Faye Blackstone

Faye Blackstone (June 3, 1915 – August 30, 2011) was an American rodeo star, performer and elected member of the Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

She is credited with inventing three rodeo maneuvers, the reverse fender drag, the flyaway and the ballerina.

Blackstone was born Fayetta June Hudson in Diller, Nebraska in 1915. She self-taught herself to perform tricks on horses after watching a woman handle a flailing bronco when she was eight years old. In 1937, Blackstone married her husband, the Texan rodeo performer Vic Blackstone, in a ceremony held in the center of a rodeo arena in Bladen, Nebraska. Faye and Vic performed together throughout the United States the 1940s and 1950s. She performed as far away from Nebraska as Havana, Cuba, and competed alongside well known celebrities, including Gene Autry.

Vic Blackstone retired during the 1950s, while Faye Blackstone continued to perform until her retirement during the late 1960s. The couple moved to a home on the outskirts of Parrish, Florida, in Manatee County during the 1951. They worked and raised cattle at a nearby ranch.

In 1978, Blackstone and her husband helped McEntire, the daughter of friends, launch her career, by arranging for her to perform at a county fair in Florida. McEntire recalled the performance as a breakthrough in her career in a 2003 interview with the Bradenton Herald saying, "That was my first big fair by myself. It was huge to me."

Faye Blackstone was elected into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1982, the same year that her husband was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame. The Blackstones became the namsakes of Blackstone Park in Palmetto, Florida.

Death

Faye Blackstone died in Bradenton, Florida, aged 96, from cancer, on August 30, 2011. Her husband died in 1987.