Colleen Kay Benedickt

Colleen Kay Benedickt, Sheridan, Wyoming, left to be with her creator on December 9, 2011. She was with her family at home in the days and hours before her final journey.

Services were held at Holy Name Catholic Church in Sheridan, Wyoming on Tuesday, December 13, 2011.

Colleen was born in Alliance, Nebraska on December 20, 1945 to Edson and Mildred Wilcox.

Colleen spent her youth growing up on the family ranch in the wild and beautiful sandhills near Ellsworth, Nebraska. She attended high school in Chadron, Nebraska in the Pine Ridge Country. After she graduated from high school, she attended beautician school in Omaha, Nebraska. Upon graduating she moved to the little farming and ranching community of Gordon, Nebraska where she met the love of her life, Michael James Benedickt.

Colleen touched the lives of many. She loved to love and was always there if you just needed to talk. She was especially fond of little children and had a special way with animals, from the many dogs and cats she took in over the years to the wild ones that shared her home on the hill she fondly called “Looks Far Kamp”. Colleen enjoyed traveling the wild back roads of the prairies and mountains near her home in Sheridan, Wyoming. She was always up for a new road or a new adventure. Never one to simply sit and talk about doing it, she was always the one to load up and go. Colleen was an active participant in the Native American “ways” and on her journey made many friends along the way. Throughout her life, Colleen was a talented artist and a gifted poet as evident by the legacy of poems and art that she left behind.

Colleen is survived by her husband, Michael Benedickt; sisters Patricia McNitt and Sharon Goff; son Jamie Benedickt; daughters and their spouses Brandy and Chad Bradshaw; Tiffany and Jerry Drake; her beloved seven grandchildren, Maddie, Mason, Cheyna, Gracie, Cutler, Lane J, and Miss Briley.

Colleen is preceded in death by her father Edson Wilcox, mother Mildred Wilcox, brother Mike Wilcox, and sister Ramona Zehm.

Arrangements have been made with Champion Ferries Funeral Home. Donations may be made to Dog and Cat Shelter, 84 East Ridge Road, Sheridan, Wyoming 82801.