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Margaret Formby (view source)

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In 1994, the museum was relocated to a $21 million structure at 1720 Gendy Street in the heart of the Fort Worth cultural district. The first inductee into the Hall of Fame was Alice Greenough Orr (1902-1995) of [[Montana]], winner of three national rodeo championships in the 1930s and 1940s. Orr rode bulls in [[Spain]], was a riding instructor of [[Dale Evans Rogers]], and performed [[film]] [[stunt]]s even into her eighties. In 1993, Formby herself was the first woman elected to the [[Texas Tech University]] Rodeo Hall of Fame in [[Lubbock]]. The next year, she was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame through her role as the founder of the museum.<ref name=margaret/> She was also the first ever "Miss Texas Tech" in 1949 and graduated in 1950 as an English and speech teacher. She taught at the high school level in both Colorado City in Mitchell County and Hereford, and she worked as the KPAN news director. She was the editor of the Cowgirl Hall of Fame magazine, ''Sidesaddle.''<ref name=bmi>{{cite web|url=http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233695|author=Thomas Korosec|title=Margaret Formby, former National Cowboy Hall of Fame Director, Dies in Texas|publisher=bmi.com|accessdate=November 14, 2019}}</ref>

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In 1996, Formby told ''The Dallas Observer'' that much of the history of the early cowgirls has been lost over the previous decades. Six years after she started her museum, a Hereford couple donated a 6,000-square-foot house to hold her collection, which included a rare rhinestone hat worn by Patsy Montana (1908-1996), whose "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" recording sold a million copies. She continued to add to the collection, but few visitors came to Hereford, and the museum faced financial failure. "We’d go for stretches, where for days on end, nobody would come," she told ''The Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' in a 2002 interview.<ref name=margaret/> Concerts and bake sales and renting out the building for social occasions did not bring the needed revenue. She then sought to move the museum to a larger city where a steady flow of tourists would visit the expanded array of exhibits. When new people took over operation of the museum, Formby's role declined: "It's kind of like having a child and having to give that child up. It's sad."<ref name=~~margaret~~/>

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In 1996, Formby told ''The Dallas Observer'' that much of the history of the early cowgirls has been lost over the previous decades. Six years after she started her museum, a Hereford couple donated a 6,000-square-foot house to hold her collection, which included a rare rhinestone hat worn by Patsy Montana (1908-1996), whose "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" recording sold a million copies. She continued to add to the collection, but few visitors came to Hereford, and the museum faced financial failure. "We’d go for stretches, where for days on end, nobody would come," she told ''The Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' in a 2002 interview.<ref name=margaret/> Concerts and bake sales and renting out the building for social occasions did not bring the needed revenue. She then sought to move the museum to a larger city where a steady flow of tourists would visit the expanded array of exhibits. When new people took over operation of the museum, Formby's role declined: "It's kind of like having a child and having to give that child up. It's sad."<ref name=margaretf/>

Conflict soon developed between Hereford and Fort Worth values in regard to the museum. The Hereford originators claim rude treatment and hurt feelings from the Fort Worth multimillionaire socialites who took over the museum. The relocation has since "bred a dust storm of conflict," referring to a lawsuit that the new managers filed in Fort Worth [in 1996] against a well-liked [[New York City]] restaurateur who put Hereford's museum on the national map."<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.dallasobserver.com/1996-10-24/news/saddlesore/|title=Saddlesore: How Fort Worth's rhinestone socialites bushwacked the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame|publisher=''The Dallas Observer''|accessdate=November 18, 2019}}</ref>

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In 1982, she was appointed to the Texas State Committee on Teenage Pregnancy. She served as president of Friends of the Library and the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech from 1986 to 1987 and was a board member of the National Ranching Heritage Center at Texas Tech from 1983 to 1985, having worked to develop the "Cowboy Symposium" held there each September.<ref name=obit/> In 2000, she donated $450 to the [[Republican National Committee]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012013215/http://watchdog.net/contrib/79045/margaret_formby|title=Margaret Formby from zip code 79045|publisher=watchdog.net|accessdate=November 18, 2019}}</ref>

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==Death and legacy==

Margaret Formby died in her Hereford home after falling in her bathroom. Her body was found by her housekeeper.<ref name=margaretf/> She and her husband had five children, Larry C. "Chip" Formby (born 1953) who works at KPAN, and his wife, Lisa, Marshall Clark Formby and wife, Betty, of [[San Antonio]], Ben Formby and Scott C. Formby (born 1961) and wife, Kathy, all of New York City, and the late Linda Kay Formby. She had four grandchildren and a sister, Mary Beth Clark Powell of Hereford.<ref name=margaretf/> Formby was a niece by marriage of former state senator and highway commissioner, [[Marshall Formby]]. She was a cousin by marriage of former state Senator [[Robert Duncan]] of Lubbock.

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