Gale Gilbert Beers, 85, of Cody died July 4, 2025, after an extended illness.
Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, July 11, 2025, at First Presbyterian Church in Cody. Graveside services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 12, at Mount Hope Cemetery in Lander.
Beers was born April 15, 1940, in Torrington, Wyo. His family lived in LaGrange, Wyo., and Lingle, Wyo., during his early childhood, before the growing family settled in Torrington.
Beers graduated from Torrington High School in 1959. Nicknamed "The Hoss," the All-State fullback and track man was recruited by the Wyoming Cowboys football team, and legendary Coach Bob Devaney sat in the Beers' living room and signed the Torrington star. A few months passed, and Beers instead took a job as a ranch hand at Rimrock Ranch west of Cody, working for his brother-in-law Earl Chamberlain at the ranch owned by Keith and future Wyoming Secretary of State Thyra Thomson (1959-61). He returned to Torrington and worked for Holly Sugar Corp. (1961), then took a job working on cousin Louie Scheer's ranch west of Lander on Squaw Creek (1961-62). It was in Lander where he met his future wife, Christine Jeanette Hornecker, who drove her family's Ford tractor up the valley to check out the new hired man at the Scheer Ranch. He married Christine Hornecker on Sept. 2, 1962. The couple moved to the Pinedale, Wyo., area, where he worked as a cowboy on the Carl Jorgensen ranch. On the day the young couple had finally saved enough money to purchase their first black-and-white television, he received his U.S. Army draft notice in the mail. The television was returned to the store a few days later for a full refund.
Along with hundreds of other draftees, Beers' service in the U.S. Army began on April 3, 1963, when he was shipped to basic training in Fort Ord, Calif. Following basic training, he was sent to Hawaii and assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 13th Artillery unit at Schofield Barracks.
In early 1965, pregnant with a future baby boy, an Army doctor told Christine Beers that she should return to Wyoming so the child could be born. Several months later (a short time before his entire unit was sent to Vietnam), Beers received his release from active U.S. Army duty. He returned to Wyoming as soon as possible and took a job as a ranch hand near Lusk on the Reed Ranch on the Cheyenne River.
On June 20, 1965, the couple welcomed their son, Cody Marshall, into the world in Torrington. After a year on the ranch, Beers was hired in 1966 by the then-Wyoming Highway Department at the highway camp on South Pass. The couple's daughter, Tina Renee', was born six weeks premature on Oct. 27, 1968.
Beers would serve seven years at the South Pass camp, and was promoted to the crew's heavy equipment operator. On Jan. 3, 1973, he was promoted to Wyoming Highway Department maintenance crew foreman in Cody. He later was promoted to area maintenance supervisor, and he retired in Cody with 37 1/2 years of public service on Dec. 20, 2002.
One of his life's proudest times included continuing the WYDOT legacy with his son and two grandsons representing three generations of highway department men, serving the State of Wyoming.
Beers was a humble but brutally honest servant leader who touched many lives during his Wyoming Highway Department career, and as a horseshoer, saddlemaker, roper, wildlife photographer, hunter, fisherman and friend. He loved his life-long Wyoming home, the Wind River and Absaroka mountains, the windmills of southeast Wyoming, roping at Pitchfork Ranch and Mill Creek brandings and wherever else his cowboy skills were needed, smelling a roaring campfire, participating in the sound and smell of leather being worked, hunting wild turkeys on the Cheyenne River, elk hunting on horseback on the Wood River, and his favorite sports teams, the Wyoming Cowboys, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys. He loved his wife, his children, his granddaughter and his three grandsons, and his growing family.
Beers valued a good horse and a trusty cow dog.
Beers was a long-time member of Cody Elks Lodge #1611, the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Eagles, Park County Farm Bureau and Wyoming Transportation Department Employees/Retirees Association.
Beers is survived by his wife of 61 years, Christine J. Beers, of Cody; a son, Cody (Robyn) of Riverton; a daughter, Tina Hardesty (Todd) of Cody; a granddaughter, Kayla (Brady Rivenes), of Gillette; three grandsons, Kyle (Savannah) of Torrington, Brady (Citlalli) of Cheyenne, and Baylor (Hally) of Riverton; two great grandsons (Harlan and Nolan); three sisters, Crystal Chamberlain of West Des Moines, Iowa, Sharon Beers of Chappell, Neb., and Judith (Jerry) Toole of San Angelo, Texas; one brother, Allen Beers of Edina, Minn.; two brothers-in-law, John L. Hornecker of Casper and Jerry Heckart of Lander; numerous cousins, nieces and nephews; and one good cow dog and one good saddle horse.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Kelvie and Ella Beers; his sister, Shirley Heckart; his father-in-law and mother-in-law, Albert and Betty Hornecker; and 12 good cattle dogs, four good saddle horses, and another saddle horse that bucked him off in 1987 and broke his back.
Pallbearers are Baylor Beers, Brady Beers, Byron Bennett, Justin Esser, Kayla Hardesty, Kyle Hardesty, Todd Hardesty, and Jack R. "Skip" Hornecker. Honorary pallbearers are Bill Chamberlain, Rick Chamberlain, Larry Estes, Woody Evans, Jerry Heckart, Jim Hixon, John L. Hornecker, Tobi Lanchbury, Robin Murdock and Rich Roemmich.
Memorials may be made to the First Presbyterian Church, 2025 23rd St., Cody, WY 82414; or Wyoming American Legion Baseball c/o State Commissioner Jack Simms, P.O. Box 50807, Casper, WY 82605.
On-line obituaries are available and condolences for the family may be made at: TheDavisFuneralHome.com
Services are under the direction of the Davis Funeral Home of Riverton.