I received tons of feedback to the column I wrote about meeting celebrity animal stars like Jet Deck, Peppy San Badger, Bertha the Elephant, Poco Bueno and Borden's Elsie the Cow.
Okay, so I only received one letter in response, but it was a long one. In that missive the writer wanted to know what famous people I'd met and if I considered myself a "celebrity."
I should say so! People used to line up to meet me at book signings. Okay, so only one person lined up. But in my 65 years I have managed to meet a few notable celebrities.
The most valuable piece in my collection of people is a photo of me and Ronald Reagan as I presented him the honorary state farmer degree when I was President of the California FFA and he was Governor of California. The second most valuable item is a book written by Nolan Ryan that he autographed for me after my buddy E.C. made it possible for me to eat lunch with Nolan and his wonderful wife. E.C got me the book as an apology because the photo he took of me and Nolan "didn't turn out." That happens to me a lot as I'm not what you'd call photogenic.
I still think the beef industry should have made Nolan our permanent "pitchman."
I got to meet one of my favorite authors, James Michener, at a Texas Brangus sale, and we have a cocktail napkin signed by Joe Dimaggio. What a gentleman he was! As were my two all-time favorite rodeo cowboys: Gene Rambo and Larry Mahan.
When I was writing feature stories for Cowboys and Country Magazine I got to interview stars like Lynn Anderson, Randy Owen and Rex Allen. I also had a radio relationship with Paul Harvey and I have a drawer full of cassettes of him reading my essays.
I've always been more interested in collecting celebrities in the cattle and horse trades than in seeing Hollywood stars and I loved interviewing Walter Merrick and Reba's little sister Susie. What a great gal she is! And Baxter Black has pounded on our piano, fed our cows and slept in our bed, although there's no sign saying so.
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