March is Women's History Month. March is the time that Alpine celebrates a big cowboy poetry gathering. March 7 is the birthday of Townes Van Zandt, Roxy Gordon and my granddaughter, Angel. She'll be one! I won't make the gathering this year, but I do have lots of room in my heart for the songs and stories of the cowboy. Each September, I produce an educational program in Kerrville called Texas Heritage Living History Day. We hold this on the last Friday of September, followed by a Texas Heritage Seminar on Saturday and a Literacy and Learning Concert on Sunday. Why am I telling you all this now! Well, last year, Allen Damron participated in the weekend. The year before that, Sheriff Jim Wilson participated. Now he has a new CD and many more opportunities to sing his songs. Alpine, Terlinguea and The Big Bend Area seem to be fertile ground for some good ole Texas cowboys!

Just got news that the National Cowboy Museum is going to induct poet, singer, rancher Red Steagall into the Hall of Great Westerners on April 12. Steagall is a sterling example of a life spent preserving and interpreting the cowboy traditions.  I can't remember when I first met Red. Maybe in Junction, Texas, when he was the featured band at a dance held after rounding up goats all day. We sat on the steps of the Junction Courthouse while he told me a bit about his life. As a cowgirl from Ft. Worth, I was quite impressed to be sitting there with "Lone Star Beer and Bob Wills Music" himself.

Then he performed at the first scholarship fundraiser for the Texas Heritage Music Foundation held at the "then" Cowboy Artists of American Museum, "now" National Center For American Western Art. Many of us stood quietly in awe on the back porch of this beautiful museum, listening to his stories and songs.  I had the chance to showcase him once at our writers conference at Schreiner University. He and Don Edwards brought in the biggest crowd we had ever had. Yep, folks in Kerrville love Red Steagall. I love reading from his poetry when I lead an Elderhostel Group. Of course, the tears that come up with anything out of Ride For The Brand, make the reading tough at times.  I mean, this man is an American treasure! And I know many in Alpine have stories of Red Steagall to share.

I want to end this column by saying happy birthday to Townes and Roxy. I remember when Buck Ramsey met Roxy. They really liked each other. Roxy, a mixed breed Chocktaw Indian raised in Talpa, Texas, wrote of the land, the breeds, the people he met. He always knew that Townes was a brother. After the death of Townes in 1999, Roxy followed the next year. I had just visited him in Coleman, attending the wedding of Texas songwriter Richard Dobson and his bride from Switzerland. I stood with them in the Coleman Courthouse, while Roxy was resting in a wheel chair. He was having trouble walking by then. He was gone February 7, 2000.

I can't keep the stories of Townes, a hauntingly beautiful songwriter with a poet's heart, and Roxy, a man who reminded me to live life in the midst of my own artistic expression, as separate stories. March 7 in Dallas, a group of Roxy's friends gather to pay homage, once again. Last birthday moment, I was in Coleman, signing my book at Bootscooters and listening to Rick Sikes sing and play. Roxy and Rick had mutual fan clubs going. Rick will be another column. Roxy loved him!

Be sure and check out www.roxygordon.com. Roxy and Judy said that "wowapi" is anything in any written form. Roxy's life was wowapi in many ways. His art is also at the website. I have a piece called "Then My Horse Spoke" hanging next to some of Judy's art (his wife) in my little house on the high plain west of Kerrville. Thank you, Judy, for carrying on! Ils sont partis, Kate

Kathleen

Click here to return to the previous page
Visit Texas Heritage Music Foundation website.