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The Tampa Tribune
Friday, May 5, 1989
10-Heartland
FAMED PARRISH COWGIRL TELLS OF COLORFUL CAREER IN THE SADDLE
By: Colleen Parker
Tribune Staff Writer
PARRISH - The office sits in a converted horse stall, with
quarter-horse Tonto tied just outside the door. Above the door hangs
a set of steer horns.
Inside, the walls are filled with plaques and letters from local and
state governments. Black-and-white pictures from years past share
the space. Cowboy boots fitted with lampshades light the room. One
photograph shows Vick Blackstone and Gene Autry at a rodeo they
worked together in 1949.
"Everything's tagged for where it's going to," Faye Blackstone said
wistfully as she looked over the mementos. She tagged them after her
husband Vick died in 1987, leaving behind a woman still very much in
love. The items eventually will be given to various clubs and
organizations.
The Blackstones were famous rodeo stars of the 1950s and '60s. Vick
Blackstone is the first and only man to win all five events at one
rodeo and Faye was a renowned trick-riding artist whose
crowd-pleasing innovations are documented in a textbook.
As a tribute to their legacy, the Florida Agricultural Museum in
Tallahassee has a Blackstone rodeo collection, which opened in
January. The display includes Vick Blackstone's saddle, hat and
spurs, as well as photographs and memorabilia from the couple's
championship circuit-riding career.
Just last month Faye added to the collection, donating her
trick-riding saddle.
Now 73, Faye moves through the memories in her husband's office with
the grace and vigor of a woman who has spent almost all of her life
in the saddle of a horse.
To keep busy she mows the eight acres of pasture that surround her
mobile home. She rides Tonto about three hours daily, sometimes
riding two miles up the road to Parrish for breakfast with friends.
"I've had a real good, interesting life, said Faye, her face
crinkled in a smile framed by snow white hair.
She grew up with horses, amid cattle and corn, on her family's ranch
in Nebraska. She rode 10 miles a day to and from school, and to
break up the monotony of the ride, Faye said, she used to stand on
her horse and count the telephone poles along the way.
"I kind of picked it up on my own," Faye said of trick riding.
An uncle took her to see a nearby rodeo when she was a teen-ager.
She met her husband, from Texas, at a rodeo.
Dressed in a western shirt, cowboy boots and turquoise jewelry,
Faye's eyes twinkled when she spoke, yet she is a woman of few words
when she talks of her husband. "It's hard on the inside, but you
just go on. Vick used to say you take what life hands you and you
just go on," she said.
Faye was not a pioneer in rodeo trick riding, but said she devised
new tricks because usually four or five riders performed ahead of
her. "You didn't want to duplicate what they did. You wanted to do
something special."
She is credited with inventing three tricks for her rodeo act: the
Flyaway; the Ballerina; and the most daring called the Reverse
Fender Drag, during which she would slip off the saddle to lie prone
alongside the flanks of a galloping horse.
During her years on the rodeo circuit, she and Vick traveled about
30,000 miles, sleeping in everything from tents to trailers. An
accomplished seamstress, Faye sewed all her own costumes, as well as
Vick's shirts.
There were many women that did trick-riding in Faye's day, but now
there are even more, she said. The money is better and there are
more plentiful and bigger rodeos. "It's in good hands," she said.
The Blackstones had no children but left a legacy nonetheless. Vick
was named Manatee County's man of the year in the early 1970s, while
Faye was named as one of the county's outstanding women. A park in
Palmetto was named after them in 1982.
When asked about the two happiest, most memorable times of her life,
Faye Blackstone paused, but just briefly.
"The first was marrying Vick. The second was being inducted into the
(National Cowgirl) Hall of Fame," she said. Vick and Faye were the
first husband and wife team to become hall-of-famers, both inducted
in 1982 to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, and
the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Hereford, Texas.
Now her life is in Parrish, where she has lived for the past 25
years.
"Vick said he could live anywhere in the United States," she said,
"but he chose Parrish."
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Florida Agriculture
Florida Farm Bureau
Volume 63, No. 4, April 2004
Page 10
Agriculture Hall of Fame honors 2004 inductees
Faye and Victor Blackstone
Vick and Faye Blackstone came to Florida as traveling rodeo
performers and made the state their home, dedicating themselves to
agricultural pursuits and to passing on their knowledge of horses
and cattle to future generations.
In 1982, after 30 years of championship rodeo competition, the
couple was honored with their industry's highest awards: Vick was
inducted into the National Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame, and Fay into
the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. They are still the only couple to
have shared this honor.
Although Vick and Faye had no children of their own, both loved kids
and helped hundreds of them improve their lives, often by teaching
them agricultural skills at riding clubs or through other
activities.
Faye started riding horses at age 3. By the time she was done with
high school, Faye was an accomplished trick rider and beginning a
career that would see her touring the country as a feature act of
the Gene Autry Wild West Show.
Vick was one of 13 children in a farming and ranching family in
Medina, Texas. By age 17, he became so good at breaking horses that
he joined the professional rodeo circuit. He met Faye while
competing at a rodeo in 1937, and they were married on horseback.
Having moved to Florida, Vick and Faye managed an 11,000-acre cattle
ranch until retiring from the business in 1974, after which they
managed their own citrus grove and small ranch until Vick's death in
1987.
Since then, Faye has carried on their work by continuing to help
others in need and giving special support to children and children's
organizations.
Taken off the internet
Faye was born June 3, 1915. The daughter of farmers and ranchers,
she started riding horses at age 3. By the time she was done with
high school, Faye was an accomplished trick rider and beginning a
career that would see her touring the country as a feature act of
the Gene Autry Wild West Show.
Vick met Faye while competing at a rodeo in 1937, and they were
married on horseback. Having moved to Florida, Vick and Faye managed
an 11,000-acre cattle ranch until retiring from the business in
1974, after which they managed their own citrus grove and small
ranch until Vick’s death in 1987. Since then, she has carried on
their work by continuing to help others in need and giving special
support to children and children’s organizations.
Vick and Faye often worked in parallel, as when he was the director
of the Cattlemen’s Association and she the director of the
Cattlewomen’s Association. Other times they both worked for the
Parrish United Methodist Church. Overall, their contributions to
their community and to Florida agriculture were significant, and
they received many honors for their work.
Although Vick and Faye had no children of their own, both loved kids
and helped hundreds of them improve their lives, often by teaching
them agricultural skills at riding clubs or through other
activities, and sometimes by means of anonymous donations such as a
gift certificate for a holiday meal, a calf to be raised as a 4-H
project, or just a few dollars to see them through hard times.
Vick was inducted into the National Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame, and
Fay into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. They are still the only
couple to have shared this honor.
Faye at 91 years old still lives in Parrish, where she continues to
mow her pasture from atop her diesel tractor and ride horseback
nearly every day.
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