Grace Raymond Hebard - Final Days

Final Days

Grace Hebard retired from teaching in 1931. Yet she continued to research and collect historical material in her Laramie home, known to students and colleagues as "The Doctors Inn". Hebard lived in this house that she had had built with her friend, Agnes M. Wergeland, who died in 1914. Grace's sister Alice Marvin Hebard then lived there until her death in 1928.

Hebard died October 1936 at the age of 75. "To the time of death, she was a dominant -- and perhaps domineering -- figure on campus." The University of Wyoming held a memorial program in her honor later that month. The influence and impact of Hebard's life in part can be measured by the attendees at her funeral and contributors to the 50-page "In Memoriam" program published by the her fellow faculty.

The memorial service had the trappings of a state funeral featuring testimonials from:

• Mr. and Mrs. Bryant Butler Brooks, former Wyoming governor
• Robert D. Carey, United States senator and former Wyoming governor
• Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and former president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance
• Frank Pierrepont Graves, president of the University of the State of New York; third University of Wyoming president
• W. H. Jackson, pioneer photographer and former member of Hayden Geological Survey
• Agnes Wright Spring, former Wyoming State Historian. Colorado State Historian.

The written tributes and eulogies following Hebard's death that colleagues, students, and friends delivered were added to Hebard's personal papers. Those papers are part of an extensive collection of documents that still bear Hebard's name today. The collection includes an almost terse tribute by Carrie Chapman Catt that overlooks Hebard's contributions to national suffragism for women:

"I shall miss Dr. Hebard more than words can say. My sympathy is extended to the University and all the Wyoming friends. She lived a great life."

Other contributors to the memorial program characteristically presented Hebard as a multi-faceted, action-driven feminist with a penchant for history and trail marking. Furthermore, Hebard garnered recognition as the first woman admitted to the Wyoming State Bar Association (1898) followed by her being admitted to practice before the Wyoming Supreme Court (1914). Hebard's peers also recognized her involvement in a variety of civic and public affairs, such as supporting American troops in World War Iby selling war bonds and planting Victory Gardens. Moreover, she successfully spearheaded passage of a 1923 Wyoming child labor law.

Youth, particularly University of Wyoming students, played a special role in Hebard's career, as noted by testimonials from fellow students, faculty, and citizens. The memorial service program included a statement by university President Crane, "Above all she was a friend to generations of students." Similarly, an October 12, 1936, editorial in the student newspaper, the Branding Iron, noted: "In the death of Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard the students of the University have lost a friend."

Hebard furthered her legacy with students by funding a number of scholarships, including:

• The Agnes Mathilde Wergeland Memorial History Scholarship
• The Alice Marven Hebard Memorial Fund
• Hebard Map Scholarship Fund

The intrepid Hebard is buried across the street from campus at the Greenhill Cemetery in Laramie in a plot near her sister and teacher, Alice, and Wergeland. A plaque memorializing Hebard is mounted on the famed Oregon Trail icon, Independence Rock; located in barren central Wyoming, about 50 miles southwest of Casper.