Stan Paregien, Editor
Johanna L. Stratton
Johanna L. Stratton is the author of Pioneer Women (Simon & Schuster, 1982).
Glenn Strange
(Deceased)
Glenn Strange, actor, was born on August 16, 1899 in Weed, New Mexico. He was actually a real cowboy before launching a singing career in the late 1920s, performing western songs on the radio.
Strange sang his way into the movies in 1934. He worked primarily, but not exclusively, in Western films.
Glenn Strange appeared in some 225 movies. That's right, 225 movies. A sampling includes Wild Horses (1931), The Riding Tornado (1932), Westward Ho (1935), Singing Outlaw (1937; he appeared in 14 movies this year alone), Ghost Town Riders (1938), The Lone Ranger Rides Again (1939), Lone Star Law Men (1941), Bullets and Saddles (1943), Red River (1948), Allias Jesse James (1959) and Last Train from Gun Hill (1959).
Yet he is best-known for his role as "Sam the bartender" in television's "Gunsmoke". He played that role from 1961 until his death in 1973.
Glenn Strange died of lung cancer on Sept. 20, 1973. He is buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery (Hollywood Hills, Churchyard, plot 4295 ) in Los Angeles, CA.
CLICK HERE to see the amazing filmography of Glenn Strange.
Jeff Streeby
Jeff Streeby, cowboy poet and educator, grew up in Sioux City, Iowa. He worked for Waitt Cattle Company while attending college. Later he went to Florida and Minnesota where he worked as a groom and stableman for dressage and A-Circuit hunter-jumper trainers. He has worked on Thoroughbred race tracks of Nebraska and Montana as both a groom and assistant trainer.After several years of teaching in El Paso Texas, working in ranches in Sierra Blanca, and boarding horses at his place in New Mexico, Jeff and his family moved to Great Falls, Montana, where he taught English at Great Falls High School. He is editor/compiler of the "From Texas To Montana" series of books published by Great Falls High Schools Dallywelter Press. His work has been published in Western Horseman, Countryline Magazine, and he has been a featured poet on many web sites.
Jeff is past-president of the Charlie Russell Western Heritage Association. Currently, he sits on the CRWHA scholarship committee, is a project director for the annual CRWHA writers Awards, and is a CRWHA Board member. He is membership director of the organization. This organization is dedicated to the preservation of western culture and spirit; and its members endeavor to preserve all that there is to be preserved of the western lifestyle for all future generations.
Woody Strode
(Deceased)
Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode was born on July 28, 1914. Played football in high school, then played professionall for the Cleveland Rams (who later moved to Los Angeles and then to St. Louis and then ....). After his football days, he became a professional wrestler, pitting his talents against the likes of Georgeous George.Strode probably grew up in the wrong era. A tremendous athlete with a striking face and presence, he would have surely been one of today's top black stars. But it was not to be.
Instead he suffered through years of supporting roles in Westerns, Sword and Sandal epics, and Jungle films as a native, slave, servant or soldier of some form or another.
His films included Pork Chop Hill (1959), Spartacus (1960), Sergeant Rutledge (1960), Two Rode Together (1961), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), The Professionals (1966), Black Jesus (1968), Shalako (1968), Keoma (1976), Posse (1993)
Woody Strode died of lung cancer on Dec. 31, 1994 at his home in Glendora, CA.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Woody Strode.
Jean Weatherford Strong
Jean Weatherford Strong was born on June 25, 1927. She is a descendant of early Oregon pioneers, and was reared near the little town of Arlington. After rasing her family, she taught Indian and special classes in Canada. She then did office management work for a gastroenterologist in Sacramento, Calif., and for a plastic surgeon in Portland, Oregon. She also worked as an executive assistant for S.O.S. Publishing in Portland.
Jean Weatherford Strong's articles have appeared in Elk World News, World of Atoms, and newspapers such as the Red Rock News in Sedona, Ariz. and the Oregonian. Her book, The Testing Ground, was published 1981. It is a historical novel about the Creek Indians of Alabama during the 1813-14 war of the "Red Sticks".
Wes Studi
Wes Studi, actor and director, was born on Dec. 17, 1947 in an area called Nofire Hollow, between Tahlequah and Stilwell, Oklahoma. He grew up speaking the Cherokee Indian language, only learning English when he began elementary school. He attended Chilocco Boarding school, where he played the bass clarinet for the Chilocco Braves marching band.
