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Created page with "{{Infobox person | name=Thomas Everett "Tom" Blasingame | birth_date=February 12, 1898 | birth_place=Waxahachie, Ellis County, Texas, USA | deat..."
{{Infobox person
| name=Thomas Everett "Tom" Blasingame
| birth_date=February 12, 1898
| birth_place=Waxahachie, Ellis County, [[Texas]], [[United States|USA]]
| death_date=December 27, 1989 (aged 91)
| death_place=Claude, Armstrong County, Texas
|spouse= Eleanor Aloe Morris Blasingame (married 1933-1989 (his death)
|children=Thomas White Blasingame<br>
Nancy B. Etheridge
|footnotes='''Notes''':<br>
* Blasingame was presumably the oldest [[cowboy]] in the [[history]] of the American West, having devoted seventy-three of his ninety-one years to [[ranching]].<br>
*Blasingame taught former state Senator Miles Teel Bivins of [[Amarillo]] how to handle livestock.<br>
*In his typical work week, Blasingame slept in a camp house without [[electricity]] and rode a hundred miles per day.
}}
'''Thomas Everett Blasingame''', known as '''Tom Blasingame''' (February 12, 1898 – December 27, 1989) was a [[Texas]] [[cowboy]] for seventy-three years. At ninety-one, he was still on the job at the [[JA Ranch]] south of [[Amarillo]]. Two days after [[Christmas]] in 1989, he dismounted his [[horse]], Ruidosa, stretched out on the [[grass]], folded his arms across his chest, and died.<ref name=ranches>{{cite web|url=http://www.ranches.org/tom_blasingame.htm|title=Tom Blasingame|publisher=Ranches.org|accessdate=December 16, 2019}}</ref> Blasingame received many honors for his longevity and dedication to ranching.
==Background==
Born in Waxahachie in Ellis County, south of [[Dallas]], Blasingame decided as a child that he would work on a ranch. In 1918, he headed to the [[Texas Panhandle]] and was hired on the large JA spread, which had been jointly established in the Palo Duro Canyon by [[John George Adair]] and [[Charles Goodnight]] (1836–1929), probably the best-known of Texas ranchers.<ref name=PPHM>Exhibit at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas.</ref>
==Ranching experiences==
Before he settled permanently at the JA, Blasingame worked for a time on ranches in [[California]], [[Arizona]], and [[New Mexico]]. Blasingame said that he moved about during the 1920s so that he could see the country. Working for different ranches was the only way a poor man could travel, he said. He described life on the ranch accordingly:
<blockquote>
We lived outside all the time. We had our bedrolls rolled up in a tarp. If it was raining, we'd just cover up with our tarps and sit there. We'd bathe in the river. It was pretty cold sometimes. We lived on [[beef]] and pinto beans. The meat kept fine outdoors. It was a lot better than this Frigidaire meat, you bet. Down on the desert outfits, they made lots of jerky. I'd eat it with biscuits if they was good, or I'd just eat it straight. You didn't have many good bread cooks out in the camp. In the wintertime, we'd have them steaks for breakfas], and gravy. It was a pack outfit, so you didn't get eggs or anything like that. It had to be stuff you could pack, but I never got tired of eating the same thing all the time."<ref name=ranches/></blockquote>
Blasingame describes his experiences training horses:
<blockquote>
I like to break [[horse]]s. They raised their own horses here at JA and they'd break about forty broncs every spring, 4-year-olds. They was wild. They had run on the range. In the long run that was the best. A 4-year-old is pretty well hardened and hard to hurt, and he's got a good tough heart, too, not like these horses nowadays that are halter broken when they're winter colts not even a year old. I never did hit the horses much while I was breaking 'em, maybe a slap on the neck or somethin' just to let 'em know they done somethin' wrong. A horse is pretty smart. He knows when you're abusing him, and when you're not."<ref name=ranches/></blockquote>
Back at the JA, Blasingame lived on Campbell Creek in a camp house without electricity during the week and came to Claude in Armstrong County] east of Amarillo and north of the ranch, on weekends to see his wife, the former Eleanor Aloe Morris (1914-1999), the daughter of a neighboring rancher whom he married on November 2, 1933. At the time of her death, Eleanor was living in [[Boise]], [[Idaho]], the city of residence of her son, Thomas White Blasingame (born June 25, 1935),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylife.com/thomas-blasingame/e51106072098|title=Thomas Blasngame (White)|publisher=Mylife.com|accessdate=December 16, 2019}}</ref> and her daughter, Nancy B. Etheridge (born July 1, 1940). The Blasingames had four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.<ref name=PPHM/>
Blasingame was not affiliated with a church but said that he had "read lots of books. Read the [[Bible]] a lot. I believe what the Bible says, but I don't reckon I'm religious. Even if I was, I couldn't go to church because I've got too much work to do."<ref name=ranches/>
==Tributes to Blasingame==
In 1986, television news anchor Barbara West produced an award-winning television mini-documentary on Blasingame. This program introduced the then-unknown Blasingame to America when it was shown on many US stations at the time. [[Dan Rather]] then on [[CBS]], used it in his on-air tribute at the time of Blasingames's death.
