FORT WORTH -- After 50 years of showing cattle, she is a cover girl.
Dolores Jenkins of Big Spring got a little surprise a few weeks before the opening of this year's Fort Worth Stock Show."My daughter called and said, 'Mother, you are not going to believe this,'" said Jenkins, who showed shorthorn cattle at this year's Stock Show.The cause of Jenkins' daughter's shock was the cover of the 2012 Stock Show Livestock Premium List she had seen online. Right there on the front was a photograph of a 13-year-old Jenkins, proudly presenting her 1966 grand champion steer."That was the best steer I ever had," said Jenkins, who sold her winning Hereford for $6,300.Stock Show officials said they did not realize that they had chosen a picture of someone who was still participating in the Stock Show."We were just looking for a vintage photo for the cover, and that looked like a good one," said Shanna Weaver, publicity manager at the Stock Show. "It was pretty much chosen at random."The Livestock Premium List is not seen by a typical Stock Show visitor, and you certainly won't find it at the grocery store checkout next to TV Guide and People.But the 244-page catalog is something of a bible for the exhibitors and insiders at the event. It contains a listing of all the cattle shows, details about each class and rules for the competitions.The book is available at the Stock Show's website (www.fwssr.com), and print copies are sent to past exhibitors, extension agents, 4-H leaders and new exhibitors on request. About 4,000 copies were distributed in the weeks leading up to the show, Weaver said."We were a little surprised when a woman came into the office and asked if she could get a few extra copies," Weaver said. "So we asked her why, and she said, 'That's me on the cover.'"But no one should be surprised to see Jenkins, who was Dolores Lankford when she won here in 1966, around a stock show.She has shown cattle on and off since she was 9 and has seen her daughter, Amanda Blissard, and her granddaughters, 10-year-old Myka and 5-year-old Aubree, follow in her bootsteps. And, despite their tender years, the youngest Blissards are already piling up ribbons, just like their grandmother."One woman who had seen the cover came up to me and said, 'I remember you,'" said Jenkins, who, with her husband, Bill, runs the 44 Cattle Co. Ranch in Big Spring, an operation named for the infantry division in which Dolores' father served in World War II. "'Everywhere you went, you kicked butt.'"Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
