Buster McLaury
Buster McLaury has been a working cowboy for some of the biggest ranches in Texas, including the 6666, the Triangle, and the JA Ranch in Clarendon. His articles and photographs have appeared in many magazines, including Western Horseman, Horseman and The Cattleman.
Hugh McLennon
Hugh McLennan is a Canadian cattle rancher and horse trainer in the rangeland outside of Karnloops, British Columbia.
He was a professional broadcaster over twenty years ago.
And the last few years he has put that talent to great use as the host of the popular weekly radio program, "The Spirit of the West" (also heard via internet anywhere in the world).
McLennan is a popular emcee, after dinner speaker, singer and cowboy poet who entertains audiences of all kinds as he travels widely throughout the United States and Canada.
Hugh McLennan is on the board of directors of the Western Music Association. So you can always find him at the WMA Music Festival in Tucson, AZ., each November.
Hugh McLennan can be reached at the McLennan Ranch, Lot 1 Hyas Lake Road, Pinantan Lake, B.C. V0E 3E1. Phone & Fax (250)573-5731. Or email him at hughmclennan@bc.sympatico.ca.
CLICK HERE to go to Hugh McLennan's own web site.
Sherrie S. McLeRoy
Sherrie S. McLeRoy is the author of Mistress of Glen Eden: The Life and Times of Texas Pioneer Sophia Porter (White Stone Publishing, 1990), Wilson N. Jones and his Hospital (Wilson N. Jones Hospital, 1991), Black Land, Red River: A Pictorial History of Grayson County, Texas (The Donning Company, 1993), and Red River Women (Republic of Texas press, 1996). Her articles have appeared in The Dallas Morning News, True West and The New Handbook of Texas.
Larry McMurtry
Larry Jeff McMurtry was born in 1936 in Wichita Falls, Texas. He was reared in Archer City, Texas, a small rural town much like those often portrayed in his fiction. He earned a B.A. degree from North Texas State College in 1958 and an M.A. degree from Rice University in 1960.
Larry McMurtry taught at several universities: Texas Christian from 1961 to 1962, Rice from 1963 to 1969, George Mason in 1970, and American from 1970 to 1971.
McMurtry's early books, Horseman, Pass By (1961), Leaving Cheyenne (1963), and The Last Picture Show (1966), show the problems of small-town and ranch life on ordinary people.
McMurtry's Western novels include Lonesome Dove (1985, for which he received a Pulitzer Prize), Anything for Billy (1988), and Buffalo Girls (1990).
His other works include Texasville (1987), The Last Picture Show, Streets of Laredo (1993), Dead Man's Walk (1995), Comanche Moon (1997) and Crazy Horse (1999). He wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of The Last Picture Show.
Larry McMurtry's western, The Lonesome Dove, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1986, as well as the Spur from the Western Writers of America. He received his WWA award and was one of the speakers at our WWA Convention in Fort Worth in 1986. I had him autograph his book during the Convention, though I was more impressed with the subsequent TV-mini-series than with the lengthy book.
McMurtry now lives in Archer City, Texas.
The Larry McMurtry Center for the Arts & Humanities was established in 1997 at Midwestern State University in Witchita Falls, Texas. It was funded by the William S. Thomas family of Wichita Falls, acting through the Communities Foundation of Texas. The Center sponsors a number of academic programs and speakers throughout the year and features the college-accredited Larry McMurtry Center Summer Workshop program for selected high school students. Intense and interesting, this two-week learning experience introduces students to residential college life while encouraging their talents. Literature and Writing, or Acting and Broadcasting are taught by award-winning instructors, guest speakers, authors and actors.
CLICK HERE to go to the official website of the Larry McMurtry Center.
Howard McNear
(Deceased)
Howard McNear, actor, played "Doc" on the radio version of "Gunsmoke" that began in 1952.
Howard McNear's face has become eternally familiar to generations when he became "Floyd the Barber" on television's "The Andy Griffith Show"
Rod McQueary
A rancher in Nevada, Rod McQueary served in the Marines in Viet Nam. When he is not ranching, he is guiding hunters into the high country. He is noted for his wide range of poetic expressions, and especially for his free verse poetry.
Steve McQueen
(Deceased)
Steve McQueen, actor, was born Terence Steven McQueen on March 24, 1930 in Beech Grove, IN. The photo at left is a publicity still from his days in the TV Western series, "Wanted, Dead or Alive".
In his early teens, he and his mother moved to Los Angeles. And arrested for stealing hubcaps, as well as participating in other petty crimes. So his mother agreed that he should be confined to the California Boys' Republic in Chino, CA., for 18 months. That is a move which he credits with giving him a valuable attitude adjustment. In 1962 he established The Steve McQueen Fund, a four year scholarship for the best student. And in his will he left $ 200,000 dollars to the Boys Republic. In 1983, a building was dedicated in his honor and named the Steve McQueen Recreation Center.
