Entertainer, cowgirl, rodeo performer and businesswoman. She grew up on the Cross 6 Ranch and was the youngest of Ella and Wilburn Barton's nine children. She learned to ride horses at a young age while running cattle on the ranch. Local rodeos were popular forms of entertainment, with women competing alongside men. She attended area rodeos with her family and competed in junior boys' and girls' flag races, barrel races, and cow roping competitions. Her first competition was at age 15 at a local rodeo sponsored by Nocona Boot Company. She captured prizes in various area competitions, and in 1947 she won a new saddle at the Cowgirl Sponsor Contest at the Tri-State All-Girl Rodeo in Amarillo. Later, in 1947, at Midland, she became the first contestant ever to take home both the $1,500 saddle for the sponsor contest and the $600 trailer in the Cowgirls Cutting Horse Contest. She was one of 38 women founders of the Girls Rodeo Association in 1948 and was elected vice president that year. She competed in all of Texas' major rodeos throughout her career, often against men. At one of the Old Settlers' reunions and rodeos in Roaring Springs, Texas, she was the only woman who entered the ribbon-roping competition. She won the $25 prize after beating out 56 men competitors in the local competition. She hung up her spurs in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1953, because of her aging parents and increasing responsibilities on the family's Cross 6 Ranch. She returned to the ranch and began raising cattle, breeding American quarter horses, and growing cotton as well as livestock feed. She and her business partner and personal friend, Viola Stinson, won numerous awards for showing horses and even sponsored their own horse on the racing circuit at one point. She was still running her cattle ranch in her 80s, chewing tobacco and sitting on a tractor for 10 hours a day. The Texas Department of Agriculture awarded the Barton ranch a Family Land Heritage Award in 2003 for keeping the land in the extended family for over a century. She was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1984.
Entertainer, cowgirl, rodeo performer and businesswoman. She grew up on the Cross 6 Ranch and was the youngest of Ella and Wilburn Barton's nine children. She learned to ride horses at a young age while running cattle on the ranch. Local rodeos were popular forms of entertainment, with women competing alongside men. She attended area rodeos with her family and competed in junior boys' and girls' flag races, barrel races, and cow roping competitions. Her first competition was at age 15 at a local rodeo sponsored by Nocona Boot Company. She captured prizes in various area competitions, and in 1947 she won a new saddle at the Cowgirl Sponsor Contest at the Tri-State All-Girl Rodeo in Amarillo. Later, in 1947, at Midland, she became the first contestant ever to take home both the $1,500 saddle for the sponsor contest and the $600 trailer in the Cowgirls Cutting Horse Contest. She was one of 38 women founders of the Girls Rodeo Association in 1948 and was elected vice president that year. She competed in all of Texas' major rodeos throughout her career, often against men. At one of the Old Settlers' reunions and rodeos in Roaring Springs, Texas, she was the only woman who entered the ribbon-roping competition. She won the $25 prize after beating out 56 men competitors in the local competition. She hung up her spurs in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1953, because of her aging parents and increasing responsibilities on the family's Cross 6 Ranch. She returned to the ranch and began raising cattle, breeding American quarter horses, and growing cotton as well as livestock feed. She and her business partner and personal friend, Viola Stinson, won numerous awards for showing horses and even sponsored their own horse on the racing circuit at one point. She was still running her cattle ranch in her 80s, chewing tobacco and sitting on a tractor for 10 hours a day. The Texas Department of Agriculture awarded the Barton ranch a Family Land Heritage Award in 2003 for keeping the land in the extended family for over a century. She was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1984.
Bio by: Debbie Gibbons
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