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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Cartoon: Monday, October 6, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon: Monday, October 6, 2025

One More For The Road

Bill Sniffin and Andrew Rossi suspend their feud to honor America's 250th and pull over for lunch....

One more for 7 5 26

<title>One More For The Road: Sunday, July 5, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

One More For The Road: Sunday, July 5, 2026

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wyoming Life

For more than 40 years, Hope Sheets marched through Cody's famed Stampede Parade in a flowing pink gown, four-inch heels and an extravagant flowered hat, waving to thousands of spectators while leading a fluffy white poodle dyed bubblegum pink.

[{"type":"text","text":"Children waited for her."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Visitors photographed her."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Generations of Cody residents simply expected to see her."}]

When Sheets died in May 2025, the Pink Lady disappeared with her, and last year's Fourth of July felt different.

"It was a weird parade," said her oldest daughter, Lisa Kealey. "We were all very sad to go watch it without my mom in it."

[{"type":"text","text":"This year, however, the Pink Lady returned."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"In Her Shoes"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Kealey insists she never intended to step into her mother's famous shoes."}]

Then parade organizers invited her to help celebrate America's 250th birthday by bringing back some of the event's most iconic entries.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I just said yes,\" she recalled. \"I didn't think about it.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Only afterward did the reality sink in."}]

"I'm doing my version of my mom," Kealey said. "I'm not copy-catting her exactly, but it is the same idea. It has the same personality."

Hope's original gown wouldn't fit. Standing just over five feet tall, she was much smaller than her daughter.

Kealey sat at her sewing machine and created a new pink dress inspired by the original — one longtime Cody residents would instantly recognize, but that still reflected her own style.

[{"type":"text","text":"One piece, however, came directly from her mother's costume."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The flower-covered hat."}]

"I actually gave her that hat," Kealey said. "So now it comes full circle."

She carefully cleaned it, reshaped it and added fresh posies before wearing it down Sheridan Avenue.

"I do look quite a bit like my mom," Kealey said. "And everybody that found out is just super, super excited that I'm kind of bringing this whole thing back in honor of her."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Poodles To Pomeranian"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"After the decision was made, one challenge remained. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The Pink Lady needed a pink dog."}]

Courtney asked the community if anyone had a white poodle she could borrow.

"I was shocked at how many people came forward to offer their dog," she said.

At one point she nearly settled on Roscoe, a large Goldendoodle whose owner had even bought him tiny pink Crocs.

"It was hilarious," Kealey said, but ultimately, Roscoe was simply too much dog.

Instead, she found a tiny white Pomeranian to be professionally groomed and dyed before the parade.

"She'll look like a little stuffed animal out there," she said ahead of the march. 

For a few blocks through downtown Cody, spectators once again saw a flash of pink, a fluffy pink dog, and a familiar flowered hat.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Performance Art"}]

Long before she became the Pink Lady, Hope Sheets was already well known around Wyoming.

She and her husband, Lloyd, traveled the country performing music before eventually settling in Cody, where the family became known for singing and entertaining together.

When health problems ended her singing career, Sheets found another stage.

She opened a dog grooming business with the slogan, "There's Hope for Your Pooch."

[{"type":"text","text":"Then she had another idea."}]

"She lived to perform," Kealey said, so it made sense to advertise her dog grooming business in dramatic fashion. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The gimmick worked."}]

"It was just kind of a cool, catchy thing to do," Kealey said. "She was very brilliant, very creative, and it just took hold."

Soon, the Pink Lady became one of the Cody Stampede Parade's most recognizable figures.

Kealey laughs that many people remember the pink dress before anything else.

"It's hilarious that she's known for that when she was such an amazing musician and singer."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Cody Original"}]

"She was alive and nutty and crazy," is how Jenny Zink remembers her longtime friend.

Their shared love of performing quickly grew into a friendship that lasted more than three decades.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"She was a very dramatic person in a lively, colorful way,\" Zink said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The parade simply amplified who Hope already was."}]

"She walked in three-inch heels all the way down the parade route and just waved," Zink remembered. "People would run out from the crowd and give her a hug."

Even after breaking her ankle while rescuing one of her beloved poodles, Hope refused to miss the parade.

