JAMES LIONEL KENNEY

May 5, 1914 - February 9, 2006

"All I ever wanted to do was ride a horse and work cattle"

   When James Kenney was seven, in 1921, his father was killed helping a Texas Ranger expose a ring of cattle thieves. Although his family went to live on his grandfather's farm after his father's death, James' driving ambition was to become a cowboy like his father.

   Few people have been as "far west" as James, who hit the trail as a cowpuncher in 1929. School books never impart the really important lessons in life, so James threw in with some of the biggest outfits north of the Rio Grande and became a master of horses and cattle. His teachers were cowboys and ranchers, tough enough to tame wild broncs, yet tenderhearted enough to foster a fatherless boy.

   "All I ever wanted to do was ride a horse and work cattle," James said once. He set off on an unforgettable odyssey when there were few roads and fewer fences between Midland, Texas and his ultimate destination, the San Carlos Chiricahua Apache Indian Reservation, in the lofty mountains of eastern Arizona. He slept under the stars ans shared his meals with an endearing cast of characters, from Big Boy Brady to Slick Rutherford.

"It has been said that we all have a little cowboy in us. That may be true, however, very few of us are "all cowboy." I've cowboyed and trained cutting horses all my life, and James Kenney is the only "all cowboy" I've known."

                                                  --- Lank Creacy

From the introduction of  "The Cowboy Life of James Kenney"

   It was just between daylight and sunup when Long X hands mounted Tin Ridge. Doc Kennedy, the wagon boss, paused on a narrow path that rimmed the canyon hundreds of feet below. His horse’s nostrils, flared from the long, steep climb, welcomed the cool mountain air. Then Red Hell broke loose.

   James Kenney, a fifteen-year-old aspiring cowboy, wasn’t much more seasoned than his horse on that cattle drive through the rugged Davis Mountains nearly seventy years ago.

   A brisk breeze had reminded James of the brush jacket tied to his saddle. Just as he slipped his arm through one sleeve, the wind caught the other and whipped it against Red Hell’s head.

   “Man alive, he broke in two and off that mountain he went,” recounts James. “He was jumping off the tops of those trees.” While James and Red Hell careened down the mountain in a cloud of dirt and rocks, Doc Kennedy scrambled down in hot pursuit. “He just knew this horse was going to fall with me,” says James, who stayed in the saddle until Red Hell quit bucking, then carefully picked his way back to Kennedy, who pulled his hat off, swiped his forehead with his sleeve and confessed, “That was too far west for old Doc.”

    When he grew tired of a horse he was riding, James traded it for another one. He was self-sufficient and sensible, wary and wise, a Huck Finn on horseback.

   As an adult, James was an accomplished roping and cutting horse competitor, winning over the top professionals in both sports. He raised a family, managed a sprawling West Texas cattle ranch, and was a mentor to several generations of aspiring young cowboys. Yet the memories of his youthful adventures never dimmed. For years, James’ friends have enjoyed countless tales about broncs like Red Hell, Old Buzzard and Doc Blackwell. “I’ve ridden lots of miles with James and never left the kitchen,” says one friend.

   At eighty-one, James reluctantly sold his last cutting horse and hung up his spurs, but he still goes dancing twice a week. Although, like most good cowboys, he is modest and reserved, he has an irresistible passion for life and a wonderful talent for storytelling. In the transfer from spoken to written word, I have attempted to retain the essence, character and charm of this remarkable man. This is James Kenney’s story.

"If you had to write his epitaph, you would say that he was a real cowboy."

                                                  --- Keith Barnett

From the Amarillo Globe-News    (Feb. 12, 2006)

   As Spearman native Boyd Rice leaves the floor of the Amarillo National Center this week after competing in the Open Division of the National Cutting Horse Association World Finals, he'll change a routine he's followed for 20 months and 50,000 miles.

   After each round of competition, Rice had been calling James Kenney, the owner of Bob's Hickory Rio, the horse Rice has ridden to the lead of the prestigious competition.

   But on Feb. 9, nine days before the last round of the Open division, the 91-year-old Kenney died.

   "I'd always call him as soon as I'd show, after every cut," Rice said. "It's what he lived for and thought about. He was 91 years old, and he'd sit there and wait for the phone to ring."

   Rice picked up Bob's Hickory Rio in August 2004 and started showing him that December.

   "Mr. Kenney owned him, and he called one day to ask if I'd be interested in showing him, and I said yes. So I got him up here and just started riding him."

   When Kenney, who had been involved with cutting horses for more than 50 years, called him, Rice knew it was a special opportunity.

   "I was excited when he called and asked me about the horse," Rice said. "I said yes as much to get to ride for him as I did anything else.

   Keith Barnett of Brenham, a longtime NCHA member and friend of Kenney's, knew Kenney saw something special in Bob's Hickory Rio.

   "In his later years, he was having a hard time getting around," Barnett said. "But he thought enough of the horse that he sent Boyd on the road. It's just a shame he couldn't have made those nine days to make sure his horse was going to be world champion."

   Barnett described Kenney as a "true master on anything you could put a saddle on."

   "If you had to write his epitaph, you would say that he was a real cowboy," Barnett said.

