Empty Saddles
Ashley Marie Escobar lost her courageous battle with cancer on Nov. 14, 2013 at home. Ashley was born on May 1, 1987 in King City, Calif. She attended school in the King City School District and graduated from King City High School in 2005. She participated in volleyball, track and high school rodeo.
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On Oct. 16, 2013, God called home a true cowboy. Abigah Elum Duncan, Sr. was born on Feb. 25, 1920, in York, Ariz., to Gus and Nora Duncan. At a young age Bige was quite a horseman and a good ranch hand. Bige graduated from high school in Kingman, Ariz., in 1939. He worked alongside his parents on the Walnut Creek Ranch until 1946 when the Duncan family moved to Lovelock. There Bige and his parents bought the old Salinas Ranch and lived until his final days.
Dale “Tuffy” Cooper, considered a pioneer in the sport of roping and patriarch of one of the greatest rodeo families in the history of the sport, died Nov. 17 at his home in Monument, N.M., after breaking his hip in a fall. He was 88.
Gene O’Brien, stepfather to seven-time World Champion Team Roper Clay O’Brien Cooper, died Oct. 23 from injuries suffered in a highway accident two weeks earlier near his home in Rowland Heights, Calif. He was 82.
Karl J. Hackamack, 78, passed away Sept. 20 after a brief illness. Karl moved to Watsonville, Calif., from Los Angeles with his parents and brother in 1950. He graduated from Watsonville High School with the class of 1952. He spent 31 years with the City of Watsonville and worked the last seven years with the Monterey Regional Waste Management District in Marina where he retired.