephews and their families of Longview, Washington.
Funeral services will be 10:30 am Tuesday, January 28, at Ballard Funeral Home with pastors Don Peel and Joe Stewart officiating. Interment will follow at Riverside Cemetery with her son Frank James, son-in-law Ken Swope, four grandsons Eric, Evan, and Eli Swope and Lance James serving as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers are Bud Webster, Wayne Messenger, Ed Webster, Herb earnest, Bob Frisby, Cecil Legg and Lloyd Palmour.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, 1807 Capitol Ave., Ste. 109, Cheyenne, 82001. Taken from Obituary.
The following information is from Carol Strayer. Granddaughter of Miley & Elmira Strayer, and great granddaughter of Martin & Rachel (Raylla) Strayer.
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