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FAME
Continued from Page A1
rodeo committee during the
parade. Instead, he and Edie
rode horses.
While the honor was
nice, royalty is not in
Clyde’s blood.
“It’s nice once in a
while,” he said, “but I
wouldn’t want a steady diet
of it.”
Joining the Longfellows
in the 2019 Hall of Fame
class are Jed Baker, Bobby
Christensen, Linda Chris-
tensen Parkhurst, Ron-
nie Koll, Keith Maddox,
Joe Marvel, Mike Mar-
vel, Burel Mulkey, Juanita
O’Maley, John and Diane
Peavey, John Taylor and
Hank Williams.
On the rodeo trail
Clyde and Edie were
newlyweds in 1965 when
they hit the dusty trail to
Cheyenne, Wyo. They had
$25 to their name. Clyde
won the amateur saddle
bronc title, and they headed
to the next rodeo.
“Our first trip to Denver,
we slept in the car because
we didn’t have money for
a motel,” Clyde said. “The
next morning, I turned
the car on for heat and the
radio came on. The guy
said, ‘Welcome to mile-
high Denver, it’s minus 11
degrees outside.’ “
Good thing the rodeo
was indoors.
Clyde’s first profes-
sional rodeo was the Lew-
iston Round-Up. His first
time riding in the Pendle-
ton Round-Up was the mid-
1960s. They are the two
rodeos each year the couple
never misses.
Their daughter Crys-
tal was born in 1967, and
the young family lived in
a travel trailer following
rodeos most of the year.
Their daughter Kelly was
born in 1973, and Clyde cut
his travel to primarily cir-
cuit rodeos.
“It was the best life
ever,” said Crystal, who
lives in Hermiston. “I loved
it from the beginning. I
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Clyde and Edie Longfellow of Hermiston, recent inductees
into the Idaho Rodeo Hall of Fame, are long-time attendees
at the Pendleton Round-Up.
wouldn’t trade it for the
world. I grew up around the
big names back in the day
— my dad’s friend’s kids
were my friends.”
With a family to sup-
port, and a house payment
to make, Clyde started driv-
ing truck for Star Motor
Freight. He quit riding for
a few years, but soon was
back on the horses doing
what he loved.
He kept his rodeos
within the Columbia River
Circuit, and reached the
finals a few times.
In 1993, Clyde and
Edie moved to Hermiston,
and Clyde continued with
Senior Pro Rodeo, and fin-
ished second in the world in
1998.
He had plans for a
return in 1999, but it never
happened.
While driving to Nampa,
Idaho, with a truck load of
cattle, he was hit head-on
by another semi truck.
Clyde was severely injured,
cattle were killed, and his
truck was totaled.
That was the end of his
rodeo career, but not his
love of rodeo.
At
the
Pendleton
Round-Up last week (he
and Edie have lifetime
passes to PRCA rodeos),
he was everywhere from
behind the bucking chutes
to the Let ‘er Buck Room.
There wasn’t a stranger in
the midst.
Though he enjoyed
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many years of competing,
he never made the National
Finals Rodeo.
“He just missed out,”
Edie said. “He was 16th
one year. One of the sec-
retaries didn’t get results
sent in. That was kind of
depressing.”
When he isn’t at a rodeo,
he likes to golf and take his
sailboat out on the river.
Keeping things in check
In addition to raising a
family and joining her hus-
band on the road, Edie,
74, began helping rodeo
secretaries.
That soon turned into a
job — one she has enjoyed
for 52 years. One of the first
guys she processed for a
rodeo was eight-time world
champion calf roper Dean
Oliver.
Edie came in on the
ground floor with the
Columbia River Circuit in
1975, and most recently
was the circuit treasurer.
“The time, effort and
lifetime passion she has
for the sport, I wish we had
more like her,” CRC pres-
ident Rowdy Barry said.
“She is all things rodeo.
She knows the rules, the
bylaws.”
Edie also will give Barry
a kick in the pants, some-
thing he said he needs every
now and again.
“Edie is always prodding
me to get something done,”
Barry said. “I appreciate
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WEDNESDAy, SEpTEMbER 18, 2019
that. She lives and breathes
it, and doesn’t want the
acknowledgement.”
And for as much as she
keeps things running behind
the scenes, she’s also like a
den mother, if you will, to
the cowboys on the circuit.