Instead, Zink dressed as a nurse and pushed her the entire route in a wheelchair, her cast stretched proudly out front while the pink poodle trotted alongside.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We weren't going to miss the parade,\" Zink recalled with a laugh."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Hope's absence last year didn't go unnoticed."}]

"People would ask why she wasn't in the parade," Zink said. "They just couldn't imagine that she would be missing a parade after all those years."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than Pink"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"To Kealey, her mother was much more than Cody's Pink Lady."}]

"She was an irreverent, brilliant, funny, naughty and loving, eccentric person,” she said.

Growing up, Kealey remembers waiting for Hope to come home after late-night performances.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"She'd come in and lean over my bed and kiss me goodnight,” she said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Remembering that still brings tears."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I loved my mom,\" Kealey said. \"I couldn't imagine life without her.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then she laughed while describing the woman the community adored. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Kealey chuckled before describing another side of her mother."}]

"She was narcissistic,” she said. "She would be out there to see who could see her, but in the process of seeing who could see her, she saw other people too.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They felt seen by her. She just made everybody she met feel special.\""}]

Cody Stampede Parade 3

<title>Cody’s ‘Pink Lady’ Back In Stampede Parade As Daughter Continues 40-Year Legacy | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Hope Sheets was a fixture for four decades in the Cody Stampede Parade as the “Pink Lady.” More than a year after her death, her daughter has stepped into the iconic pink dress to keep the tradition alive. "I'm doing my version of my mom," she said.

Cody’s ‘Pink Lady’ Back In Stampede Parade As Daughter Continues 40-Year Legacy

Bill Sniffin

Opinion

CSD Columnists

Right now, three of the hottest sectors in America's economy are data centers, advanced nuclear energy, and robotics.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Wyoming is batting .667."}]

We are becoming a national leader in two of those three industries, data centers and advanced nuclear power. Not bad for a state that, just five years ago, seemed to be wondering whether its economic future was behind it instead of ahead of it.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"What a difference five years can make."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Grim Times In 2021"}]

Back in 2021, I wrote that Wyoming's economy reminded me of the famous business book 

After living for generations off severance taxes from coal, oil and natural gas, Wyoming suddenly found itself trying to maintain the same level of government services without the revenue that had always paid the bills.

In just a few words, we were trying to finance a champagne lifestyle on a beer budget.

Spencer Johnson's little book tells the story of mice who suddenly discover that their dependable supply of cheese has disappeared. Some immediately begin looking for new cheese. Others spend their time wondering who moved it and hoping it will somehow return.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"That sounded a lot like Wyoming."}]

For more than a century, our "cheese" was fossil fuels.

Ever since pioneers skimmed oil from the Dallas Dome seep south of Lander in the 1800s, Wyoming has been an energy state. Coal, oil, natural gas, trona and uranium built our economy. They paid for our highways, schools, university buildings, community colleges, prisons, state parks and countless other public services.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The Good Times"}]

During the boom years from roughly 2002 through 2012, it seemed the good times would never end.

New schools sprang up across Wyoming. The University of Wyoming added impressive new facilities. The Hathaway Scholarship opened doors for thousands of students. We built roads, invested in infrastructure, and, fortunately, squirreled away billions of dollars into permanent trust funds and rainy-day accounts.

That was one of the smartest things Wyoming ever did.

Today those permanent funds total well over $30 billion. The investment earnings help support state government every year.

So, let's be clear. Wyoming was never broke. We always had tremendous assets.

What we don't have is enough cash flow to continue paying today's bills the way we once did.

That is the same challenge faced by many Wyoming ranchers, farmers and small business owners. They may own land worth millions of dollars, but they still have to make next month's payroll.

The difference is that Wyoming's Constitution requires a balanced budget.

Unlike Washington, D.C., we cannot simply borrow another trillion dollars and send the bill to our grandchildren.

Our Legislature has only two choices. Increase revenue. Or reduce spending.

Most lawmakers appear committed to reducing spending.

Some have even signed pledges opposing any new taxes under any circumstances. I admire their discipline, although I sometimes wonder if governing requires a little more flexibility than signing a pledge.

