J.W. Stoker, an individual from the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, died April 21 in Weatherford, Texas. He was 94.
Stoker, who was accepted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2011, assembled a vocation crossing over seventy years by being similarly capable as a stunt rider and stunt roper.
In the spring of 1939, Stoker was employed by the Clyde S. Mill operator Rodeo Show as a youthful stunt roper. Stoker was an individual from a few riding clubs where he figured out how to deceive rope and ride from Pinky Barnes who ventured out to Kansas City in the colder time of year of 1938 to show kids how to rope.
Stoker, who was known as the King of Cowboy Trick Riders and Ropers, took to it so well that he landed his most memorable position at 10 and show maker Clyde Miller made it happen by employing both Stoker’s folks to go with the show.
His ability as a stunt rider got his image on the Wheaties grain box at age 12.
Stoker was named the PRCA Specialty Act of the Year in 1985 and 1986, procuring the second of those grants when he was 59. He additionally showed up in a few films.
Stocker was accepted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame on July 16, 2011.
“It tops all that I’ve done previously; it’s the good to beat all you could say,” expressed Stoker in the ProRodeo Sports News about his acceptance. ”
During his acceptance, Stoker discussed the way he took to get into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
“I was brought into the world in Colorado Springs, got into and out of the Army in Colorado Springs and presently I’m in the Hall of Fame here, so I can say that I truly like Colorado Springs,” Stocker said.
Upon his release from the help in 1953, he went out and about performing with dark lights. This utilization of undetectable bright lights was the principal such use in proficient rodeo.
Stoker worked the greatest rodeos – Cheyenne, Madison Square Garden, Calgary, Boston Garden, Denver, Fort Worth, Texas, and Salinas, Calif.
His gifts of stunt riding, dark light rope turning, and extravagant pony gets likewise have been seen in numerous different nations including, Japan, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Korea, Finland, France, Australia, and Venezuela. He performed for the Queen of England, and he stunt roped in President Harry Truman’s debut march in 1948, and engaged President Ronald Reagan and future President George H.W. Bramble at the 1984 Republican Convention in Dallas.
In 1973, Stoker endured seven months working for Casey Tibbs’ Wild West Show in Japan and later for the territory of Nevada to announce the state and support Japanese the travel industry.
In “Paint Horse Journal” in March 1980, J.W. said, “It’s a perishing workmanship”, “I anticipated it during the 1940s and individuals let me know I was insane, yet I’ve seen it materialized.”
Stoker won the Will Rogers Centennial Trick Roping Contest in 1979 in Claremore, Okla., and performed at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He additionally was a highlighted visitor on The Today Show and the Charlie Rose Show in 1990.
He additionally stunt roped and rode in The Kansan in the last part of the 1940s, and in 1956 performed stunts for the film Bus Stop featuring Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, he was a trick twofold in the Clint Eastwood film, Bronco Billy.
Stoker likewise proceeded as a trick rider for Roy Rogers, and Rogers even rode one of J.W’s. most loved ponies, Punkin, at the Houston Rodeo in 1969.
Stoker’s closet incorporates in excess of 50 extravagant bordered rhinestone shirts, 25 sets of handcrafted boots and 25 western caps. As ongoing as December 2003, Stoker engaged at The Great American Wild West show in Las Vegas and showed up in American Cowboy.
Likewise in his later years, Stoker showed up at the Rose Bowl Parade with Trish Lynn and the All American Cowgirl Chicks, a stunt riding group from Parker County that ventures to every part of the rodeo circuit. Stoker was instrumental in training the group and forming them into stunt riders.
He was enlisted into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1999, the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2007, and the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2015.
Stoker was perceived by the urban areas of Weatherford, Texas, and Overland Park, Kan., with mayoral declarations of “J.W. Stoker Day” in the two areas.
Stocker called Parker County home beginning around 1969 and went through his last years working his cherished ponies Romeo, Hollywood, and Blanco. While his brand name was white ponies, Romeo, a paint steed, was genuinely his number one.
“I carried on with a decent perfect life, didn’t smoke or drink,” expressed Stoker in an Aug. 7 article in the University of North Texas Health Science Center of Fort Worth. “That is the reason I am as yet ready to keep occupied with dealing with the ponies I love.”
Memorial service administrations are booked for 10 a.m. (CT), April 30 at Parker County Cowboy Church, 5050 FM 5, Aledo, Texas 76008.
Stoker will lie in state from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., April 29 at White’s Funeral Home, 130 Houston Ave., Weatherford.
Interment: Johnson County Memorial Gardens, 1200 Metcalf Ave., Overland Park, Kan., 66210 on May 4 at 11 a.m. (CT).
In lieu of blossoms, the family proposes gifts in Stoker’s memory be made to All American Cowgirl Chicks, 4101 William D. Tate, Suite 100, Grapevine, Texas, 76051 to make the J.W. Stoker Memorial Scholarship, to be utilized to help youngsters in going to deceive riding and roping camps.
Stoker is gone before in death by his folks, Frank and Wilma Stoker, and his sisters, Frankie Hill and Bessie Fugate, and nephew J.C. Slope.
He is made due by six nieces and nephews: Karen Krehbiel, Donald (Sondra) Hill; Ronnie (Gina) Hill; Wallace (Rhealene) Hill; Debbie (Brad) Miller; and Hunter (Geri) Fugate. Stoker additionally is made due by 15 incredible nieces and nephews, and 27 extraordinary nieces and nephews.
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