Stan Paregien, Editor
Tom Wopat
Tom Wopat, actor and singer, was born on Sept. 9, 1951 in Lodi, WI. He grew up on a farm, surrounded by cows and six brothers. As a teenager, he won a scholarship to attend the University of Wisconsin on a music (vocal) scholarship.
Tom Wopat's TV credits include "The Dukes of Hazard" (1979-85), "Christmas Comes to Willow Creek" (1987), and "Prime Time Country" (1996). His theatrical credits include "Oklahoma!" (1978) and "Annie Get Your Gun" (1999-2000).
Wopat has also recorded four albums: "Tom Wopat" (1977), "A Little Bit Closer" (1977); "Don't Look Back" (1991), and "Learning to Love" (1992).
Don Worster
Don Worster, writer, is the author of A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell (Oxford University Press, 2000). This nonfiction biography received a Spur Award for that category from the Western Writers of America at their 2001 convention.
Donald E. Worcester
Donald Emmet Worcester was born in Tempe, Ariz. on April 19, 1915. In his teenage years, he and his brother caught wild horses and broke them by taking turns getting thrown off until the horses wore down. He got a job cowboying on an Arizona ranch when he was 18. And he even tried riding bulls in an Indian rodeo, hoping to win the $2.50 prize money. He now says of those days, "I was a happy ignorant cowboy. Then I decided to go on to college and education ruined it all."
Donald E. Worcester earned his A.B. from Bard College in 1939. He received his M.A. (1940) and Ph.D. (1947) from the University of California. Dr. Worcester taught history at the University of Florida from 1947 to 1963, and served as chairperson on the department from 1955-59. He was chairperson of the history department at Texas Christian University from 1963 to 1972, then held the Lorin A. Boswell Professorship from 1971 to 1980. He was the editor of the TCU Monographs in history and culture, was managing editor of Hispanic American Historical Review from 1960 to 1965.
Worcester served as president of the Western Writers of America in 1973-74, and in 1988 he was given WWA's highest honor, the Saddleman Award. Not only does Worcester write adult historical works, he also writes fiction and nonfiction for children. Worcester is the author of Lone Hunter's Gray Pony (1956), The Growth and Culture of Latin America (with W.G. Schaeffer, 1956, 1971), Lone Hunter and the Cheyenne (1957), Lone Hunter's First Buffalo Hunt (1958), Lone Hunter and the Wild Horses (1959), Kit Carson: Mountain Scout (1959), John Paul Jones (1961), War Pony (1961), editor and translator of Instructions for Governing the Interior Provinces of New Spain, 1786 (1961), Sea Power and Chilean Independence (1962), The Three Worlds of Latin America (1963), American Civilization (with M. Boyd, 1964, 1968), Man and Civilization (1965), The Makers of Latin America (1966), Contemporary America: Issues and Problems (1968), Brazil: From Colony to World Power (1973), editor of Forked Tongues and Broken Treaties (1975), and Bolivar (1977).
With his book, The Apaches (University of Oklahoma Press, 1979) Donald E. W won a Spur from the WWA and also the 1979 Southwest Book Award. He won a Spur from the WWA in 1975 for Best Short Nonfiction.He is also the author of The Chisholm Trail (University of Nebraska Press, 1980), and The Texas Cowboys: By Members of the Texas Cowboy Artists Association (Texas Christian University Press). He is the editor of Pioneer Trails West (Texas Western Press, 1985), an anthology featuring many WWA members. He won the 1985 C.L. Sonnichsen Book Award for Spanish Mustang: From the Plains of Andalusia to the Prairies of Texas (1985). He also wrote, The Texas Longhorn: Relic of the Past, Asset for the Future (Texas A&M University Press).
Dr. Donald E. Worcester is a past-president of the Western Writers of America, former president of the Western History Association, and former president of Westerners International and served as Sheriff of the Fort Worth Corral. And he breeds and raises purebred Arabian horses on his 145 acre ranch.
Thomas K. Worcester
Thomas K. Worcester received his B.A. in journalism and his M.A. in Educational Administration from the University of Colorado. He served as a journalism instructor and Director of Public Relations at Pueblo College (Pueblo, Colo.), from 1954 to 1957. From 1957-59, he was Director of Public Information at The Colorado College. And from 1959 to 1970, he was the Public Information Officer, Alumni Editor and Director of Information Services at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.
Since 1970, Thomas K. Worcester has worked as a freelance writer and editor. He is the editor of Mel Hansen's Indian Heaven, Back Country (Touchstone Press, 1977), Don and Roberta Lowe's Thirty-Three Hiking Trails: Southern Washington Cascades (Touchstone Press, 1985), and two books by Oral Bullard, Konapee's Eden Historic and Scenic Handbook (Touchstone Press, 1985) and Lancaster's Road (1982).
Thomas K. Worcester also wrote or co-wrote Washington D.C. (Graphic Arts Center), A Portrait of Oregon (OMSI Press), A Portrait of Colorado (OMSI Press), Norjak: The Investigation of D.B. Cooper (Norjak Project), Bunco Kelly and Other Yarns of Portland and NW Oregon (Touchstone Press, 1983) and The State of Jefferson and Other Yarns (1982).
Worcester has written numerous articles for regional and national magazines. He wrote more than 640 radio scripts during an 8-year period for Pacific Power & Light's "Stories of Pacific Powerland" series. In addition to his membership in WWA, he is a member of The Authors Guild, The National Writers Club, and the Northwest Association of Book Publishers.
