Cowgirl Up! (13 page)

“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.”

—O
PRAH
W
INFREY

W
hile Jane Burnett did run into a couple of rodeo promoters who wouldn't let her ride, Montana rodeos were not yet joining the ranks of the RAA in prohibiting women from riding rough stock, to the Brander sisters' advantage.

THRONGS VISIT THE CITY FOR LABOR DAY DOINGS

First annual Roundup is Huge Success

The riding of the Brander sisters, Margaret and Violet, of Deer Lodge, proved to be one of the star attractions of the big show. The girls rode the bucking horses and steers and took part in the races and contests, winning the wild cow milking event Monday, and other contests. —Silver State Post
, Deer Lodge, Sept. 4, 1930.

The Brander sisters continued their rodeo career in the 1930s, despite the Western states' trend of banning women's competition. The family had also hit hard times during the Depression, and their father had to sell not only his homestead but all of his logging equipment, horses, and sawmills to pay of his debts. Vi, Marg, and the older brothers assumed the responsibility of supporting the family.

They moved to a ranch for sale by the US government at a low price near St. Ignatius. This piece of land proved worthless, but during the short time they lived there, the Brander sisters ferried their horses across Flathead Lake and rode the twenty miles to Kalispell to take part in rodeos.

But Vi and Marg had the germ of a dream—to start a dude ranch and promote their own rodeos. Traveling to rodeos was a hard, rough life, and the shows had begun to lose their allure. To gain experience in dude ranching, they moved to Butte and applied for jobs.

A reporter, Dick Evans, heard of their search for work and wrote an article about their quest: “‘We've tried most every kind of ranching there is except dude ranching; we've wrangled most every kind of animal except hogs—now we're looking for a chance to learn dude ranch and pretty soon we hope to have our own ranch,' thus spoke Misses Violet and Margaret Brander, ‘branders' in act as well as in name, cow punchers, horse wranglers, bronco twisters, sheep shearers and steer riders. . . .”

Finally, after several years, Vi and Marg had enough money to start their dream ranch, leasing a 640-acre place four miles east of Avon for ninety dollars a year. They called it the Circle Star Ranch, for their registered brand.

A picture-perfect acreage, it featured rock walls that climbed above the tumbling waters of Dog Creek and its borders of willow, lodgepole and yellow pine, and firs. Deep still pools offered prime trout fishing spots for visitors, and sightings of bobcat, bear, coyotes, and deer were common in the wilderness.

The Brander sisters' experience helping in the logging industry paid off. Three of their younger sisters, Alice, (Helen) Kay, and June, joined them, and they immediately went to work getting logs to build three cabins and a ranch house. Kay and June, in their early teens, were guides for their guests through the mountains, and when the dudes were ready to go back home, Vi drove them to the train station Old West style, in a stagecoach pulled by a team of jet black horses. The other sisters galloped alongside, whooping and occasionally firing shots into the air, faking a robbery to entertain the Easterners.

The next building project was an arena, bucking chutes, and corrals so they could stage their first rodeo in 1931. Again the five sisters cut posts and poles, dug holes, nailed on top and bottom rails, and strung woven wire in between.

Riders from all over Montana and as far away as Arizona came to compete and help with chute work. Although none of the Brander boys ever rodeoed, all six sisters took part.

The sisters, dressed alike—in white shirts and pants, or blue sweaters with black trousers, or white shirts with red pants—put on a quadrille, or square dance, on horseback with cowboy partners. This entertaining event was a favorite of their audiences and took many hours of practice.

Vi put on a performance on her saddle horse Mickey, who pranced around the arena on her hind legs, and a bucking exhibition with her never-fail horse Goldy.

Vi and Marg rode broncs, and the other girls rode white-faced steers with a surcingle as their only handhold. Even ten-year-old Florence rode calves.

“We put on a rodeo as something for dudes to enjoy,” Marg said. “It was something different—women doing it all.”

The Circle Star rodeos went on for five years, helping to pay the lease. The life of a cowgirl wasn't all glamour and romance. Although the rodeos themselves were fun, the preparation was difficult work. The sisters had to round up the animals for the event a few days ahead of each show. They rode all day, sometimes in heavy lightning and thunderstorms in pouring rain, other days scorched by the sun and their breathing stifled by the dust.

Helen Kay wrote in
Let 'er Buck
, “It was hard, sweaty, backbreaking work from sunup until midnight every day if need be until the day of the rodeo. Then, somehow, the romance of it all came through and everything fell into place. The excitement, the crowds, the dusty arena and smell of hot dogs and hamburgers blurred the memory of getting ready and the thought that once the rodeo ended, the stock had to be taken back to (the) ranges. . . .”

Each rodeo was followed by a dance at the hall the Brander sisters had built themselves. Again they felled lodgepole pine, limbed out the logs, peeled them, and hauled them with a team of horses to the site. The girls built the dance hall, pole by pole; put on the roof; and laid the hardwood floor—all themselves.

In August 1933 Vi married Oscar “Pal” Beebe, a cowboy she'd met during her earlier rodeo career. They moved into one of the cabins, and four years later Marlin Dale was born. Vi rode horseback and did her routine work, wearing bib overalls to hide her matronly shape, almost up to the day her son was born.

Helen Kay wrote that her sister kept the secret from all of them until close to the date of the birth. Then one evening Kay “walked over to Vi, whacked her smartly on the abdomen” and asked, “What've you got in there anyhow?” Vi just laughed, still not revealing her condition.

“I would spin four ropes at one time, one in each hand, one with my foot, one with my mouth.”

