Entertainer, wild west show and rodeo performer. She was the daughter of legendary rodeo family Clara and Emmett Roberts, who founded the Flint Hills Rodeo in Strong City, Kansas in the mid 1930s. She spent her childhood years assisting her father and brothers in training and breaking horses. She began her rodeo career as a bareback bronc rider at the age of 13 and rode with the Clyde Miller Wild West Show during the summers when she was in high school. She signed contracts to perform at several circuses and rodeos after graduating. She created "the dive" when she was 19 years old, a trick ride in which she stood in the saddle and leaned forward over the neck of her horse. It was a trick she discovered by accident and later used in her performances. She joined the Clyde Miller all-girl rodeo in 1939, where she competed in saddle broncs, bareback, and bull riding. She participated in all of the major rodeos, and in 1940, she won the Ladies' Bronc Riding World Championship in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She left the rodeo circuit in 1953 and trained and owned race horses in Arizona and operated a dude ranch at Lake of the Ozarks State Park in Missouri. She spent her last years living on a small ranch in Strong City, Kansas. She was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2017.
Entertainer, wild west show and rodeo performer. She was the daughter of legendary rodeo family Clara and Emmett Roberts, who founded the Flint Hills Rodeo in Strong City, Kansas in the mid 1930s. She spent her childhood years assisting her father and brothers in training and breaking horses. She began her rodeo career as a bareback bronc rider at the age of 13 and rode with the Clyde Miller Wild West Show during the summers when she was in high school. She signed contracts to perform at several circuses and rodeos after graduating. She created "the dive" when she was 19 years old, a trick ride in which she stood in the saddle and leaned forward over the neck of her horse. It was a trick she discovered by accident and later used in her performances. She joined the Clyde Miller all-girl rodeo in 1939, where she competed in saddle broncs, bareback, and bull riding. She participated in all of the major rodeos, and in 1940, she won the Ladies' Bronc Riding World Championship in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She left the rodeo circuit in 1953 and trained and owned race horses in Arizona and operated a dude ranch at Lake of the Ozarks State Park in Missouri. She spent her last years living on a small ranch in Strong City, Kansas. She was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2017.
Bio by: Debbie Gibbons
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