Sen. Al Simpson a frequent visitor to Big Horn County

Even though they spent much of their public lives in Washington, D.C., and Cody, the late Alan Simpson and his wife Ann were frequent visitors to Big Horn County.

Ann, maiden name Schroll, grew up in Greybull and attended school here until her senior year, when she moved with her mother to Laramie. She finished high school there, attended the University of Wyoming and graduated in 1953.

The next year, Ann and Alan Simpson of Cody were married.

While their careers took them around the world, Ann never forgot her roots. In 2021, she was one of the grand marshals of the Days of ‘49 parade. She rode up Greybull Avenue on a horse-drawn wagon led by Stan Flitner of Shell.

A little further back, in April 2012, the Simpsons were the guests of honor at an after-hours fundraiser at the Greybull Public Library, held in conjunction with National Library Week.  The event raised $2,500 for the library’s endowment fund, all of which was eligible for the three-to-one match. 

During their appearance, Ann and Alan shared memories of their courtship, when Ann was living in the Greybull Heights and Alan was attending high school in Cody.

Here’s some of what the Standard reported in its next issue:

Ann said her grandparents were on their way to search for gold in California when they stopped in Shell. “Well it must have been a perfect day because they bought a ranch, and on that ranch was a store,” said Ann. “People kept coming to that store. … Eventually they thought it would be easier to run a store than a ranch, so he built the Shell Store, and lived in a house adjacent to the store.”

When the store was no longer profitable, the family — they had two girls, Ivy and Pansy, and a boy, Jack — moved to Greybull. Pansy eventually married, and to that union two girls and a boy were born.

Ann said her father died of a brain tumor when she was a junior at Greybull High School.  At the time, her brother was attending the University of Wyoming. Her mother, feeling it important for the girls to get their education, moved the family to Laramie, where Ann finished high school.

Ann said it was her mother who told her about “two tall boys from Cody,” but Ann admitted that she and her sister immediately ruled them out because they wouldn’t dance.  “Back in those days, our weekly dances were big social events in Greybull,” Ann said. “Worland boys, they were preferred because they were dancers.”

Ann would eventually backtrack and come to like one of those “tall Cody boys.” She was in her senior year at college when she got two teaching opportunities — one in California, the other in Cheyenne.

“I think he panicked … and said if I stayed in Cheyenne, we could get married. Well fortunately for him, I said not for another year.  He was relieved.”

They married in 1954, and Ann shared memories of campaigning for Alan’s father, who was running for governor. “We went door to door and through the process, I learned a wonderful life lesson,” Ann said. “That is, if you extend yourself, people respond.”

They eventually had a small, intimate wedding.  

Al went on to serve in the military, spending time in Germany.  

As he looked back on those days, Alan said, “When she first saw my brother and I, she was not enamored at all,” he said. “I weighed 230 pounds and had zits.  She came to a junior high game in Cody one day. … She was a knockout then and still is.”

Alan said he “took a lot of abuse” when his team played in Greybull. “I couldn’t run, I couldn’t jump, but I could shoot that basketball,” he said. “We won the conference championship that year, beating Lovell and the Goodriches.”

Laughed Ann, “And because we were all fair-minded people, we called him ‘Fatso’ when he was making all those shots.”

Ann said she and her family lived on the property that is now home to Dan Brown Trucking, which is in the Greybull Heights. “My life here started me on a good course, and what I learned here carried me through life.”

Alan represented Wyoming in the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 1997, and the couple shared a few memories of their time in Washington, D.C.

Ann and Alan both laughed about an experience while with the Bushes, George and Barbara, at Kennebunkport.  It was a small, intimate gathering, and everyone who attended was asked to do something unique.  Ann stood on her head and recited poetry. According to Alan, George still chuckles about it to this day.  Says Ann, “I haven’t stood on my head for 20 years!”

Alan was asked at one point if it was true that President Reagan called him into the Oval Office to tell jokes.

“Reagan was a piece of work,” said Simpson. “When Nancy would go to see her father in Scottsdale, he’d call and say, ‘Come over to the White House. We’re going to have a drink and tell stories — and not talk anything to do with business.”

Simpson said he and a small gathering of other legislators, including a couple Democrats, “would sit, tell stories and laugh” until the 10 o’clock hour arrived and it was time to go home.  Often times, Reagan “would have on those green pants with the ducks, a pink turtleneck and a pink sport coat,” chuckled Alan.

During this time, Ann helped the family make ends meet by selling real estate in Washington, D.C.

Alan and Ann continued sharing stories — of the times Sen. Bob Dole asked him last-minute to fill in for him at official state events and the working suppers at the home of Washington Post chief Kay Graham.  But in the end, they came back around to their roots.

“Thanks to Al, I had a wonderful life,” said Ann. “But I was prepared for it in Greybull, Wyoming.”