On March 1, 1990, Miles Teel Bevins (1947-2009), a [[Republican Party|Republican]] former Texas state Senator from Amarillo and Ambassador to [[Sweden]] during the [[George W. Bush]] administration, introduced a Senate resolution that hails Blasingame's accomplishments. Bivins, whose family has long held ranching interests in the Texas Panhandle, recalled that Blasingame personally taught Bivins as a youngster how to handle livestock.<ref>Texas State Senate, Resolution by Miles Teel Bivins of Amarillo honoring the memory of Tom Blasingame, March 1, 1990.</ref>
In 1989, Blasingame received the "Texas Trailblazer Award" at the annual Texas Ranch Roundup. It was noted that he had full days, often riding a hundred miles, and having returned to his camp house to prepare his evening meal. His only luxury was said to have been his transistor [[radio]], which he used to listen to Texas Rangers [[baseball]]. Blasingame also received the Western Heritage Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in [[Oklahoma City]]. In 1986, [[Governor]] [[Mark White]] recognized Blasingame for his dedication to ranching.<ref name=PPHM/>
"Tom Blasingame" is also the title of a western song with lyrics by Ian Dawson Tyson (born 1933). The composition refers to "eighty-five years in the saddle" because Blasingame began horseback riding at the age of six.
Blasingame's tenure at the JA Ranch partly corresponded with that of Clarence Hailey Long (190-1978), the inspiration of the original "Marlboro Man" advertising campaign.<ref name=PPHM/>
Some six months before his death, Blasingame appeared at the first ever gathering of the American Cowboy Culture Association, which holds the annual National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration in [[Lubbock]], Texas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cowboy.org/About/History-And-Purpose|title=National Cowboy Symposium & Celebration, Inc. (Lubbock, Texas)|publisher=cowboy.org|accessdate=September 5, 2013}}</ref>
At Blasingame's funeral in the JA Cemetery (where Eleanor would also be interred thereafter), a tent was erected for friends and the media representatives who attended. No one had been buried in the old ranch cemetery for years, but Blasingame requested to be buried there. Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie "Ninia" Bivins, the only child of owner and ranch manager [[Montie Ritchie]] and herself the JA heir at the time, led an empty saddle procession to the cemetery, with cowboys following her. Mrs. Bivins saddled Blasingame's gray horse and turned his second best pair of boots backwards in the stirrups, much as the military does to honor its fallen comrades by demonstrating an "empty spot" difficult to fill.
