Bruce Thompson told attendees at a Wyoming Day program in Newcastle that his mother, Thyra Thompson, rose from a mining-camp childhood to become one of Wyoming’s most prominent public servants and a persistent advocate for women and young people.

"My mother, Thyra, would be embarrassed by the title, Wyoming icon of equality," Thompson said, adding that she viewed herself as "a common sense woman who worked all her life." Thompson recounted her early life in a Colorado coal town, her move to Wyoming as a young woman, and her years at the University of Wyoming, where she majored in psychology.

Thompson described the couple’s life after his father, Keith Thompson, won election to Congress in the 1950s and later the U.S. Senate, and how Thyra balanced family responsibilities with statewide duties. "She was doing her damnedest," he said of her work schedule during her first terms in office.

He told the audience that Thyra served as Wyoming’s secretary of state (a role that in Wyoming has carried duties as acting governor/lieutenant-governor when the governor is absent), led consumer protections in securities regulation, and wrote a popular weekly column referred to in the program as "Washing Washington." Thompson said she was elected president of a North American administrators group in 1974 and that, at state request, she traveled internationally to promote Wyoming products—citing a visit to Taiwan in 1983 and a 1984 wheat sale described in the talk.

Thompson emphasized his mother’s policy priorities. "She led efforts for equal pay for women and recognition of comparable worth of women's jobs," he said, and he urged the state legislature to act on equal-pay measures when they appear on the docket.

During a brief question-and-answer period, an audience member asked about the Thompson family homestead on Beaver Creek; Thompson said his great-grandfather Edward Thompson homesteaded there in 1885 and described the family's arrival by rail and oxen. An unidentified attendee and a respondent who identified himself as a local reporter urged attendees to consult local newspapers and the Weston County Historical Society for archival records and program details.

Thompson closed by reading a line attributed to his mother: "I prize the people of Wyoming. Close daily contact with them has been my greatest joy." He told the audience it was a pleasure to return to Newcastle and thanked the hosts and historical society for their assistance.

The program combined personal reminiscence, local history, and a call for continued attention to policies affecting women and youth. Thompson pointed attendees to the Weston County Historical Society and the Anna Miller Museum for further research on local homesteads and family records.