THE. Bill Moomey s artwork reflects the many facets of his life.

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L The Posse I F E S T Y L E S THE WORLD AROUND Bill Moomey s artwork reflects the many facets of his life. Bill Moomey makes his home on the X9 Ranch in Vail, Arizona.

In his 81 years, Bill has been a World War II Navy pilot, University of Nebraska football star, college professor, rodeo bronc rider, top industrial designer, owner and breeder of some of the top

1 L The Posse I F E S T Y L E S THE WORLD AROUND Bill Moomey s artwork reflects the many facets of his life. Bill Moomey makes his home on the X9 Ranch in Vail, Arizona. BBy Tonya Ratliff-Garrison BILL MOOMEY WALKED INTO THE LIVING ROOM AND EASED ONTO THE COUCH. Where should I start? he said. I have a lot of stories. He certainly does. In his 81 years, Bill has been a World War II Navy pilot, University of Nebraska football star, college professor, rodeo bronc rider, top industrial designer, owner and breeder of some of the top winning horses in AQHA history and one of the nation s top artists. It s his art that really tells his stories from the rodeo cowboy chasing down a steer to an African tribal mother and child to a spunky youngster practicing his roping skills on a Hereford calf. So what better place to start the story of Bill Moomey than at the beginning when he discovered the wonders of art. COURTESY OF BILL MOOMEY 46 APRIL 2008 THE AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE JOURNAL

Budding Artist BILL GREW UP NEAR YORK, NEBRASKA, AS THE SON of a fourth-generation cattleman. Bill s mother died when he was 5, and he was raised by his grandparents until he was 8.

Although Bill s father taught him the basics of ranching like fixing fence or herding cattle he always encouraged Bill to pursue other interests. Just look around you, he would tell Bill.

2 Budding Artist BILL GREW UP NEAR YORK, NEBRASKA, AS THE SON of a fourth-generation cattleman. Bill s mother died when he was 5, and he was raised by his grandparents until he was 8. That was when his dad remarried the woman Bill always thought of as Mother. Although Bill s father taught him the basics of ranching like fixing fence or herding cattle he always encouraged Bill to pursue other interests. Just look around you, he would tell Bill. We re fourth generation. Do you want to live like this? When I was a kid there wasn t any such thing as television, and when the sun went down, there wasn t really anything for me to do. So I would sit and draw cartoons. I really got started, I won t say seriously, because I was always serious about art, but when I was maybe 11 or 12 years old. I did some drawings for the local county fair, and there was a guy there that saw my drawings. His name was Terence Duren, and he had been a famous illustrator back East. However, he had a drinking problem and it got serious to where he couldn t work. So he moved back to Shelby, Nebraska, to live with his spinster sisters. I m sure it was culture shock, coming from New York City and living in a town that probably had 10 families in it. Terence had someone introduce me to him, and I d never seen a guy like this. He was like an alien dropped out of the sky. He had real white face powder on him, a suit with an ascot, long hair, beautifully manicured hands and just a little bit of lipstick. Shelby, Nebraska, had never seen anything like this. He introduced himself to me and said, Would you like to learn how to paint? Of course I did. So he talked to my mother and said if I was The Stretch Shortcut to Flagstaff willing to do work around his studio clean brushes and do the junky stuff he d give me lessons. So my mother drove me to Shelby once a week. It just opened up a whole world for me. I had no idea how to mix colors or how to prepare a canvas. But he taught me. It never occurred to me that art was something you could make a living doing. You just did it because it was fun, and Terence was the first person to show me that it was a job if you want to do it that way. I went right into the Navy after I graduated from high school, and I lost track of Terence after that. I got a call recently from a woman in Nebraska saying she had tracked me down. She had got my name somehow, and she had a Terence Duren painting. THE AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE JOURNAL APRIL

In 1950, Bill was a young man teaching design and drawing at the University of Colorado. It was then that a friend approached him about the trip of a lifetime.

