STAMPEDE CORRALS A GLOBAL AUDIENCE
HOW GUY WEADICK, ARCHIE COMICS HELPED RAISE PROFILE
They say cowboys don’t cry. That wasn’t the case the day they buried Guy Weadick.
Eyes welled as his trusted horse, Snip, led a solemn funeral procession for the Calgary Stampede’s founder. The saddle was empty, his boots placed backwards in the stirrups, a sign of respect and remembrance.
Cowboys, friends, community members, First Nations people — they all had gathered again for Weadick in High River in 1953, just as they had done for his first great rodeo in Calgary in 1912.
This final show — a show of affection — was a tribute to all that he had done in his 68 years. He had lived his dream, and now passed it on to future generations.
“It was a dream he saw around him,” explains Donna Livingstone, author of The Cowboy Spirit: Guy Weadick and the Calgary Stampede. “He saw that people wanted to believe in the West.”
As a kid growing up in Rochester, N.Y., he longed for the frontier. As a teenager, he ventured west to learn at the elbow of working cowboys and listen to their stories of the old ways. He was an excellent student.
In 1912, only 27 years old, the handsome trick roper and vaudeville performer made good on his vision to honour the pioneers with an authentic celebration that was bigger and better than anything before it.
He called it the Stampede — and they both became famous.
But the fairy tale was interrupted in 1932 when Weadick had a falling out with operators of the great show. He sued for wrongful dismissal — and won — but it didn’t reunite him with the Stampede. This was a difficult time for Weadick, and he wasn’t shy about sharing his opinion that Calgary’s annual exhibition wouldn’t have amounted to much without his Stampede.
But together with his wife, Flores La Due, Weadick was determined to keep on enjoying life in the foothills.
“We are going to try and keep right on eating, taking a drink when we feel we need one and in general try to conduct ourselves as we have in the past,” wrote Weadick in a letter.
“I can look back and see some pretty hard roads I’ve been over. There may be some tougher ones ahead, but I hardly think so — and if they should be tougher, I’ll try and make the grade anyway.”
From the couple’s Stampede Ranch near Longview, Weadick wrote about the West. He helped organize rodeos. And during winter, the Weadicks went south to visit family.
Money could be tight, but it wasn’t until Flores took ill in 1946 that their lives really changed. Following doctor’s orders to slow down, the couple sold their ranch and moved into High River.
They remained active and Weadick got involved with local rodeo.
“It’s clear that he really loved the foothills of Alberta,” says Pat Markley, program co-ordinator of the Museum of the Highwood in High River. “He’s part of the traditions of this area, and part of the history of this area, and we’re very proud that he did live in High River.”
The Weadicks’ health, however, eventually re- quired them to move to a hot, dry climate. They uprooted for Phoenix in 1950.
The decision to leave their beloved foothills after 32 years spurred a great outpouring of gratitude from the community — one so special it managed to silence Weadick.
With some 500 guests packing the High River Memorial Hall, the couple was presented with a handsome electric clock, a solid gold cigarette case for Guy and gold watch for Flores.
The case included an inscription: “His count- less Canadian friends and admirers will always remember that Guy Weadick originated and gave to the province of Alberta the world-famous Calgary Stampede.”
For Weadick, this sentiment alone might have been enough. But then he opened it up. “Mr. Weadick looked at the blue slip of paper, and blinked,” according to the Herald’s account.
“It was a cheque for $10,000, and it was here that Mr. Weadick made his shortest speech on record. Said he, ‘I’m speechless.’ ”
It was an incredible show of affection. All the money, worth nearly $100,000 today, was raised from friends in just a few short days.
“That was an incredible amount of money at that time and really meant so much to them,” Livingstone says.
Sadly, tragedy struck the following year. While paying a return visit to High River, Flores suffered a massive heart attack and died.
“Most people would have had a personal relationship with Guy and with Flores,” Markley says.
“It was a very heartbreaking experience for everyone.”
Flores was buried in town next to her father. On her grave marker, three words: “A Real Partner.”
Weadick returned to Phoenix, absent his wife of 47 years.
“He tried to catch up with other people and interest himself in different projects, but it must have been an incredibly lonely time for him,” Livingstone says. “He really was broke to the saddle with Florence.”
Weadick tried to keep busy. He was involved in finding items for a proposed western museum.
In the spring of 1952, he married one of his wife’s old trick-riding friends, Dolly Mullens Mott.
Meanwhile, the estrangement from his other love — the Calgary Stampede — was now approaching two miserable decades.
No one was happy about the situation, including officials with the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.
With the rodeo’s 40th anniversary on the horizon in 1952, Stampede bosses reached out to Weadick, asking him to attend as an honoured guest and ride in the parade.
It meant the world to him.
“He felt validated,” Livingstone explains.
“He was so proud of the Stampede when he came back and saw what it had accomplished. I think it was wonderful for the Stampede, too.”
Weadick returned to Phoenix to work on a book about cowboys.
Once in a while, he’d get in touch with the Bews family, who were taking care of the Weadicks’ two horses: Snip and Somber. But he was restless. By the fall of 1953, he and Dolly were separated. Weadick made plans to sell his Phoenix home and was talking about going to Hollywood, where he might get work in TV or radio. Westerns were very popular.
He was delighted to learn in early December that Snip had had a foal — and the Bews family named it Miss Weadick. He pledged to come see her, Livingstone says.
Tragically, he never did. On Dec. 13, 1953, Weadick died of a heart attack.
“The news came to Longview and High River, and it was just devastating,” Livingstone says.
Hundreds of people again gathered in the town to honour him. The funeral procession was led by Joe Bews and Weadick’s riderless horse.
The saddle had been given to him by the Big Four, the quartet of wealthy businessmen who bankrolled the first Stampede. The bridle was a gift from the Prince of Wales.
At the end of the procession was the new filly, Miss Weadick.
Weadick was buried next to Flores. On his gravestone, the perfect tribute: “Guy George Weadick, originator of the Calgary Stampede, a loyal son of his adopted west.”
His adopted home has tried to keep his memory alive in a number of ways.
The Stampede annually presents the Guy Weadick Award to the chuckwagon or rodeo competitor who best embodies what the cowboy stands for, and who best typifies the spirit of the Calgary Stampede.
Weadick was inducted into the Canadian Professional Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1982. A northeast Calgary elementary school bears his name. In High River, the Museum of the Highwood has several artifacts, including Weadick’s 10-gallon hat. The museum will host two Stampede cemetery tours (July 14 and Aug. 4) that will include the Weadicks’ final resting place.
High River also celebrates Guy Weadick Days, an annual rodeo and chuckwagon extravaganza.
A century after Weadick’s first Stampede, his spirit lives on.
“There’s a sense of continuity,” Markley explains. “We’re carrying on the traditions, just as Calgary is and the Stampede. We’re carrying on the traditions of Guy Weadick and Flores La Due.”