Stan Paregien, Editor
Judyth Rigler
She is the book editor for the McAllen (Texas) Monitor newspaper. Her syndicated column, "Lone Star Library," appears in a dozen Texas newspapers. She is the co-author, with Lewis C. Rigler, of In The Line of Duty: Reflections of a Texas Ranger (Larksdale Press, 1984).
Milt Riske
(Deceased)
Milt Riske was born in Columbus, Neb. in 1917. He attended college in Fremont, Neb., and at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. He played football at both schools. He served in the Coast Guard from 1940 to 1945. And in 1949 he graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in physical education and English.He was a teacher and coach at Central High School in Cheyenne, and was named Coach of the Year by the Wyoming Coaches Association in 1971.
Then, when he retired, he began writing poetry and nonfiction works. He was a member of the Cheyenne Corral of the Westerners International, WWA, Society of American Baseball Researchers, Naval Historical Society, Wyoming Historical Society, and many other professional and historical organizations.
Milt Riske died on Oct. 18, 1983, at the age of 66.
Dorothy Fay Ritter
(Deceased)Dorothy Fay Ritter, actress and businesswoman, was born Dorothy Alice Fay Southworth at Prescott, Arizona, on April 4 1915.
Her father was a doctor. And perhaps a sign of things to come, she rode horse back before she learned to walk.
After arriving in Hollywood in 1937, Dorothy Fay worked as a cocktail waitress at the Coconut Grove night club in Los Angeles. It was there that she was spotted by a talent scout for Paramount Studios. He arranged a screen test at the studio. Although it was unsuccessful, she was encouraged to seek acting work, and as Dorothy Fay took on several roles before being cast opposite George Houston in Sam Newfield's "Frontier Scout" in 1938.
The same year, Dorothy Fay appeared opposite Buck Jones in both "Stranger from Arizona" and "Law of the Texan". She made four more Westerns in 1938. In 1939 she made three films, including "Trigger Pals" and "Song of the Buckaroo," her first picture with her future husband, actor/singer Tex Ritter.
Dorothy Fay & future hubbyIn 1940, she was loaned to MGM for a small part in "The Philadelphia Story," which starred Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart. Then she and Tex Ritter did another film together, "Rainbow Over the Range" (1940).
Tex Ritter had asked Dorothy to marry him several times over the past year, but she always said no. He asked her, again. And this time she agreed. She later recalled that the reason she did so was because that picture was made largely on location at Prescott, Arizona. Close to her parents and familiar haunts where she used to ride with her brothers as a child, she reappraised the charms of the warbling cowboy. "Tex enjoyed my father's company and mama's cooking," she said. "It just hit me; I knew that Tex would be right for me."
The two movie stars, Dorothy Fay and Tex Ritter were married on June 14 1941. They went on a honeymoon, and then she took over the correspondence for Ritter's horse, White Flash. "Tex and I would ink up his hoof and 'autograph' pictures for all the fans."
Ritter's movie career began to wind down, but fortunately by that time he had become a top-selling recording artist. He had charted hits such as "Rye Whiskey," "Boll Weevil," and "You are my Sunshine".
Dorothy made four more pictures, then retired from Hollywood in the winter of 1941. And she never looked back.
She and Tex Ritter had two sons. The elder son, Thomas, became an attorney. The younger son, John Ritter, became famous on the television show "Three's Company".
Tex Ritter died in 1974 in Nashville, Tenn. Dorothy moved back to the family home in Burbank, Calif., to be nearer her son John. And in 1980 the two of them started a company manufacturing "Ritter Frozen Custard Desserts". Then they opened a string of ice cream parlours across California.
In her later years, Dorothy Fay Ritter was a frequent guest at Western movie conventions. And for a while she acted as the official greeter at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn.
Dorothy had a stroke in 1987. Soon thereafter she moved into the Motion Picture and Television Hospital at Woodland Hills, Calif.
