By James H Nottage     

We do not pay close enough attention to them, but every community has residents who carry memories of local history that can sometimes carry us back to pivotal points of change and growth. The problem is that all too often these memories go unappreciated and unrecorded. Certainly, political and economic leaders get a lot of attention. I am making reference to those everyday people who were solid, contributing, but modest and nearly invisible residents - the ones who time tends to forget or at least not to acknowledge.  How many times have you said or heard someone else say that an elderly relative or friend should sit down with a tape recorder or write their story to preserve they know about the past?  How many times do you end up, at the person's passing, with regrets that this was not done?

One of my favorite members of one of the founding families of Laramie, Wyoming, was Miss Martha Wallis. In the days before the public raised funds to preserve the Victorian mansion of the Ivinson family as an area museum, the Albany County Historical Society held regular meetings at a community center - a surviving building of Fort Sanders that had been built in the late 1860s. It was at one of these meetings in the mid-1960s that I first met Miss Wallis. What fascinated me was learning about her home, the small stone house at 419 South 8th Street, that her father Noah Wallis had built in the 1880s. The junior high school I attended was across the street and next to the house was the original barn where the Wallis family kept a carriage and horses.  One afternoon, after school, Miss Wallis agreed to let me stop by and ask her about Laramie history.

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This month, Smoke Signals chats with Melissa McCracken: Publicist Extraordinaire for the Denver Old West Show and Auction

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Paul Stuckey

(1947-2011)

We have lost a friend and a true icon in the world of collecting. 

 -Linda and Joseph, High Noon 

By JoAnn Stuckey-Rogers 

Paul was born October 19, 1947 in Durant, Oklahoma, to Waymon (also known as Jack Stuckey). He later moved to Wabash, Indiana, where he and his dad bought and sold horses all over the world. Paul married, had one son, Paul Stuckey Jr. and one granddaughter, Cheyenne Stuckey.

Paul was quite the horseman. He rode and showed some of the finest horses for many years. Having said that, it gave him the opportunity to be around the old cowboy memorabilia and learn as much as he could about them. He was an avid reader, reading everything he could about the old cowboys. Paul was fascinated in every aspect about them.

In 1976, he made the decision to move back to Oklahoma. In 1977, while living in Bokchito, Oklahoma, he met JoAnn who was the love of his life. Paul and JoAnn moved to Texas and married. He and JoAnn went to Canton, Texas, other flea marts and antique shows, all which sparked his interest again in cowboy memorabilia. He and two partners, Ernie Hoodenpyle and Dwight Huber, started their own show in Amarillo, Texas in the mid eighties, only the second show of its kind, which was very successful for many years to come.

Paul had such an extensive knowledge in all aspects of cowboy memorabilia, and didn't mind sharing that knowledge. Paul will be remembered for all that he did in the cowboy antique shows and business. You could never have shown him a pair of spurs that he didn't have knowledge and information to share about them. He knew it all, literally.

It's sad to say that Paul spent his last years in a nursing home located in Sherman, Texas. With very few visitors, Paul maintained a family relationship with his sister-in-law, Aleah Bell, and niece, Madi Bell, whom he loved very much. JoAnn, her sister, and niece visited as much as they could. He had many friends over the years, many just lived too far away to visit.

Paul will also be remembered as being a flashy dresser. He loved fancy boots, hats, belts, and gold and silver buckles, and diamond stick pins. Paul had that one-of-a-kind smile and witty personality. He will never be forgotten.

This month we present cowboy poetry by Russell Petter...