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PatchWork by Joyce Whitis |
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PatchWork by Joyce Whitis |
Living Legend: G.K. Lewallen
When the tall skinny kid graduated from Blackwell High during the days of this nation's dark depression, any kind of job was tough to find. At first he thought he might go to Draughon's Business College but a ranch hand talked him into going to a rodeo in Mangum, Oklahoma instead. Soon he found himself astride a bucking bronc in the middle of a dusty arena. G.K. Lewallen stayed in rodeo arenas for the next 20 years, riding rough stock in three events.
"I liked saddle bronc best," he said "but bull riding was my best event. Bareback was my worse." During the years from 1937 to 1956, this Texas cowboy won enough awards and Championships to earn a place in the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City and Texas Rodeo Hall of Fame in Belton. The way there was long and woven with triumph and tragedy, joy and sorrow but the tough school of the rodeo cowboy is one to build character in those who survive.
Lewallen, who grew up on a ranch near Sweetwater, in the community of Blackwell, began his rodeo career by helping break horses and participating in community rodeos, goat ropings, and Fourth of July Picnics. Word about rodeos, where cowboys might pick up a few dollars, spread through the ranks and then the would be competitors had to get to the arena the best way they could. "Me and my buddy heard about a rodeo in Merkel," Lewallen said. "We were wanting to go and trying to find a ride out there when we saw a freight train coming down the track.
'Well, let's just catch that,' we thought. We caught onto a cattle car and climbed inside and I'll tell you it was just jammed. We got on the cows backs and they couldn't throw us off because it was so crowded they couldn't buck but they could hit us with their tails which were full of manure." Lewallen stopped to laugh before going on.
"By the time we got to Merkle, we were really in a mess. Our clothes were dirty and we smelled pretty bad but what was worse, the train didn't stop in Merkel but just breezed right on through. We finally got off in Abilene, got a room at a hotel for a dollar, washed our jeans in the bathtub and hung them out the window. During the night it rained so we had to put on wet pants the next morning and hitch hike back to Merkel. And to cap it all, the rodeo was called off because of the rain!
During his rodeo career, Lewallen won first at such notable rodeos as Madison Square Garden, Fort Worth, Pecos, Albuquerque, Rapid City, Ogden, Billings, Woodward, and Burwell. He won all three riding events in the same year at Coleman, Chanute, Kansas, and Killeen. Lewallen remembers that rodeoing was a lot different in his day in that there were a lot fewer rodeos and less money paid. "We would travel to maybe 40 or 50 rodeos in a year," he said "where as today, professional cowboys fly in and out of towns so fast, they make a hundred or more contests a year."
Lewallen told about his first experience with a fortune teller in Memphis, Tennessee when he hitched a ride to a rodeo there, for gas money. "It was a ten day rodeo that paid mount money, not a contest, just so much to ride. They turned out all the chutes at once. I averaged a couple of rides each performance. We were all banged up and crippled and beginning to get to where we didn't want to get back on those ol' fighting bulls. Finally just me and one other friend were still gettin' on."
It was then that the young cowboy went to a fortune teller who had a little place set up near the arena. "She looked at my hand, said I had a long lifeline and would live way past 80. That was all I needed," he laughed, "so I went back to ridin' bulls."
A favorite place for professional cowboys in those days was Madison Square Garden. Everett Colborn of Dublin had teamed up with Gene Autry to produce the rodeo which tried out in Dublin before loading on a train and heading for the Garden. The rodeo lasted a full month and then moved to Boston Garden. Lewallen said that was his favorite rodeo and he always enjoyed staying in New York and riding in the big arena. His memories are good, he won the Bull Riding Championship and was awarded a saddle in 1945, and there is the bad memory of that time in 1942 when he dismounted from a bull ride and fractured his thigh!
