Lena Newlin, host

Guest: Scott Hunter, Parks Manager, City of Laramie

Lena: [Voiceover] Hello, and welcome to today's episode of Conversations with Headstones, a podcast focused on unearthing stories of the past. I'm Lena Newlin, and today we'll be at a cemetery in southeastern Wyoming. 

[sound of birds singing]

Despite being only open for 16 years, Lange’s Bookshop became a beloved fixture in downtown Casper, Wyoming. Robert and Naomi Lange opened their bookshop in 1967, profoundly shaping Casper’s cultural life. 

Their daughter, Rebecca Hein shared her memories of growing up in the bookshop with WyoHistory.org Founder and Editor Emeritus Tom Rea in 2023. Both Rebecca and Tom worked in Lange’s Bookshop and then years later, together on WyoHistory.org where Rebecca worked as an assistant editor until her retirement in 2025.

Jacqueline “Jackie” Ellis (1929-2025) grew up in Kemmerer and Green River, Wyoming, in the 1930s and 1940s. She graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1953, then moved to Casper, where she worked for Ohio Oil Company (later Marathon) during the city’s postwar oil boom. In 1955 she married Frank “Pinky” Ellis. Together they raised three children in Casper, while she later taught business and English at Kelly Walsh High School for more than twenty years. 

In the 1990s, Jenna Baumgart served the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra as principal viola, personnel manager and music librarian. She was responsible for locating and hiring import musicians, and making sure they got paid.

Belinda Waldron, cello, played in the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s.

Virginia Himes began playing violin in the Casper Civic Symphony in 1974 and retired from what had become the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra in 2019, totaling 45 years.

Amy Cowell played cello in the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s when in high school. She now plays regularly as an import musician, commuting from Laramie, Wyoming.

Susan Stanton joined the orchestra in 1994, and still played violin in the symphony as of the end of the 2023-2024 season.

Richard Turner was principal bassoon with the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra starting in 1996, and is still in the orchestra. The symphony featured him as a local soloist in spring 1999, when he performed the Mozart Bassoon Concerto.

Dino Madsen played cello in the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra while a student at Casper College, in the 1990s.