Friday, May 5, 2000

Author deep into cowgirls, horny toads and snakes

By Bill Whitaker

Six years after Abilene lost a fervent bid to capture the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, the organization charged with championing women throughout the American West has reportedly found a nice fit in Fort Worth.

At least, so says Joyce Roach, who sure ought to know.

While not a board member of the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, Roach is an enthusiastic rank-and-file member with rich insight into the topic. The popular Fort Worth humorist and historian was even tapped as a consultant when it came time to discuss ideas for future growth there — a venture that saw her advise high-tech planners borrowed from Disney.

Roach wrote the book about cowgirls. Many regard The Cowgirls, first published in 1978 and revised 13 years later for a new edition from the University of North Texas Press — as the definitive book on that topic.

“I’ll be honest,” the busy author said of dusty stereotypes about women out West, during a visit to speak to the Abilene Woman’s Club at noon today. “I’m not sure perceptions about cowgirls have changed much during the last 20 years.

“You know, my book was even called ‘revisionist history’ when it first came out. I didn’t understand how they could say that. If I was revising the history of cowgirls and their contribution to the West, that might be one thing.

“But I was tackling the subject for the very first time. No one had really looked into these women or what even spawned such creatures.”

New horizons

When in 1994 the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame announced it was uprooting itself from Hereford and looking for a bigger town, Abilene made a strong bid for it. Abilenians even erected a billboard in Hereford: “The Cowgirl Hall of Fame can be the STAR of ABILENE.”

But Fort Worth won out.

“I would think it was because it was a bigger place,” Roach said. “And it certainly has that cowboy culture. It’s always been Cowtown. And for all the growth and change going on in Fort Worth today, it always will be Cowtown.”

Since relocating, the Cowgirl Hall of Fame has embarked on an ambitious plan for expansion to properly recognize women of the West. Typical of the honorees are New Mexico artist Georgia O’Keefe, early-day bronc rider and western actress Bertha Blancett and Callahan County’s esteemed, tough-as-hide horsewoman and rancher Helen Groves.

While Roach’s The Cowgirls remains one of her best-known works, the 64-year-old Jacksboro native has kept her hand in a wide variety of writing pursuits, ranging from a column for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to working on a history of Tarrant County prior to the founding of Fort Worth.

Her book Eats: A Folk History of Texas Foods also garnered her much praise.

See you later

Roach can even be heard on audio columns such as The News from Horned Toad, Texas, and counts herself as a champion of the disappearing prehistoric reptile, to the extent she joined a group of horned-toad lovers seeking the rare animals on a trek across a far-off West Texas ranch.

Just before the hunt began, the rancher came out to welcome group members — and then proceeded to tell them that, while horny toads might be seldom seen in those rugged parts anymore, rattlesnakes were quite common, and that they should keep their eyes peeled for them.

“Well, by the time he got through, 11 of the 14 of us fled for open ground,” Roach said. “They didn’t stop, they didn’t pass go, they didn’t collect $200. They sprinted for open ground.”

Roach adds that no such town as Horned Toad actually exists in the state, though that hasn’t kept overly impressed tourists from e-mailing her for directions.

Contact associate editor Bill Whitaker at 676-6732 or whitakerb@abinews.com. Check out Bill’s previous columns at www.brazosbill.com.