Reining royalty: 1962 Columbia Basin Rodeo queen, princess share memories

MOSES LAKE — Both Kathy Anderson Graff and Kathie Weber King grew up with horses, and both loved pretty much every minute of it.

They were in two of the many 4-H equestrian clubs in Grant County, and it seemed like there was a competition or an event of some kind every weekend from spring through fall, Graff said. So it was a natural next step to compete for the title of 1962 Columbia Basin Rodeo, which is now called Moses Lake Roundup, queen.

Graff was the 1962 queen, and King was one of the princesses. The two said they lost contact with the other three princesses through the years.

“I think it was just the competition,” Graff said of the decision to compete for the rodeo court.

“Just to see how well you could do,” King said.

Equestrian competitions for kids were common in Grant County back in the day.

“We had gymkhanas every weekend,” Graff said.

A gymkhana tests the skill of horse and rider in a series of competitions, from obstacle courses to jumping and weaving through a line of poles, called pole bending. And there were plenty of competitors, since a lot of towns and 4-H clubs had a team.

“Quincy had their team, Ephrata, Warden (had teams),” Graff said. “We were friends (and) we were rivals. And then there were different 4-H clubs, horse clubs. There were a lot of kids that showed up for those (competitions). There must’ve been at least 100 of us that would show up out there, Moses Lake or wherever they were holding it,” Graff said. “We just were on those horses all the time on weekends.”

All those hours on horseback paid off during their days on the rodeo court. King recalled a grand entry ride when her horse, Hey Boy, took a wrong turn and ended up in the back of a stock truck. King just backed him out and went back in the arena.

“We could ride. We could flat ride,” King said.

The 1962 rodeo queen competition was in the fall of 1961, when Graff and King were 15 years old.

“When I tried out I think there were 17 girls that tried out,” Graff said. “There were a bunch of us.”

And in that crowd, Graff said, she wasn’t all that sure of her chances, especially since it was her first try.

“I didn’t think of myself as the queen,” she said. “I knew my horse was good.”

That was Rocket, a palomino, a registered quarter horse. He didn’t get along with everybody, Graff said, but he got along with her.

“He was a horse you didn’t make any mistakes on,” she said.

He had to be saddled and unsaddled a certain way, and there were other times he wouldn’t let Graff put on his bridle until he was good and ready, she said.

Rocket was 8 years old when Graff got him, and she broke him herself. He was accepting of Graff, but of few other riders. Graff’s sister borrowed Rocket when she was selected for the rodeo court a few years later, and a man the horse didn’t know tried to saddle him. It didn’t go well.

“He started bucking. There was no way he was going to let a stranger saddle him,” Graff said.

King’s horse was just as willful. Hey Boy didn’t like barrel racing, King said, and during one event he simply left the course, jumped over a car and took off with King on his back. She knew she could stay on him, she said, so she just hung on until he got tired.

Then, as now, the queen and princesses traveled around the state, riding in parades and in the grand entry prior to the performance.

“I’ll bet we went to at least 10 (rodeos),” King said.

Some rodeos provided the queen and princesses with a sash, a crown, a belt buckle – something, anyway – but in those days the Columbia Basin Rodeo was not one of them. In addition, once they were chosen for the court, the girls had to figure out how to get their horses and themselves to the rodeo on time. Volunteers made sure the 1962 court had what they needed and got where they needed to go.

“You were surprised how people looked after us,” Graff said.

Volunteers drove them to a Spokane rodeo and arranged for accommodations for their horses at the livestock auction arena. Graff couldn’t take her horse to the Omak Stampede, so an Omak-area friend, a participant on the rodeo circuit, loaned her a horse, a palomino like her own. A volunteer bought a blanket for Rocket.

“A purple one, mind you,” Graff said. “Those guys, they took care of us.”

The biggest event of the year was their own rodeo in early September. Graff became ill with tonsillitis right before the rodeo, serious enough she had to be hospitalized.

She had to miss two days of events, but she was not going to miss the parade or the rodeo. She was released from the hospital only after promising to come back after the parade. But she ignored that and went on to the rodeo, she said.

“Those were the days,” King said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.