In August of 2001, a staff member at the group home looked for her and was told that she had "gone". The staffer interpreted that to mean that she had died, and passed along the word. Her obituary was actually published in a newspaper. Both she and her sons were amused at the mistake. (
Dorothy Fay Ritter died on November 5, 2003. She was survived by her elder son.
John Ritter
(Deceased)
John Ritter, actor and comedian, was born John Suthworth Ritter on Sept. 17, 1948 in Burbank, Calif. Ironically, he died near his birth date -- on Sept. 11, 2003 -- of an aortic dissection which occured during the taping of his hit TV show, "Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" -- at a studio just a few miles from the spot of his birth.
John Ritter was born to legendary country singing musician and B-Western actor Tex Ritter (he died in 1973, before John became a star) and his wife, Dorothy Fay (also an actress in some early Westerns).
He attended Hollywood High School, where he was the student body president. He then attended the University of Southern California, majoring in Psychology. Two years into his college experience he joined an acting class taught by Nina Foch, and he quickly changed his major to Theater Arts. He graduated from USC in 1971 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Drama.
John Ritter hit stardom in 1977 with the smash hit TV comedy series, "Three's Company". He went on to appear in numerous TV shows and movies.
Although his father was one of the biggest stars in the B-Western genre and even his mother had roles in some early Westerns, John Ritter only appeared in three Westerns: Dead Man's Gun (TV, 1977), Scandalous John (1971), and one of my favorite satires of the Old West, Evil Roy Slade (TV, 1972).
Tex Ritter
(Deceased)
Tex Ritter, actor and singer, was born as Woodward Maurice Ritter on January 12, 1905 in Panola County, Texas. As a youth he became interested in oratory and diction, and he set out to become a lawyer. He attended both the University of Texas (where he collected a large number of Western songs) and Northwestern University. However, he also liked the idea of performing before larger audiences than a courtroom. So he dropped out of college to join a touring group.
This young Texas with the impressive voice wound up in New York City in 1928, performing on Broadway and on the radio. And in 1933 he recorded his first Western songs, "Goodbye Old Paint" and "Rye Whiskey".
As with Gene Autry and others, many of Tex Ritter's records were tied to his movies, and often timed to be released in conjuction with his movies. His first movie, "Song of the Gringo," included such songs as "A Melody from the Sky," "The Hills of Old Wyomin'," and "We'll Rest at the End of the Trail."
He starred during the 30's and 40's as a western cowboy for PRC and Monogram. Tex was billed as "America's Most Beloved Cowboy". He shared billing with Wild Bill Elliott in a series of popular Westerns, then made his own. He appeared in some 59 films.
Tex Ritter (right) tells Charlie King, a
perennial outlaw, the error of his ways.He was the very first Western star to land a contract with Capitol Records, and he was soon followed by Wesley Tuttle. Tex Ritter and Wesley Tuttle traveled the concert trail together, and his recordings often features the guitar picking of Tuttle, Johnny Bond and/or Merle Travis.
Ritter and Johnny Bond were extremely close friends and business partners. They formed their own music publishing business, called Vidor Publications. And Johnny Bond wrote the story of Ritter's life in a 1976 book titled, The Tex Ritter Story (Chappell Music Company).
Ritter's career was in a definite descent in the early 1950's. That's when fate intervened and along came the opportunity in 1952 to sing the title song of a movie named "High Noon". That re-energized his career for several more years. And then in 1961 he had a top hit with a "Hillbilly Heaven," a song written by fellow B-Western star Eddie Dean.
Tex Ritter moved to Nashville, Tenn. and became a star at the Grand Ole Opry. He ran for the U.S. Senate as a Republican in 1970, but failed to win.
Tex is the father of actor John Ritter, who starred in the TV sitcom, "Three's Company".
Tex Ritter was at a city jail trying to help one of his band members who had gotten into trouble when he died of a heart attack on Jan. 2, 1974 at the age of 68. He is buried in the Oak Bluff Memorial Park in Port Neches, Texas.