—T
RIXI
M
CCORMICK

A
s the war situation in Europe worsened in the 1940s, rodeo stock grew scarce and transportation resources were limited. Rodeo producers found it difficult to maintain their rough-stock strings, and there were only fifteen to twenty professional women riders nationally, so their events suffered.

“In 1941 was the last year they had girls' saddle-bronc riding in New York,” Alice Greenough told the
Red Lodge Weekly
. “After that a few rodeos had exhibition ladies bronc riding, but that about ended the competitive era for women.”

However, Montana cowgirls Trixi McCormick and Birdie Askin excelled in trick roping and riding during this time. Trick riding had been featured in rodeos and at fairs for many years by both men and women performing stunts, such as standing upright on a galloping horse. Other stunts included hanging upside down off the side of the horse while attached to a strap or jumping on and off a galloping horse, twirling a rope while hanging parallel to the ground, and even swinging under the belly of the running horse and coming up on the other side.

Trick riding originated as a war weapon for the Russian Cossacks in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. When Communism overtook Russia, the Cossacks were forced to leave the country, and many moved to America, where they used their talents to earn a living. Their riding provided entertainment, and soon Americans started imitating them. Trick riding became a rodeo event, where the hardest tricks earned the most points.

Trick roping evolved from ranch work, where cowboys spun and threw ropes to catch animals. Over time they developed tricks to show off their prowess, which evolved into competition and became a form of entertainment first known through the Wild West shows.

Women trick riders of history included the Greenough sisters, the Brander sisters, Daisy Parsons, and Marie Gibson of Montana; Vera McGinnis of California; Tillie Baldwin, who emigrated from Norway to New York; Tad Lucas of Nebraska; Prairie Rose Henderson of Wyoming; and Fox Hastings of California.

Florence LaDue, rodeo promoter Guy Weadick's wife, beat World Champion Lucille Muhall in the trick-riding event at the 1912 Calgary Stampede.

At the 1919 Calgary Stampede, Montanan Daisy Parsons, rather than holding an American flag, stood upright on the horse with both arms stretched out. She also did a “Russian drag,” a stunt where she hung on to the horse with one foot while dangling inches above the ground.

Ten-time World Champion Cowgirl Trick Rider Florence Randolph of Georgia was the first and only woman to master turning a backward somersault from one horse to another. Florence weighed a mere ninety pounds and was only four feet, six inches tall. Vera McGinnis's (California) most famous trick was the under-the-belly crawl at full speed. Tad Lucas had her right forearm crushed in the 1933 Chicago show when she executed her famous under-the-belly trick and became caught in the rigging. Her horse stepped on her arm and kicked her, and she nearly lost the arm. But a year later she was back, riding with a cast.

William Leonard Stroud of Texas, the 1918 champion, became famous as a trick rider, frequently participating in “Roman Race,” standing astride two horses as they galloped around the arena. Many women emulated him, including Montana's Vi Brander and Margie Greenough.

Actor Will Rogers, known for his roles as a cowboy, was an expert trick roper and also served as a role model for several women over the years.

“Do it with style and a smile” was the motto of Connie Griffith of Nebraska. This could have been the Montana cowgirls' theme as well.

The audience ducked as the performer—just five feet, two inches tall and 108 pounds—twirled a seventy-five-foot fluorescent rope over their heads. But her muscular arm never faltered as she strutted across the stage in a beaded buckskin bra, fringed shorts, white Stetson and boots, and silver-conchaed gauntlets. Then she added three more ropes and whistled for her dog, Cutie, who came out also spinning a small rope.

Trixi McCormick was born Eithel Stokes in Grinder, Missouri, but her parents later moved the family to Hamilton, Montana, where her rancher father, Jody, became Ravalli County sheriff. She grew up riding with her dad—an expert horseman himself—and using a rope every day.

Riding the range under the spectacular peaks of the Bitterroot Mountains, young Eithel fantasized about what kind of world existed beyond those mountains. Even though she loved riding and living on her dad's ranch, she had the urge to see and experience more.

As a teenager she met Bob Rooker, a local cowboy, old-time rodeo producer, and trick-rope artist. She was in awe of his skills and begged him to give her lessons. He taught her some basic rope tricks and “how to smile while performing,” and she caught on quickly.

“You have a natural flair for it,” Rooker told her. “There aren't many women trick ropers. You could have a great career in rodeo, on stage and in hotel vaudeville. Why don't you give it a try?”

He helped her develop an act, and she performed at county fairs and rodeos, all the while “practicing, practicing, practicing, and adding more tricks,” according to her granddaughter Kay McGregor.

Trixi later told Tom Bryant in an interview with
Western Horseman
magazine in 1990, “I learned trick roping by hard work. . . . I worked many, many, many hours every day on rope twirling. Then I started putting tricks in.”

She expanded her repertoire, even adding tap dancing and playing the harmonica while spinning. “Back before television, rodeos were major entertainment,” she said. “People came to rodeos to see a show, and I put on one for them.”

Eithel was married in her early twenties, and they lived high on a mountain near Ovando. In about 1934 her husband stole her trick saddle and left. “She walked out of there in the middle of winter with her two little kids [Jack and Jerry],” related McGregor. “She had a tough character.”

Trixi later lamented, “I wish I could have been a better mother to my two children. But I did the best I could. When I got married, he and I both were about the mental age of twelve. Just kids trying to raise kids, a ready-made recipe for disaster.”

Now that she had children to raise on her own, she worked to perfect her talent at trick roping and riding.

“I was just a country kid and didn't know acting from sic 'em, but I listened and learned and kept practicing,” she told
Western Horseman
magazine.