Western writer Linda M. Hasselstrom wrote a poem about Tom Blasingame entitled “Death of the Last Cowhand.” It appears in her book ''Bitter Creek Junction'' (High Plains Press, 2000) and found on her website.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.windbreakhouse.com/bitter_creek_junction_117231.htm|title=Linda M. Hasselstrom website|publisher=windbreakhouse.com|accessdate=December 15, 2019}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blasingame, Tom}}
[[Category:Texas]]
| name=Thomas Everett "Tom" Blasingame
| birth_date=February 12, 1898
| birth_place=Waxahachie, Ellis County, [[Texas]], [[United States|USA]]
| death_date=December 27, 1989 (aged 91)
| death_place=Claude, Armstrong County, Texas
|spouse= Eleanor Aloe Morris Blasingame (married 1933-1989 (his death)
|children=Thomas White Blasingame<br>
Nancy B. Etheridge
|footnotes='''Notes''':<br>
* Blasingame was presumably the oldest [[cowboy]] in the [[history]] of the American West, having devoted seventy-three of his ninety-one years to [[ranching]].<br>
*Blasingame taught former state Senator Miles Teel Bivins of [[Amarillo]] how to handle livestock.<br>
*In his typical work week, Blasingame slept in a camp house without [[electricity]] and rode a hundred miles per day.
}}
'''Thomas Everett Blasingame''', known as '''Tom Blasingame''' (February 12, 1898 – December 27, 1989) was a [[Texas]] [[cowboy]] for seventy-three years. At ninety-one, he was still on the job at the [[JA Ranch]] south of [[Amarillo]]. Two days after [[Christmas]] in 1989, he dismounted his [[horse]], Ruidosa, stretched out on the [[grass]], folded his arms across his chest, and died.<ref name=ranches>{{cite web|url=http://www.ranches.org/tom_blasingame.htm|title=Tom Blasingame|publisher=Ranches.org|accessdate=December 16, 2019}}</ref> Blasingame received many honors for his longevity and dedication to ranching.
==Background==
Born in Waxahachie in Ellis County, south of [[Dallas]], Blasingame decided as a child that he would work on a ranch. In 1918, he headed to the [[Texas Panhandle]] and was hired on the large JA spread, which had been jointly established in the Palo Duro Canyon by [[John George Adair]] and [[Charles Goodnight]] (1836–1929), probably the best-known of Texas ranchers.<ref name=PPHM>Exhibit at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas.</ref>
==Ranching experiences==
Before he settled permanently at the JA, Blasingame worked for a time on ranches in [[California]], [[Arizona]], and [[New Mexico]]. Blasingame said that he moved about during the 1920s so that he could see the country. Working for different ranches was the only way a poor man could travel, he said. He described life on the ranch accordingly:
<blockquote>
We lived outside all the time. We had our bedrolls rolled up in a tarp. If it was raining, we'd just cover up with our tarps and sit there. We'd bathe in the river. It was pretty cold sometimes. We lived on [[beef]] and pinto beans. The meat kept fine outdoors. It was a lot better than this Frigidaire meat, you bet. Down on the desert outfits, they made lots of jerky. I'd eat it with biscuits if they was good, or I'd just eat it straight. You didn't have many good bread cooks out in the camp. In the wintertime, we'd have them steaks for breakfas], and gravy. It was a pack outfit, so you didn't get eggs or anything like that. It had to be stuff you could pack, but I never got tired of eating the same thing all the time."<ref name=ranches/></blockquote>
Blasingame describes his experiences training horses:
<blockquote>
I like to break [[horse]]s. They raised their own horses here at JA and they'd break about forty broncs every spring, 4-year-olds. They was wild. They had run on the range. In the long run that was the best. A 4-year-old is pretty well hardened and hard to hurt, and he's got a good tough heart, too, not like these horses nowadays that are halter broken when they're winter colts not even a year old. I never did hit the horses much while I was breaking 'em, maybe a slap on the neck or somethin' just to let 'em know they done somethin' wrong. A horse is pretty smart. He knows when you're abusing him, and when you're not."<ref name=ranches/></blockquote>
Back at the JA, Blasingame lived on Campbell Creek in a camp house without electricity during the week and came to Claude in Armstrong County] east of Amarillo and north of the ranch, on weekends to see his wife, the former Eleanor Aloe Morris (1914-1999), the daughter of a neighboring rancher whom he married on November 2, 1933. At the time of her death, Eleanor was living in [[Boise]], [[Idaho]], the city of residence of her son, Thomas White Blasingame (born June 25, 1935),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylife.com/thomas-blasingame/e51106072098|title=Thomas Blasngame (White)|publisher=Mylife.com|accessdate=December 16, 2019}}</ref> and her daughter, Nancy B. Etheridge (born July 1, 1940). The Blasingames had four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.<ref name=PPHM/>
Blasingame was not affiliated with a church but said that he had "read lots of books. Read the [[Bible]] a lot. I believe what the Bible says, but I don't reckon I'm religious. Even if I was, I couldn't go to church because I've got too much work to do."<ref name=ranches/>
==Tributes to Blasingame==
In 1986, television news anchor Barbara West produced an award-winning television mini-documentary on Blasingame. This program introduced the then-unknown Blasingame to America when it was shown on many US stations at the time. [[Dan Rather]] then on [[CBS]], used it in his on-air tribute at the time of Blasingames's death.