The break was a very serious injury so that the doctor in New York inserted a silver plate and screwed it in place. Then he put Lewallen in a body cast which included the whole right side , arm and leg. Instantly every day living became more complicated. It was decided to send him home by train but there was a problem in maneuvering that rigid body cast around corners and into his compartment in the sleeping car. A crew was dispatched to remove the train window, slide him in, and replace the window for the trip. A buddy rode with him to assist the injured cowboy. The answer to the unasked question is this, "we put it in paper bags and threw them out the window as the train sped through the country".
In 1945, Lewallen moved from Blackwell to a ranch he bought near Hico. He opened a western store in Hico in 1953 and named it Lewallen's Boot Company. When he was off with a rodeo somewhere, he just put a sign on the door reading, "Closed for the Day". "Of course I might be gone all summer," Lewallen said.
Lewallen was one of the first to recognize that there was an unsupplied market for Western clothes in the eastern part of the country, so he rigged up a trailer, outfitted it like a small Western store and when he wasn't performing in the arena, he set up shop in the parking lot. He did so well that he would usually sell out and restock for the next rodeo.
In 1954 Lewallen was still going to some rodeos but was slowing down and a friend wanted him to come to Arkansas. He drove out there, looked at a real pretty ranch and put up $500 earnest money. Back home he put up a "For Sale" sign on his property and waited for buyers to come by. Nobody came. In the end he took another hard look at Erath County, the country around Stephenville and decided that this is where he wanted to live. "I just forfeited that money in Arkansas," Lewallen said, "and I've always been glad that I did. There is no place better to live than right here."
In 1955 G.K. Lewallen opened his complete Western store on East Washington Street which is presently a part of NationsBank building. At the time Farmers First National Bank was on the corner of N. Graham and East Washington and Safeway was on the other end of the block along East Washington. The Grand Entry Western Store was a great success.
In 1970, when the newly constructed South Loop was almost barren, Lewallen boldly built a building for The Grand Entry and moved. Gibsons was just down the street and Bruner Motors was next door. That store, with its increased floor space was soon as crowded as the little place downtown had been. A few years ago, Lewallen sold the successful store to his son-in-law, Chick Elms who operates it along with his adjoining boot repair shop.
Lewallen has lived, since 1958, around Stephenville, and in 1980 built a picturesque ranch house fronted on a 40 acre lake. The house was designed by his wife, Ethel, an accomplished artist. She died in 1988.
In 1990 G.K. Lewallen and Nita Brooks of Sweetwater, whose husband, Louis, died in 1983, were married. Louis was a retired rodeo cowboy and member of the Rodeo Hall of Fame. Nita was inducted into the national Cowgirl Hall of Fame last year.
Lewellen has done much to benefit Stephenville and Erath County. In 1977 he was among the first board of directors to charter the Town and Country Bank, where he currently serves on the board. He was one of the first directors of the Erath County Livestock Association, and has faithfully promoted the Stephenville Chamber of Commerce, serving as a director. He has actively supported the Erath County Junior Livestock Show. Tarleton State University has honored Lewallen with many plaques of appreciation for his help with the Tarleton Rodeo Association, and the Agricultural Department.
Lewallen served on the Executive Committee for the Texas PRCA Rodeo Circuit Board of Directors for many years. He also served as President for the Rodeo Historical Society of the Cowboy Hall of Fame at Oklahoma City.
Not unlike stories repeated "around the campfire" tales coaxed from the mouths of cowboys long after they have ridden their last time into that big arena are full of humor. Lewallen suffered an injury to his liver during his rodeo days. It resulted from a bareback ride when the horse did more running than bucking and slammed into a concrete fence around the arena. The sudden stop threw the rider over onto the wall, tearing his liver. Later a television show host was interviewing Nolan, Lewallen's son who was three years old at the time. When asked , "What does your daddy do?"
Nolan said over the microphone, "My daddy rides bucking horses and he rides bucking bulls, but he hung his liver on the fence!"
Well, a man who can do that, ought to be able to do anything!