Alice Greenough Orr

Who was Alice Greenough Orr?

Alice Greenough Orr, a rancher’s daughter in Montana, became an internationally known rodeo performer and organizer who was inducted into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, and in 2010 the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame in Wolf Point, Montana. She is considered "hands down the first rodeo queen."

Orr broke horses while she was growing up on a ranch near Red Lodge, the seat of Carbon County southwest of Billings, Montana. At the age of fourteen, she left school to deliver mail by horseback over a 35-mile route. She intended to become a forest ranger until the return of servicemen from World War I made such employment unrealistic for women at that time.

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We came from a great era. We called ourselves the 'Wild Bunch.' -- Alice Greenough Orr

Ultimately, Orr performed in rodeos in forty-six states and in Madison Square Garden in New York City as well as Australia and Europe, where she was once invited for tea with the Queen of England. Orr was four-times the world saddle bronc champion. She and her sister, Marge Greenough Henson, excelled at trick riding and bull riding.