Leanna Wagner

Born 25 October 1945 to Frederic and Leila (Hopkins) Shaver in Hartford, CT. She was a descendant of the original settlers of Hartford and surrounding areas to the north of Hartford in the mid to late 1600’s. Through that lineage there were relatives that fought in the Revolutionary War, including Shepards and Kelloggs, yes, she is a distant cousin!

Her parents were married and Leanna was born while her dad was finishing his time in the Army Air Corps at the end of WWII. During this period, time was spent in Casper, and the Wyoming connection began. After discharge, the family moved west from Connecticut. A sister and two brothers joined the family. Through the years they lived in Story, Sheridan and Big Horn. Leanna was a 1963 graduate of Big Horn High School.

After attending Billings Business School, Leanna moved to Hartford to live with a cousin and experience the “big city” way of life. She worked in the marketing department for a local TV affiliate.

After a time, she moved in with three roommates to a second-floor apartment. Below that apartment was a “pay-to-park” lot for a nearby apartment building. The four young ladies thought for fun, they would each choose a sports car and give a cat call whistle at the driver whenever the driver came or went. Her future husband drove a MG roadster.

In November of that year, 1965, Leanna and Dennis were married in Hartford and then headed west for his next duty station at Mare Island in northern California.

Even though Lee was a little shy, right from the beginning she never had any problems meeting people and becoming good friends with neighbors and other wives of shipmates. A couple of those friendships have lasted over 50 years!

The remaining five years of Navy time were spent in California, Hawaii, New York and finishing in New London, CT. Upon discharge, the family moved back to southern Michigan, as far west as the Navy would pay for. By the way, Leanna flew back to Michigan one week past due with our youngest daughter.

The next twenty years were spent in a couple different towns in southern Michigan. Again Lee made many lifelong friends and was involved with children activities throughout all school years for all three children.

During this time, she worked as an administrative assistant/book keeper for a machine tool shop, travel agency, accounting firm and a local newspaper. She loved to work, especially anything to do with numbers.

She and Dennis moved to Columbus, OH for his job. They were there for the next ten years and that time she worked for a large international company in their marketing and legal departments. Since she worked in the legal department for an international company and dealt with work permits, visa and so on, she now expanded her friendship making with many folks from other countries and of course remained friends with them to this date through Facebook.

In 2001, Leanna and Dennis finally made their way to Wyoming, moving to the house in Dayton that her parents had lived in. Lee continued to work for the same international company in their robot’s division as an accounts receivable clerk. She worked at this job remotely at home for another six years. She then worked as a foster grandparent, and fill in part time administrative assistant at an engineering firm. She also filled in as a receptionist for WYDOT, her favorite temp position. All the while making many new friends.

She enjoyed her “senior morning stretches” at the TRVCC, puttering with the flowers, crocheting and definitely communicating with all of her Facebook friends and relatives.

She discovered in March 2020 that she had non-operable primary liver cancer. There had been no indication of any problems until a cat scan reveal. Interventional Radiation treatments at UCHealth in Denver and immunotherapy at Welch held it in check for a while but in December the tumors stopped responding to treatment. She passed away on 6 February 2021 while in hospice at Green House Living in Sheridan.

Surviving her are Dennis, her husband of 55 years, son Tim of Sheridan, daughter Tiffany of Idaho, granddaughter Emily of Columbus, OH, grandson Carl of Tulsa, OK, sister Martha (Mike) of Roundup, MT, brother William (Connie) of Cheyenne and many cherished nieces and nephews in Colorado, California and Texas.

Preceding her in passing are her parents and brother Pleaman.

There will be two celebrations of life for Leanna. One will be the placing of a tombstone in MT Hope cemetery in Big Horn on a plot next to her parents and a second one will be on Sucker Creek in the Big Horn mountains. This was her favorite spot to fish for her “brookies”.

Dates will be set up later for in the summer.

Memorials can be made to the Tongue River Valley Community Center, PO Box 1100, Dayton, WY 82836. Online condolences may be written at www.kanefuneral.com Kane Funeral Home has been entrusted with local arrangements.