The folks back in his home county -- Panola County, Texas -- have established The Tex Ritter Museum, located on the second floor of the historical Hawthorne - Clabaugh - Patterson House, just two blocks from downtown Carthage, Texas, on W. Panola St. The museum is dedicated to the life and times of Tex Ritter, and it also serves as the Chamber of Commerce for Carthage, Texas.
CLICK HERE to see the official Tex Ritter Museum Web Site.
Shelly Ritthaler
Shelly Ritthaler teaches writing in the Eastern Wyoming College Extension Education Program. She writes fiction under the name of Ann Shelly. And she is the author of a non-fiction book, Weston County: The First Hundred Years (Curtis Media Corportion, 1989).
Shelley Ritthaler has also had short stories and humorous essays published in Farm Woman News, My Weekly (Scotland) and Norsk Ukeblad (Norway). She and her husband live on a working ranch in northeastern Wyoming.
Francine Rivers
Francine Rivers is the author of Not So Wild a Dream (Jove, 1985) and Outlaws Embrace (Charter, 1986), Heart in Hiding (1984), Hearts Divided (1983), Kathleen (1984), Pagan Heart (1985), Rebel in His Arms (1983), Sarina (1983), Sycamore Hill (1985), This Golden Valley (1983).
Joyce Gibson Roach
Joyce Ann Gibson Roach was born in Cleburne, Texas, December 18, 1935. She grew up in Jacksboro, Texas. She was educated at Texas Christian University and has taught there as a member of the adjunct English faculty for the last fifteen years specializing in The Western Novel and Life and Literature of the Southwest.She is a three-time Spur Award winner from Western Writers of America for both fiction and non-fiction, recipient of the Carr P. Collins prize for non-fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, and received the William E. Jary award from the Tarrant County Historical Commission for a book of local history, Wild Rose: A Folk History of a Cross Timbers Settlement.
She is past president of the Texas Folklore Society, a fellow of Texas State Historical Association and of Clements Center for Southwest Studies at SMU, and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.
As a journalist, she writes a bi-monthly column on folklore for the Star Telegram (Northeast Edition), is heard on an audio column, "The News From Horned Toad, Texas," (337- 7827; ext. 1296) and appears on the Virtual Texan website.
Joyce Gibson Roach teaches Southwestern literature courses at Texas Christian University and has a strong interest in folklore. She won a Spur from WWA in 1977 for her book, The Cowgirls. She is the author of C.L. Sonnichsen (Boise State University, 1979). She and fellow WWA-er Judy Alter edited Texas and Christmas (Texas Christian University Press, 1983). She has also written a number of historical musicals for several Texas cities, including Uvalde. Her musical drama, "Texanna," was performed several times in Texas during the state's Sesquicentennial celeration.
Roach won her second Spur in 1988, this time in the "Short Nonfiction" category with "A High Toned Woman", originally delivered as a paper at the Texas Folklore Society in 1987 and then first published in the 1987 SMU Press book, Hoein' the Short Rows, edited by F.E. Abernethy. The piece was repinted in The Roundup Quarterly, I, 1 (Sept., 1988).
Joyce Gibson Joyce joined forced with Ernestine Sewell Linck of Commerce, Tex. to write Eats: A Folk History of Texas Food (TCU Press, 1989). Although it contains numerous recipes, it is a social history of food, not a cookbook. Roach's grandmother worked in a Fred Harvey railroad restaurant, so her interest in food comes honestly.
Tom Roan
(Deceased)
Tom Roan was born in Alabama, but left there at the age of 14 to follow the circus. His career included stints as a deputy sheriff of Bannack County, Idaho; Army soldier stationed in Hawaii and the Orient; company detective in San Francisco; and writer. He was a prolific writer during the glory days of the pulp magazines.
Tom Roan was the author of several novels, including Black Earth and Stormy Road (a fictional biography of his own father).Frank C. Robertson wrote the announcement of Tom Roan's death for the July, 1958 Roundup (see Roan's photo there), and in it he said, "Like many self-educated men, he read widely on every subject under the sun. He was one of the few writers whose private life was as adventurous as the fictional characters he created."
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.
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
--- Bible: 2 Corinthians 9:6
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
