Ambassador to the West
Texas city approves monument to musician and actor Red Steagall outside Fort Worth’s Cowtown Coliseum.
On June 25 the city council of Fort Worth, Texas, accepted the donation of a bronze monument to honor Western
icon Red Steagall. The work, titled Red Steagall, Always Ridin’ for the Brand in Fort Worth, Texas, will be donated by the group Friends of Red Steagall, which commissioned Texas painter and sculptor Bruce Greene to create the bronze. The work, which shows Steagall on a horse, will be placed outside the Cowtown Coliseum at the Fort Worth Stockyards.
Steagall is something of a renaissance man: He has worked in the music business for 40 years, including as a songwriter and executive; he’s appeared on television programs such as Hee Haw and in films; he’s written numerous books; he’s a cowboy poet; he’s hosted many radio shows, as well as served as a host for countless rodeos; he discovered Reba Mcentire in 1975 at a rodeo; and he has been inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame, the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Additionally, he’s also an honorary member of the Cowboy Artists of America.
“I’ve known Red for more than 40 years probably, and I know his people, how they came by the thousands year after year to the Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering just because they appreciated Red and what he offers, whether it’s his music, his poetry or him as a person,” Greene says. “I’ve traveled the world with Red and we couldn’t ask for a better ambassador to the American West.”
The bronze monument to Steagall is expected to be unveiled in October.