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.
Children waited for her.
Visitors photographed her.
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."
This year, however, the Pink Lady returned.
In Her Shoes
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.
"I just said yes," she recalled. "I didn't think about it."
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.
One piece, however, came directly from her mother's costume.
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."
Poodles To Pomeranian
After the decision was made, one challenge remained.
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.
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."
Then she had another idea.
"She lived to perform," Kealey said, so it made sense to advertise her dog grooming business in dramatic fashion.
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."
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.
"She was a very dramatic person in a lively, colorful way," Zink said.
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.
"We weren't going to miss the parade," Zink recalled with a laugh.
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."
More Than Pink
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.
"She'd come in and lean over my bed and kiss me goodnight,” she said.
Remembering that still brings tears.
"I loved my mom," Kealey said. "I couldn't imagine life without her."
Then she laughed while describing the woman the community adored.
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.
"They felt seen by her. She just made everybody she met feel special."
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
