It takes a very special woman to put up with the life of a cowboy, and his tendency to drift all over the west. There must, also be some very deep love for the man that she follows around!
My wife, Jean and I have lived in one room “houses”, with no electricity or running water, in a log cabin, in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, that she had to ride horseback, the last two miles to get to. And then cook on a woodburning cookstove, with no electricity of running water. The creek was a couple hundred yards away, and she packed in more water than I did.
Jean has cooked at the wagon for me, as well as being the cook at ranch headquarters, all over the west.
Jean did all this just so I could have fun – WHAT A WOMAN!!
While at the twenty-five ranch, in northern Nevada, near Battle Mountain, Jean started to dabble in painting. She continued this after I was transferred to Bassett, Nebraska.
In 1981, at the Nebraska State Horseshoe Tournament, Jean was the Class “B” Woman’s State Champion.
In 1984, I quit cowboying and we moved back to Texas. Jean really got involved with art. It was in Post, TX that she met Linda Puckett. This friendship last “til Jean’s last day on this earth”.
Jean and Linda taught art at the Post Junior Prison for years.
During this time, Jean was elected to a spot on the Texas Horseshoe Pitchers Association Board, with intentions of starting a scholarship for the Jr. pitchers. She accomplished this and a year later, Texas was recognized by the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association as the only charter to have a scholarship for the Jr. pitchers. Jean was inducted into the Texas Horseshoe Pitchers Association Hall of Fame on October 2, 2009.
Jean loved all kids. I’ve seen her look with those loving eyes at kids riding in shopping carts at grocery stores, and the kid would smile back at her and reach for her hand.
Jean was preceded in death by her parents, Vernon and Mary Holcomb Perkins, our son, Billy Davenport, and all of her siblings, Vernell, Laverne, Glenn, Virginia, and younger sister and brother Loretta and Ray, and all of their spouses.
Jean is survived by her loving husband, Johnny of sixty- two and half years, who was at her bed side when she entered the spirit world, our son John Wesley Davenport, Jr, Daughter in Law, Jacque, Grand Children Cody (Brittany), Destiny (Justin), Sky (Liah), and Rejana Portl, as well as Great Grand Children Emily, Laikyn, and Ayslee Davenport, Austin and Jocelyn Rodriguez, Kay and Remmy Portal, and many nieces and nephews. And friends from all over the west, and very special lifetime friend, Nelta Edwards-Green of Turkey, TX from school days.
A celebration of Jean’s life will be held on March 5, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. at the Animas Community Center, followed by potluck dinner.