Her Eden

2012 Oil on Canvas
24″ x 18″ framed in Old Barn Wood
$850
Contact to Purchase

When Bill Cody ended his Wild West show due to age and ill health, Fannie Sperry Steele and her husband, Bill, started their own, which performed at stampedes, roundups and rodeos. Fannie, born March 27, 1887, was then in her mid-to late-thirties, and more than half her life had been spent racing and performing. She wanted children and a ranch of her own, and with their earnings, they were able to purchase a hunters’ ranch on Arrastra Creek near the small town of Helmville, Montana. Fannie still hoped to have children until Bill bluntly informed her the problem was hers, not his. He then shared a secret long kept from her – he had a son from a previous marriage. She accepted her circumstances so they could have a good life together as ranchers and outfitters on their high wilderness paradise. Bill’s son, Ivan, and then his grandson, Vannie, became part of her life also as they visited from California when they could. After Bill died of a stroke in 1940, Fannie continued ranching and outfitting until one fine day Ivan arrived to talk business. Unknown to Fannie, Bill had willed his half of their ranch to his son, and Ivan came to collect his share. Crushed and unable to buy him out, Fannie had no choice. Ivan sold the ranch in 1965, and Fannie was homeless. Her nieces and nephews moved the legendary cowgirl, along with her favorite horses, to her deceased sister’s homestead high in the Beartooth Mountains. About the same time she received a letter that she had been chosen as a member of the Cowboy Hall of Fame. She died in 1983, age 95.