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National Rodeo Hall of Fame
Inducted in 1983
Alice Greenough

Alice Greenough

1902-1995

Montana

EVENTS
Saddle Bronc Rider, Champion

On the Red Fork, Montana, ranch of “Packsaddle Ben” Greenough, each and every Greenough grew up as a working ranch hand. In 1929, 27-year-old Alice Greenough and her sister, Margie, followed their brother Turk into a “high-ridin’, high-kickin’ career.” Responding to an ad for lady bronc riders, the girls went on the circuit. Living in a tent, they made their own costumes, inventing the bell-bottomed trousers that became standard cowgirl attire in the 1930s.

Nicknamed “She-Boss,” Alice Greenough won the ladies’ bronc riding at Boston Garden in 1933, 1935, and 1936 and in 1940 captured the Madison Square Garden crown. With her sister and her brothers Bill, Frank, and Turk–billed as “The Riding Greenoughs”–Alice Greenough competed in rodeos all across America and in England, Spain, and Australia.

In 1942 Alice Greenough retired from the arena and teamed with Joe Orr to produce the Greenough-Orr Rodeo. In 1967, after 40 years of friendship, they sold the show and got married. Alice Greenough Orr lived by a simple creed: “I never smoked. I never drank. I never swore. I was always taught by my father that you ought to conduct yourself like a lady.” She died in 1995.

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