As a result, education, state agencies and many long-standing programs are preparing for another difficult round of budget reductions.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Arithmetic usually wins these debates."}]

But while lawmakers wrestle with budgets, something remarkable has happened in the private sector.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Opportunity Has Arrived"}]

Artificial intelligence has created an unprecedented demand for massive data centers. These facilities require enormous amounts of electricity, abundant land, dependable infrastructure and a cool climate to reduce cooling costs.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Sound familiar?"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"That describes Wyoming almost perfectly."}]

Suddenly, one of our greatest natural resources is not just coal or natural gas.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"It is electricity."}]

America's technology giants are searching for places that can generate huge amounts of reliable power. Wyoming has been producing energy for the rest of the nation for generations. We know how to do it.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Then there is advanced nuclear energy."}]

Who would have imagined just a decade ago that Wyoming would become one of America's leading laboratories for next-generation nuclear power?

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Yet here we are."}]

The TerraPower project near Kemmerer is attracting national attention and billions of dollars in investment. Instead of talking only about replacing lost coal jobs, Wyoming is helping pioneer an entirely new generation of clean, reliable electricity.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"That is a remarkable turnaround."}]

Ironically, Wyoming never stopped being an energy state.

The type of energy is changing. Our expertise is not.

The future may include coal, natural gas, wind, solar, uranium and advanced nuclear power all working together to supply the electricity America increasingly needs.

And that brings us back to those data centers.

Artificial intelligence isn't just another passing technology fad. Experts believe AI will transform medicine, education, manufacturing, finance, agriculture and transportation. Every AI search, every image, every medical diagnosis and every business application depends upon enormous computing power housed in data centers.

Those buildings are essentially giant warehouses filled with computers that consume astonishing amounts of electricity.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Wyoming can provide that electricity."}]

That may become one of the biggest economic opportunities our state has seen in decades.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Looking Ahead"}]

No, we are not yet a leader in robotics. Maybe that comes next.

But if Wyoming dominates two of the three fastest-growing sectors in America's economy, I will happily take that batting average.

Five years ago, then-Senate President Ogden Driskill gave me one of the best descriptions of Wyoming's budget situation I have ever heard.

"The fat is gone," he said. "Most of the muscle has been gnawed away. Now we're chewing on the bones."

He wasn't exaggerating. Today, however, I believe there is reason for cautious optimism.

Our old severance-tax cheese may never return in the quantities we once enjoyed. Coal will almost certainly never again provide the revenues it once did.

But perhaps Wyoming has finally found some new cheese. And unlike the mice in Spencer Johnson's little book, maybe we have discovered that the smartest response to change isn't mourning what we lost. It's recognizing what we've found.

For the first time in several years, Wyoming's future looks a little brighter than its past.

That is a welcome change. And, as Meat Loaf reminded us all those years ago, sometimes two out of three really isn't bad.

Bill can be reached at Bill@CowboyStateDaily.com

Sniffin headshot 7 2 25

<title>Bill Sniffin: Data Centers And Nuclear Plants – Wyoming Is The Envy Of The World | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Bill Sniffin writes: “Right now, three of the hottest sectors in America's economy are data centers, advanced nuclear energy, and robotics. Wyoming is batting .667. We are becoming a national leader in data centers and advanced nuclear power."

Bill Sniffin: Data Centers And Nuclear Plants – Wyoming Is The Envy Of The World

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Crime & Courts

Belynda May Grantham was a 20-year-old single mother still finding her footing when her partially clothed body was recovered from the bottom of the North Platte River outside of Glenrock, a rock tied to her neck, in August 1982. 

Grantham had been strangled. She lay submerged for days before a passing bicyclist spotted her.

It would take nearly a month and a newspaper sketch before anyone could identify her.

[{"type":"text","text":"Her murder has never been solved."}]

For her only remaining sibling, Rebecca Grantham, her sister’s death remains a source of pain. At 67 and in ailing health, she’d like to see someone brought to justice.

“She was a really good, smart girl who could have literally done anything with her life if given the chance,” Rebecca said of her younger sister.

[{"type":"text","text":"Her hope is to get answers before she dies."}]

The investigation remains active and ongoing, according to Ryan Cox, a commander with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation who also oversees the agency’s cold-case team.

Cox, too, said he believes it’s not too late to finally solve this crime and asks anyone with information to come forward.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Push For Answers"}]

The murder has never stopped haunting her. Now living in Sacramento, California, Rebecca has teamed with Amanda Patterson in her quest for answers.

Patterson is the daughter of Bonnie Jones, Grantham’s best friend from their teenage years in Casper.

