Ann Simpson died peacefully at 3 a.m. Friday just a day after the full buck moon.
“She was awash in moonlight,” her daughter, Sue Simpson Gallagher, said.
“She looked good and at peace,” her son, Bill, said.
The mother of three and the steady half of one of the state’s most prominent political couples and tireless Wyoming boosters, Ann Simpson died Friday at the Cody Regional Health Spirit Hospice House. She was 94.
“She didn’t wish to have any additional extraordinary care,” Bill said. “She was willing to have God take his course, and that’s what [he] did.”
But the loss is tremendous.
“For all of us, her children and those whose lives she impacted, we are all heartbroken,” Sue said. “But our hearts are full of gratitude for this life well lived, this beautiful human being who enhanced the world and will continue to do so through her legacy of family and friendship and love.”
Ann Schroll was the biggest catch on campus at the University of Wyoming, Pete Simpson said, when his little brother, Al, told Pete he intended to marry Ann.
“I felt that he had lucked out,” Pete Simpson said at Al’s memorial service in Cody last year. “And look here. Look at this family. Look at this result, this legacy. Yeah, he lucked out, certainly we all did.”
Pete’s was one of many tributes to Ann, who was credited with supporting and stabilizing her husband and for being an unerring matriarch.
“He could not have done it without her. She was the glue,” Bill Simpson said. “They really were a team. They were Ann and Al, Al and Ann. It wasn’t just Al Simpson.”
Alan Simpson, the towering second son of one of Wyoming’s most prominent political families, was known for his across-the-aisle work as a Republican U.S. senator, spunky humor and larger-than-life personality. He died March 14, 2025, at his home in Cody at age 93.
“He loved her dearly,” Bill Simpson said. When Al died, it was apparent it wouldn’t be too long before Ann would follow him. “They really couldn’t live without one another.”
A “Greybull gal at heart,” Ann was born 30 minutes after her twin sister, Nan Fogel Thorne, her son, Colin Simpson said, “I think somewhat to the surprise of her parents.”
Thorne died last year. Ann’s older brother, Rob Schroll, an engineer, died several years ago. Ann idolized Rob, Colin said, and despite losing their father to a brain tumor when she was a teen, “she loved her childhood.”
“She had some significant adversity in her young life that made her pretty darn tough,” Colin said. “And she never felt sorry for herself, and rarely did she let you feel sorry for yourself, which was a great way to live.”
After her father’s passing, the family moved to Laramie, where Ann attended high school and the University of Wyoming. All three siblings attended the university, where Ann earned a degree in education in the early 1950s. She taught third grade for a year before she married and loved teaching and learning, something she shared with her children, Sue said.
She also loved the University of Wyoming Art Museum and leaves behind the legacy of the Ann Simpson Artmobile, which she started, Colin said, “because there were so many, so many children around Wyoming who didn’t have access to art.”
“And that was really one of her loves,” Colin said.
Ann often joined her husband as he toured foreign countries, dined with heads of state and traveled Wyoming to hear from constituents.
The couple also championed Wyoming. When the Simpsons returned to Cody after Al served three terms in the U.S. Senate, Al and Ann poured their energy into bolstering Wyoming with contributions to institutions such as the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and the University of Wyoming.
“She was ready to join dad and her sister, Nan, and her mom and her brother Rob and all her wonderful other relatives and friends,” Colin said.
“She was a deeply Christian woman who loved God and knew that there was a better life ahead,” Colin said. “And she was always realistic about death. So that made it easier on all of us to understand that that was the natural flow of life.”
