Peggy Simson Curry Papers

Born Peggy Anderson-Simson on December 30th, 1911 in Dunure, Ayrshire, Scotland, Peggy Simson Curry was a renowned Wyoming native writer, scholar, educator, and a loving wife and mother. She is most famous throughtout Colorado and Wyoming for being a historic poet, fiction writer, novelist, and an English teacher at Casper College for over 25 years. She grew up in the West roping and riding on a small ranch in Colorado, and then Wyoming. Her childhood growing up on a ranch inspired her to write incredible stories and she made an entire career out of writing unique characters into pictures of the west from early 1950 to 1987.

Peggy's parents were William Andrew and Margaret Anderson-Simson. They had Peggy out of wedlock and married when Peggy was three years old. William was hired by the Big Horn Cattle Company and moved to North Park, Colorado to work. Margaret and Peggy followed soon after when Peggy was three. This is when stories of the West first began to come to little Peggy Simson.

Peggy attended Jackson County Colorado Schools for her early childhood education. Peggy then attended East High School in Denver, Colorado to continue her education. After high school she went to the University of Wyoming to pursue a degree in English and writing and met her husband, William Curry, while both of them pursued degrees in English Education and writing.

Peggy received her Bachelor’s Degree in English and Journalism in 1936 from the University of Wyoming, as did William.

Peggy Anderson Simson married “Bill” William Curry in Wyoming on July 23rd, 1937, and thereafter was Mrs. Peggy Simson Curry.

William and Peggy moved to Illinois, Bill being an Illinois native, and they soon had their only child, Michael “Mike” Curry, in 1939.

The family lived in Illinois for a while but returned to Wyoming, moving to Casper in 1946. Bill began teaching at Casper College in the English department and Peggy followed soon after. Peggy lived in a one-bedroom cabin with William and Michael at the foot of Casper Mountain for some time during her writing career.

Peggy taught creative writing classes at Casper Community College for more than 25 years, among her closest students were Nancy Curtis and Betty Evenson, both going on to be writers and journalists, and Nancy later owned her own publishing company.

Peggy, alongside some of her students, worked on the Poetry-in-the-School-Program during her teaching career and told her students to keep notebooks around them, “Relate your inner world to your outer world. Be open to everything that happens.”

Peggy constantly worked on short stories, poems, novels, and a teacher’s writing book for English students from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Her work was published in renowned publications such as Saturday Evening Post, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Collier’s, Boy’s Life, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, etc.

Peggy’s first novel, “Fire in the Water” was published by McGraw-Hill in 1951.

One of her first professional poems, “Red Wind of Wyoming,” was published by Sage Books in 1955 and blended the actual event of the infamous Johnson County War of 1892 with fictional characters she made up while writing it.

Her second novel, “So Far From Spring,” was published by Viking Publishing Inc. in 1956 and became her best-selling, most popular novel out of the four she wrote.

Peggy won her first Spur Award in 1957 for her short story “The Brushoff.”

Her third novel was “The Oil Patch,” published by McGraw-Hill in 1959, which also became a fan favorite.

In 1959, Peggy’s short story “Geranium House” was published and in 1966 was adapted into a three-act play presented in Casper by the Paradise Valley Players.

Peggy was named University of Wyoming Distinguished Alumna in 1968.

Written as her first juvenile novel, “A Shield of Clover,” her fourth overall novel, was published by McKay in 1969.

She won her second Spur Award for her short story “In the Silence” in 1979.

Peggy Curry’s first novel “Fire on the Water” was made into a movie starring Marlon Brando in 1982.

She received the Mountain Plains Library Association Literary Contribution Award in 1984.

Curry published and taught in the 1950s until the 1980s, when few women were writing and publishing stories, and she’s been recognized as one of Wyoming’s best award-winning poets and fiction writers, and of the most impactful female fiction writers in the history of Wyoming.

Bill eventually became the head of the English Department at Casper College and later served as a legislator from Natrona County for several years.

In 1983, Pruett Publishing of Boulder, Colorado released a new edition of Peggy’s second novel, “So Far From Spring” following a book signing in Walden, Colorado. Following this signing, the residents of Walden declared April 13th as “Peggy Simson Curry Day” and celebrated it years after.

Peggy Simson Curry died on January 20th, 1987 in Casper, Wyoming, and is buried in a cemetery in Walden, Colorado, not far from her childhood ranch-house in North Park.

Levendosky of the Casper Star-Tribune newspaper reminisced about her in an article in 1987 following her death, describing her as the heart and soul of Wyoming’s history and stories. The same article was reprinted a year later in 1988 for the 20th Anniversary of the Wyoming Arts Council Report, which was dedicated to Peggy’s memory.

In 1988 her short story “Geranium House” was adapted into an award-winning reader’s theater production.

In 1992, Nancy Curtis’ High Plains Press company in Glendo, Wyoming published "Land Marked," a collection of Peggy’s stories she wrote before her death.

She was inducted into the Western Writers Hall of Fame in 1997.

She was recognized as a finalist for the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center Wyoming Citizen of the Century Award.

Peggy’s crowning achievement, and what she’s known best for, is being named Wyoming’s First Poet Laureate in January 1980-1981 by Wyoming Governor Ed Herschler, who was a personal fan of Curry’s work in Wyoming.

Sources:

"Peggy Simson Curry, Wyoming's First Poet Laureate" (2015). Lori Van Pelt. Wyohistory.org. Date accessed: July 15, 2022.