Terrie Marie Black

Terrie Black, 76, of Laramie, died March 14, 2020 at Ivinson Memorial Hospital after several years of fighting cancer.
Terrie was born Aug. 15, 1943 in Portland, Ore. She was the only child of Claude and Dolores Hall. She first saw her dad when she was nearly two years old when he returned from serving as a soldier in France and Germany during World War II.
She graduated from Jefferson High School in Portland. She was always proud of being in the first class that was racially integrated by busing. She believed that experience with diversity and acceptance was valuable and changed her attitudes for life.
She attended Portland State University, but left after several years to accept a job in the Monterey, Calif. Hospital lab.
She met her husband and best friend, Donald H. Black at a dance on the local Navy base. He was an enlisted man in the Navy. They were married less than two months later on August 23, 1967 and they drove cross country to Pensacola, Fla. where Don had been assigned to the Navy Photography “A” School. After graduation from that school they remained in Pensacola until Don’s discharge in 1970.
The couple moved to State College, Pa. where Don resumed studies at Penn State University and Terrie worked in a variety of part-time jobs. Don was also the photographer for the local newspaper. Over the ensuing years Terrie worked in a number of jobs in New York, California,  Oregon, Indiana and Idaho as Don took different positions with local newspapers.
While in Oregon Terrie returned to college earning a BS in Accounting from what was then Western Oregon State College graduating in 1987. The Blacks moved to Laramie in 2001 when Don became the publisher of the Laramie Boomerang.
Terrie was an avid sports fan and quickly became an enthusiastic fan of UW’s football team as well as the men’s and women’s basketball teams. One of her biggest thrills was cheering as the Cowgirls basketball team won the 2008 National Championship in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. She also adopted the Colorado Rockies as her baseball team even though her health kept her from attending their games. Charlie Blackmon was her favorite player, but she liked them all.
Terrie and Don had no children, but she was devoted to a succession of five black Labrador Retrievers who brightened her life in innumerable ways. The last Lab, died just weeks ago.
She had a number of close and treasured friends in Laramie. When she started what would become a years long battle against cancer, she was not able to be as active with those friends as she would have preferred. Recently she had been bouncing back, but became suddenly weaker and succumbed to pneumonia and other complications.
She is survived by her husband Don of Laramie. Her closest surviving relative is her cousin Ed Stocklen and his wife Muffie of Las Vegas, Nv. She was preceded in death by her parents Claude and Dolores Hall.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Meredith and Jeannie Ray Cancer Center in Laramie.
A Celebration of Life will be scheduled and announced in coming months.