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Volume 4, Issue No. 7 July, 2006
IN MEMORIUM – SANTA FAYE
Santa Faye, a.k.a. Faye Mauney, joined the cowgirl & cowboy posse in the sky on Sunday, July 9th. Although she never fired a shot in an Ocoee Rangers CAS match, she was and had been for several years an important member of our group. Accompanying shooting husband, Loose Cinch, Santa Faye was an excellent scorekeeper, and she always had a smile and a cheery comment, even when health-wise she didn’t feel like smiling. She will be missed. Goodbye, Santa Faye. You’re a lady we’ve been proud to know.
73 Shooters Participate in July Shoot
Friday, it rained. Well, to put it bluntly, it stormed. But that cooled Saturday off a bit. Then, shooters and their pardners drifted out to the range, and the sun wasn’t to be seen…. Until Sunshine Billy arrived. He was wearing the sun. He had on bright yellow britches. Shucks, you could close your eyes and see ‘em through your eyelids. But they sure supported his shootin’: he was the Top Gun of the day. Last Kiss, shootin’ gunfighter style, held that honor in the field of lady shooters. Speaking of lady shooters, there were 10 cowgirl shooters, a record for the Ocoee Rangers. And the cowgirls shot in the following ladies’ categories: Gunfighter, Duelist, Traditional, 49er and Outlaw. We also had 2 junior shooters: Deadeye Drew and Irish Jake. Both shot very well.
How’d the shootin’ go? Well, 1 cowboy pretty much summed it up. He said, “The worst cowboy shoot I ever went to was good, and the rest have been even better.” This 1 was very good. Just ask Fast Harley. He walked away from the Buffalo shoot with a smile on his face and said, “I took the 100 yard pistol shoot from ol’ Too Tall.” Of course Marshal Too Tall won all the rest: .22 cal.. Long Range Lever Action Rifle and Long Range Single Shot Rifle and he placed 8th in overall shooting. That ain’t bad for a feller with an injured arm, who couldn’t shoot 2 weeks ago.
All our shooting posses were special. But 1 was a bit more special than the others. A group of Loose Cinch’s shootin’ buddies rode out to shoot with him. And that entire posse, led by Last Kiss, shot very well. Of course Calibre .45 might smile at that remark. He seldom misses with his pistols. But some silver- tongued devil slickered him into shootin’ Outlaw, and he missed 22 shots. That’s probably more than he’s missed in the previous 2 or 3 years. Maybe that’s why he’s trying to hide behind Abagail Rose in the picture below. He’s deadly with a pistol.
POSSE NO. 1
Front Row L-R: Doc Duncan, Killin’ Time, Rusty Spur Slim, Cactus Red, DQ Jones Middle Row L-R: Yellowcreek Johnson, Last Kiss, Yazoo City Gal, Abagail Rose Back Row L-R: Judge’m All Duncan, Loose Cinch, Badlands Beck, Tennessee Tombstone, Fast Harley, Calibre. 45
The Top 10 Shooters for the day were: (1) Sunshine Billy, (2) Festus D. Deputy, (3) DQ Jones, (4) Doc Duncan, (5) Fiddleback, (6) Rusty Spur Slim, (7) Unpleasant, (8) Marshal Too Tall, (9) Dustin Clays, and (10) Cherokee Maddog. 5 shooters had no miss matches: DQ Jones, Mr. Pistol, Bad Eye Tom, Deadman and Moonshine Roberts. July Wranglers were Boondock Saint, Awful Close, Yellowcreek Johnson, DQ Jones, Red Neckerson, Lightning McCoy and Keystone. Ocoee Ranger Wranglers are cowboys & cowgirls who put forth just a bit more effort in helping their posse conduct the shoot.
Here’s a summary of the July shoot results.
SHOOTING RESULTS
Top Gun – Sunshine Billy
Top Cowgirl – Last Kiss
Modern
1. Awful Close
2. Sundance McNeyman
Buffalo Shoot:
o Long Range Lever Action – Marshal Too Tall
o Long Range Single Shot – Marshal Too Tall
o .22 Cal. – Marshal Too Tall
o 100 Yard Pistol – Fast Harley
Traditional
1. Fiddleback
2. Unpleasant
3. Dustin Clays
Gunfighter
1. DQ Jones
2. Doc Duncan
3. Pleasant
49er
1. Festus D. Deputy
2. Marshal Too Tall
3. Double Eagle
Duelist
1. Rusty Spur Slim
2. Cherokee Maddog
3. Horseshoe John
Senior
1. Sunshine Billy
2. Mr. Pistol
3. Rev. Adam Jones
Outlaw
1. Badlands Beck
2. Loose Cinch
3. TN Tombstone
Classic
1. Lightning McCoy
Lady Duelist
1. Killin’ Time
Lady Traditional
1. Yazoo City Gal
2. Emerald Isle
3. Deadeye Daisy
Junior
1. Irish Jake
Remember, we only award category recognition and certificates when more than 1 person shoots in the category. For example, Last Kiss was the Top Cowgirl Shooter, but she was the only cowgirl who shot in the Ladies Gunfighter category. So, Lady Gunfighter is not reported.
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The Ocoee Ranger page 2 July, 2006
THE REEL WEST, THE REAL WEST AND THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION
THE REEL WEST – WALTER BRENNAN 1894 – 1997
Walter Brennan as he appears at the Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum
Walter Brennan was born in Massachusetts in 1894. But we can forgive him for that. He probably knew that Ted Kennedy would 1day flim-flam most folks in the state, so he left. During his working career, he did lots of things. He was a lumberjack, a construction worker, a soldier in WWI, worked in banking and real estate, and then he got into the movies, starting as a stuntman and then becoming an actor. Walter was 1 of those “forever-old” fellers. He was the sidekick or old codger in most of his movies. But just as Walter could very convincingly play lovable folks, he could also convincingly play nasty villains. For example, he was good old Stumpy in John Wayne’s RIO BRAVO and nasty old man Clinton in Henry Fonda’s MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. Shucks, he won 3 Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for another. By the way, he won his last Oscar portraying Judge Roy Bean in Gary Cooper’s THE WESTENER. In that movie, he was a crusty villain and got shot by the hero.
