Franklin "Frank" D. Bayless

Franklin Dale Bayless was born on August 23, 1933 to Emma Grace (Eby) and Olin Russell Bayless. Frank passed away in the evening of Tuesday July 23, 2019 at the Elm Heights Care Center. He was 85 years old. Franklin Bayless was born in Blanchard, Iowa, where he joined siblings Merril "Bud", BIll, Kenneth "Ace", Mildred (Finlay) and Gwen (Whitehill). Later he was joined by Mary Lou (Chambers). Franklin attended country school and later Coin High School where he graduated in 1951. Frank later graduated from Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville as his class president in 1954. After finishing college, Frank enlisted into the Navy and served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Essex where he was a cryptographer and traveled across the pacific rim. Following his departure from the Navy, discharged in San Francisco, he stopped through Denver Colorado to visit his childhood friend, Jim Yeisley, on his way home to Iowa, and there he decided to put down roots in the Rockies. He moved later to Cheyenne Wyoming and then decided to attend Law School in Laramie. He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1965, and moved to Idaho Falls Idaho to work as an attorney for the U...[more]

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tomic Energy Commission. He returned to Cheyenne where he met Jane (Chiswell) Sizemore through now federal district Judge Alan Johnson, a mutual friend, and married in 1968. His son Steven was born in 1970. Frank worked for Laramie County Legal Services defending indigent clients and was an assistant prosecutor working under longtime friend Tom Carrol and assigned to represent the Department of Social Services in helping protect children from abuse and neglect. He later established his own private practice and law firm and was admitted to the Wyoming and US Supreme Court Bars, was appointed by the Governor to the state's land use commission and volunteered to help run the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. He practiced law in Cheyenne until 2005 and then returned to Iowa to be closer to family and the childhood home that he loved. In Shenandoah, he enjoyed writing, reading books on history, politics, and current affairs, talking basketball and football, and palling around with friends over coffee. He made many friends in Wyoming, Colorado and Iowa in his work, at his church, and through his volunteering. He was described by more than one colleague as a consummate professional with 'no ego' -- a disposition rarely seen in such an adversarial and rarified profession. As such, he was described by tough minded but with "a kind and generous heart...He lived by the philosophy that if he could help someone out he should." He was generous with friends, and very close to his family and loved his son, grandson, his brothers and sisters and in-laws, and all his nieces and nephews. He was a frequent source of advice, comfort and solace to many of his relatives, and to a few friends whom he treated as family. Frank is survived by his son Steven and daughter-in-law Nicole Cohen, and grandson Rian of Washington DC, and sister-in-law Wilma Bayless of Elmo, Missouri and brother-in-law Jim Chambers of Council Bluffs Iowa. He is survived by nieces, Joan (Bayless) Edwards, Peggy (Finlay) Oliver, Jan (Finlay) Western, and Karen (Chambers) Cobb and his nephews Bob Bayless, Duane Whitehill, John Bayless, and Brad Chambers. Frank is preceded in death by his parents, his siblings and his niece Judy Kaye (Whitehill) Ditmars. Celebration of life funeral service will be held 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, July 30, 2019 at the Hackett-Livingston Funeral Home in Shenandoah. Visitation with the family will be held from 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, July 30, 2019 at the funeral home. Burial will be held at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Shenandoah with military rites provided by the Shenandoah American Legion Post #88 Color Guard. Memorials may be made to the charity of your choice.