CHIEF JOSEPH DAYS
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
B3
Memories ride with CJD royalty for life
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — It may seem
fl eeting, but being a member
or rodeo royalty is an expe-
rience that goes with a girl
through young womanhood
and into her later years, even
lasting a lifetime.
That’s certainly the case
with members of past Chief
Joseph Days Rodeo courts.
The rodeo began in
1946 when founder Har-
ley Tucker got it going near
his ranch three miles out-
side of Joseph, his daughter,
Darlene Turner said. Unlike
today, it was fi rst held on the
East Moraine.
“He just drove the horses
up there,” Turner said of her
father. “I was only a little kid
when all this happened.”
Senior royalty
Members of a CJD Rodeo
court from the furthest back
the Chieftain was able to
locate included former Prin-
cess Marian Mawhin Birk-
maier, who lives just outside
of Joseph, and Ruby Mallon
Zollman. Other members of
the 1949 court were Queen
Beverly Oliver Graham,
who is now dead, and Prin-
cess Diane Snoderly, who
was unavailable.
Birkmaier, who will be
90 in September, recalls ser-
vice on the court to be sim-
pler in 1949.
“We didn’t have any rid-
ing trials and no speeches,”
she said. “We didn’t have
to do anything at the rodeo
other than the grand entry.”
She and the other court
members often appeared in
regional parades, but since
the Joseph Chamber of
Commerce was hurting for
money, they couldn’t take
their horses and they rode in
a convertible.
“It
was
exciting,
time-consuming and I made
a lifetime friendship with
Ruby.”
She recalled that well-
known Hollywood character
actor Walter Brennan had an
important part in starting the
Chief Joseph Days.
“He had a big ranch near
Imnaha and wanted to pro-
mote Joseph and the rodeo,”
Birkmeier said. “It was a fun
time and an exciting time.
It was something we hadn’t
experienced before.”
She also recalled the dif-
ferences in then and now.
“We were raised in an
older time. We all had
horses. We were an older
generation,” she said. “I can
remember my dad haying
with horses. … Later on, the
tractors came. … We weren’t
the expert horsewomen that
the girls are now. We had
no 4-H or anything. I rode
horses to school at Alder
Slope country school for
eight years.”
But she didn’t dare ride
her horse to high school.
“That would be an insult
to ride a horse to high
school,” she said. “My dad
would take me and then I’d
walk home.”
Since her reign, Birk-
meier fi nished high school in
1949 in Enterprise, attended
Eastern Oregon College and
then came home to marry
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Marian Mawhin Birkmaier, a princess in the 1949 Chief Joseph Days Rodeo court, stands in
the shadow of Mount Joseph with her high school sweetheart and husband of 68 years, Mack
Birkmaier.
Contributed Photo
The 1949 Chief Joseph Days Rodeo court included, at
front, Queen Beverly Oliver Graham and in back, from left,
Princesses Ruby Mallon Zollman, Diane Snoderly and Marian
Mawhin Birkmaier.
Crow Creek rancher Mack
Birkmeier.
“This guy was my high
school sweetheart. We had
our fi rst date in 1946 but
didn’t marry until 1953,” she
said. “We’ve been ranching
ever since. That’s where he
took me as a bride and I’ve
been a rancher’s wife ever
since.”
They have two sons and
a daughter, as well as nine
grandchildren and seven
great-grandchildren.
The
youngest son, Tom, runs the
ranch.
Zollman, who is now 89,
served with Birkmaier as a
princess in 1949.
“In ’49, the chamber
didn’t have a court and at
last minute decided they had
to have one,” she said.
As a result of the
last-minute decision, they
didn’t have usual rivalry, but
got the high schools in Wal-
lowa, Lostine, Enterprise
and Joseph to have their own
rivalries. She won at Joseph
High School. Contestants
sold tickets for a dance. She
said there usually were three
dances then.
“They got more money
from that one dance than
they usually got for three
dances,” Zollman said.
After serving on the
court, the court was given a
plane ride from the Joseph
Airport — quite an adven-
ture for 1949.
That year also was the
fi rst year Brennan chartered
a plane from Joseph to Lew-
iston and Spokane for the
court. Brennan did that for a
couple years, Zollman said.
Brennan also garnered
nationwide publicity for the
area by fl ying the winner of
the old radio and television
show “Queen for a Day” to
Joseph.
Zollman married Mar-
lin “Bud” Zollman, with
whom she had three sons,
fi ve grandchildren and three
great-grandchildren.
The
Zollmans ran a meat market
in Enterprise and were part-
ners in meat market/slaugh-
terhouse in Joseph, as well
as running Bud’s Hardware
(now Joseph Hardware) for
29 years.
She stayed involved with
the court for quite a while,
helping with the queen’s lun-
cheon for several years and
riding in the CJD parades
until about 20 years ago.
The queen from furthest
back the Chieftain could
contact was Barbara Roun-
savell Lamoreaux, who
reigned in 1952. She was
interviewed in early July
and had hoped to attend this
year’s rodeo, but she died
July 12 at 86.
“At the time, one of my
best girlfriends from Wal-
lowa was in it,” Lamoreaux
said. “I was chosen and she
wasn’t. It didn’t aff ect our
friendship, but I felt bad.”
A queen at just 17, she
graduated from Wallowa
High School in 1953.
“I’d been riding ever
since I was a child. I rode all
the time,” she said. “It was
exciting for me and the audi-
ence. The afternoon of the
grand entry, the girls came
in from the front of the (Har-
ley Tucker) arena and they
rode in from the far corner.
They opened the gate and
the horse reared. She didn’t
fall, but normally she didn’t
do that.”
Lamoreaux recalled the
CJD court included an hon-
orary Indian Princess Patti
Murphy, who was later
Queen of the West at Mad-
ison Square Garden in New
York City.
“She had the most beau-
tiful black hair and voice,”
Lamoreaux said. “If there
ever was a queen, I thought
Patti should’ve been it.”
After her time on the CJD
court, Lamoreaux worked as
a switchboard operator fi rst
See Royalty, Page B4
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Ruby Mallon Zollman holds memorabilia from her time as a princess for the 1949 Chief Joseph
Days Rodeo.
75 years of
Award-Winning
Rodeo
See you at the Chief Joseph Day Celebrations
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