IPRA Loses Long Time Friend
The International Pro Rodeo Association lost one of its founding members and longtime supporters when Keith Freeman, 73, and his son Marvin, 37, were killed in a fatal automobile accident.
The father and son duo died January 31, 2008 when the pickup truck they were driving was struck by a semi-truck near Cove, Ark.
Keith Freeman was one of the cowboys who re-formed the association at a meeting in Chicago, Ill., in 1960 and he held the seventh membership card number issued by the IPRA. At the time of his death, he had the lowest card number of any living IPRA member.
Nicknamed “Cowboy”, Freeman was the 1962 World Champion Steer Wrestler, edging out Roy Duvall for the title. He qualified for the first IFR in the event at the end of the 1970 season. Keith trained and owned several good teams of bulldogging horses.
He was perhaps even better known as a pickup man. He was one of the original Longhorn Rodeo pickup men, teaming first with Butch Bond in the 1960s, then with Gene Maynard in his 18 years with the company. He was a pickup man at IFR2 with Bond and at IFR6-10 with Ben Jordan.
He was also a former member of the PRCA, and worked as a pickup man for several different stock contractors.
The list of stock contractors and rodeos that Freeman worked for included Pat Faulkner, Leon Frakes, Willie Mendell, Clyde Crenshaw, Gerald Smith (Wing Rodeo Co.), Preston Fowlkes, Ken Klein’s Sparta, Mich., rodeo, Loretta Lynn, Longhorn, Sloan Williams, Jim Shoulders, Homer & Brown Todd, Medo Calzavara, Floyd Rumford, Hugh Green and Cleburne Mockim, Coffee Rodeo, David Bailey and David Crain.
An accomplished horseshoer, Keith married all-around cowgirl Nola May Mills in 1958. She was a respected rodeo secretary for many years and served as recording secretary for the IPRA Board for several years before her death.
Keith and Nola’s son Marvin grew up on the rodeo circuit, traveling with his parents fulltime until he started school. Marvin soon started competing in youth rodeos and won the bull riding championship for the Oklahoma Youth Rodeo Association while in high school.
For several years Keith Freeman was one of the anonymous judges of the IFR Bucking Stock awards and in 2006 he received the “Most Deserving Old Timer” award from his fellow gold card members of the IPRA at Red Doffin’s Old Timers’ Reunion during the IFR.
Keith Freeman was a pipeline construction worker when he stopped rodeoing fulltime and Marvin followed in his footsteps. At the time of his death Marvin was much in demand for pipeline construction work and had risen rapidly in the Teamsters Union.
They are survived by Keith’s mother Ida Freeman Dunn of Mountain Home, Ark., his brothers Jack Freeman of Collinsville, Okla., and John Freeman of Lamar, Okla., his sister Karen Clark of Mountain Home, Ark., Keith’s stepson and Marvin’s brother Joe Sherry and wife Cherri and their sons Dylan and Justin of Broken Arrow, Okla., Marvin’s wife Sherri Freeman and his stepchildren Eric and Tiffany Bohanan and Keith’s special friend Barbara Ink of Pryor, Okla.
