Condolences to 2011 Inductee Tooter Waites

Our deepest condolences are being sent to 2011 Inductee Tooter Waites, his wife Carolyn passed away this past weekend. Prayers to the entire family. We will pass on funeral information as soon as we receive them.  Click HERE for Obituary

• Carolyn Waites Memorial Info

Whit R. Keeney Passes

2011 TRCHF Inductee, Whit R. Keeney, 94, of Stephenville, Texas  passed away Thursday, October 13, 2011 in Stephenville.

Whit was born on February 14, 1917 in Erath County to the late James F. and Fannie Martin Keeney. He married Mary Purdom and she preceded him in death in 2002. Whit served in the U.S. Army Airbourne during WWII.

Whit started rodeoing in 1932, and joined the Rodeo Cowboy’s Association in 1944. He won the doggin’ in Baton Rouge, LA, Little Rock, Ark, and Memphis, Tenn. Everett Colborn hired him in 1947-48 to travel with the Lighting C Stock Company owned by Everett Colborn and Gene Autry to produce rodeos in New York at Madison Square Garden for 32 performances. He worked their rodeos at Ardmore, OK, Fort Madison, Iowa, and Boston, MA. Whit, also worked for rodeo producer, Homer Todd of Fort Smith, Ark.
READ COMPLETE OBITUARY

2011 Inductee Roland Clark Passes

Our thoughts and prayers go out to 2011 TRCHF Inductee Rowland W Clark and his family. Rowland passed away from a massive heart attack. He will be remembered for being a champion in and out of the arena.

The services for Roland Clark are as follows:
Visitation  Thursday  6 – 8 pm  Norwood Nation Funeral Home
1201 Lincoln Road, Idabel, Oklahoma
Funeral Services:  Friday, September 9   2:00pm
Red River Museum - Mary Herrin Conference Center
Idabel, Oklahoma

2009 Inductee Bert Bounds Passes

Beloved Belton resident and TRCHF past inductee Bert Bounds passed away last night(Aug. 2). Bert, brilliantly kept our founder, Johnny Boren organized for years as his secretary. She was inducted in 2009.

She was a pioneer in our organization and will be missed. Prayers go out to her family. Visitation has been set for Friday night and a funeral Saturday August 6th,2011 at 10:00 am at Dossman Funeral in Belton.

Eddy Akridge Passes - Rodeo Champion Dies at 82
Midland Reporter-Telegram

Four-time world champion bareback rider Eddy Akridge died Monday. He was 82.

Akridge, a member of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and National Cowboy Hall of Fame  in Oklahoma City, lived in Stanton in the 1960s and rode for Midland  before retiring from his rodeo career in 1968.

The Pampa native started is career in 1945 and won the World Bareback Bronc Riding title in 1953, 1954, 1955 and 1961.

He is credited as one of the men who developed the knee-jerking, high-kicking style.

After retiring from rodeo, Akridge moved to Las Vegas in 1970.
Akridge also was a musician who's 1963 song "One-a-Day Multiple  Heartache" reached the top 50 list on the national charts. In Las Vegas, he played rhythm guitar and sang lead for the Gold Buckle Band.

Akridge also worked in the gaming business as a dealer and host at various casinos on the Las Vegas strip.

The family requests donations be made to the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund at www.justincowboycrisisfund.org.
Link to Obituary

William Glynn Vick:
Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame has lost one of our members... our deepest condolences go out to the Vick family. Hats off to William Glynn Vick... a true champion of rodeo. Link to Obituary

Jerry Willis:
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Willis family. A good friend to the TRCHF, Jerry Willis will be missed
Link to Obituary

Reagon Walker:
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Reagon Walker, son of 2008 TRCHF Inductee Byron Walker and grandson of 2003 Inductee "Whitey Bob" Walker. Reagon was in an accident Friday and passed away from the injuries. Reagon was beginning to make his place in the PRCA along with that of his father and grandfather.

Sunny Edwards:
Our hearts are heavy as we send condolences to the family of 2011 TRCHF Inductee Sunny Edwards.... a true Texas trailblazer. Sonny passed away January 31st, 2011, as we send prayers to he and his family.

Cleveland Lee "Buck" Fergeson was born March 1, 1930, in Garrison, TX and passed away Saturday, February 13, 2010, in Bellville at the age of 79. Buck was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame for Bull Riding in 2001.

Victoria Lynn Taylor was born November 5, 1950, in Wimberley, TX and passed away July 18, 2010.  She spend many years as a trick rider and animal trainer for rodeos and Wild West shows.

It's with heavy hearts we send our deepest sympathies to Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame President, Don Howell. Don's mother, Georgia Howell, passed away Dec. 28, 2010.   Funeral services were held at the First Baptist Church in Florence, Texas Saturday, January 1, 2011. Our thoughts and prayers are with Don and the family.
 

The Great Round-Up

    When I think of the last great round-up,
    On the eve of eternity's dawn,
    I think of the past of the cowboys
    Who have been with us here and are gone.
    And I wonder if any will greet me
    On the sands of the evergreen shore
    With a hearty, "God bless you, old fellow,"
    That I've met with so often before.

    I think of the big-hearted fellows
    Who will divide with you, blanket and bread,
    With a piece of stray beef well roasted,
    And charge for it never a red.
    I often look upward and wonder
    If the green fields will seem half so fair,
    If any the wrong trail have taken
    And fail to "be in" over there.

    For the trail that leads down to perdition
    Is paved all the way with good deeds,
    But in the great round-up of ages,
    Dear boys, this won't answer your needs.
    But the way to green pastures, though narrow,
    Leads straight to the home in the sky,
    And Jesus will give you the passports
    To the land of the sweet by and by.

    For the Saviour has taken the contract
    To deliver all those who believe,
    At the headquarters ranch of His Father,
    In the great range where none can deceive.
    The Inspector will stand at the gateway
    And the herd, one by one, will go by,--
    The round-up by the angels in judgment
    Must past 'neath His all-seeing eye.

    No maverick or slick will be tallied
    In the great book of life in his home,
    For he knows all the brands and the earmarks
    That down through the ages have come.
    But along with the tailings and sleepers
    The strays must turn from the gate;
    No road brand to gain them admission,
    But the awful sad cry of "too late."

    Yet I trust, in the last great round-up,
    When the rider shall cut the big herd,
    That the cowboys shall be represented
    In the earmark and brand of the Lord;
    To be shipped to the bright mystic regions
    Over there in green pastures to lie,
    And led by the crystal still waters,
    In that home of the sweet by and by.

  From Jack Thorp's 1921 Songs of the Cowboys