Miriam Elizabeth Wood Olinger

Miriam E. Wood Olinger

Long-time Cheyenne resident Miriam E. Wood Olinger died Monday, Oct. 31, 1994. She moved to Cheyenne in 1939 and had lived there since. She was born Dec. 13, 1915, in Lander, Miriam E. Smith. Her father, Dr. W. Francis Smith, was a well-known Fremont County doctor. Her mother, Agnes Warburton Smith, had been a bookkeeper in her parents' hardware store of eastern Iowa.

Dr. W. Francis Smith arrived in Lander in 1906, by stagecoach. Liking the setting and the mountains, he spent the rest of his life here, with the exception of a few years overseas during World War One. Agnes Smith's story of their six-week honeymoon pack trip through the Wind River Mountains in one of the family treasures.

Miriam E. Smith graduated from Brownell School for Girls in Omaha in 1930, and from Mills College, Calif., in 1934 with a degree in Psychology. She then attended Katherine Gibbs School in Boston. After returning to Wyoming she worked several years for the Lander schools, then went to Cheyenne in 1939 with the State Workman's Compensation for four years.

She was married in 1942 to George F. Wood, who died in 1977. They had two children, George F. Wood of Denver and Marilyn of Nevada City, Calif.

She was married in 1986 to Donald Olinger, also of Cheyenne and Lusk.

She was an active member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church where she was recently honored for 54 years service on the Altar Guild.

She is survived by her husband, Donald J. "Dogue" Olinger, her children, George and Marilyn Wood, her stepson, Jim Olinger of Austin, Texas, and Todd Wood, her grandson, of Tokyo, Japan.

Services were held at St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Thursday at 10 a.m. A graveside service was held in Lander at 10 a.m. on Friday.

Contributions may be made to St. Mark's Episcopal Church of a charity of your choice.

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