Nanon Lou (Nan) Sanderson

Jun. 19, 1926 – Jan. 29, 2021

Nanon Lou Sanderson, 94, a resident of Bonnie Bluejacket Memorial Nursing Home, formerly of Greybull, died peacefully on Friday afternoon at the hospital at Three Rivers Health Care on Jan. 29, 2021. 

She was born Jun. 19, 1926, in New York City, N.Y., the daughter of Oral and Randa Harvey.  Randa and Oral had gone from Wyoming to New York City where Oral was attending school with intentions of becoming either a doctor or a dentist following service in the US Army during WWI in France. Harry S. Truman was President and a loaf of bread was 13 cents. Following their time in New York, she returned to Wyoming with her parents. She was raised there at their home on Greybull Heights along with her older brother, Richard. She attended school in Greybull up through her sophomore year at Greybull High School, and attended her junior and senior year of high school at Mount St. Gertrude Academy in Boulder, Colo. Her brother Richard was attending college in Boulder at CU, and Nan went there to be with her mother, Randa, while Richard was recuperating from an illness. After graduation, she went to Nurses Training at Carroll College in Helena, Mont., then to Warm Springs, Mont., for three months of Psychiatric Training, and then to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Billings, Mont., where she finished her nurses training. Her training was sponsored by the U.S. Government under a program called the US Cadet Nurse Corp to fill a critical shortage of nurses incident to WW1I. Following nurses training, she returned in November of 1946 to Greybull, where she met her future husband, Robert Sanderson, who had returned home from serving in the US Marines in the Pacific in WWII. 

Nan married Robert Sanderson Jan. 26, 1947, in Red Lodge, Mont. They made their home in Greybull, Wyo., where they lived for the rest of their lives. There they raised their three sons, Tim, Brant, and Dirk, and one daughter, Candace.

Nan served her community as a nurse in the Greybull/Basin area until her retirement. She worked in the Greybull hospital, the WY Tuberculosis Sanitarium in Basin, Wyo. (later changed to its current function as the Wyoming Retirement Home), as well as working at Bonnie Bluejacket Memorial Nursing home between Greybull and Basin before her retirement. She was a lifelong member of the Catholic Church and attended church at the Sacred Heart Parish in Greybull.

Nan loved and cared for her family and saved extra money from her work as a nurse to supplement the family home and make it a warm and comfortable place for all. After having three sons, she was excited and grateful when she was blessed to have the daughter she always wanted. While raising her family, she enjoyed hunting and fishing trips in the Big Horn Mountains with her husband, Bob, and her children. She usually had her own deer tag and frequently filled it. She enjoyed spending summer vacations with Bob and her children at the Harvey family cabin on the Big Horns above Shell Ranger Station. Growing up in the country, she grew up with horses and learned to ride an old grey work horse when she was 4 years old. Her love of horses continued with her throughout her life. After her children were all grown and gone from home, she started raising Arabian horses there at her home in Greybull. She loved attending her mares when a new foal was brought into the world, and she delighted watching them grow and enjoyed working with them, training them in a round corral and a riding arena they built there on the home place in Greybull. She and Bob attended many Wyoming State Fairs and where their Arabian horses were entered in competition. Her entries won many ribbons. Nan and Bob enjoyed being involved in and helping out with the Big Horn 100 and the Canyon Cavalier Club where she dearly loved sharing time with “horse people”, some of the best people in the world, she would say. But the best people included many others with whom she shared friendships and common interests. She enjoyed attending Red Hat meetings with her friends and the fun times they all shared. She had an interest in writing and took many writing courses online and at Northwest Community College at Powell. She also participated in a local informal writing group and shared many enjoyable discussions with her friends. As a result of her interest in writing, she contributed to her own column in the Greybull Standard for a time entitled Nan's Neighbors. She thoroughly enjoyed her time visiting with neighbors and members of the community as she prepared her column each time. She loved crocheting blankets for her grandkids and also enjoyed her sewing machine that did embroidery with which she prepared many birthday and wedding gifts for her grandchildren and others. She greatly loved all of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, and even great-great grandchildren, many of whom she did not have the opportunity of becoming acquainted with. Later in life, she enjoyed going to all her great grandchildren's birthday parties, school plays, concerts, recitals, etc. She hated to miss any of their performances and wanted to be at every one she could. In 2015, she entered the Bonnie Bluejacket Memorial Nursing home following a stroke, and spent her last years there. She learned to love her fellow residents while there and made many friends. She continued to share her natural inclination toward nursing by visiting and sitting with many of the residents during difficult times and helped to ameliorate many a tired soul with a caring attitude and a smile.

She was preceded in death by Bob, her husband of almost 63 years, who passed away in September 2009; her brother Richard, and her granddaughter Liesa (Jeremy) Hill. She is survived by her sons Tim (Jane), Brant (Nancy), Dirk (Cheryl), and her daughter Candace (Dave) Carne; grandson Tim (Sunnie) Sanderson II, granddaughter Toni (Tyrel) Dewitt, granddaughter Tami (Tim) Young, granddaughter Ruth Casey, grandson Michael (Ashley) Sanderson, grandson Shane (Lisa) Sanderson, grandson Brandon (Sarah) Sanderson, granddaughter Nikki (Shawn) Kuver, grandson Jason (Julie) Sanderson, granddaughter Kyan Sanderson, grandson David R. Carne, and 42 great grandchildren, and six great-great grandchildren.

A public celebration of life will be held in the summer.  She will be interred at Donald J. Ruhl Memorial Cemetery next to her beloved husband, Robert. Arrangements have been entrusted to Atwood Family Funeral Directors.