Teri Nita Bagwell

Teri Bagwell passed away peacefully on April 23rd, 2025 after a long battle against COPD. Her celebration of life will be held at the Prairie Sky Venue at 1120 WY-50 in Gillette WY at 6:00pm on Friday, May 9th, 2025.

Teri was born in Jackson, WY on September 18th, 1956, to Walter (Buck) and Dorothy Tyrrell. She was the first born of her their four children, and the first grandchild on the Robertson side of the family, which meant that she was the oldest of a soon-to-be massive crew of cousins.

After Buck finished college at the University of Wyoming, the family settled back in Gillette, WY, where Teri would spend most of the rest of her life.

As a child, her favorite times were spent at her grandparent’s ranch in Jackson. She always spoke fondly of the times they spent there, with all her cousins. There was never a dull moment.

Teri graduated from Campbell County High School, and in 1975 met the love of her life, Stephen Bagwell. After a couple of dates, he told her they were going to get married, and a couple of months later, they certainly did.

In 1976, they welcomed their first child, Preston Bagwell, and in 1980 they welcomed their second child, Melanie Bagwell (Kuhbacher). The family spent many years camping in the Big Horns and Black Hills with family and friends, and would take a big vacation somewhere fun, even if it wasn’t far away.

Teri worked in the banking most of her adult life. It was a running gag in the family that she could never tell a joke without ruining the punchline, or mixing it up, which honestly made jokes that weren’t very funny a lot funnier. We called them “bank jokes”. In a family full of sarcastic joke tellers, she tried to hold her own. She touched many people’s lives in the community through her work, and since she grew up in Gillette, she seemed to know almost everyone.

Teri was generous, gregarious, friendly, and made sure no one was ever hungry for even a second around her if she could help it. The phrase “they would give you the shirt off their back” was not just hyperbole for Teri Bagwell; she really would and did. Each Christmas she would pick a needy family to get Christmas presents for, even if money was tight in her own house.

Teri loved being a grandma to her 6 grandchildren, Sabian and Sophie Bagwell (Preston) and Leora, Lauran, and Cohen Collins, and Samuel Kuhbacher (Melanie). Sometimes when the babies were born, they would have to be pried away from her loving arms because she never wanted to stop holding them. They were everything to her.

For Teri’s health, Steve and Teri moved to Ft. Mohave, AZ in 2015. Steve grew up in the area, so they were surrounded by family and friends, new and old alike. They continued their driveway socials, and made dear friends with all of their neighbors. They loved to go boating and drove their side by side throughout the desert.

Teri is survived by her mother, Dorothy Tyrrell, siblings Joan Robbins, Curtis Tyrrell, and Diana Schow, children Preston (Jessica) Bagwell and Melanie (Tyson) Kuhbacher, all of her grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

She is proceeded in death by her dear husband, Stephen Bagwell, her father, Walter “Buck” Tyrrell, her maternal grandparents Leora and Dell Robertson, paternal grandparents Charles and Viola Tyrrell.