By the time he got out of the reform school, in April of 1946, his mother had moved to New York City. He joined her there, briefly, then at age sixteen signed on as a laborer on a tanker ship called the SS Alpha. But working on a tanker did not appeal to McQueen, so he jumped ship when the Alpha docked in Cuba. He made his way to the Dominican Republic and then back to the United States.
Then, having just turned 17, he decided to join the Marines. Steve was not a model soldier at first. He was rough and rowdy. But he also became a hero. During a training excercise in the Arctic, a transport ship struck a sandbank and flung several tanks and their crews into the freezing water. Many Marines drowned immediately, unable to get out of their tanks. McQueen jumped into the Actic water personally saved the lives of five men. For this act of heroism Steve McQueen was chosen to be part of the Honor Guard protecting Harry S. Truman's yacht. And he was honorably discharged April, 1950.
Then he worked in Texas in the oil fields and in Canada as a lumberjack. And then he returned to New York and found a cold-water flat for nineteen dollars a month, and he worked at various odd jobs. Then an actress friend suggested he try acting. And he was accepted in the Neighborhood Playhouse, where he studied hard for two years.
He was expelled from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) for riding his motorcycle through the College of Fine Arts building. He won acceptance into Lee Strasberg's exclusive Actors' Studio in 1955.
Steve McQueen finally made it to Broadway ain the lead role in the play "A Hatful of Rain". During this time, Steve married his first wife, actress Neile Adams in 1956. This marriage lasted some 15 years.
After moving to Los Angeles, Steve McQueen got several parts in some low budget features, the most famous of which has to be "The Blob". But it was in television that the McQueen name first became a household word, after he was given the part of Josh Randal in the classic Western series "Wanted: Dead or Alive".
Steve McQueen played in 30 movies and starred in one TV series, "Wanted: Dead or Alive" (1958). His Western movies included "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), "Nevada Smith" (1966), "Junior Bonner" (1972) and "Tom Horn" (1979).
One day Jay Sebring, a hairdresser for many stars, invited McQueen to join him and other guests for dinner at the home of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate in the Hollywood hills. He accepted, but cancelled out a few days before. That dinner party, of course, was invaded by Charles Manson and his equally crazy followers who murdered those present. Later evidence showed that Steve McQueen topped Charles Manson's celebrity death list. From then on, McQueen carried a gun for his own protection.
Steven McQueen was diagnosed with a form of lung cancer ( mesothelioma, which is related to asbestos exposure). He may have been exposed to asbestos in several ways, as he wore an asbestos-insulated racers suit in his race cars, and possibly was exposed to the harmful insulating material during his stint in the Marines. He underwent experimental treatment for cancer in Mexico.
Steve McQueen died of a heart attack following cancer surgery on Nov. 7, 1980 in Juarez, Mexico. He was cremated and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Steve McQueen.
Donald G. McRae
Donald G. McRae, author, is a retired U.S. Army Colonel who has done work as a professional translator, converting approximately 100,000 words a month from Russian to English.
Donald G. McRae said, "I had written several novels, mostly war novels. I was never much interested in the west but was advised to expand a western short story I'd written for The Famous Writers Course, while I was in Vietnam. I did, and it sold. Needless to say, I did a tremendous amount of research in the west before I submitted the manuscript, which I wrote in six weeks. Doubleday bought it (Montana Gold,1989).
"Pat LoBrutto asked me to write a historical western. My wife, who is a Custer buff, advised me to try a Custer novel. I read all of her vast library of Custer books, then searched for a hero who was visible in history but about whom no one knew much. This novel, Custer's Agent (TOR, 1989), is 150,000 words and I think may offer some new insight into Custer's battle."
Wallace McRae
This Montana rancher is a legend in cowboy poetry circles, mainly for his 1981 verse called, "Reincarnation". Wallace McRae told a reporter for Country America in 1991 that, "I live in the West and I write Western poetry. But the emotions I reveal are not restricted to Western cowboy poetry."
And he added: "We've been writing a long time, and we'll keep writing. I wrote cowboy poetry before I knew there was such a thing, and I'm going to write until I run out of basal metabolism--or ideas."
Wallace McRae is a graduate of Montana State University. He has written four books of poetry, at last count.
Frankie McWhorter
Frankie McWhorter is a cowboy fiddler who lives in the panhandle of Texas. He played fiddle for Bob Wills as part of the "Texas Playboys" band. He often appears with the remaining members of the Texas Playboys band. He is the father of cowboy poet Larry McWhorter.
Frankie McWhorter is foreman of the Cooper Ranch near Lipscomb, Texas. He was raised a cowboy and learned to play fiddle at the JA Ranch Chuckwagon while listening to the wagon boss whistle tunes. He also learned directly from renowned Texas fiddlers, Uncle Eck Robertson and Bob Wills.
During his professional career McWhorter toured with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys for several years. McWhorter also participated in recording sessions with Wills, the Miller Brothers, Hurschuel Clothier, the Coors Cowboy Band, and his own bands, "Frankie and the Westerners" and "Frankie McWhorter and the Over the Hill Gang." On occasion, he still participates in performances with former members of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.
