Old Cowhand
Gary Earnest, pictured here with his wife Kathy, is the Freedom 2021 Honored Old Cowhand.
Ranching roots in the Freedom area run deep for Gary Gene
Earnest. Gary was born on April 25, 1946, to Gene and Myrtle Earnest at the
Freedom hospital, which was located in the building which is now the parsonage
for the Christian Church. He grew up at the family homestead eight miles east of
Freedom in the Fairvalley area, where his great grandparents William E. and
Elizabeth Earnest and their son Elbert and daughter Lena moved from Missouri and
settled in 1900.
Elbert and Arda (Livingston) reared Gary’s dad Gene and his siblings
Forest, Opal Mae, and Rex in the Earnest family house which was built over a
dugout. Neighbors included the Fulton, Carberry, and Eden
families. This also was the life Gary grew up knowing: family, neighbors, horses
and cattle. When Gary looks back on these days, he remarks that ranching was
hard work for his parents and older sister Patsy during droughts and snowstorms,
but as a kid, you didn’t always realize how hard it must have been.
Gary began riding a horse as a young boy; he rode Tony, Patsy’s horse,
then, Apache. Lucky, and Jitterbug were other horses from his youth. The first
horse he rodeoed on was Smoky, Mart Fulton’s horse. Then his folks bought Mike
for a calf roping horse. One of Gary’s favorite calf roping horses that he rode
as an adult was Gravy. Gravy made several appearances at the Freedom rodeo arena
over the years. After Gravy retired, Gary rode a black horse called Bar.
Gary graduated from Freedom Schools and attended Oklahoma State
University and Northwestern Oklahoma State University. He served in the Oklahoma
Army National Guard for six years. He worked for several businesses in the Alva
area, such as M and R Equipment Company and Kramp Feedlot before working for
Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company. His career with Panhandle included positions
as Equipment Analyst, Controls Technician, and Measurement Technician.
He worked for Panhandle until 1993. This seemed like a good year to
retire…in order to work on the land full time. At this point he was operating
the family ranch east of Freedom and farming for his wife’s parents, Bud and
Norma Rauh east of Alva. Then, neighbor Arly Eden asked Gary if he was
interested in leasing half of the Dalton Ranch along the Cimarron River. Gary
built up the herd with Black Angus stock and for a few years assisted Luddington
Cattle Company with their bull sale.
Because Gary enjoyed the sport, he was an active volunteer and
participant in the Freedom Rodeo. In the summer he would show up on Chamber
workdays at the rodeo grounds to work with C. R. Nixon, Jim London, Arly Eden,
Les Kamas, Tracy Walker, and many other volunteers from Freedom and area ranches
to groom the arena, weld and paint chutes, and mow the parking area for the
third weekend in August.
For twenty odd years, Gary served on the Rodeo Committee, later serving
as chairman alongside arena directors Gary Gerloff and Ky Luddington. The
committee knew rodeo and worked with various stock contractors over the years
such as Beutler, Charlie Plummer, and Barby. For several years, C.A. Lauer from
Buffalo supplied the roping calves. Planning for the rodeo began in the spring
with setting dates, organizing concession volunteers, printing flyers, working
with the queen and program committees and also the American Legion for rodeo
dances, supporting the chuck wagon feed, hiring contractors, judges, and rodeo
clowns, and taking entries. Then everything had to come together for three
nights of rodeo entertainment!
Some things in ranching have changed over the years, such as
grazing and breeding improvements. The family operation begun by William and his
children in the early 1900s has evolved into a family corporation, Brass Spur,
named for a set of spurs owned by Gene.
On the other hand, some things haven’t changed on the ranch, such as
working cattle. In the spring Gary’s family and neighbor Arly Eden come together
for roundup and spend the day working in the wide-open spaces of western Woods
County.
Today the Earnest family includes Gary and his wife of 44 years, Kathy.
Son, Dustin and Teresa and family: daughter Siera, Sean, and Jameson
Doherty, also son Stanton, and Teresa’s son Ethan Nelson and his wife Drew,
Alva, OK
Daughter, Taren, Alva, OK
Son, Sage and Meg and daughter Easton, Fort Worth, TX
Daughter, Savanah and Mike Herrmann, Dallas, TX and Sydney, Australia