Studi served his country in the military during the Vietnam War. He served with the 9th Division in the Delta area of South Vietnam. He got out of the military in 1969, and went to college on the G.I. Bill.
It was during his college days that he got involved with the American Indian Movement. And then he began working for the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, OK.
He decided in 1981 that he wanted to become an actor, so he joined a community theatre group. He wrote and performed his own play, appearing onstage in Tulsa and then in Los Angeles.
A multi-talented guy, he wrote two children's books for the Cherokee Bilingual/Cross Cultural Education Center. He plays in a band called "Firecat of Discord". And he carves artworks out of soapstone.
Wes Studi's work in Westerns includes such films as The Lone Ranger (TV, 2003), Dances With Wolves (1990), The Last of the Mohicans (1990), Wind River (1998), Crazy Horse (TV, 1996), Lone Justice 2 (1995), Streets of Laredo (TV mini-series), Geronimo (1993), and The Trial of Standing Bear (TV, 1988).
He also has played Navaho tribal detective Joe Leaphorn in the TV specials "Coyote Waits" (2003) and "Skinwalkers" (2002).
Wes Studi and his second wife, Maura, live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
CLICK HERE to go to the official Wes Studi web site.
Freyda Sullivan
Freyda Sullivan has been a columnist for Feminie magazine and worked in public relations. Her articles have also appeared in Real West, National Tombstone Epitaph, and The Last Good Earth Catalog Magazine.
Jerry Summers
Jerry Summers, stuntman and actor, has been in the picture business for more than 50 years. A top-notch athlete, he began his career as a stuntman and extra, taking acting lessons from the great Richard Boone, where one of his classmates was pal Ted Markland. Jerry is so versatile that he has either done stunts, acted, or directed in more than 400 films.
In fact, he says of his career: "I couldn't count the times I was shot and killed or all of the wars and fights I've been in. I played life over centuries and far into the future. I have been one of the first humans on earth. I fought with Spartacus and I fenced in the days of Sir Arthur. And I have been a crewmember of the Enterprise beamed up to a distant planet by Scotty, only to find myself as an Alien. I was a part of the Mafia and I have been on the side of the law as an Untouchable. I fought side by side with Custer in his fight with the Indians. And I have fought side by side with Geronimo against the cavalry. I have even fought with the Texas Rangers against the Dalton gang. And I robbed trains with Jesse James. A few times in my life I have even been part of the opposite sex. I have voluntarily put myself in a life threatening situation many times in my career. Believe me, I have done it all."
Jerry Summers was in the first episode of Gunsmoke and 21 years later, he was in the last one. He worked all the major television westerns, and this included being the stunt double for star Chris Jones in the Legend of Jesse James. He taught Kirk Douglas how to use a bow and arrow, he doubled Tony Curtis in Spartacus, and Sal Mineo in just about everything Mineo did.
He was the stunt driver for the Dukes of Hazzard all seven years, doing crashes, rollovers and high speed gymnastics on a daily routine. Some of his films where he did stunts were Avalanche, Throw Momma from the Train, Alien Nation, Eddie Macon's Run, and The Gumball Rally.
Some of his television acting credits include Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Night Gallery, Laramie, The Virginian, Have Gun Will Travel, Tales of Wells Fargo, Annie Oakley, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin and The Tall Man. He played the part of Ira Bean in the TV Western "High Chaparral" from 1967-68.
Regarding The High Chaparral, he was already well-acquainted with director Bill Claxton. And he had worked with most of the cast and crew members on one project or another. So with the added stuntman ability to being able to do just about anything required on the set, he was a shoo-in as a ranch hand. Although it was said that he often doubled Henry Darrow as Manolito, that stunt double was Carl Petty. Jerry left at the end of the first season to pursue his career in the stunt profession, becoming one of the most famous stuntmen in Hollywood.
Jerry Summers' acting credits in Western films includes Lone Texan (1959), The Purple Hills (1961), The Firebrand (1962), The Law of the Lawless (1964), Young Fury (1965), Scalplock (TV, 1966) and Big Jake (1971).
CLICK HERE to see the filmography of Jerry Summers.
Andrew V. Svenson
(Deceased)
Andrew V. Svenson was a prolific writer of children's fiction. A former newspaper writer, Svenson joined the Stratemeyer Syndicate (producers of the "Nancy Drew" and "Hardy Boys" mysteries) in 1948 and became a partner in 1961.
