17 - Montana, Alice Greenough Orr
Montana women worked the farms, fields, and events just like the men. They pushed and risked their lives. And they did it on par with the men. Alice Greenough Orr was the "Queen of the Rodeo" right along the kings.
Montana is the 13th state to ratify the 19th Amendment on August 2, 1919.
Alice Greenough Orr, raised in a rancher family, embodied the lifestyle of the Montana land. One of seven children, five of them, including her sister, led the rodeo. Ms. Greenough Orr was one of the first inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Texas.
Her career spanned the globe, introducing her to cultures and notable leaders. She spent a period of time in Spain at a time when local women feared women that wore pants. She enjoyed her travels to Australia the most in her life, seeing the people as “rugged and easy to get along with.” She had tea with the King and Queen of England.
She formed the Greenough-Orr Rodeo which she produced with her husband. They created the barrel racing events for the first time. Her preference for bronc riding dwindled over time as the horses grew in weight and scale limiting the ability for women to safely ride them. Four time winner of the World’s Championship in women’s bronc riding until it closed to women after 1941. Her last event, her sister Margie and she were two of five out of 22 women that did not go to the hospital. “It was a hard life, but we could take it,” she said, in 1969. “Today’s girl would probably fall in a heap.”
Why this woman?
Stories of these early pioneers amaze me because options and opportunities were not just provided to them like me.
The hard life of women that pushed the boundaries in the “new” frontier lived a life unimaginable to me. I can conceive doing things not permissible traditionally to my role. But to be hurt or potentially killed by an animal I cannot control has never been in my mind. I shied away from pushing past the risk of high school sport injuries of diving for a volleyball dig or sliding into a softball plate.
I also sometimes imagine if I was an early American, what life would I have had? I am now a leader in my industry, but that was not a deliberate choice. It was more a path that formed around me. My family empowered me to be who I am because of what they could offer to me. Opportunities to be surrounded by intelligent people that pushed me to be more in school and career opened these doors and, honestly, contributed to closing the others. Would I have resisted traditional life in different circumstances?
Women in the developing West were stirred, I can assume more than their male counterparts, to hang onto the edge of life and the risk it takes. Alice stood out as a pioneer of her sport, the times, and her gender.
Montana is the 13th state to ratify the 19th Amendment on August 2, 1919.
Alice Greenough Orr, raised in a rancher family, embodied the lifestyle of the Montana land. One of seven children, five of them, including her sister, led the rodeo. Ms. Greenough Orr was one of the first inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Texas.
Her career spanned the globe, introducing her to cultures and notable leaders. She spent a period of time in Spain at a time when local women feared women that wore pants. She enjoyed her travels to Australia the most in her life, seeing the people as “rugged and easy to get along with.” She had tea with the King and Queen of England.
She formed the Greenough-Orr Rodeo which she produced with her husband. They created the barrel racing events for the first time. Her preference for bronc riding dwindled over time as the horses grew in weight and scale limiting the ability for women to safely ride them. Four time winner of the World’s Championship in women’s bronc riding until it closed to women after 1941. Her last event, her sister Margie and she were two of five out of 22 women that did not go to the hospital. “It was a hard life, but we could take it,” she said, in 1969. “Today’s girl would probably fall in a heap.”
Why this woman?
Stories of these early pioneers amaze me because options and opportunities were not just provided to them like me.
The hard life of women that pushed the boundaries in the “new” frontier lived a life unimaginable to me. I can conceive doing things not permissible traditionally to my role. But to be hurt or potentially killed by an animal I cannot control has never been in my mind. I shied away from pushing past the risk of high school sport injuries of diving for a volleyball dig or sliding into a softball plate.
I also sometimes imagine if I was an early American, what life would I have had? I am now a leader in my industry, but that was not a deliberate choice. It was more a path that formed around me. My family empowered me to be who I am because of what they could offer to me. Opportunities to be surrounded by intelligent people that pushed me to be more in school and career opened these doors and, honestly, contributed to closing the others. Would I have resisted traditional life in different circumstances?
Women in the developing West were stirred, I can assume more than their male counterparts, to hang onto the edge of life and the risk it takes. Alice stood out as a pioneer of her sport, the times, and her gender.
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