Don Hedgpeth

Don Hedgpeth of Medina, Texas passed away on June 25th at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio after an over 30-year battle with Leukemia. Don was a beloved husband, father, and friend, as well as an award-winning writer and expert on cowboys and western heritage.\r\n \r\nDon was born on October 1st, 1942, in Seagraves, Texas, to V.W. and Marion Hedgpeth. Don was the first child born of V.W. and Marion who met while riding motorcycles in West Texas. He was raised mostly in the oil fields of South Texas where his family lived primarily in "camp" houses near wherever his father's work took them. Don's first job was in 4th grade working as a carhop for .50 cents an hour (+tips) at Weber's Root Beer Stand in Corpus Christi, which was owned by his grandfather and an uncle. During grades 8-10, he held summer jobs that included driving a grain truck, working in a cotton gin, and hauling watermelons to towns and cities throughout Texas. In grades 11 & 12, Don worked with his dad at the gas plant as a roustabout digging ditches and working the rigs.\r\n \r\nDon graduated from Banquete High School as Salutatorian in May of 1960 and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin that fall. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Education at Texas A&I in Kingsville in May of 1965, and later his master's degree at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos. \r\n \r\nDon first met Frances (Sug) at a South Texas dancehall where George Jones was performing, and their first date was in Corpus Christi to see the movie Hud. On November 25, 1964, the lifelong best friends and soulmates married in Corpus. A job teaching history at Tivy High School brought the couple to Kerrville, a city that would bring them many friends and fond memories, serving as their home base throughout the years.\r\n \r\nThe first writing Don sold was a 1966 article on South Texas brushpoppers for which he received a check for thirty-five dollars. Don went on to become the editor of Oklahoma Cowman magazine, then the editor of Persimmon Hill and Assistant Director at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. He later became Director at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and Whitney Gallery of Western Art in Cody, Wyoming, in 1971. The family returned to Texas in 1976 when he has named the Director of the Museum of the Southwest, then as the Founding Director of the Haley Memorial Library, in Midland. \r\n\r\nDon's first book, ‘Spurs Were a-Jinglin', was published in 1975. Don went on to author 21 books, including ‘The Texas Breed', an anthology about Texas cowboys and cattlemen, ‘They Rode Good Horses', a 50-year history of the American Quarter Horse Association, and several biographies about artists such as Joe Beeler, Robert Lougheed, and Grant Speed. Both the Beeler and Lougheed books won Western Heritage Awards. \r\n\r\nDon had a deep and comprehensive understanding and appreciation of the world of western & cowboy art and culture. Along the way, he also accumulated a wide network of friends, traders, and artists who shared his passion. Many became as close as family.\r\n \r\nDon is preceded in death by his mother and father, Marion and V.W. Hedgpeth, his twin sister Nancy Kay, and his grandparents. Don is survived by his wife of 55 years, Sug, his siblings Wilma Grupe (Otis) of Blunzer, Vicki Pollard of Corpus Christi, Skip (Kerry) of Midland, and Lisa (Jim) Teltschik of San Antonio, sons Cody (Cassandra) of Houston and Clint (Julia) of San Antonio, five grandchildren Jake, Cole, Gracie, Claire, and Clayton, and numerous nieces and nephews.\r\n \r\nDon will be buried in the Bandera Cemetery, with a celebration of his life later in the fall.\r\n \r\nMemorials may be given to The START Center for Cancer Care in San Antonio. Don's wife and sons wish to extend sincere thanks to Dr. Joseph Holahan, Don's longtime Hematologist in San Antonio, and the nurses and doctors of Methodist Hospital.\r\n \r\nAll arrangements are entrusted to Grimes Funeral Chapels of Kerrville; the family invites you to send condolences at www.grimesfuneralchapels.com by selecting the "Send Condolences" link.\r\n \r\n"If a man sticks with anything or in the same place long enough there will come a time, for all sorts of reasons and no reason at all, when he becomes weary with the circumstances in which he finds himself. I expect that this is as true for writers and cowboys as it is for plumbers and proctologists. At such a time, we are all likely to feel the urge to shed our entanglements and cut loose from everything that has a hold on us...to just get up and get away. It is not necessarily about going somewhere in particular...it's just about leaving. Cowboys call it going on a high lonesome, which is a time-honored ritual according to the traditions of their tribe. A cowboy goes on a high lonesome in the attempt to clear away the clutter and complications that beset him and try to reclaim the footloose feeling of freedom he felt back in the beginning when he was young and wild with no concern for consequences" - Don Hedgpeth, 'Cowboy Real', Medina, Texas, 2012.\r\n\r\nEnjoy your high lonesome, Don. You will be missed terribly.\r\n