The man believed to be the oldest working cowboy in Texas lay down in a field and died, the way he once said he thought he ought to go.
Thomas Everett Blasingame, 91, was found Wednesday lying on his back, his hands folded on his chest, by employees of JA Cattle Co. of Goodnight, where Blasingame worked. His saddled horse roamed nearby."He must have known he was in trouble, dismounted and just laid down and died. There were no bruises or scratches so he wasn't bucked off, but he was riding a young horse he was training," said ranch manager Johnny Farrar.
Blasingame said in an interview with the Wichita Falls Times last summer that that's the way he ought to die.
He was honored Aug. 19 during the Texas Ranch Roundup. Officials there said Blasingame was the oldest working cowboy in the state.
Born on Feb. 2, 1898, in Waxahachie, Texas, Blasingame was a cowboy all his life. He was 35 when he married his wife, Eleanor.
"His life was a better life than what you and I live," she said last summer. "He doesn't worry about more than one thing at a time and that's what he's doing right then."
Among other honors, he earned the Western Heritage Wrangler Award presented by the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Services are set for Dec. 30 at the JA Cattle Co. Cemetery near Clarendon.