Crash near Buffalo claims Lovell native

A Lovell family is in mourning this week after the death of their daughter/granddaughter last week in a car crash north of Buffalo.

Kayla Green, 36, the daughter of Brian and Susan Green and granddaughter of Judy Green of Lovell, was traveling to her hometown of Lovell from her home in Cheyenne for a Fourth of July family gathering Thursday afternoon, July 3, when she swerved to avoid a deer on the highway, lost control of her car and crashed.

According to a story in the Buffalo Bulletin from a Wyoming Highway Patrol report, Green was traveling northbound on I-25 in the left lane when she suddenly steered hard to the right. The vehicle entered a broadside slide and went off the right side of the roadway, sliding into the borrow pit. The vehicle struck a drainage ditch and rolled one and a half times before coming to rest on its roof.

A 2007 graduate of Lovell High School, Green was a popular and successful student. She was a member of student council and served as senior class co-president. She was a cheerleader and was also a manager for the LHS boys basketball team her senior year. She attended Wyoming Girls State after her junior year and served as an intern for State Rep. Elaine Harvey in the Wyoming Legislature.

After graduation, she moved on to the University of Wyoming, graduating in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science degree. She moved to Cheyenne and worked for Carpet One for many years, but according to her obituary, she found her true passion with the State of Wyoming as a staff member of the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities, allowing her to travel, meet new people and form meaningful friendships.

The council website shows her as interim executive director.

Close family friend Jody Lynne Bassett said Kayla was a small person with a big heart.

“She had a heart of gold, just a heart of gold,” Bassett said. “She was just a pleaser. She liked whatever was easiest. She was a people person. She might be tiny, but she was mighty.”

Bassett said Green’s position with the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities was perfect for her, “because her heart was so big and she was so caring, and, you know, she got to do quite a bit of traveling and meet a lot of new people.”

Bassett said Green loved to go camping and spend time with her family, her grandmother Judy Green, grandmother Dorothy Nelson, who passed away in February, parents Brian and Susan, sister Stephanie of Cheyenne, brother Beau of Casper and cousin Casey of Laramie. Bassett said she was especially fond of her nephew, Beau’s son Beckham.

Her favorite holidays were Christmas and the Fourth of July, for which she was driving to Lovell a week ago.

Bassett said Green was like a daughter to the Bassett family with the two families doing many things together.

“She’ll definitely be missed,” Bassett said. “Everybody loved Kayla.”