On March 1, 1990, Miles Teel Bevins (1947-2009), a [[Republican Party|Republican]] former Texas state Senator from Amarillo and Ambassador to [[Sweden]] during the [[George W. Bush]] administration, introduced a Senate resolution that hails Blasingame's accomplishments. Bivins, whose family has long held ranching interests in the Texas Panhandle, recalled that Blasingame personally taught Bivins as a youngster how to handle livestock.<ref>Texas State Senate, Resolution by Miles Teel Bivins of Amarillo honoring the memory of Tom Blasingame, March 1, 1990.</ref>
In 1989, Blasingame received the "Texas Trailblazer Award" at the annual Texas Ranch Roundup. It was noted that he had full days, often riding a hundred miles, and having returned to his camp house to prepare his evening meal. His only luxury was said to have been his transistor [[radio]], which he used to listen to Texas Rangers [[baseball]]. Blasingame also received the Western Heritage Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in [[Oklahoma City]]. In 1986, [[Governor]] [[Mark White]] recognized Blasingame for his dedication to ranching.<ref name=PPHM/>
"Tom Blasingame" is also the title of a western song with lyrics by Ian Dawson Tyson (born 1933). The composition refers to "eighty-five years in the saddle" because Blasingame began horseback riding at the age of six.
Blasingame's tenure at the JA Ranch partly corresponded with that of Clarence Hailey Long (190-1978), the inspiration of the original "Marlboro Man" advertising campaign.<ref name=PPHM/>
Some six months before his death, Blasingame appeared at the first ever gathering of the American Cowboy Culture Association, which holds the annual National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration in [[Lubbock]], Texas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cowboy.org/About/History-And-Purpose|title=National Cowboy Symposium & Celebration, Inc. (Lubbock, Texas)|publisher=cowboy.org|accessdate=September 5, 2013}}</ref>
At Blasingame's funeral in the JA Cemetery (where Eleanor would also be interred thereafter), a tent was erected for friends and the media representatives who attended. No one had been buried in the old ranch cemetery for years, but Blasingame requested to be buried there. Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie "Ninia" Bivins, the only child of owner and ranch manager [[Montie Ritchie]] and herself the JA heir at the time, led an empty saddle procession to the cemetery, with cowboys following her. Mrs. Bivins saddled Blasingame's gray horse and turned his second best pair of boots backwards in the stirrups, much as the military does to honor its fallen comrades by demonstrating an "empty spot" difficult to fill.
Western writer Linda M. Hasselstrom wrote a poem about Tom Blasingame entitled “Death of the Last Cowhand.” It appears in her book ''Bitter Creek Junction'' (High Plains Press, 2000) and found on her website.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.windbreakhouse.com/bitter_creek_junction_117231.htm|title=Linda M. Hasselstrom website|publisher=windbreakhouse.com|accessdate=December 15, 2019}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blasingame, Tom}}
[[Category:Texas]]