The two women were each carrying their own unresolved grief when they first connected on Facebook. Patterson had been helping her ailing mother type messages online and, through that, formed a bond with Rebecca.

After Jones passed away in February, they remained in touch. In early June, the two created 

the Facebook page “Justice for Belinda May Grantham

At some point during her teens, Grantham began spelling her first name “Belinda,” though never had it legally changed. For this reason, her name appears both ways in news stories about her murder.

The page shares news articles about the murder and the long-unidentified body, along with pleas for anyone with information to reach out to authorities.

Their hope was to renew interest in Grantham’s case and to invite people who knew her to share their memories and photographs — something Rebecca is especially eager for, as she has only one of her sister from childhood.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Putting Together Pieces"}]

Much like her death, the details of Grantham’s life in her final years remain a mystery to those who loved her. 

She was born in Washington state and her family moved through the Pacific Northwest before settling in Casper in 1963.

When Grantham and her siblings were teenagers, their mother, Jeanette, died, upending their lives. According to her obituary, Jeanette died after a lengthy illness at age 36 in November 1974.

Before her mother’s death, Grantham had been a straight-A student. She competed in the Future Farmers of America and took home ribbons for her homemade clothing at the 1977 Central Wyoming Fair. She made the honor roll at East Junior High School.

After losing her mother, Grantham struggled to find her bearings and ran away from time to time.

Their father remarried quickly, and the children, unable to get along with their new stepmother, scattered to relatives’ homes. They drifted in and out of group homes and foster care.

[{"type":"text","text":"There she met a tight group of friends, including Bonnie Jones."}]

Grantham and Jones had an instant connection, Patterson said. In fact, they were so close that Jones gave Grantham a friendship ring, which would be used to help identify her later.

Somewhere around 1978 and 1979, Grantham left Casper to work with a traveling carnival headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She did that for two years before returning to Wyoming.

 By then, Jones had moved to Wichita, Kansas, and the best friends stayed in touch through letters and phone calls.

In April 1981, Grantham gave birth to a baby girl, according to a birth announcement in the Casper-Star Tribune, which listed her address as Mills, Wyoming. It’s unclear if the father of the child was in her life at the time.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Piecing Together Mystery"}]

More than 40 years later, Belinda’s final days continue to baffle her family.

Just as mysterious as her murder is what Grantham’s life was like during that time. This was the era before cell phones, social media and surveillance cameras and the modern trappings that log peoples’ every move and help them stay connected to friends and family.

In 1980s, people communicated with landline telephones in their home and through letters.

Because Grantham tended to move around a lot, her loved ones didn’t piece together that she was missing.

“Because of this established pattern, her absence did not immediately alarm her family and friends,” Cox said.

Then they saw the sketch of the unidentified dead women in the paper and reality hit them hard.

Writing about that moment years later, the girls’ aunt, Jean Henry Mead, spoke of the shock of seeing the drawing in the paper.

“I gasped when I noticed the drawing of a murder victim in the newspaper one morning ...,” Mead 

Not long after, she received a frantic call from her mother-in-law, Grantham’s grandmother.

“No, it can’t be Belinda,” she wrote.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Happened That Night?"}]

Her friends and family scrambled to sort out the mystery of Grantham’s last steps.

In July, Grantham and a male friend took a trip to Kansas to see Jones but were unable to connect with her because she wasn’t home when they arrived, Patterson said.

For this reason, many of her friends had assumed Grantham was still in Kansas at the time of her disappearance.

Her living situation was fluid at that point, Cox said, but Grantham was reported to have been staying on and off with a family in Mills in the months leading up to her death.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Also unclear are her final moments."}]

Multiple witnesses report seeing her at the Husky Truck Stop and, later, at the Central Wyoming Fair, he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Her last sighting was at about 8:30 p.m. Aug. 2 at the fair."}]

Cox further stated that records indicate Grantham was unemployed, but given the nature of carnival work could not rule out that she might have been at the fair working that night.

[{"type":"text","text":"Rebecca told Cox that it was highly possible she may have been."}]

It’s been 44 years since a young Casper woman was found dead in the North Platte River with a rock tied around her neck. The murder has never stopped haunting her older sister Rebecca. In failing health, Rebecca is hoping to find answers before she dies.

Daily Cartoon: Monday, October 6, 2025

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