Christie Beth Stebbins

Christie Beth (Christine) Stebbins passed away on December 14th, 2025, in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Chris was born in Casper, Wyoming on October 13,1950 to George Edward Gardner and Claudette Gardner Mowrey. From the beginning, it was clear Chris was going to be someone special. Creativity was her passion, and this was reflected in every aspect of her life. She began learning to play music early thanks in large part to her grandmother Evelyn Key, and as a young teen, hearing the Beatles for the first time. By the end of high school, she was an accomplished musician and singer. Alongside her first husband Grant Stebbins, she performed during the late 60’s and early 70’s as one half of a much-loved folk duo. They also created a daughter, Breann, their much loved “band baby”, who traveled with them throughout the Rocky Mountains as they played music across several states. Chris and Grant returned to Casper and formed the band Wheatstraw, performing together professionally until they divorced in 1974.

At this time, Chris became committed to her life partner and second husband, Dwight Harrison, whom she loved fiercely. They collaborated artistically for over 50 years and their band Sneakers was the go-to booking for weddings and holiday parties in the 70’s and 80’s. Chris continued to pursue higher education during this time, and when Casper’s economy declined in the 80’s, she chose her next act. She followed in her parent’s footsteps as an educator and taught for the Department of English at the University of Wyoming for 3 decades. Chris was integral in developing the professional writing and science fiction classes for the department, and the English as a Second Language (ESL) program, which fit with her life-long interest in other cultures. She loved working with international students and was especially drawn to countries in Asia. Following a trip to Singapore and Thailand, Chris’s celebration meals for the next decade were Asian-themed, and with Breann as her kitchen assistant, offered tables full of delicacies not often found in Wyoming. Later international trips reinforced her love for the customs of other lands, and each country she visited found their way into her home and onto the table.

Chris’s curiosity about other places and other people influenced another significant area of her life, her artwork, which she pursued with the same dedication she had earlier given to music. She created watercolors of stunning quality that reflected her love of illustration and nature. When summer vacation started each year, Chris could be found in her greenhouse studio listening to soft jazz, surrounded by a chaotic mess of paint tubes, brushes, scraps of tissue paper, and at least one cat. Her gardens also reflected her artistic vision and mirrored the detail and passion she brought to her painting. When she retired from the university, her days were full of practicing the piano, building lavish gift cards for the holidays, planning new additions to her gardens, and looking at as many ideas for the new painting season as she could fit into a day. Her creativity was legendary, and her love of the beautiful, the fascinating, and the otherworldly impacted everyone she shared her talents with.

Chris is survived by her husband Dwight Harrison of Laramie, her daughter Breann Lamborn (Dean) of Casper, her mother Claudette Mowery of Cheyenne, her brother Mark Gardner (Jill Wright) of Glendo, her sister Denise Burke of Cheyenne, her sister-in-law and brother-in-law Kena and Bill Volsic of Rock Springs, her nieces Leah Curtsigner and Taylor Mantzke of Colorado, nephews Cameron Gardner and Kyle Gardner of Casper, Shawn Volsic of Boise, Idaho, and their families.

A celebration of Chris’s life will be held this spring. In lieu of flowers, her family asks that donations be made to the charity of your choice, preferably in education, the arts, or animal welfare.