Monday, October 06, 2008


Sheep, goat industry honored When the Ranch Museum and Gift Shop ribbon is snipped for the grand opening Oct. 25, Rosie Whitehead Jones will join other ranchers in this region, known as the Stockmen's Paradise, to celebrate the long-awaited reality. Establishing a museum to spotlight the sheep and goat industry and rural lifestyles that formed the ranching heritage of the Edwards Plateau has long been a dream of 83-year-old Rosie Whitehead Jones. Sheep and goat thievery became a big problem for ranchers on the Edwards Plateau in the early 1900s. Rosie's maternal grandfather, Basil Halbert, helped form a Sutton County protective group in 1912. It would be the forerunner of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers' Association, which was organized in 1916 in Del Rio. Halbert served as the first president and secretary of the organization, now based in San Angelo. Halbert's great-grandson, Lee C. Bloodworth of Sonora, is currently TS&GRA president. Rosie's mother, Della Rose Halbert Whitehead, was the organizer and first president of the TS&GRA's Women's Auxiliary and founder of the Miss Wool of America competition in 1952. The contest was featured on national television in the 1960s with celebrity hosts who included Art Linkletter and actor Roddy McDowell....

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