Remembering Stormy

As we all prepare to give thanks for our many blessings this Thursday for Thanksgiving, we at your community newspaper are mourning yet another fallen colleague, our third in three years.

We lost talented Dusty McClure in 2022, community favorite Sam Smith in 2023 and our beloved Stormy Jameson this Sunday, Nov. 23, after a hard-fought battle with metastatic breast and bone cancer.

It’s almost too much to bear for our small, tight-knit staff, who watched Stormy valiantly battle this painful, fast-moving scourge, and yet we do give thanks this week, blessed as we have been by Stormy’s presence in our lives.

Stormy has been part of our newspaper family, on and off, since 2011, when she joined our team as the advertising manager. She left to raise her growing family in 2013 and returned to us as advertising manager in May of 2023, adding duties as the lead reporter in May of 2025.

Coming to Lovell with a marketing degree, she did a great job for us as ad manager in two different stints, and when we needed a lead reporter this spring, she stepped up to the plate. She had already been writing for the paper for a couple of years and won a Wyoming Press Association first-place Pacemaker blue ribbon in the Sports Feature category in January for her story about Cleve Wilson competing in the 100-mile run in the Big Horn Mountains.

When asked to take over lead reporter duties for us in the spring, she didn’t bat an eye, jumping at the challenge with gusto. She could write features, sports or hard news, and she could handle a camera well. She had a professional manner that her interview subjects appreciated, while also making them feel at home with her friendly nature.

She wrote “dad jokes” for the mailing crew each week, uttering her trademark “heh-heh” as she read the possibilities. Her smile could light up a room, and her enthusiasm for life was infectious.

We considered Stormy to be our Swiss Army knife colleague, a person who could do virtually anything we needed: writing, reporting, ad sales, business work, customer service, photography and computer graphics. We joked that there wasn’t anything Stormy couldn’t do for the paper, and we respected her tremendously for her work. Indeed, she told me how she felt valued in her work at the paper.

When cancer struck hard this summer and spread rapidly this fall, Stormy never wavered or complained. She met the challenge head-on, like the strong athlete and coach that she was, but ultimately it was simply too much, and with delays between out-of-town doctor’s appointments and medical testing at various locations, the cancer overtook her, and she entered the hospice program about a month ago.

True to Stormy’s good nature, love for all and personality, when one of us would visit Stormy in the hospital, we would come away uplifted. We were supposed to give her comfort, and she gave us comfort. Invariably, each one of us would feel better after a visit designed to make her feel better, such was her nature.

I was last able to communicate with Stormy on Monday, Nov. 17. She had become generally unresponsive while I was away at state football, but when she heard me talking to her mom, she focused in as I came to her bedside and said simply, “Hey.” I told her we had entered some more of her stories in the Press Association contest, and she seemed to smile a bit before drifting off again.

Stormy was 39, and she leaves behind four children who she absolutely adored, plus her other family members and legions of friends. It’s just not fair. This young woman has been through a lot and handled her challenges with grace and aplomb. In spite of her condition, she never lost her smile and her great spirit.

She was special, one of the best colleagues I’ve had in my 41-plus years at the Chronicle, a hard worker and effective leader with great energy, passion for the paper and enthusiasm for her school and community.

Rest in peace, Stormy. We will truly miss you.

And please, three is quite enough.