Hank Worden
(Deceased)
Hank Worden, actor, was born Norton Earl Worden on July 23, 1901 in Rolfe, IA. Worden was raised on a cattle ranch in Montana. He received his education at Stanford University and at the University of Nevada in the field of engineering.
However, he never lost his love of horses. So he toured the country in rodeos as a saddle bronc rider. He injured his neck in a horsefall in his early 20s, and didn't know he had actually broken his neck until undergoing a physical when he was in his 40s.
The rodeo life may have broken his neck, but it also got him started down the road to acting. A Broadway producer saw him and another young cowboy named Tex Ritter performing in a rodeo at Madison Square Garden in New York. And they were hired to act in "Green Grow the Lilacs", the play on which the musical "Oklahoma" was based.
When that ended, though, Worden was out of work. So he drove a cab in New York, then worked on dude ranches as a wrangler and as a guide on the Bright Angel trail of the Grand Canyon.
A friend recommended him to several Western movie producers. And he eventually got some small roles and became friends with such shakers and movers as John Ford, Howard Hawks and John Wayne. He usually played an eccentric character in small roles, such as "Poordevil" in the movie "Big Sky" with Kirk Douglas. He, along with Ward Bond, was one of a select number in John Wayne's inner circle.
Hank Worden appeared in more than 150 films. And a sample of his Western movie credits includes Ghost-town Gold (1936), The Plainsman (1936), Sing, Cowboy, Sing (1937), Where the Buffalo Roam (1938), Stagecoach (1939), Oklahoma Frontier (1939), Prairie Law (1940), Dude Cowboy (1941), Texas Cowboy (1942), Canyon City (1943), Duel in the Sun (1946), Sea of Grass (1947), Fort Apache (1948), Red River (1948), Three Godfathers (1948), The Big Sky (1952), The Searchers (1956), The Horse Soldiers (1959), The Alamo (1960), One-eyed Jacks (1961), McLintock! (1963), True Grit (1969), Chisum (1970), Rio Lobo (1970), Big Jake (1971) and Cahill: U.S. Marshal (1973).
Hank Worden died on Dec. 6, 1992 in Los Angeles, CA. His remains are in the Forest Lawn Cemetery ( Freedom Mausoleum, Columbarium of Victory, niche 32616 ) in Glendale, CA.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Hank Worden.
Richard Wormser
(Deceased)
Richard Wormser was born in 1908 in New York City and was a non-fiction writer in financial, industrial and commercial fields before branching out successfully into the fiction markets.Early on he was an editor with the famous old pulp publishing house of Street & Smith. And it was there that he found he could make more money by writing than by editing. And in 14 months--from November, 1932 to Dec., 1933--he wrote 17 novels using the pen name of "Nick Carter", one mystery under his own name, and 120 pulp stories.
Richard Wormser's short stories went to The Saturday Evening Post, Liberty, Collier's, Adventure, Blue Book, Detective Story Magazine, and Detective Fiction Weekly.
Wormser moved to California in 1937 and for the next five years operated a ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains and another on the Palomar Range. And he continued writing, turning out such books as The Late Mrs. Five (1960), Drive East on 66 (1961), Thief of Baghdad (1961), Slattery's Range (1961), Perfect Pigeon (1962), Three-Cornered War (1962), The Last Days of Sodom & Gomorrah (1962), McLintock (1963), A Nice Girl Like You (1963), Pan Satyrus (1963), Bedtime Story (1964), The Wild, Wild West (1964), Torn Curtain (1964), Operation Crossbow (1965), The Yellowlegs (1966), Ride Kidnapped Circus (1968), Pass Through Manhattan, Trem McCrea, and All's Fair.
From 1942 to 1945, Richard Wormser served as a mounted patrolman with the U.S. Forest Service in the Palomar Ranger District and the Cleveland National Forest. Then he became a script writer for the motion picture industry for the next five years. His film credits included the movie "Tulsa" and 20 others. His 1964 book, Ride A Northbound Horse, won for him a Spur Award from WWA. And he received a second Spur in 1971 for his juvenile novel, The Black Mustanger. His other books included Yellowlegs (a history of the U.S. Cavalry) and Southwest Cookery (a cook book).
Richard Wormser's honors also included an "Edgar" from the Mystery Writers of America. And in 1972 he received a Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center for his juvenile novel, The Black Mustanger. He and his wife, a potter, for several years lived in Arizona during the winters and in Santa Fe, N.M. during the summers. A few years before his death, they established their home in Arizona. Wormser died late in 1977.(See Don Schellie's tribute to Richard Wormser in The Roundup, Dec., 1977)
Bill Wright
Bill Wright is the author/photographer of The Tiguas: Pueblo Indians of Texas. His work has appeared in many other publications, including American Outdoorsman, Travel & Leisure Magazine, Heritage Magazine, Texas Journal, and Sierra Club Bulletin.
Kenneth Wyatt
Dr. Kenneth Wyatt is a minister, storyteller and artist of the first rank. He lives in Tulia, Texas. He graduated from Baylor University, received his master's fom Illiff School of Theology, and a doctorate in fine arts from McMurry University in Abilene, Texas.
Kenneth Wyatt has completed more than 8,000 paintings, mostly in oil, watercolor, pencil and charcoal. His painting of baseball legend Mickey Mantle hangs in the rotunda of the State Capital of Oklahoma.
He was the featured speaker at the cowboy church service at the 1999 National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock, Texas.
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.
If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
--- Bible: Psalm 130:3-4
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.