   Rice and Bob's Hickory Rio have earned $87,153 this year, making the team a virtual lock to win the world championship. The second-place horse, Show Biz Pep, owned by Lee Garner of Batesville, Miss., and shown by Allen Crouch, has earned $65,509.

   "I imagine I've hauled him around 50,000 miles since I got him," Rice said. "We've been on the road most of the year.

   "We'd come home every now and then, but we were mainly out on the road with the whole family until school started back up."

   Though Rice has a lot of cutting-horse experience, Bob's Hickory Rio is competing for the first time in the Open Division, considered the most prestigious.

   "His dad won the world, but this is his first time in the open," Rice said. "I won the $10,000 novice class on him last year, though."

   Rice said the horse's lineage has given it some traits that make it successful.

   "He gets really low to the ground and always has his ears up," he said. "He stops hard and does all of the little things it takes to be a great horse very well. He was trained as a 3-year-old, so he's been cutting since then."

   Rice trains and shows cutting horses full time. "It's all I've ever done," he said. "My folks trained cutting horses, and I've been doing it ever since I can remember."

"I've known who he was all my life. I didn't really get to know him until the last year-and-a-half or so, but he was quite the hand. He could do anything."

                                            --- Boyd Rice

A review of  "The Cowboy Life of James Kenney"   

   It is said that James Kenney has probably ridden more miles on horseback than any other living man.

   It can’t be proven, of course. No one measures that kind of travel anymore. But following Kenney’s trails through the pages of his new book, it is clear he has covered more than his share of territory.

   The Cowboy Life of James L. Kenney is a self-published account of Kenney’s life from the time he decided to be a cowboy at about seven years old until he was in his early 20s.

   The rest of his life, he says, people pretty much know about.

   Kenney is widely known as an excellent cutting horse man. At the current National Cutting Horse Association Super Stakes at the Will Rogers Memorial Center, he is a familiar face to the participants. He is a member of the NCHA Hall of Fame.

   He is also well-known as a champion roper who has participated in all the major rodeos, including the famous Madison Square Garden Rodeo produced by Everett Colborn. Lank Creacy, a noted cutting horse trainer, says of Kenney: “It has been said that we all have a little cowboy in us. That may be true; however very few of us are ‘all cowboy.’ I’ve cowboyed and trained cutting horses all my life, and James Kenney is the only ‘all cowboy’ I’ve known.”

   Kenney never wanted to be anything but a cowboy. His father died when Kenney was seven. Living with his grandfather and having to help on a black-land farm convinced him that working horseback was better than following the plow.

   He eventually quit school, started working ranches at 12, and by the time he was 16, he was on an adventure that took him across the Texas Panhandle, the mountains of New Mexico and to the Mexican border in Arizona. He did it working cattle, breaking broncos, running wild horses, and doing anything else that would pay a nickel or provide a meal.

   That story is told in his book.

   “It took me a long time to decide to do the book,” he says. Sitting at a large table near the NCHA booth in the Amon G. Carter Jr. Exhibits Hall, Kenney signs copies of his book daily and visits with old friends.

   “It’s all a little different now, selling books instead of riding cutting horses,” he said.

   People have urged him, over the years, to record his experiences. Finally, at the insistence of his friend Ann Guinn, he began. “She got me a recorder and told me to go to writing,” he said. “I started talking into it, but it took a while. It wasn’t very natural, but before long I got to where I could handle it.”

   Sally Harrison, a free-lance Arlington author familiar with the cutting horse industry, took Kenney’s tapes and crafted them into the final 131-page book.

   “There’s a few things that I didn’t think about until later,” he said of his reminiscence. “But I think I got most of it. It all came back to me pretty good.”

"Those of us who know James will love him forever"

                                                  --- Lank Creacy

Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Monday in Masonic Cemetery in Del Rio with Joe Howard Williamson officiating. Arrangements are by Sanders Funeral Home.

Mr. Kenney was born May 5, 1914, in Midland to the late Jim and Bertha Woody Kenney. He married Thelma Sue Barrett on Dec. 20, 1936.

He was a member of the Turtles Rodeo Association, Rodeo Cowboy Association and Elks Lodge and was a lifetime member of AQHA and NCHA.

He was preceded in death by his wife; a daughter, Norma Rouchelle Kenney Bell; and a brother, Jack Kenney.

Survivors include a son, James Barrett "Jim" Kenney and wife, Mecca, of Pecos; a son-in-law, Gilbert Bell of Dryden; four grandchildren, Gib Bell and wife, Kyle, of Gillette, Wyo., Rhoda Sue Smith and husband, Doug, of San Angelo, Jim Blain Kenney and wife, Beth, of Amarillo, and TJ Kenney and wife, Kippy, of Valley Spring; and eight great-grandchildren, Trevor Bell, Britt Bell, Logan Bell, Seath Smith, Sarah Smith, Jax Kenney, Jade Kenney and Steele Kenney.

The family suggests memorials be to the James Kenney Fund, NCHA Charity Foundation, Attention: Rick Ivey, 260 Bailey Ave., Fort Worth, TX 76107.

Amarillo Globe-News, Feb. 12, 2006

"All I ever wanted to do was ride a horse and work cattle."

                                                  --- James Kenney