The House and Senate on Thursday held a memorial Thursday for one of the original members of the House “crazies” of the late 1970s and early 1980s, former state Rep. and Sen. Maynard Yost, R-Sterling.

Yost died Dec. 1, 2019, in his Sterling home at the age of 83.

Yost served six years in the General Assembly, in the House in the 1977-78 sessions and in the Senate from 1979 to 1982. He chaired the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee in the 1981 and 1982 sessions.

Yost and first wife Jackie had four children: sons Dennis and Rick, and daughters Stacy and Shelley, who had developmental disabilities and died in 2015. Jackie passed away in 1998, and Yost remarried in 2006 to the “love of his life,” Teresa.

He is survived by Teresa, three of his four children, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Seventeen members of the Yost family were on hand at the state Capitol Thursday for the memorial.

Yost was born and grew up in Haxtun in northeastern Colorado. He entered the Navy in 1954, earned his GED, and then went to school to be a communications electrician. That led him to service on the submarine U.S.S. Besugo, based out of San Diego. He was honorably discharged in 1957 and went to work for the family cattle trucking business.

State Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, knew the Yost family for many years; he noted during the memorial that his son worked for Yost trucking. Sonnenberg sang at the wedding of Dennis Yost.

Yost also served as mayor of Crook prior to being elected to the General Assembly in 1977.

Yost “was about service,” Sonnenberg said during the memorial. “He made sure everyone, including his family, had what they needed.

“He was the ultimate legislator, working across the aisle for the entire state” even when he didn’t have to, since Republicans were in the majority in both the House and Senate at the time.

Yost was known as one of the infamous House “crazies,” along with then-Reps. Cliff Dodge, Steve Durham and Tom Tancredo, according to a 2016 Yesteryear story in Colorado Politics.

Sonnenberg referred to the quartet during his comments. After the four left the legislature, Sonnenberg said, they continued to figure out how to solve problems, “even though being a little ornery at times.”