Matriarch of Cheyenne Newspaper Family Dies

By: Anne Wright McCraken, whose family owns the Wyoming Tribune Eagle and the Laramie Boomerang, has died. She was 76.

McCraken died Saturday at her Cheyenne home after a brief illness, family members said.

The McCraken family owns Cheyenne Newspapers Inc., which publishes the Cheyenne and Laramie newspapers. Anne McCraken served on the company's board of directors at the time of her death.

She also served on the corporate boards of the Rawlins Daily Times, the Daily Rocket-Miner in Rock Springs and the Northern Wyoming Daily News in Worland. The McCraken family has an ownership interest in all three newspapers and a controlling interest in the Rawlins and Worland newspapers.

McCraken was born in Kentucky and grew up in Missouri. She attended the University of Wyoming and in 1960 married Robert S. McCraken, publisher of The Wyoming Eagle and Wyoming State Tribune, forerunners of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

Their son, L. Michael McCraken, president and publisher of the Tribune Eagle, said his mother was active in the community and a major supporter of the Cheyenne Animal Shelter.

''Her big cause lately was the animal shelter,'' Mike McCraken said. ''That was really her love.''

Anne McCraken was preceded in death by her husband, who died in 1989.

She is survived by son Mike and his wife Janice; daughter Cindy Marek, the Tribune Eagle's national advertising manager, and her husband Joe Marek; grandson Rob McCraken; and numerous nieces and nephews.