Mrs. Myra Smallwood

Myra Anna (Austin) Smallwood died February 27, 2013 of old age. She was 96, born November 6, 1916 at Broken Bow, Nebraska. Her father, Roscoe Charles Austin came to Wyoming to homestead on Robber's Roost Creek southwest of Newcastle in 1918 and brought his wife and child from Broken Bow in 1919.
Myra became her father's main rider when she was about seven years old, keeping track of their small cow herd on the open range. She was to keep the herd within a 25 mile radius of their homestead. She loved riding the hills and draws of the area and enjoyed seeing wild horses run, with their tails in the air, just for the sheer joy of running.
She attended grade school at the Morrissey Consolidated school. She missed part of one year of school when school was let out early, because of a blizzard, and she refused to leave her pony when she couldn't get the hobbles off in the storm. By the time she was found her hands and feet were frozen and she missed the remainder of that school year. She graduated from Newcastle High School in 1934 and went one semester to the University of Wyoming. In 1936 she transferred to John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
When she and a school chum came home from college, the county contacted them to teach some of the country schools. Myra taught a school on Wild Cat Creek, northeast of Hampshire, Wyoming. She met her husband, Horace Allen Smallwood, at some of the country dances at the Clariton Dance Hall. They married May 22, 1940 and soon moved to Laramie, Wyoming where Horace worked for the Union Pacific Railroad for 38 years.
Myra is survived by her brother, Raymond C. Austin of Newcastle, three of her four children, daughter Charlotte Ann (Charli) (Roger John) Sahara, of Chadron, NE, daughter, Royce Allene (John C.) Keller, of Newcastle, WY and son, Dee Lane (Sandy) Smallwood of Rogers, Arkansas. She is also survived by two granddaughters, Sev Marie Keller of Omaha, NE and Shelby (Smallwood) Brill of Beaverton, OR, one grandson, Abraham C. (Juanita) Keller of Aurora, CO , and one great-granddaughter, Ava Laine Brill.
Myra was preceded in death by her parents, Roscoe and Mabel Austin, her husband of 55 years, Horace Allen, one son, Horace Austin (Bud) Smallwood, two sisters, Phyllis Hanson and Frances Gaskill, and one brother, Fred Austin.
A memorial service will be held at Worden Funeral Home on Monday, March 4, 2013 at 1:30 p.m.