Andrew V. Svenson shared the major writing chores--and the many pseudonyms--with Harriet Adams, daughter of Edward Stratemeyer. Mr. Stratemeyer was the original "Carolyn Keene", authoress of the Nancy Drew mysteries. Svenson created three major series: the Happy Hollisters (writing as Jerry West), Bret King (writing as Dan Scott), and the Tolliver Family (writing as Alan Stone).
Andrew V. Svenson died on Aug. 21, 1975 at Livingston, N.J. at the age of 65..
Glendon Swarthout
(Deceased)
Dr. Glendon Fred Swarthout was born in Pickney, Mich. on April 8, 1918. He received his A.B. in 1939 and his A.M. in 1946, both from the University of Michigan. And, not being prejudiced, he turned around and got his Ph.D. in 1955 from Michigan State University. He taught English at the University of Maryland from 1948 to 1951. He was an English professor at Michigan State University from 1951 to 1959, then a guest lecturer at Arizona State University from 1959 to 1962. Since then he has spent his time writing full-time.
Interestingly, a reviewer of his first book, Willow Run, said that it was plagued by "unreal people who talk all wrong and act like idiot children." Undaunted by such criticism, Glendon Swarthout kept writing. And with great success. In 1960 he won the O. Henry Prize Short Story award. In 1972 he won the Gold Medal Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters. And he won a Spur from WWA when his novel, The Shootist, was judged the best novel of 1975.
Four of his books became popular movies: They Came to Cordura (Columbia, 1959, starring Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth), Where the Boys Are (MGM, 1960), Bless the Beasts and Children (Columbia, 1971), and The Shootist (Paramount, 1976, starring John Wayne, James Stewart and Lauren Bacall. This was Wayne's last film).
Glendon Swarthout is the author of Willow Run (1943, 1983), They Came to Cordura (1958), Where the Boys Are (1960), Welcome to Thebes (1962), The Ghost and the Magic Saber (with his wife, Kathryn Swarthout, 1963), The Cadillac Cowboys (1964), Whichaway (with Kathryn Swarthout, 1966), The Eagle and the Iron Cross (1966), Loveland (1968), The Button Boat (with Kathryn Swarthout, 1969), Bless the Beasts and Children (1970), TV Thompson (with Kathryn Swarthout, 1972), The Tin Lizzie Troop (1972), Luck and Pluck (1973), The Shootist (Doubleday, 1975), The Melodeon (1977), Skeletons (1979), Cadbury's Coffin (with Kathryn Swarthout, 1982) and The Old Colts (Don I. Fine, 1985).
My wife and I were present at the Western Writers of America Convention in Portland in 1989 as Glendon Swarthout received a Spur in the "Best Novel of the West" category for his 1988 book, The Homesman. That book was also received the top award for novels from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
Miles Hood Swarthout
Miles Hood Swarthout is a regular contributor to the Roundup magazine of the Western Writers of America. He is the son of the late Glendon Swarthout.
Colen Sweeten, Jr.
Colen Sweeten, Jr. is the "Cowboy Poet Laureate" of Idaho. He writes and performs his original cowboy poems before appreciative audiences all over the West. He spent his early years on a grain and livestock ranch, but is now retired--and busier than ever.
Hal Swift
Ralph Harmon Swift, cowboy poet, was born in 1928 in Speedway City, IN. Hal's parents moved the family to Phoenix, AZ., while he was still in high school. There he began playing the string bass and the trumpet. He became one of the country's youngest members of the American Federation of Musicians.
Hal Swift joined the U.S. Navy in 1948 and served as a shipboard Morse code radio operator while a member of the Japan occupation forces, and then during the Korean War. He was honorably discharged in 1952.
Hal then went into broadcasting and worked in stations from Mount Shasta, CA to Reno, Nevada. He worked as a disc jockey, reporter, news editor, salesman, and even as a broadcast engineer.
In 1977, he became minister. Then in 1991 he went back into radio--and writing. In time his writing turned to things Western. Hal, also known as Nevada Swift, has written two books: Cowboy Poems and Outright Lies, and an unpublished novel titled Ballad of a Small Town.
Copies of Nevada Swift's book, Cowboy Poems and Outright Lies, may be found in the Fife Folklore Archives at Utah State University, Logan, UT; the Dickinsen Research Center National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, OK; and on the Nevada Shelf of the Washoe County Library.
Hal Swift lives in Sparks, NV.
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.
Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice
Look to the Lord and his strength;
seek his face always.
--- Psalm 105:3-4
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.