Tom Blasingame

Who was Tom Blasingame?

Thomas Everett Blasingame, known as Tom Blasingame, was a Texas cowboy for seventy-three years. At ninety-one, he was still on the job at the JA Ranch south of Amarillo. Two days after Christmas in 1989, he dismounted his horse, Ruidosa, stretched out on the grass, folded his arms across his chest, and died. Blasingame received many honors for his longevity and dedication to ranching.

Born in Waxahachie, the seat of Ellis County, south of Dallas, Blasingame decided as a child that he would work on a ranch. In 1918, he headed to the Texas Panhandle and was hired on the large JA spread, which had been jointly established in the Palo Duro Canyon by John George Adair and Charles Goodnight, probably the best-known of Texas ranchers throughout history.