In his time, old Walter appeared in lots of movies, and a lot of them were Westerns. Ever heard of HOW THE WEST WAS WON? He was a villain in that one. How about THE FAR COUNTRY? He was Jimmy Stewart’s sidekick in that one. Or RED RIVER? John Wayne’s sidekick. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERRIF. He was a comic villain to hero James Garner. Walter also got into the series TV business. He was the lead in: THE REAL MCCOYS and THE GUNS OF WILL SONNETT, a Western. He appeared as a grandfather in both series, but as Will Sonnett, he was a gun-slinging grandfather.
Walter left quite a legacy. Granted he wasn’t a legend like John Wayne, but he helped John Wayne and many others in their on screen performances. Shucks, he made lots of movies better because of his appearance. He’d put his teeth in his pocket, put on his scrunched up high-crowned hat, make a few old codger noises, and steal scenes from the best of ‘em. Visit the Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum in Oklahoma City and go the film West section and you’ll see terrific portraits of Western Movie folks. Walter’s there as he appears above. He joined the cowboy posse in the sky in 1997.
THE WEST OF OUR IMAGINATION – DEADMAN
Deadman
In 1998, Deadman visited a cowboy shoot and couldn’t imagine going out in public dressed like what he saw. But he did. And he began shooting with TN. Jake, the Catoosa Kid, Deadfoot, Tellico, and T-Bone. And then Horseshoe John drifted in and …. But, he didn’t begin shooting as Deadman. He was the Yellowstone Kid at his 1st shoot. But he didn’t much like that name, and Mesquite Millie told him he was too old to be a kid. So, he became Deadman. Most times he lies about how he selected that alias. He usually says it’s because of all his property: there’s a Deadman’s Point in Apple Valley, CA., and a Deadman’s Bar Road in the Grand Teton’s National Park, etc. But regardless of how he became Deadman, he’s always shot .45’s, and with lots of powder in them. No butterfly loads for him. That’s partly why he shoots low in the competition. Mesquite Millie would tell you the other reason he’s down in the pack: “You just shoot slow.”
Who’s old Deadman’s favorite Western movie cowboy? “That’s not as easy to answer as it used to be. Randolph Scott was my 1st movie hero. And John Wayne’s special. And I agree with Marshal Too Tall that Tom Selleck is excellent. But all in all, Roy Rogers has to be no. 1. He lived the life he showed on the screen. He was no. 1 on the screen, and from all I’ve read, he was no. 1 in real life.”
THE REAL WEST – WARREN EARP 1855 – 1900
Warren Earp
Warren Earp was 1 of Wyatt Earp’s little brothers. Unlike Wyatt’s younger brother Morgan and older brother Virgil, Warren wasn’t in the gunfight near Tombstone’s OK Corral. Oh, he was in Tombstone during the months leading up to the shootout, but he wasn’t a shootist until after Virgil was crippled and Morgan was killed, both occurrences after the historical gunfight.
Warren was born in Iowa in 1855, and like most of the Earp men, he moved around a bit before and after the doings in Tombstone. During the Tombstone era, he rode shotgun guard on stagecoaches and gambled and did other stuff. But when Morgan was killed, he joined brother Wyatt, Doc Holiday and their compadres and went varmint huntin’. After “Wyatt’s vendetta ride” was over, Warren drifted to Colorado and then other places as years went by.
At about 1 o’clock in the morning on Friday, July 7, 1900, Warren was hanging around a saloon in Wilcox, AZ. He managed to get into a heated argument with another saloon bird named Johnny Boyett. One thing led to another, and Warren challenged Boyett to go get his gun. Boyett did. Warren was either mighty stupid or mighty drunk, because he didn’t have a gun. All he had was a pocketknife. Boyett returned, fired 4 shots at Warren, and missed. Warren kept mouthing off and advancing toward Boyett, who told him to stop or he would shoot. Warren probably thought, “So what. You done missed 4 times.” But, Boyett’s 5th shot didn’t miss.
Sometimes things move fast. Warren was killed Friday morning about 1 o’clock. Later that morning, a corner’s jury was impaneled and they determined the obvious: Warren was dead, he had been shot with a gun, and Johnny Boyett had the gun in his hand. Wow. Think how hard that was to determine. Continuing with events, Warren was buried that afternoon. On Saturday afternoon about 1 o’clock, Boyett was marched into court. He appeared before a judge in a preliminary hearing. The judge heard the evidence: Warren initiated the conflict, challenged Boyett to go get his gun, advanced on Boyett when told to stop, and had a half opened pocket knife in his hand when Boyett shot him. The judge dismissed Boyett. He didn’t rule dismissal was because of self-defense. He said that he didn’t think a grand jury would indict Boyett, and if they did, a jury wouldn’t convict. How ‘bout that?
Of all the Earp brothers, only Wyatt and Newton were never shot. James was shot in the War of Northern Aggression, Virgil was shot in the war and while he was in Tombstone, and Morgan and Warren were shot and killed. Newton minded his own business and never got into the adventures that his other brothers did. Wyatt … he was charmed.
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Ocoee Ranger page 3 July 2006
July’s Ocoee Wranglers
Awful Close
Yellowcreek Johnson
DQ Jones
Red Neckerson
Lightning McCoy
No Photo Available
Boondock Saint
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