Long-time Laramie resident Barbara Jean (Baker) Rodermel passed away peacefully of natural causes at Ivinson Memorial Hospital on May 17, 2020.  She was 89.

Barbara was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on October 3, 1930, the younger of two daughters of Opal and Robert Baker.  The family moved to Laramie in 1933 to open the Mehse-Baker Ford Motor Company, and Barbara went through the Laramie public school system, graduating from Laramie High in 1948.  While growing up, she became an accomplished classical pianist, and she continued studying music at the University of Wyoming. She became an active member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, and met her future husband, Charles (Chuck) Rodermel, an education major from Shannon, Illinois.  The couple married in 1950 and settled in Laramie, where they had two children, Steve and Amy.  In 1959, Chuck accepted a job with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the family moved to Cheyenne, where they resided for the next 11 years.  During this time, Barbara managed the family and worked as a teacher’s aide in the public school system.  After a brief relocation to Pierre, South Dakota, Chuck and Barbara returned permanently to Laramie.  While Chuck pursued interests in real estate, Barbara served as an administrative assistant at the University of Wyoming, first in the Graduate School, then in the Dean’s Office of the College of Engineering.  Barbara had many fond memories of the people she worked with at the University.  In later years, Barbara looked forward to winter trips with Chuck to Tucson, Arizona, but her favorite places on earth were Laramie and Snowy Range.

Barbara’s greatest joy was spending time with family, especially with her granddaughters and great-grandson, Radley. Radley will never forget how she loved puzzles and puffins and her Jeopardy calendars and how he loved hearing tidbits of her life she’d tell him about. She felt very fortunate to have Radley in her life for 9½ years. She also had a great love of dogs, and enjoyed playing the piano, singing, sewing, reading, and tracing the family genealogy.  Because she grew up in Laramie, Barbara could tell you who used to live in just about every house in town back then, and it was great fun going for rides with her around Laramie and hearing the old stories of her youth.  Barbara looked forward to watching Jeopardy every day and had a phenomenal knowledge of movies from the 1940s and 1950s, many of which she remembered seeing at Saturday matinees during her school days in Laramie.  She was known to friends and family as a very sweet, kind, and delightful woman, and one who had a great sense of humor. She was a lifelong member of the Methodist Church.

Barbara will be greatly missed by her children, Steve Rodermel (Ames, Iowa) and Amy Kopp (Laramie); by Amy’s husband Mike Kopp, by granddaughters Whitney Kopp and Molly Kopp, and by Molly’s son, Radley (all of Laramie).  She also will be missed by two surviving sisters in-law, Carole Muckey (Anaheim, California) and Roberta Livingston (Freeport, Illinois), and by numerous nieces and nephews.  Barbara was preceded in death by her parents, Opal and Robert Baker, by her sister Shirley (Baker) Greene, and by Chuck, her husband of 57 years.

A private family graveside service will be held in the future.

The family wishes to thank the nurses, nurses’ aides, doctors and staff at Ivinson Memorial Hospital for their generosity of spirit and expert care during Barbara’s final weeks.

Donations may be made to the Laramie Animal Shelter.