3 She told me he had died in his late 50s. African Adventure ALL HIS LIFE, AFRICA HELD A SPECIAL FASCINATION for Bill. As a small child, if his drawings were not of cowboys and Indians, they were of African tribesmen and great white hunters. In 1950, Bill was a young man teaching design and drawing at the University of Colorado. It was then that a friend approached him about the trip of a lifetime. A friend of mine knew this man, Orr Zimmerman was his name, from Philadelphia who was the owner of a big corporation and had a lot of money. He told me that Orr was going to Africa and wanted to make a film. My friend asked if I knew of anybody that could film Orr s safari. I said, Matter of fact I do. Me. He said, I didn t know you did film. I said, Oh, yeah. But I didn t. I had to go down and take a quick course to learn how. So Orr and I went to Africa, and he paid all my expenses and was paying me to do the film, too. I m just in seventh heaven and loving every minute of it. Now Orr was an older man, and he became deathly sick when we got to Nairobi. He said, Gosh, I don t think I m going to be able to hunt. I m just too sick. Dinka Mother and Child Baobab I thought, isn t that my luck. Now we are going to go back home. But Orr came to me and asked if I had hunted before. I said, Yeah. I ve taken out hunting parties from the time I was young. He asked if he brought me a list did I think I could get like a zebra hide and other things for him. I told him I would try. There was a young guy who was our white hunter. This was right after the war, John Lawrence was his name. John was a farm boy, and after the war there were no jobs and he did the only thing he knew how to do. He spoke Swahili, so he became a white hunter. John was a young guy, a little older than me but not much, and he asked me, Are you willing to rough it? I said, I ll do whatever you say. He was so thrilled because most of the clients he had were older people who have made money and could afford to go hunting. He told me he never got any young guys. We spent six weeks in the bush, just the two of us. It was so fantastic. It was a little wild, but I fell in love with it. I ve been going back to Africa ever since. Friend Lost A FEW YEARS LATER, BILL BECAME THE DIRECTOR OF THE DENVER Art Academy and also started an art studio. At a party, he met Adolph Coors III, who asked Bill about helping the fledgling brewery with its designs and advertising. I didn t know much about it, but I said sure, Bill recalled. In the 10 years that Bill worked for Coors, he and Adolph became close friends. Ad was kind of a would-be cowboy whose wife was a socialite, and they lived in Denver. Finally, he talked her into buying a ranch, and they had just moved onto it. He wanted to put some cattle out there, and I ended up helping him buy a bull in Kansas City. In February 1960, Ad s brother, Bill, called me and asked 48 APRIL 2008 THE AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE JOURNAL

4 Running Free Coyotes at the Den Adolph Coors Ambush The Highwaymen THE AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE JOURNAL APRIL

Zeke Into the Light on the bridge. I looked over the rail, and there were his glasses and his ball cap and more blood down there. So I quickly got a hold of the sheriff s office.

That s strange. In September, they found his body. The man who had killed him had tried to kidnap him for ransom, and Ad had probably put up a fight. Probably didn t want to kill him.

He ran an ad in the newspaper saying he wanted a million dollars in small bills, and when he killed Ad, he just took off and never did get the ransom money.

