Page 94 - Erath

She enjoyed math and was a straight A student in both math and chemistry but never cared much for English. After graduation, she got a job teaching. “One year was all I could take of that, so I quit and got a job with the sheriff of Reeves County. He made me a deputy and put me in charge of collecting taxes. I carried a little pearl-handled revolver with me.”

While serving Reeves County as deputy sheriff, Isora competed in any rodeo that was handy. She was a stiff competitor in roping events and sponsored competition. The intent of this all-girl competition was to show how fast a rider could mount a horse, race to the other end of the arena, jump off, pick up an object, remount and race

back. At frst she rode bareback as she had learned to do as a child but at her frst big rodeo, the Double Heart Ranch Rodeo, south of Sweetwater, she won a saddle. From then on, Isora was hooked into the world of rodeo and she rode all out every time she entered. “I had a little mare trained to be a polo pony but she was too little for that game so the man who owned her gave her to me,” Isora said. “She had a habit of curling her lip and showing her teeth to the crowd and she was fast. She’d stretch out for me to get on, take off like a lightning bolt, race back and grin at the crowd. They just loved it!” She was invited to go to Madison Square Garden and compete but she was working for the sheriff and he wouldn’t

give her the time off that she needed. “So I missed that one,” she said, “but I always think about it and wish that I could have ridden in the big one!” There were other rodeos, however and Isora competed with the cowboys in calf roping, her favorite activity. “My daddy taught me well,” she said. “He loved to see me rope a calf and he encouraged me to rope any and everything. Later when I competed in the arena I got paid $50 if I caught the calf and nothing if I didn’t. I’ll tell you that I got pretty good because I liked putting that money in my pocket.” In 1936 in celebration of the Texas Centennial, Isora was introduced as a “True Texas Cowgirl” from the stage of the Texas Hotel in Fort Worth. Her family said that she wore a long purple velvet dress for the presentation. She was stunning with a 36-25-36 fgure, long auburn hair and green eyes. She made an impression on the audience but she would have much rather been riding a fast horse and throwing a hemp rope, catching a 300 pound calf. In 1939, Isora met I.W. “Dub” Young, a rodeo cowboy. They were married and made rodeos together, traveling all over the Western states and fnally buying a ranch in the Huckabay community near Stephenville. There were plenty of rodeos in this area and they continued to rodeo together. In 1947 the Youngs leased their ranch and moved to South Dakota. They continued to ranch and rodeo together until fnally they decided to leave the arenas and moved back to Erath County. So retired from rodeo competition, Isora started doing income taxes for her neighbors and by 1976 she had 400 regular customers. In ‘76, after her husband died, Isora moved to Stephenville.

“I wanted to stay on the ranch but Dub told me that when he was gone, I should move to town, not stay out there by myself, so that’s what I did,” she said.

ABOVE Isora with Ty Murray, G.K. Lewallen and Whit Keeney at G.K.’s 90th birthday party at the Grand Entry in Stephenville. This was the frst time Isora met Ty. Photo taken by Joyce Whitis. LEFT Isora is a champion calf roper and barrel racer from a time when women in rodeo were very rare. She began competing in the early 1930s and was promoted as one of only two cowgirl calf ropers in the world. She followed the rodeo circuit all across the country until she retired to ranching.