ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Southwest Kansas has no shortage of notable rodeo participants and last week, one of them was officially immortalized with an exhibit at the Stevens County Gas & Historical Museum.
Last Tuesday, family, friends and community members gathered at the museum to officially open an exhibit dedicated to Harold L. “Buddy” Heaton, a rodeo clown and horse trainer who was born in Alva, Okla. and lived in Hugoton for many years.
“This has been an idea for a while now since Buddy grew up in this area and ended up being so well known, and our museum director through it would also be a good fit for what we do here,” Stevens County Historical Society Director Jan Leonard said at the exhibit’s opening. “A lot of this memorabilia was donated to the museum by his children, but the wax figure was done out of state, and the buffalo head came from a gentleman in Moscow. Along with the memorabilia, we've also got a loop of some old home movies that will be shown by the exhibit here, and there was quite a bit of time sorting through it all because there were also some home movies of birthday parties and other family events mixed in there, but that got put together and I like how it turned out. My personal favorite is the bit of video showing him riding in John F. Kennedy's inauguration parade almost right up to the viewing stand where Kennedy and his family and everyone else was sitting, and there's also some video of when he was filming in the TV show 'Wagon Train.' This is something that's great for Stevens County, and I feel like it'll draw a lot of people from the area in.”
Heaton worked for some of the sport’s greatest stock contractors – including Harry Vold, Reg Kesler, Paul Long and the Beutler Brothers – during a 33-year career as a rodeo clown that began in 1944, when he was just 15, according to his obituary, and he was inducted into the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2005. Heaton also competed in all three roughstock events and steer wrestling in PRCA rodeos in the 1950s, and in the 1950s and 1960s, he would expand his rodeo clown act to include various animals, and he soon gained a reputation as a skilled animal trainer, most notably for his work with the Appaloosa, “High Hand,” and the American buffalo, Old Grunter, who he rode on during John F. Kennedy’s inauguration parade in 1960.
Heaton’s obituary goes on to say he and Old Grunter also appeared on the TV show “Wagon Train” in 1960, as well as the feature films “Bus Stop,” “How the West Was Won,” and “Desert Sands,” and after his career in rodeo ended, he remained active as a horse trainer for many years.
Heaton’s children, who were present at the exhibit’s opening, said the idea had been presented to them multiple years ago.
“It was about three or four years ago when Jan [Leonard] got in touch with me and asked if I had any memorabilia of my dad's because he was wanting to put together a special exhibit at the museum since he's such a huge part of Hugoton's history,” Heaton’s son, Tom, said. “I originally didn't think too much of it since my siblings and I all grew up with it, but Jan kept pestering me and pestering me, so I got my brother, Ted, on board, and then my sisters. We got the memorabilia together, and I had the old tapes, which was a bit of a chore, and I gave them to my son to take to Amarillo to be put together in a digital version. Then there was some money needed for the wax statue, which was another task, but the people who did that did a great job.”
“We even had the original jacket he was wearing when he rode in front of JFK, and we knew that would have to be included,” Heaton’s son, Ted, added. “There was a lot of surprise when we were initially asked about doing this, and there's a lot more memorabilia that could have been included with this.”
Ted and his sister, Linda Brecheisen, agreed the museum put together a great exhibit.
“It's really neat, and I'm actually a little overwhelmed, because they did a good job putting it all together, from the video display to the wax statue and everything else,” Brecheisen said. “I love how it all looks. I can't thank all the volunteers enough. There's still some memorabilia we're coming across that could be added to this, but that's something that'll be decided later. It's great seeing everyone out supporting this exhibit, I can't believe there were that many people who came out to see it opening up. I've actually lived out of town for some years now, so it's great to see this kind of community support.”
“There's actually a big canvas portrait I gave the museum of him riding the buffalo, but that hasn't been put up yet, and I think that'll look neat when it is put up,” Ted added.
Brecheisen also offered encouragement for people in the area to visit the exhibit.
“It's a great addition to the museum, and it's another great exhibit for people to look at,” Brecheisen said.
“It's something great to look at, and there's a lot of history just in this one corner of the museum, so I hope people come and look at it,” Tom added. “I can't thank the museum enough for putting this together, it's a great way to honor our dad, and I hope a lot of people come and look at it, they should enjoy it all.”
I remember when I was in school at OPSU Bud had a sale down at Texhoma ranch. Sale bill had a lot of stuff including a 5 legged cow, a white buffalo cow, palomino mule and some other livestock. Had some stuff from his rodeo days like the 5th wheel ball he would strap on a bulls back and attach a two wheel barrel chariot he would ride in. Also a saddle he had used to ride Grunter. And much more.