Wednesday, AUGUST 13, 2025 |
Wyoming’s Congressional Delegation will be in Shoshoni today for the dedication ceremony at the U.S. Post Office there.
The Building Dedication Ceremony for Dessie A. Bebout will be held at 10:30 at the Shoshoni High School Auditorium.
Last summer, Senator Barrasso introduced Senate Bill 2274 to designate the postal facility at 112 Wyoming Street in the central Wyoming town of Shoshoni as the Dessie A. Bebout Post Office.
On November 25 last year, the resolution became Public Law No: 118-133.
Dessie A. Bebout, a WWII Navy veteran enlisted in the Navy after Pearl Harbor as part of the WAVES program and later served as Shoshoni’s Postmaster for 13 years.
She earned the “Order of the Vest” award, which was the highest national honor bestowed upon Postmasters.
Bebout died May 12, 2023. She was born on May 12, 1920.
She is buried in Riverton. She grew up in Hudson.
Her obituary reads, “Devoted patriot, community leader, loving mother, grandmother and wife, Dessie Alice Bebout passed peacefully on Friday, May 12 at 102 years old, surrounded by her loving family and welcomed by God with open arms.”
Dessie was one of the first women in Wyoming to enlist in the Waves following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. She joined the war effort in January 1943, six months after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill into law establishing a new division of the U.S. Navy called the WAVES or “Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service”.
In 1945, Dessie was offered the opportunity to attend Officer Training School, but opted to be honorably discharged alongside her husband, Hugh, from Buffalo. They returned to Wyoming and started their life together, which would last 59 years, until Hugh passed in 2002.
Her civic contributions included work with the Shoshoni PTA, Veterans of Foreign Wars Women’s Auxiliary, and the Wyoming Women’s Commission.
Today’s ceremony will be attended by members of Bebout’s family, Senator John Barrasso, Congresswoman Harriet Hageman and community members.
