William Bert Durfee was born on May 26, 1921 to Joseph and Nina Warren Durfee in Upton, Wyoming. Bill was Michelle’s first cousin twice removed. Her grandmother, Hazel Durfee Kellogg, was Bill’s cousin.

Bill was born on his grandfather Warren’s ranch south of Upton. He graduated from high school in Upton in 1939. The 1940 census has him living with his parents, working in a bentonite plant. Later in 1940, he joined the US Navy and served until 1946.

In 1948, he married Loretta O’Haver. He worked for a time at the Spearfish South Dakota airport and learned to fly there. In 1950, he was working for the Wyoming Highway department and living in Sundance.

Bill worked for a variety of power companies, starting in Sheridan, moving to Provo, Utah, before returning to Sundance. He was Manager of Operations for Tri-County Electric (now part of Powder River Energy) until he retired in September of 1981. You can read more about the history of these electric cooperatives here.

Bill died on December 11, 2013 in Sundance, Wyoming.

Family names and nicknames

I’ve written about family names and nicknames in this post, and this month proved a fine example of common names. This month we have had three Williams in the family with birthdays. William Durfee was commonly know as Bill or Billy, sometimes as Billy Bert. William Delbert Hoel (last week’s post) was called Delbert. Every reference I’ve found for William J Link just lists William.

Digging deeper

Bentonite is a variety of clay that is very absorbent. It is used in things like cat litter, crayons and makeup. Wyoming is the largest producer of bentonite in the United States. You can read more about mining it here.