Vol. 29, No. 3 #6 (June 2006). Musings of an Old Country Lawyer.

• Author: By Donald N. Sherard

Wyoming Bar Journal

2006.

Vol. 29, No. 3 #6 (June 2006).

Musings of an Old Country Lawyer

WYOMING LAWYERJune 2006/Vol. 29, No. 3Musings of an Old Country LawyerBy Donald N. Sherard

By way of background, my parents, Nelson H. Sherard and Adella Hubbs, as children came to Wyoming by covered wagons with their families from Missouri and Illinois, respectively. They were married in 1895 in what was then a part of Laramie County, Wyoming. My three older brothers, Oscar, Raymond, Floyd and I were raised on a small ranch near LaGrange, Wyoming. In 1931, William and Sophia Wendt moved from Nebraska with their family, including their youngest daughter, Clara Jean, to a farm approximately one mile from my parents' home near LaGrange, Wyoming.

On October 5, 1947, Clara Jean and I were married in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and we were blessed with three children: Dr. Brent Sherard, presently the State Health Office and department head of the Wyoming Department of Health; Stephen N. Sherard, my law partner in Wheatland since 1980, and my daughter, Sally Jean Oates, a high school teacher at Kelly Walsh High School in Casper, Wyoming. Clara Jean and I enjoyed 56 years of married life until she died March 16, 2004 from cancer.

This year Alice Pontarolo and I were married in Wheatland, Wyoming.

After returning from military service in World War II with the 15th Air Force, I completed my pre-law curriculum and graduated from the University of Wyoming College of Law. On September 6, 1949, I was admitted to practice law in the State of Wyoming. I purchased a small law library and a lease in Wheatland from Mr. O. O Natwick, an elderly and highly respected attorney who was a former State Land Commissioner and State Liquor Commissioner.

I opened a law office and hoped that I could attract some clients. Business was lean during the balance of 1949. It was lonely without clients so I spent considerable time across the street in the basement of Woods Grocery playing ping-pong with Mr. Frank Woods, the owner of the store. When a prospective client wanted to see me, Virginia Gibb, the secretary of the Wheatland Irrigation District, with whom I officed, would call the store and a clerk would call me up from the basement. I would then sneak in the back door of my office and come to greet my client with much enthusiasm. When the office conference was over I...