Vera Jean Gallogly

On June 26, 1927 a little red-haired, green eyed girl was born in Coalville TN to Clay Evans Jones and Estella Mae Lavender Jones. They named her Vera Jean. She had three older brothers and later gained three sisters and another brother. Vera Jean was valedictorian of her eighth grade class. Her love of music and singing was born and nurtured when she was young and was an abiding passion throughout her life.

The family, except for her three older brothers who were in the Army, moved to Wyoming in her late teens. She met and married Mark Moore Stevens on Valentine’s Day, 1947. The young couple homesteaded on Heart Mountain. After having survived serving in the 2nd Marine division in the Pacific, he was tragically killed in a car wreck near Lovell WY in September. Their daughter, Sandra Marquita, was born a month later.

A year later she married Raymond Nore Bjornestad, a Navy veteran, who was also homesteading on Heart Mountain. Tragedy struck againwhen their infant daughter, Berniece, died just two months after birth.The next eight years saw the family grow with the births of Russell Glen and Rita Ann (twins), Sonja Rae, Lyle Raymond, Howard Lee, and Allen Brent. However, after 17 years of marriage, the couple divorced.

William Hugh Gallogly, an Army veteran, and she were married in 1970. They lived for some time on South Fork, then made their home in Willwood. Jeannie spent many of these years painting, quilting and gardening. The couple enjoyed exploring much of the country in and around the Big Horn Basin. Bill died in 2012 in Powell WY. 

Vera Jean Gallogly died at the New Horizons Care Center in Lovell WY October 21, 2017 at 90 years old. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law Marquita and Ronald Graves, Moody TX, and her sons and daughters-in-law Russell Bjornestad, Willwood WY; Lyle and Nita Bjornestad, Powell WY; Howard and Kathy Bjornestad, Sundance WY, and Brent, Cheyenne WY;  Her sister Madeliene (Peggy) Matthews, Cody WY, and her brother Elmo and sister-in-law Deanna Jones, Lolo MT; eighteen grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.