Malcolm "Mike" Ira Hammer

Malcolm Ira Hammer

Malcolm Ira Hammer, 84, died July 28, 1996, at Niobrara County Memorial Hospital in Lusk, following a short illness. Funeral services will be Thursday, Aug. 1, 1996, at 10 a.m. at the Bader Funeral Home with the Rev. Mark Lohr officiating. Burial will follow at the Lusk Cemetery. Memorials are to the charity of the donor's choice.

The Lusk Herald
August 7, 1996
Malcolm Ira Hammer

The Funeral services were held Thursday, August 1, 1996 at 10 a.m. for Malcolm Ira Hammer, age 84, at the Bader Funeral Home in Lusk with the Rev. Mark Lohr officiating. Burial followed at the Lusk cemetery. For those who wish, memorials to the charity of the donors choice will be appreciated by the family.

Malcolm Ira (Mike) Hammer died July 28, 1996 at Niobrara County Memorial Hospital in Lusk following a short illness. He was born December 12, 1911 at Hillsdale, Wyo., the son of Ira and Gertrude (Fish) Hammer. He spent the first years of his life on the family homestead near Hillsdale and attended the country school near the homestead through sixth grade. In 1924 the family moved near Cheyenne where they operated a dairy. Mike completed his education there, graduating from Cheyenne High School with the class of 1931. He completed the necessary course work to receive a teaching certificate. In the fall of 1932 he moved to Cassa, Wyo., where he taught school for one term. He attended the summer session at the University of Wyoming in 1934 to renew his certificate but was unable to find a teaching job due to discrimination against male teachers.

Work was scarce and he joined the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) camp near Guernsey in the fall of 1934 and spent until the spring of 1936 there. He later worked for a trucking firm that hauled freight between Guernsey, Denver and Casper. He worked for a time for A.M. Downey in Glendo driving truck. On January 8, 1938 he married Viola (Toots) Payne in Wheatland. The couple began a ranching operation that continues to this day. They also worked cutting fence posts in the hills near Cassa during the first two winters of their marriage, while their livestock were left in the care of Toot's parents. They lived on several rented places in the Cedartop area east of Glendo until 1945 when they purchased their ranch by Sheep Mountain east of Glendo. While living there, their two sons Marvin and Louis were born. Due to a closing of the country school, the Hammer family moved from the ranch to a small acreage near Lusk in 1960 to be closer to schools for the children. Mike worked for the Town of Lusk, as meter reader for a time, and was also employed by Petrolane as a LP gas delivery truck driver. He later delivered fuel for the Conoco bulk plant in Lusk for a number of years as well as maintaining an interest in the ranching operation.

After his retirement from Conoco in 1987, he devoted his time to reading, doing crossword puzzles and helping around the ranch. As his health failed in later years he spent time watching TV, doing puzzles and playing solitaire. He also wrote a history of his early life for his children and grandchildren to remember him by.

He was preceded in death by his parents, step-mother Mary Hammer, a sister, Dorothy Pierce, and an infant son David Neal. Survivors include his wife, Toots, son Marvin and wife Joyce and their daughters, Amy Grace and Martha; and son Louis, all of Lusk. He is also survived by his brothers Marvin Hammer of Van Nuys, Calif., and George Hammer of Miami, Fla.

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