A Legacy of the West
Welcome to Women Honoring the West!
This month’s guest, Jane Little Botkin, hails from New Mexico, and boy does she have a story! But first, a quote from my review of her memoir, The Pink Dress, A Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen.
“This memoir enlivened me, angered me, and made me laugh and cheer for Jane Little as she fought her way onto the stage and through a rigorous pageant only to heal brokenness.”
Let’s get with this Q&A and find out more about Jane and her remarkable story.
What is your ranching background?
My soon-to-be husband promised on a New Mexican ski slope in 1974 that he wanted to build a ranch in Montana. I guess I was drunk on altitude and took him at his word when we married two years later. Almost fifty years later, we live, not on a ranch, but on a 20-acre, former elk-hunting camp at an 8,000 foot elevation in south-central New Mexico.
I have no regrets!
And, though I have finally acquired thinner blood, I’m now too old to ranch.
What attracts you the most about the Western lifestyle?
My father introduced me to the West. He loved Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour books, so I eagerly read them too. El Paso, Texas, summers were spent at the Cactus Drive-in watching John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Richard Widmark movies. I always wanted a big red horse like the one John Wayne rode. I finally owned such a horse when I became 19 years old. We were inseparable, and the western character has stayed with me ever since.
My own family background is full of narratives connected to Old West.
What is the inspiration behind your newest release?
I never back down from a challenge, and I always keep my promises! I wrote The Pink Dress, A Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen after some authors at a Women Writing the West conference in 2019 made me sign a cocktail napkin, promising to tell this narrative. The memoir came out six months ago and, yes, has a western theme.
What’s your favorite character in one of your books? Why?
The Breath of a Buffalo, A Biography of Mary Ann Goodnight’s title inspiration comes from Chief Crowfoot, a Blackfoot, who poetically said at the time of his death in 1890:
“What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”
My biography illustrates how Mary Ann Goodnight, the savior of the Southern Plains Bison herd, (not Charles Goodnight) is the little shadow who is lost in the sunset. Her role in history had almost been erased because she was a woman.
What’s your favorite ranch animal and why?
The horse, though through my reckless riding, I’ve broken my ankle and foot three times! Gymkhanas ( I could ride backwards once), barbed wire fences, general foolishness… Horses can show loyalty and love toward their owners. There’s nothing like burying one’s face in a horse’s winter coat.
What are you working on next?
Currently I’m finishing a biography of Mary Ann Goodnight because of a challenge. A docent in charge at the Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight Ranch House Museum quipped, “No one has written a biography on Molly Goodnight, and besides, there is only a smidgeon of information!”
Then she squeezed her index finger and thumb together, not realizing that her response to me would become a years-long challenge. Proving her wrong has been a pleasurable journey. What a strong western woman Mary Ann Goodnight was!
About Jane
National award-winning author Jane Little Botkin melds personal narratives of American families, often with compelling stories of western women. Her books have won numerous awards in biography, western historical nonfiction, and women’s studies, including two Spur Awards, two Caroline Bancroft History Prizes, the Barbara Sudler Award for best book about the American West by a woman. Finalist awards include Women Writing the West’s Willa Literary Award, Colorado Book Award, Oklahoma Book Award, High Plains Book Award, Foreword Indies Biography Award, and the Sarton Book Award.
A member of Western Writers of America since 2017, Jane, past vice-president of its board of directors, judges entries for the WWA’s prestigious Spur Award, reviews new releases, and writes articles for Roundup. A late-bloomer, Jane served as a public-school teacher for thirty years before turning to historical investigation and writing. In 2008 the Texas State Legislature honored her career in education by formal resolution. Now she blissfully escapes into her literary world in the remote White Mountain Wilderness near Nogal, New Mexico.
Connect with Jane
Website: Jane Botkin
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Have you read The Pink Dress, A Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen? If yes, what was your favorite story in her memoir?
Jane loves to hear from readers. Drop your thoughts and questions in the comments.
