Dorothy Updike

In the quiet and calm early morning of January 15, 2024, Dorothy Anne “Din” Updike slipped away from the confines of her frail body and into the loving arms of Jesus, welcomed into paradise by the family who awaited her. 

Born on October 19, 1936, the second of three children to Albert and Fern Nelson, Din was a member of a sprawling family of early Jackson’s Hole settlers. Her formative years were spent working hard on family homesteads, playing and riding horses with her siblings, studying sports at school, and doing her best to help out as was expected, despite the limitations that severe asthma and debilitating migraines placed upon her. 

Din always felt that her life would take her outside of Jackson, so after graduating high school, Din attended the University of Florida and then the University of Wyoming, where she met David “Bud” Updike at a sorority/fraternity function. They were married on January 2, 1958, in Laramie Wyoming, before Bud was drafted and left law school for Army basic training.  Upon the completion of Bud’s Army training, and Din’s college graduation, they lived in Germany where Bud was stationed for over a year.  Din always described her time spent in Europe as happy and exciting, even though the 30-day Transatlantic sea voyage to get there was daunting.

When Bud’s national service ended, he and Din returned to the United States and Wyoming, making their home in Newcastle. Din began her career as a High School English instructor for Weston County School District Number One and served to impart her knowledge and understanding of language and literature to students for several years.  Above all, Din was a Teacher and she performed her craft well.

In the 1960s Din and Bud welcomed daughters Deanne and Dana, and Din left behind her career in pursuit of motherhood. She cared very much about supporting her daughters in their development, education, and careers; Din could always be counted on to offer advice or guidance, sew a costume, edit a term paper, or attend a volleyball or basketball game.  She always had time for a telephone chat and could always be counted on to laugh the hardest at a story Bud, Deanne, or Dana might tell. Din loved her daughters and, after they arrived, adored her grandsons.

Bud and Din made their home in Newcastle until the family business was sold in the late 1990s, at which time they moved to Casper, Wyoming to be more centrally located to family across the state. They then resided briefly in Mesquite, Nevada before Bud’s death; subsequently, Din moved to Sheridan, Wyoming for the remainder of her years.

Din possessed a keen intellect, and it led her to pursue many passions across her life. While Bud and Din lived in Newcastle, Din was a member of Eastern Star and 21st Century Club, and she served with pride as a member of the Weston County School District #1 Board of Education. Din sang in the Methodist church choir until her asthma, lung disease and allergies stole her sustained breath capacity.  She played the piano, guitar, and autoharp, and she dabbled in ceramics, painting, gardening, and photography; she was an accomplished seamstress and a genealogy enthusiast. Din was a lifelong gun enthusiast, starting as a child with her ranching family. She participated in the University of Wyoming’s marksman team and then later in life, the senior Olympics games in Mesquite, Nevada, where she medaled in marksmanship.

Din was passionate about animal welfare and critical of politics. Din loved language and served as an uncredited ghost writer and editor for her mother’s published works as well as a trusted editor for her daughters’ graduate theses. 

As a language lover, Din was always a voracious reader; one of her favorite poems – a piece by James Weldon Johnson – is apt, and with liberty quoted in paraphrase here:

From ‘Go Down Death’ –

‘Weep not, weep not, She is not dead; She’s resting in the bosom of Jesus. Left-lonesome daughter–weep no more; She only just gone home.’

Dorothy Ann Nelson Updike leaves behind her daughters Deanne (James) Wyssmann and Dana (Kyle) Graham, grandsons Jonathan Updike, Zachary Kawulok, Kameron Graham, Dylan Graham, and Seger Updike-Wyssmann, sister Karen Mefford, sister-in-law Beverly Nelson and many nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her husband David W. Updike, parents Albert and Fern Nelson, brother Albert “Boots” Nelson, brothers-in-law Robert “Bob” Updike and William “Bill” Mefford, and sisters-in-law Dorothy “Dot” Updike and Mary Updike.

At Din’s request, there will be no memorial service; she will be escorted to interment in her family cemetery within Grand Teton National Park in the summer of 2024. Online condolences may be made to www.sheridanfuneral.com. Arrangements are under the care of Sheridan Funeral Home.