GRANT COUNTY FAIR
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
A7
Rockin’ the house
Eddie Montgomery and Jesse Leigh keep fair
crowds entertained with high-energy performances
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
Eddie Montgomery, this year’s headliner, belts one out during a raucous performance Friday, Aug. 12, 2022, at the Grant County Fair.
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
A
ward-winning country music singer Eddie Montgomery rocked the house Friday,
Aug. 12, at the Grant County Fair’s Stars, Stripes and Summer Nights concert.
Montgomery rose to fame in the early 2000s as half of Montgomery Gentry. He
decided to carry on as a solo act following the tragic death of longtime bandmate
Troy Gentry, who died in a 2017 helicopter crash.
Montgomery, who was originally set to be the opening act, stepped in as the headliner after
country music superstar Wynonna Judd canceled following the death of her mother, Naomi.
Singer Jessie Leigh kicked off Friday’s concert and blazed through a set that included original
music and covers. Leigh closed out on a patriotic note with a version of Lee Greenwood’s “God
Bless America.”
Mindy Winegar, manager of the Grant County Fair and Rodeo, said Monday that the concert
drew an estimated crowd of 600 people.
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
Singer Jessie Leigh, right, whips up the crowd Friday, Aug. 12, 2022, during her opening set at the
Grant County Fair.
Steven Mitchell/Blue
Mountain Eagle
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
The crowd gets into it during headliner Eddie Montgom-
ery’s set.
A young fairgoer smiles during
Jessie Leigh’s set.
Fans hold up the stars
and stripes during
opening act Jessie
Leigh’s set Friday,
Aug. 12, 2022, at the
113th Grant County
Fair. Leigh opened for
headliner Eddie Mont-
gomery.
A grand pair of brothers
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — As the 113th
Grant County Fair got underway on
Wednesday, Aug. 10, the grand mar-
shals of the 2022 Grant County Fair
and Rodeo Parade met with fairgo-
ers in the Trowbridge Pavilion of the
fairgrounds.
Brothers Gibb and Gary Gregg,
longtime Grant County residents,
were named grand marshals late last
year.
Gary, 90, and Gibb, 86, who rode
in their first rodeo together at the
Grant County Fairgrounds in 1953,
reflected on county fairs of years
past, on their respective careers and
on raising a family in Grant County.
In addition to competing in the
rodeo, Gibb, a skilled horse trainer,
recalled bringing colts that he broke
to the fair to show in 4-H horse shows
when he was in high school.
The fair, he said, was much differ-
ent in the 1950s.
“There were a lot of cowboys in
those days,” Gibb said.
Given that there was not much
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
Brothers Gary, left, and Gibb Gregg, grand marshals for the 2022 Grant County
Fair and Rodeo, met with fairgoers ahead of Saturday’s parade.
money to be made in competing in
rodeos back then, it was more about
having fun.
His older brother agreed with that
sentiment.
“They still had pretty damn good
horses and bulls,” Gary said. “The
money, sometimes, was question-
able, but we didn’t argue much.”
In addition to showing horses at
the fair during high school, Gibb
began riding broncs competitively
and won a championship in Houston
and then traveled to New York and
rode saddle bronc at Madison Square
Garden.
Gary got his start competing in
rodeos after he enlisted in the Navy.
In 1959, the year the U.S. admit-
ted Alaska as the 49th state, Gary
finished first in saddle bronc at the
National Intercollegiate Rodeo.
In the Navy, Gary was stationed
up and down the West Coast, with
stints in Seattle and San Francisco
and then in Japan, where he became
a propeller mechanic.
After leaving the Navy, Gary
earned a diesel technology degree
from Oregon Tech in Klamath Falls.
After college, Gary moved back to
Eastern Oregon and spent more than
40 years driving a log truck.
In 1955, Gibb and Gary both got
married. Gibb tied the knot with Glee
Craig, while Gary wedded Glee’s sis-
ter LoLieta.
Gibb and Glee had three daugh-
ters and a son. Over the years, they
had seven grandchildren and four
great-grandchildren. Glee passed
away in 1999.
Gary and LoLieta raised two
daughters and a son with four grand-
children and four great-grandkids.
LoLieta passed away in 2021.
Gibb worked in logging for sev-
eral years as a tractor operator skid-
ding logs. However, during the week-
ends, he traveled the professional
rodeo circuit for six years, winning
several trophies, buckles and saddles.
In addition to careers in logging
and rodeo, Gibb worked as a ranch
manager, raised horses and owned
the Dayville Mercantile.
After Gary retired from logging,
he started making horse-drawn bug-
gies for the Oxbow Trade Co.
Looking back, Gibb said he was
grateful his family — including his
brothers Gary, the oldest, and Lee,
who died about five years ago —
moved to Grant County when he was
13.
“I was pretty fortunate to have a
place like Grant County to grow up
in; it’s a great place for young peo-
ple,” he said.
Had he grown up in a bigger city
like Portland or Salem, he believes
he might have ended up in jail. In cit-
ies, he said, kids risk falling in with
the wrong crowd.
That’s not the case in Grant
County, Gibb said.
Gary agreed and added, “It’s just
a great place to live.”
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