Episode Details

Steve Cranfill

Wendy Corr:

Well, hey there, folks. Welcome to the Roundup. We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and our focus is on interesting people in the Cowboy State. And today's guest is more interesting, more interesting than even I knew. And I have known this man for 25 years. So this is really going to be a very fun conversation today.

First though, I want to make sure to tell you about another podcast that's really great. If you're a business person in Wyoming, you don't want to miss out on all the great things you'll learn from the Wyoming Business Alliance "Business From the Basement" podcast. It is just filled with great people and great ideas and great information for anybody who's a business person in the cowboy state. So the Wyoming Business Alliance, "Business From the Basement" podcast, check it out.

But check out ours first. Don't go away, because today's guest again, like I say, I have known this gentleman since 2001 and a little bit before, when he was the city attorney for the city of Cody. We're talking today to Judge Steven Cranfill. Judge Cranfill, I knew him before he was a judge, but he took on the judgeship in 2006 at the District Court, fifth district court here, based out of Cody.

And he's got such an interesting series of stories to tell about how he got to his current position, what he's doing now with The Wyoming Community Foundation, and there's just so many great things that we're going to catch up on today. Judge Cranfill, hello, hello. So good to have a conversation with you today. How are you?

Judge Cranfill:

Thank you, Wendy. I'm just really excited to be part of this. I watch what you do with other folks, and so I'm really honored to be part of your collection of interviews. You do great stuff, great stuff.

Wendy Corr:

Well, thank you very much. You know, we have collected some great interviews at Cowboy State daily over the last year and a half that we've been doing these podcasts. But I have to say, I'm not sure that I've talked to anybody who has so many interesting stories that we're going to try to cram into this episode today.

Because you and I started talking when we were kind of previewing and kind of going over the information for this, and like, you did that, you did that. Wait a minute, you met who? And just really fun stuff.

Judge, let's start off with, you are Wyoming born, but your childhood took you away from Wyoming, but you were born in Greybull. And tell us a little bit about your very interesting childhood. Your father worked for Halliburton, and that took you a lot of different places. Tell us about that.

Judge Cranfill:

Okay, well, I'll start, I'm the only one not born in Oklahoma. My mom and dad were both born in Oklahoma. My older brother Jack, who actually died in January of this year at 84, born in Oklahoma. Mother and her twin sister were the youngest of 16. Albany, Oklahoma, an unincorporated area. They'd run out of names, so the family doctor named them. My mother was Ola Okla, and her twin sister was Nola Homa.

My dad, Joe Paul Cranfill, that's southern, my brother, Jack Harold Cranfill. Doctor Albert Cranfill was the first white doctor on the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma, 1875 to early 1900s. So lots of connections there. But they married, and Dad eventually went to work for Halliburton, and that involved moving around.

And so we were in Greybull waiting for me to be born - I was waiting as well - June 11, 1950 and then two days later, we moved to Casper. We lived in Casper for two years, and then dad was transferred to Vernal, Utah. We were there until 1958.

I mentioned to you that it was in Vernal where I learned my - I don't kno