Thursday, February 13, 2014
Cowboy Singer Joe Dan Boyd to Open For State Historian Bill O'Neal Lecture On History Of The Texas Cowboy Saturday, Feb. 15, 2 pm @ Winnsboro Depot Meeting Room
Saturday, February 15th @ 2:00 p.m. at the Winnsboro
Depot: Texas State Historian, Bill
O'Neal will visit Winnsboro and present "The History of the Texas
Cowboy". Brought to you "FREE" by the Winnsboro TX Preservation
Commission and Gilbreath
Memorial Library. Don't miss this opportunity along with book signings of
Mr. O'Neal and our local historian, Bill Jones. Cowboy Songs provided by Joe Dan Boyd .Refreshments provided by The
Legends of Crossroads! Come on out for a fun and educational event.
Joe Dan Boyd in musical performance at Winnsboro Center for the Arts.
Joe Dan Boyd and his brother Tommy Boyd were born and raised on the Old Tinney Home Place about two miles south of Winnsboro on FM 312 near the intersection of County Road 4620.
There, the Boyd Brothers learned and performed the required duties of a typical traditional, diversified farm of the 1940s and early 1950s which included handling and herding livestock as well as milking cows for home use and sales of milk to Winnsboro's Kraft Cheese Plant located near the site of today's South Branch of Winnsboro First National Bank.
Being a "cowboy" of that place and time involved bringing the cows from pasture to barn and plowing straight furrows with mule-drawn equipment, such as the Georgia Stock and and Kelly plows. In both instances, the Boyd Brothers often tamed their livestock, both cows and mules, by breaking them for riding, sometimes with a cow's tail pulled over our shoulder to urge more speed from our domesticated mounts.
Tommy and I were faithful listeners to radio in that pre-TV era, and one of our favorite programs was "Melody Ranch," featuring Gene Autry, the first Singing Cowboy of the Silver Screen, and his wonder horse, Champion. Much of our occasional leisure time on the Tinney Farm was spent playing cowboy, often with other young boys in our rural neighborhood.
At the age of 14, I penned my first piece of cowboy fiction, a short story titled "Wild Stallion," published by Farm and Ranch Magazine, then the most popular and best-read magazine in Wood County and surrounding areas. It was my first bylined article and my first magazine article, an event which stirred something in my soul that would eventually prompt me to become an agricultural journalist after earning a degree in that field from Texas A&M College.
Early in my youth, I learned to play guitar and sing old traditional songs from my neighbor, Herb Cater, who instilled a lifelong love of music and singing.
It is my great honor to "open" for State Historian Bill O'Neal's lecture on History of the Texas Cowboy with a few of the cowboy songs I have sung for most of my life. I am grateful to Winnsboro's official Historian Bill Jones for inviting me to share this small part in this major event at the Winnsboro Depot Meeting Room Saturday, Feb. 15, at 2 pm.
The event is FREE to the public and you are cordially invited to attend. I hope to see you there.
Labels: Bill Jones, Cowboy Songs, Gilbreath Memorial Library, History of the Texas Cowboy, Joe Dan Boyd, Legends of the Crossroads, State Historian Bill O'Neal, Tommy Boyd, Winnsboro Preservation Commission
