Alta Mae Sheaman

Alta Mae Hathaway Sheaman

A memorial service for Alta Mae Hathaway Sheaman, 83, was conducted Nov. 20, 2007, at the Weston County Senior Services Center at 627 Pine Street in Newcastle. Cremation has taken place under the direction of Gorman Funeral Homes - Platte Chapel of Wheatland.

She died Nov. 16, at Platte County Memorial Hospital in Wheatland, after a long battle with cancer.

Alta Mae was born May 31, 1924, in Hampshire, Wyoming, to Robert and Katherine (Mulch) Shook. She graduated from high school in Newcastle in the fall of 1941, and then attended Normal School at Black Hills Teachers College in Spearfish, South Dakota. She graduated in 1943, and went on to teach at her first school, Knobby Knoll School, for one year. She then taught at the Sweet School from 1944 to December 1946 and then in Newcastle in elementary and junior high from January 1947 to May 1957. Alta Mae taught school in the winters and went to summer school every year for 14 years to finally receive her bachelor's degree in teaching.

She married Charles Edward "Ed" Hathaway on May 29, 1957. She taught at the Deming School in Cheyenne in the fall of 1958 and then in Riverton at Lincoln School from January 1959 through January 1963. Alta Mae moved to Newcastle in 1963 and Susan was born that year. Alta Mae and Susan then joined Ed in Butte, Montana at the end of 1963. Beth was born in Butte in 1965. The family moved to Torrington, in 1967 and Alta Mae taught at Torrington Elementary and the Pioneer School for 17 years, from 1968 to 1985. She retired from teaching in 1985 after 36 years of teaching entirely in the state of Wyoming.

Ed and Alta Mae purchased a farm at Glendo in 1982. Ed worked on the farm, and Alta Mae stayed in Torrington to teach until 1985 when she moved to the farm in Glendo full-time. She had plenty of time to pursue her hobbies of sewing, gardening, and cooking. She also did substitute teaching in Glendo.

Ed passed away in June 1998, and in the fall of 1998, Alta Mae moved from the farm to Wheatland. While living in Wheatland, she married Leonard L. Sheaman on Nov. 19, 2004. They resided in Wheatland until her death.

Survivors include her husband, Leonard of Wheatland; two daughters, Susan (Dennis) Shipper of Midlothian, Texas, and Beth (Randy) Cole of Douglas; a brother, Ben Shook of Newcastle; and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; four brothers, Harrison, George, Louis, and John; and her first husband, Ed Hathaway.

Memorials to assist in the purchase of reading machines for the visually impaired may be made to the Montgomery Trust Fund, 2300 Capitol Avenue, Hathaway Building, Room 143, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82002, would be appreciated by the family.

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