Mary Helvey Johns, 90, passed away on Wednesday, July 12, 2023, at Green House for Living in Sheridan, WY.

Mary Helvey Johns was born in Sheridan, Wyoming on December 8, 1932, to Charles B. and Dorothy Edwards Helvey. She grew up on the NX Bar Ranch north of Sheridan which her parents had part ownership in at the time. Many years later she still dearly loved the NX Bar and Badger Hills. At four years old, her dad brought home her first pony named Peanuts. She began her love of horses riding bareback on Peanuts. Her mother homeschooled her, but in Mary’s words “Mother had trouble keeping me off my horse long enough for school.”

In the summer of 1950, the year she graduated from high school, she was helping her cousin, Char Bard, pack dudes to Char’s Mountain camp beyond Penrose Park. On one of their trips to Penrose Guard Station they met Char’s cousin, Brad Spear, and his friend, Jerry Johns who were packing supplies on horseback for the Bureau of Reclamation. When Jerry first met her, he said “That’s the girl I’m going to marry.” For the next four years, she attended Principia College in Illinois and continued helping Char pack dudes to the mountains during the summers. She said she always listened for the bells on Jerry’s pack string. She and Jerry were married on June 26, 1954. On the day that Mary passed away, Jerilea told her to listen for the bells, Jerry would be waiting for her.

Mary was a school teacher, teaching one year in Buffalo and 25 years at Woodland Park School. Most of those years, she taught 4th grade, which she loved because they studied Wyoming history and got to do many outdoor labs.

Mary loved horses and was horseback most of her life. She taught her two girls to ride, and she took many friends on horseback trips to the mountains. In 1986, she spent eight days riding the entire Solitude Trail. She knew nearly every inch of the Bighorn Mountains, and in the days before GPS, she always knew where the trailer was no matter how far they had ridden. One of her favorite sayings was “If I can’t get there horseback, I can’t get there.”

Mary spent the past winter in Arizona with Jerilea and Todd where she loved their weekly outings looking for wild burros. She spent the last two months in Greenhouse Living in Sheridan where she was lovingly cared for and treated like family.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Amos Helvey, her husband, Jerry, and her daughter, Janlyn, both in 2016.

She is survived by her daughter, Jerilea (Todd) Phillips, her son-in-law, Bill Adler, her grandchildren Kristen Adler (Dan Cummings), Jesse Adler, Fielding (Meagan) Phillips, Clancy Phillips, and her beloved great granddaughter, Myra Phillips.

Waiting for her in heaven are her many, many special horses. She’s no doubt riding up and down steep, narrow trails, and quite possibly giving instructions to the other riders! Happy Trails!

No services are planned at this time.

Online condolences may be made to www.sheridanfuneral.com.

Arrangements are under the care of Sheridan Funeral Home.

The Sheridan Press - July 19, 2023.