Ruby Bassett … One of a Kind
I think one of the most interesting women in this area is Ruby Bassett. Let me tell you about her.
She was born Ruby Arleen Leahy, February 7, 1935, in the Zuni Mountains outside of Gallup, New Mexico.
Her grandfather traveled in a covered wagon as a traveling blacksmith between Iowa and Colorado. His son met and married Ruby’s mother in Denver. She was 24 years younger. Their ancestry was Lupa Indian and French Canadian. Ruby’s three brothers and three sisters have died.
They moved to New Mexico to operate a Trading Post to serve the Zuni and Navajos in the area.
She went to a school taught by her grandmother, one of the very few women in that age to have completed a PhD in Education. All 12 grades were in one room. She was graduated at age 15. She and her brother walked to school every day – an eight-mile roundtrip.
Her love of horses would work out well for her as she was constantly on the back of Shoetack, a quarter horse that would take her into the movies.
She did stunt riding for Jane Russell and Ava Gardner and appeared in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. She was in Red River with John Wayne as well as Streets of Laredo and a number of other westerns.
She recalls meeting those five as well as Clark Gable, Burl Ives, Kirk Douglas and Jan Sterling. Her richest memory was of Brian Keith, who she recalls was drunk all the time.
She was proficient at “getting shot” and falling off her horse. Somehow, she never broke a bone.
Her riding skills, dark complexion and long coal-black hair (it reached down to the bend of her knees) made her much sought after for Native American roles. Film companies paid her $50 a day for her horse, $50 a day for herself and another $100 a day being in the movie – quite a haul in those days when she was 13-14-15.
Her horseback skills made her a favorite at the rodeos where she barrel-raced and was tough enough to “Hide Ride.” That fete was accomplished by tying a hide behind a horse and then trying to stay on as it raced around the track. You started by squatting down and held on to the rope. If you made it to the end, you stood up.
It was at the rodeo she met her first husband, Bobby Slaughter, a member of the New Mexico Mounted Police.
Their first child was Glenn Alan Slaughter, but he died a year later. The grief was difficult for her. ”My only salvation were my horses.” She rode early every morning before working in a restaurant … and then rode for hours after she finished her shift.
Four years later (1959), son Neal was born. She rodeoed right up the last minute and her water broke as she was preparing for a barrel race. That explains a lot about Neal.
Donald McIntosh was born six years later.
She and her husband Gene McIntosh operated a steak house in Gallup. Then the trials started accumulating: Her first cancer (Cervical) came in 1966 and she was bitten by a big Diamondback rattle snake in 1968 when her horse got spooked by the rattlers.
In 1971 they came back to this area to visit relatives. They decided to purchase the Viking (Winston) Truck Stop and then, bought a farm south of Winston so she could continue to ride horses. She had to give up her love of riding when she was 77.
In 1979 she moved to Cameron … and then had a couple of more bouts with cancer. She just keeps beating them back. “You can’t win if you don’t fight.”
This year it is lung cancer and she had the bottom of her left lung removed.
When I spoke with her in the hospital, she is crediting Divine Intervention with bringing her back from the edge. She was having severe breathing problems when son Neal called at a very unusual time – early in the morning.
She willed herself to get to the phone … and the next thing she remembers is waking up at the Cameron Regional Medical Center Intensive Care Unit. She had blood clots in her legs and lungs. Her oxygen was lower than 70 percent. That phone call “saved my life.”
She has survived three husbands, six brothers and sisters and five cancers -- a tough woman who grew up with horses and started life like the old westerns.
Now we can all look forward to the 85th birthday (in February) of a woman with a big history … and a big heart.
