Cowgirls praised by WIN-R speaker
by Lisa Seehusen, reporter

     The “cowgirl spirit” is renewing the hearts of women in Texas and stirring up the pride of women from all over the country, a guest speaker told South Campus students last week.
     Susan Fine described the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth and its goals during her presentation sponsored by Women In New Roles.
     “I desire the museum to tell the story of the wonderful things that women accomplish. They are still pioneering today,” she said.
     So far, 149 women from all walks of life are honored in the museum, and the Hall of Fame contains letters that these women had written throughout their lives.
     The museum contains various galleries displaying artifacts, books, holograms of women behind opaque glass, a life-sized stuffed bull with a woman riding and other exhibits.
     Fine talked about various women who traveled west with courage and “spirit.”
     When the women traveled west, they had to sacrifice their possessions of comfort and stable way of living.
     As an example, Fine told of what one woman did when her child died in the midst of their travels. The mother left a note at her son’s hurriedly dug gravesite asking for those traveling through to keep the grave beautiful. As other pioneers passed by, they saw the note, planted flowers and built a white-picket fence around the grave.
     According to Fine, these women truly displayed the cowgirl spirit of the American West in everything that came their way.
     Connie Douglas Reeves, one of the women in the Hall of Fame, is 99 years old today.      She graduated from the University of Texas law school and has taught over 40,000 young girls how to ride horses.
     When interviewed recently, Reeves said, “Always saddle your own horse … I still do.”
     Fine explained that these women saddled their own horses in the ways they approached life.
     In 1936, Will Rogers coined the term “cowgirl.” As women started riding horses and bulls, their style of dress had to change to fit their new roles.
     The fashion soon changed for these women as they started wearing their husbands’ pants and dressing appropriately for work and life on the ranch.
     When bull riding began, the women would compete against the men.
     But in 1948, women were prohibited from competing with the men because the men felt that the women might get hurt.
     Another woman in Hall of Fame, Tad Lucas, was the youngest of 24 children.
     The Indians became her best friends and taught her how to bull ride. She later became the best cowgirl of all time.
     “A cowgirl does not have to ride a horse or work on a ranch, but she gets the job accomplished and has spirit in what she does,” Fine said.
     Four women are inducted into the Hall of Fame every year. The museum receives over 3,000 requests from people on the internet and right now has over 400 nominations.
For more information about becoming a member of the National Cowgirl Museum or to nominate someone into the Hall of Fame, call 817-336-4475, 800-476-FAME (3263), or visit the web site: www.cowgirl.net.