World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider, entertainer, and rodeo performer. She was born on a farm near Enid, Oklahoma, where she grew up riding horses and working on the family farm. She began her rodeo career at the age of fourteen when she signed up and rode a steer in Cleo Springs, Oklahoma. She competed as a steer-rider for the first eight years of her rodeo career before changing to saddle bronc riding. Back then, women participated in many of the same events as men. She won the ladies' "Saddle Bronc Championship" at the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show Rodeo in 1937, and a week later, at Madison Square Garden, she won the "Saddle Bronc Rider World Championship" title, which she won again in 1941. That was the final year that women could compete in Madison Square Garden with men. In 1948, she was one of 38 female founders of the Girls Rodeo Association and was elected to the board of directors as saddle bronc director. The group was renamed the Women's Professional Rodeo Association the following year. In 1949, she won the first ever All-Girls' Rodeo Association "Saddle Bronc World Championship" title. She and her husband, Cub Dillard, had an Oklahoma ranch where they raised quarter horses and Black Angus cattle. After retirement, she spent her time coaching stunt and trick riders for rodeos and film studios. She was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1985 and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1991.
World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider, entertainer, and rodeo performer. She was born on a farm near Enid, Oklahoma, where she grew up riding horses and working on the family farm. She began her rodeo career at the age of fourteen when she signed up and rode a steer in Cleo Springs, Oklahoma. She competed as a steer-rider for the first eight years of her rodeo career before changing to saddle bronc riding. Back then, women participated in many of the same events as men. She won the ladies' "Saddle Bronc Championship" at the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show Rodeo in 1937, and a week later, at Madison Square Garden, she won the "Saddle Bronc Rider World Championship" title, which she won again in 1941. That was the final year that women could compete in Madison Square Garden with men. In 1948, she was one of 38 female founders of the Girls Rodeo Association and was elected to the board of directors as saddle bronc director. The group was renamed the Women's Professional Rodeo Association the following year. In 1949, she won the first ever All-Girls' Rodeo Association "Saddle Bronc World Championship" title. She and her husband, Cub Dillard, had an Oklahoma ranch where they raised quarter horses and Black Angus cattle. After retirement, she spent her time coaching stunt and trick riders for rodeos and film studios. She was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1985 and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1991.
Bio by: Debbie Gibbons
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