5 Zeke Into the Light on the bridge. I looked over the rail, and there were his glasses and his ball cap and more blood down there. So I quickly got a hold of the sheriff s office. I had bloodhounds, and I got my dogs over because Ad was nowhere to be found. They picked up his scent, took it to the end of the bridge and back. I said, Well, he never left this bridge. That s strange. In September, they found his body. The man who had killed him had tried to kidnap him for ransom, and Ad had probably put up a fight. Probably didn t want to kill him. Then he took him up on the mountain and dumped his body off. He was a convicted murderer from California who had been living in Denver for two years. He ran an ad in the newspaper saying he wanted a million dollars in small bills, and when he killed Ad, he just took off and never did get the ransom money. They captured him in October in Vancouver, British Columbia. Brahmas if I knew where Ad was. He said they ve got a board of directors meeting, and he wasn t there. I told Bill, I know about where he is. He just got that new bull, and I bet anything he s down looking at it. I drove down to Turkey Creek and saw Ad s truck was parked in the middle of the bridge with the door open and the radio playing. I thought he was down below because that s where the pasture was. I went down and honked the horn and honked the horn. There was nothing. I called out for him. Still nothing. That s when I happened to look over, and there was a pool of blood A Good Horse AFTER THE DEATH OF ADOLPH COORS III, BILL WENT TO WORK FOR Schlitz Brewing Co. and moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While living in Colorado, Bill rodeoed and owned a ranch where he raised horses and some cattle. In Wisconsin, he bought a place in Waukesha and bought a few well-bred show mares. He then purchased Coy s Bonanza, who was bred by Bill s rodeo friend Bill Coy. The flashy sorrel stallion would be the horse who would make Bill Moomey a household name in Quarter Horse show circles. In 1972, Bill took one of Coy s Bonanza s sons to show at the All American Quarter Horse Congress. It was about time for his first class so I went back to take his blanket off and somebody had cut his hair with a razor blade all over his body. It wasn t deep enough to injure the horse but wherever there was a cut, the hair stood up, and he looked like he d never been brushed. I thought, what in the world now. I knew I could beat everything in the arena and plus he was winning a lot. I just said hell with it and I took him in. The judge was George Tyler, and he asked me, What in the world are you bringing in here? I told him the story, and the horse ended up winning his class. Now I m in the grand champion class. George looked and looked and looked. He pulled out one horse and then another horse. And then he came back and he said, Well, what are we going to do with you now? I said, If you re asking me, George, I d put myself right up at the head of 50 APRIL 2008 THE AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE JOURNAL

the class. He said, Why don t you go up there then? People ask me, You won so much over the years; what is your best win? That was my best win.

Growing up, I never realized he was encouraging me with the art. I had no idea. But when he would go into Omaha, he d come back with something that had to do with art.

If anybody came around, he d say, Bill, show them that drawing you did. When he died, my mother asked if I wanted anything of my dad s.

6 the class. He said, Why don t you go up there then? People ask me, You won so much over the years; what is your best win? That was my best win. Roper Proud Father BILL WAS IN HIS LATE 40S WHEN HIS FATHER died. He traveled back to the ranch, and it was then that he made a discovery about the man who raised him. Growing up, I never realized he was encouraging me with the art. I had no idea. But when he would go into Omaha, he d come back with something that had to do with art. Now in those days, I thought it was professional stuff. It might have been a box of color pencils, but to me that was Wow! I d never seen color pencils before. He always encouraged me and praised me. If anybody came around, he d say, Bill, show them that drawing you did. When he died, my mother asked if I wanted anything of my dad s. I said the only thing I would kind of like to have is the old skinning knives. He always made his own knives, and my dad and I butchered one cow a day because he furnished meat for the restaurants in that area. He had an old cigar box that he stuck them in. My mother said, Here s his wallet. You might as well take it, too. I looked in the wallet, and inside, he had folded up a picture I had drawn of a cowboy sitting on a horse coming down a hill. I d maybe done that drawing when I was like 10, and he had TONYA RATLIFF-GARRISON Bill tries to paint daily in his studio, which overlooks the Saguaro National Park. Aim High Holler Git! carried it all those years. It was flimsy and just broke apart. I was very touched by it. He had probably dragged it out to show everybody that he could corner. He was quite a guy. Return to the West IN 2002, BILL AND HIS WIFE, SANDI, SOLD THEIR SHOW STRING AND their place in Wisconsin and moved to Vail, Arizona. At age 81, Bill still paints daily in his studio that overlooks the Saguaro National Park. On the shelves near his easel are memorabilia from his days as a football player at the University of Nebraska, photos of his most memorable hunts and several horse show trophies. I gave baskets full of those trophies to the Boy Scouts and such. I never saved any trophies other than the ones that had some particular meaning or memory for me. They weren t necessarily the biggest shows, just the ones that were special to me. I get asked all the time if I miss the horses. Although I no longer show horses, I haven t lost my love of a good one. When I ride now, I don t have to worry about keeping one eye on the judge and the other eye on the prize money. I just sit back in the saddle chase a few cows maybe and watch that beautiful Arizona scenery go by. Tonya Ratliff-Garrison is a field editor for The American Quarter Horse Journal. She can be reached at tonyag@aqha.org. THE AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE JOURNAL APRIL

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