Doug Watson
Doug Watson is an educator and an entertainer. He lives in Shawnee, Oklahoma and is a professor at Oklahoma Baptist University.
< style="font-weight: bold;">Watson specializes in portraying humorist Will Rogers. Hebegan his portrayal of Will Rogers in 1998. Since that time he has presented his program more than 200 times for organizations across the country.
Doug Watson, who holds a PhD from Texas Tech University, is a professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee.
Dr. Watson has been active in the Great Plains Chautauqua Society since 1991. His historical characterizations, besides Will Rogers, also include authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Stephen Crane. He has served as a Fulbright lecturer in Nigeria. He is on the board of the World Neighbors organization._______________________________________
Hazel Juanita Watson
Hazel Juanita Watson grew up in Junction City, Kansas and lived for many years in Westland, Mich., before moving to Midland. She writes "true confession" stories and novels.
Hazel Juanita Watson is the author of two Westerns, Gunsmoke in Kansas (1988, Bouregy/Avalon) and The Guns of Jericho Jones (1989, Bouregy/Avalon).
Leroy Watts
Leroy Watts, cowboy poet, was born in Joplin, Missouri in 1923, but spent many years of his life in the western states as an engineer, precious metals refiner, and silversmith.
Leroy began to write poetry when he was sixteen years old, and he has been writing ever since. His interest in cowboy style poetry only increased after attending his first cowboy poetry gathering in Prescott, Arizona in 1991, and he has been a welcome performer in similar cowboy poetry gatherings for the past eight years.
Leroy Watts is one of the founders of the Missouri Cowboy Poets Association. Although he makes no claim of having been a bona fide working cowboy, he is devoted to the preservation of the traditional cowboy life style. And his writings reflect the observations of one who has been intimately involved with those surroundings.
His connotation of "Ozark Cowboy" is his private little inside joke, as according to his "filosofee", a traditional "Western" style cowboy is about as common in the Ozarks as the Spotted Owl. Although Missouri is second only to Texas in the production of beef cattle, our cowboys are more traditional Missouri family farm type "cowboys".
Many of Leroy’s stories in poem are drawn from his early Ozark boyhood memories of experiences and family history. His insight into the lives of individuals and situations of those experiences, revives those events into poetic stories that is readily relived by the reader.
Peter Watts
(Deceased)
Peter Christopher Watts was born in London, England in 1919 and died on Nov. 30, 1983. He was educated in art schools in England, then served with the British Amy in Burma from 1940 to 1946.
Peter Watts, the author of more than 150 novels, is better known by his pen names of "Matt Chisholm" and "Cy James". He published his first western novel under the Matt Chisholm name in 1958 (Halfbreed). He began writing the "McAllister" series in 1963 with The Hard Men, and that series ran to 35 novels. He followed that up with the "Storm" series. And used the Cy James name for his "Spur" series.
Under his own name, Peter Watts wrote Out of Yesterday, The Long Night Through, and Scream and Shout. He wrote both fiction and nonfiction books, including the very useful nonfiction reference work, A Dictionary of the Old West (Knopf, 1977).
Peter Watt's close friend Finn Arnesen wrote a tribute to him in the March, 1984 issue of The Roundup. In part Arnesen said, "In 20 years' time he wrote about 150 novels, most of them Westerns. Until our magazine Western folded in 1982, he also wrote innumerable short stories especially for the magazine. His novels have been translated into most European languages, and we have published more than 120 of them in Norway.
"Peter's extensive knowledge about the Old West gave his novels authenticity, which he combined with plenty of action, good characterisation and a lot of humour. His name will not be recognised as that of a great writer, but his novels have given reading pleasure to millions of readers all over Europe."
John Wayne
(Deceased)
John Wayne, actor-producer-director, was born as Marion Michael Morrison on May 26, 1907 in Winterset, Iowa. He was named after his grandfather, a chaplain during the Civil War who wrote A History of the Ninth Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Infantry (My great-grandfather, James A. Paregien, served in that Regiment and fought at Shiloh and three other major battles).His father, Clyde Morrison, was a pharmacist with a lung condition which required him to move wife Mary and son Marion to the warmer, dryer climate of southern California. They settled in Glendale, CA. It was there that young Marion owned an Airedale dog named "Duke". And that's where he got his own nickname.
Young Marion Morrison well in school and in football. He applied for but barely failed admission to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. So he accepted a football scholarship to the University of Southern California, playing there from 1925 to 1927.
It was none other than cowboy-turned-movie-star Tom Mix who took a liking to Marion. And when Mix badly wanted tickets to USC's games, he got them through Marion. In return, Mix put in the word for him and got him a summer job as a prop man. Later, Marion would recruit one of his old football buddies -- Ward Bond -- to do extra work, then requested his services in most of his films.
The handsome, personable Marion Morrison soon struck a friendship with director John Ford. And by 1930 he was in front of the camera. The studio changed his name to John Wayne. And he appeared in more than 70 low-budget films, mostly Westerns, from 1930 to 1939.
John Wayne and George "Gabby" Hayes
in "Rainbow Valley" (1935)Wayne's Western credits included The Big Trail (1930), his first starring role and his first box office flop. He starred in Riders of Destiny (1933), in which he was a singing cowboy named Singin' Sandy. The terrible singing was actually done by Robert Bradbury, the son of the film's director.
In 1938 he played the role of Stony Burke in eight "Three Mesquiteers" films for Republic: Pals of the Saddle, Overland Stage Raiders, The Night Riders, Wyoming Outlaw, New Frontier and others. All that changed, though, when John Ford gave him the part of "The Ringo Kid" in Stagecoach (1939). From then on, he was a star and worked in first-class productions.
George Bancroft, John Wayne and Claire Trevor
in "Stagecoach" (1939).He also starred in Red River (1948) and Three Godfathers (1948). His best work may have been in the trilogy of "Cavalry" films directed by John Ford: Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950).
CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 OF THE LIFE OF JOHN WAYNE
Patrick Wayne
Patrick Wayne, actor, was born on July 15, 1939 in Los Angeles, CA. He is one of John Wayne's sons.
Patrick Wayne, had small parts in a number of his father's films and went on to a modest career as leading man in movies and television.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Patrick Wayne.
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.
Blessed are they whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to the law of the Lord.
Blessed are they who keep his statutes
and seek him with all their heart.
--- Psalm 119:1-2
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
