Claire Lillian Léon

Claire Lillian Léon, age ninety-two, passed away at the Longmont, Colorado home of her daughter Margo and son-in-law Gary Boyer, on November 14th, 2024. She was surrounded by the loving care of family, friends, and staff from Trail Winds Hospice.

Claire was born in 1932 in Kensal, North Dakota to parents Clarence and Lillian Jensen, both educators. Her family later moved to Esmond, North Dakota, where her parents also ran an evergreen farm. Claire’s lifelong love of gardening sprang from her family’s reverence for cultivating the earth. Her parents, both singers, inspired Claire’s ongoing love of music, particularly piano, which she studied as a child as well as later in life.

Claire departed Esmond to study music at Concordia College in Morehead, Minnesota. Drawn by the Colorado mountains, she transferred to the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she joined the University Women’s Club and majored in botany. With characteristic adventurousness, she climbed the Flatirons and Longs Peak. After graduation, she taught elementary school in Rocky Ford, Colorado, and then travelled to Europe, working as a model and fashion photographer’s assistant in Paris, and as an au pair in Mallorca.

While skiing in Innsbruck, Austria, Claire met Maurice (Mike) Léon Jr., a graduate of Yale University. During his training for the army’s 10th Mountain Division, Mike had been stricken with meningitis; he recovered but permanently lost his hearing.

Claire and Mike married at The Church of St. Joseph of Arimathea in Elmsford, New York. They settled in Casper, Wyoming, where they created and published the artful but short-lived “Wyoming Magazine.” In 1958 they moved to the small town of Story, Wyoming, nestled in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains, where they built an Austrian-style home reminiscent of their early days together. Claire and Mike shared many endeavors throughout their marriage: a deep engagement in Wyoming Democratic politics and environmental causes, hiking nearby trails, backpacking to remote mountain camps and lakes, cross-country and downhill skiing, and traveling within the U.S. as well as to Europe. Together, they established a local ski school, offering free lessons to the children who attended Story Elementary School.

Claire was always an integral part of Mike’s abilities to communicate as a deaf man in a hearing world, assisting his lip-reading under various challenging conditions.

In 1959, the León’s first daughter Claire Jennifer was born, followed in 1963 by their second daughter Margo Lael, both who reveled in the outdoor adventures they shared as a family. Claire brought her nurturing kindness and grace to the raising of her girls, sharing with them her love of mountains, music, wildflowers, art, and literature. She welcomed her only grandchild, Michael Jensen Goodrich, into the world in 1998. He became one of her favorite companions on Big Horn Mountain treks, where she helped him seek fossils in canyons, trail sides, and rock formations.

In 1989, after Mike’s passing, Claire remained in Story. Her background in botany, and her interest in photography, led her to master nature photography. Starting out, she had the good fortune to study with the accomplished photographer Adam Jahiel at Sheridan Community College. As a botanist, Claire was initially interested in photographing wildflowers, but she soon became fascinated with the natural beauty of the Bighorns and the surrounding land formations. Although she enjoyed exploring and photographing mountains, deserts, and seascapes in this country and Europe, her greatest passion was for the unusual sites of the Bighorns. Physically intrepid, she trekked obscure trails, drove rugged jeep roads, and descended into sheep-grazed valleys to capture the lush floral landscapes and alpine terrains she so loved. Many of her friends accompanied her on these outings, packing picnics into the high country.  

Claire also participated in workshops with prominent nature photographers in the Southwest and in New Brunswick, Canada. Her work appeared in several solo exhibitions in the Sheridan area and regional juried group exhibitions. Her awards included Best of Show (Color Category) at the Quicksilver Regional Photography Exhibition at the Old West Museum in Cheyenne, Wyoming; First and Third Place (Scenic Category) in the Wyoming Wildlife Photography Contest; and Purchase Award in the Governor's Capitol Art Exhibit in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In addition, her photographs enliven numerous rooms and hallways at Sheridan Memorial Hospital.

Claire is survived by her daughter Jennifer (John) Goodrich, her daughter Margo (Gary) Boyer, her grandson Michael Jensen Goodrich, her sister Laurel Jensen Paul, and honorary family member Don Krogue.

A Celebration of Life gathering is planned for next year in the late spring, a time she particularly loved. (Details will be shared at a future date.) Donations can be made to the Wyoming Wilderness Association (www.wildwyo.org). Claire can also be honored through the purchase of a subscription to the Big Horn Native Plant Society. Please reach out to Alison Dooley, BHNPS president, at [email protected] to join and receive newsletters for the 2025 season.