“She’s there when way-
ward young cowboys need
straightening out, but she’s
also there for an attaboy,”
Barry said.
To this day, she still
oversees rodeos in Kenne-
wick, Wash., Omak, Wash.,
Lewiston, Sisters, Moses
Lake, Wash., Prineville,
Central Point, Coulee City,
Wash., and Big Fork, Mont.
“We got to do what we
wanted to our whole lives,”
Edie said.
Last month, Edie was
named one of the final-
ist for the PRCA Donita
Barnes Lifetime Achieve-
ment Award. Clyde proudly
offered up the information.
She will find out in Decem-
ber if she won.
“It’s nice to be recog-
nized,” she said.
Edie has helped several
people to become rodeo
secretaries, including her
daughter Crystal. She also
has worked for several top
livestock contractors over
the years, including Flying
Five, Big Bend, Corey &
Lange and Beard Rodeos,
just to name a few.
“My mom had me help-
ing out when I was old
enough to be a help and not
a hinderance,” Crystal said.
When she isn’t working,
they travel to watch their
granddaughter
Makayla
compete at rodeos, and they
make several visits a year
to Lewiston to visit family
and friends. Makayla will
live with her grandparents
this year while she attends
Blue Mountain Community
College and competes on
the rodeo team.
Edie makes the annual
trek to Las Vegas for the
NFR, but Clyde isn’t a big
fan of all the people, and
opts to stay home.
“He has to sit in his
seat,” Edie said. “He can’t
wander.”
PRISON
Continued from Page A1
R-Athena.
After the East Orego-
nian broke the story, Hill-
mick reported, other TRCI
employees “had the confi-
dence to come forward and
bring more issues to light.”
He said that was what
the corrections department
executive team needed to do
a thorough investigation.
Removing a superinten-
dent is no small task, he
said, and Bowser’s resigna-
tion is a “huge testament”
to the union workers who
stood up for what was right.
“No one, not a manager
or anyone else, has the right
to treat a person poorly or be
disrespectful to them while
at work,” Hillmick contin-
ued. “Everyone here is just
trying to do an honest day’s
work for an honest day’s
pay in order to earn a liv-
ing to support their families,
pretty much like everyone
else in the U.S.”
He also said union mem-
bers praised Rep. Smith for
standing up for them.
Smith in response said he
appreciated the nod.
“Our hard working folks
at TRCI keep society safe,”
he said. “We owe them a
work environment that they
feel supported in.”
Governor reappoints Threemile
Canyon GM to Oregon Ag Board
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO MEDIA GROUP
The general manager of
Oregon’s largest dairy has
been reappointed to the state
Board of Agriculture, draw-
ing the ire of environmental
groups over concerns about
pollution and sustainability.
Gov.
Kate
Brown
appointed Marty Myers, of
Threemile Canyon Farms,
to serve a second term on
the 10-member board, which
makes policy recommenda-
tions for the state Department
of Agriculture.
Threemile Canyon Farms
is a 93,000-acre opera-
tion about 15 miles west of
Boardman. It includes three
dairies with a combined
33,000 milking cows, pro-
ducing 1.4 million pounds
of milk each day sold to Til-
lamook Cheese at the Port of
Morrow.
Total livestock, including
calves and heifers, is 68,840
animals. The farm also
grows 39,500 acres of irri-
gated crops, and has 23,000
acres set aside for wildlife
conservation.
A coalition of advo-
cacy groups wrote a letter
to Brown on Sept. 12, con-
demning Myers’ reappoint-
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Myers
Brown
ment and criticizing the pro-
cess as rushed and lacking
transparency.
“Instead of welcoming
participation from legitimate
stakeholders, your office
and your agency deliber-
ately thwarted it,” the groups
wrote in the letter.
The coalition includes
Columbia
Riverkeeper,
Friends of Family Farm-
ers, Humane Voters Oregon,
Factory Farming Awareness
Coalition, Farm Forward,
Food & Water Watch, Cen-
ter for Food Safety, Humane
Society of the United States,
Center for Biological Diver-
sity and Animal Legal
Defense Fund.
State law requires seven
members of the Board of
Agriculture to be farmers and
ranchers. Two members must
represent consumers, and the
10th member is the chair of
the Soil and Water Conserva-
tion Commission. Members
serve four-year terms.
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