Friends, colleagues and acquaintances in Linda Barton’s expansive circle are mourning the death of a woman who was the chief architect of Wyoming’s after-school network, a fierce voting rights advocate and a tireless community activist.
Barton, 76, died on May 27 after succumbing to injuries sustained in a car accident near Lander. Though she had resided in Wyoming for just 27 years, she left behind a string of contributions that could easily take a lifetime to achieve. She founded the Wyoming Afterschool Alliance and the Fremont County League of Women Voters, served on the Lander City Council and sat on the local school board. She facilitated forums with elected officials, sent out newsletters, lobbied in Cheyenne and even met with lawmakers in Washington, D.C.
Where others might tire of the tedious and often thankless tasks involved with community advocacy, “she just had a passion for it,” said longtime friend Nancy Pieropan, who met Barton in the early 2000s when they both sat on the Lander Chamber of Commerce board.
Eclipsing Barton’s individual accomplishments was her ability to create community, friends say. Barton, who was tall and slender with dark hair, was warm, gregarious and curious. She made friends easily and often.
“She knew how to connect with people and how to invite them in,” said Michelle Escudero, who sits on the Fremont County League of Women Voters board. “She was exceptional at relationship building … That was one of her superpowers.”
Kate Foster, who worked with Barton at the Afterschool Alliance, once accompanied Barton to Washington, D.C., for an advocacy event. As they traveled through the Capitol, Foster said, Barton spoke with ease to politicians like Sen. John Barrasso and then-Rep. Liz Cheney. At the end of the day, they took an Uber back to the hotel.
“And she talked with the Uber driver with just as much respect and interest in her life that she did with Sen. Barrasso,” Foster recalled. By the end of the ride, “Linda had her whole life story … she just found connections everywhere she went.”
She was a sharp conversationalist, avid gardener and proud grandmother who had a weakness for shoe shopping and a keen interest in Wyoming politics. She possessed a rare combination of dogged commitment, big-picture thinking and deft people skills, friends say, that resulted in a whole lot of good.
“She had a force of personality, not a forceful personality,” said Samin Dadelahi, president and CEO of the Wyoming Community Foundation. “You could not ignore Linda.”
Barton is survived by her husband, Mike Barton, five children and a granddaughter. A celebration of life will be held at noon on Sunday, June 7, at the Lander Community Center.
California girl
Barton was born in 1949 in Los Angeles, and though she lived elsewhere over the years, she always identified strongly as an LA Jew. Hers was not a family that believed strongly in college, friends say, but she worked hard to get herself there, studying psychology at California State University and later earning a master’s degree in organizational management.
In 1999, she moved to Lander with her two teenage children to be with Mike Barton and his three children; the couple married in 2000.
Though her background at the time was in accounting, she threw herself into a variety of local causes. One was education, where she saw a need for after-school enrichment and care. She addressed that by directing Lights On Lander — a free program that to this day is open to K-6 students on a first-come, first-served basis. About 225 kids participate every school day.
Barton was elected to town council in 2005. That year, she attended a conference in Washington, D.C., where a panel on statewide after-school networks piqued her interest.
“I thought it was fascinating,” she said in a 2025 interview with WyoFile. “I was like, ‘we should be doing this in Wyoming.’”
So she set out to make that happen. It wasn’t long after that Dadelahi of the Wyoming Community Foundation’s phone rang. Barton was on the other end.
“She asked me to attend a meeting that she was hosting in Lander, and she was bringing a group of people together to discuss the idea of establishing a statewide after-school advocacy organization,” Dadelahi said. Barton wanted the foundation to be involved.
The meeting that ensued sowed the seeds that would grow into the Wyoming Afterschool Alliance. Along with founding it, Barton worked as its director before retiring in 2019. Today, the renamed Wyoming Enrichment Network connects after-school providers to resources, technical assistance and training opportunities. It’s part of the 50 State Afterschool Network funded by the C.S. Mott Foundation and is a priority fund of the Wyoming Community Foundation.
It’s difficult now to imagine what Wyoming’s after-school landscape was like before Barton, Dadelahi said. Today it is well-functioning and healthy, with partners including the Wyoming Department of Education and opportunities like after-school credentialing. Thousands of students have participated. Barton built the infrastructure that allowed so much of it to come to fruition.
“I just can’t stress enough how much we benefit from it,” Dadelahi said. Considering that, Dadelahi finds it amazing that Barton didn’t necessarily think of herself as a leader. “What she saw was, ‘well, someone’s got to do it, and I guess if everyone’s too busy, it’ll be me.’”
Another need
Barton’s next community project sprang from what she identified as the community’s need for more voter empowerment. She, along with Pieropan and others, decided they wanted to launch a local league of women voters. As she did with the after-school project, Barton kicked off the initiative by organizing a meeting. This time, Escudero was invited.
“It was held at the library,” she remembered. “I thought there’d be maybe, you know, five people there. The room was packed, and I mean standing room only.”
With ample interest established, Barton spearheaded the league’s formation, which entailed working with the state league and abiding by national standards.
“It was her thoughtful leadership and her continued doggedness, I would say, that made it happen,” Escudero said.
In six years, Barton had nurtured it into a powerhouse of statewide voter-rights advocacy. The organization created voter guides mailed to all registered voters in the county, held candidate and issue forums in several communities, lobbied before the Legislature and created petitions on voter rights.
“Linda was always willing to try and meet people where they were so they could engage with our democracy,” Escudero said, adding that her commitment was “amazing.”
Lasting legacy
On May 14, the Bartons were driving to a business outside Lander when they were struck by another vehicle. Mike Barton was driving and Linda was in the passenger seat. She sustained severe injuries and was transported to Casper, where she died on May 24.
The news came as an awful surprise to friends and acquaintances. But in the wake of it, they have been sharing stories of a woman with big-city sensibilities who devoted herself to the little town of Lander. They remember her addiction to Coffee-mate and penchant for shopping, her boldness, sense of humor and the way she was always put-together.
“I’m going to miss her so much,” said Pieropan, who spent countless hours sharing stories and secrets with her friend. “I mean, it’s a loss for everyone.”
That ranges from local neighbors to national associates like Gwynn Hughes, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation senior program officer.
“Linda was such a force for good,” Hughes said in a Wyoming Enrichment Network email.
