A Lady in Longmire Country

The Honorable Alexandra Foley attends Longmire Days

Cowgirl at heart

By Floyd Whiting, BUFFALO BULLETIN August 16, 2018

The Honorable Alexandra Foley is no stranger to travel; she has hosted and given tours through castles and palaces around the world.

She hosts American CEOs as they look to game shoot on some of England’s finest country, and she decorates and entertains for international aristocracy.

She assisted Apollo 13 astronaut Buzz Aldrin with the historic dive to the Titanic.

But by Foley’s own admission, she feels most comfortable in blue jeans and a pair of cowboy boots, which makes her most recent excursion – Longmire Days 2018 – one to remember.

Foley is from London, England. She was raised and educated in the world of British nobility.  

Her family became prominent steel industrialists in the British Empire in the 17th century. Her father was Adrian Gerald Foley, the eighth Baron Foley.

“My ancestor was the first industrial spy who went to Sweden disguised as a wandering minstrel,” Foley said. “He came back with all the secrets of highly advanced nail making and slitting and brought it back to England.”

But for as long as she can remember, Foley has loved the old West – the cowboys, the horses, the frontier justice.

“Since I was 3 years old and watched ‘Bonanza’ I have been absolutely fascinated with the American West, and I’m a collector of 19th-century revolvers,” Foley said.

Being a fan of the West, Foley naturally fell in love with the “Longmire” television series.

“It’s the intensity of the acting,” Foley said. “The extraordinary photography. There’s something incredibly compelling about it. And I somehow identify with the characters. For me, it’s almost visceral and emotional.”

Foley said it’s the human story that anyone can identify with that drew her to be such a big fan of “Longmire.”

“It’s a very sophisticated, varying shades of gray between good and evil; the good people and the bad people and the people that you think are the bad guys turn out to be not so bad after all – Nighthorse being a good example of that,” Foley said. “And if you dig down, you find an in-depth snapshot of the human condition.”  

It was by chance, and perhaps a bit of fate, that Foley attended this year’s Longmire Days.

During her critique of a press release for a project, Foley noticed a Longmire Days 2017 video within her suggested video feed.

“I became distracted,” Foley said. “So I punched the play image, and there I see the panel discussion at the high school and clips of last year’s Longmire Days. And I thought, ‘Wow, this is fantastic.’”

Upon returning to her office, Foley checked to see if Longmire Days was happening again and found, to her delight, that it was.

“I saw it was the 10th of August,” Foley said. “I was supposed to go to my house in New York on the 10th of August. I thought, ‘To hell with that, I’m going to reverse this.’”

Foley made her plans to fly to the United States that night.

Upon arriving in Buffalo, Foley went to the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce.

“I met Jennifer at the chamber of commerce and her assistant, Danielle. They were absolutely brilliant,” Foley said. “I said, ‘I have come from London, and I am very worried that I have the right tickets.’ Suddenly a sort of miraculous thing happened. They both sort of just made it all happen. They could see my enthusiasm.”

Foley was able to attend each event, even the VIP dinner that was held at the HF Bar Ranch, which she was unaware of until the last moment.

“I think it’s pretty emotional; it’s magnificent,” Foley said. “There’s something incredibly wholesome and rather magical, the fact that these actors seem to be more than just actors. It seems to be a community. It slightly reminds me of the same way the cast of M.A.S.H. worked together so long and became a community. To me, there’s something quite extraordinary about the whole thing.”

Foley said she has never been disappointed with her travels to Wyoming and feels a special connection with the state, even as far as feeling a bit like home to her.

“What I love about Wyoming now that I have traveled a bit through it, is the people are so wonderful,” Foley said. “I know people say that about any place, but they are particularly friendly.”