Frankie McWhorter is a recipient of a citation for participation in the First Bob Wills Day Tribute to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He has been inducted into both the Nebraska Country Music Foundation Hall of Fame (1986) and the Western Swing Society Hall of Fame (1987).
Recently McWhorter has been featured in performance at the Smithsonian Institution, Bob Wills Day at Turkey, Texas, and at Cowboy Symposiums in New Mexico, Nevada, Kansas, and Texas. His memoirs have recently been published by University of North Texas Press in a book entitled Cowboy Fiddler in Bob Wills' Band by Frankie McWhorter, As Told to John Erickson.
Frankie McWhorter participated as Master Artist in Texas Folklife Resource's Apprenticeships in the Folk Arts program. Under their sponsorship he began passing on his knowledge of the Texas Panhandle Ranch-Dance fiddle tradition to apprentice, Lanny Fiel. With assistance from former members of Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys, Fiel and McWhorter have released two documentary CD/cassette recordings entitled "The Ranch Dance Fiddle," and "Texas Sandman"
Frankie McWhorter grew up in Bob Wills Country and bought his first fiddle with his cowboy wages in 1950. He played with Clyde Chesser and the Texas Village Boys and the Miller Brothers Band before being asked to join Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Frankie toured with them during the early sixties.
Frankie's second love is horses and cowboying. His cowboy career started at the JA ranch in the spring of 1948. Since that time he has worked on ranches all over the Texas Panhandle. During this time he became known as a horse trainer and "fixer."
One of Frankie's unsung talents is his storytelling ability. The yarns he spins are captivating for all audiences. He is able to entertain with his music while keeping you in stitches when he recalls the different incidents that got him where he is today.
Frankie lives with his wife, Virginia on the Abrams Ranch in Lipscomb County where he is foreman. He continues to tour with his band and perform one man fiddle-playing shows and storytelling.
CLICK HERE to go to a site featuring an interview with Frankie McWhorter by John Erickson.
Larry McWhorter
(Deceased)
Born in Waco, Texas, Larry McWhorter was raised on working ranches in the panhandle of Texas, near Higgins and Canadian. His father, Frankie McWhorter, played in Bob Will's famous Texas Playboys band. Larry began singing at the age of 6, and at age 19 he bought a saxophone and began playing for dances.
From 1976 to 1981 he was a journeyman cowboy on ranches in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. McWhorter began writing and performing his poetry since 1990. And he occassionally made appearances with the remaining members of the Texas Playboys.
In additional to his writing, he occasionally appeared with various artists and western swing bands, playing a mean saxophone and clarinet.
McWhorter lived in Weatherford, Texas with his wife Andrea and daughter Abigail.
In 2001, one of Larry McWhorter's friends at church sufferred the death of his wife. The grieving man told Larry that he knew he would see his wife in heaven again, but --- since heaven is such a big place --- he didn't know if he could find her. Larry thought about it for a minute and then told him, "Look for her at the Throne. That's where she'll be."
McWhorter then sat down and wrote the following song, "I'll Meet You at the Throne," in her honor. The first verse and chorus were written in August of 2001, while the second verse came at 2:00 a.m. the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. That's right, just hours before thousands of Americans died at the hands of terrorists. Noted Western singer Jean Prescott has it recorded on her new CD, "Tapestry of the West," and it is already beginning to bless many people.
Personally, I think it will be a classic Western/gospel song that will touch hearts for years to come. Larry graciously consented to letting me post it here for you to enjoy.
I’ll Meet You at the Throne
by Larry McWhorter
Copyright September 2001
VERSE 1
Dear friend, we’ve been through many miles and years,
We know each other so well.
There’s stories between us which bring smiles and tears,
And secrets that we’ll never tell.
But the One who has known us before we were born
And gave us each other as friends,
Will call one to Heaven and leave one forlorn,
But that’s not where fellowship ends.
CHORUS:
I’ll meet you at the throne
Where our crowns we’ll lay at His feet.
Let us never forget there’s a rendezvous set
Where once again we will meet.
We’ll sing ‘Holy, Holy’ and ‘Worthy is He’
Who has called unto Himself His own.
Be it first you or me, let us here now agree,
I’ll meet you at the throne.
VERSE 2
If I go before you please don’t be despaired,
It’s where we long to be.
The mansion is finished our Lord has prepared
And there it waits for me.
All the angelic beings and saints gone before
Will shout when those gates I walk through;
In heaven there’s plenty of room for one more
And your place is waiting there, too.
REPEAT CHORUS
Larry McWhorter died of cancer on March 19, 2003. We're all gonna miss him, but we plan on meeting him at the throne.
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors.
Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents
are requested to submit recommended changes by
contacting Stan Paregien through his e-mail address.
"We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it. God's purpose is not limited by your past. He turned a murderer named Moses into a leader and a coward named Gideon into a courageous hero, and he can do amazing things with the rest of your life, too. God specializes in giving people a fresh start."
-- Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, p. 28.
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
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