Published: October 29, 2007 01:46 pm      

Judy Goodspeed will conduct a book signing at the public library

ADA—Judy Goodspeed will have a book signing at the Ada Public Library on Monday, Nov. 19 from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Her book, “Cowboy Sweethearts” will be available in hardcover for $25 and softcover for $15.

“Cowboy Sweethearts” includes the true stories of 11 women who married prominent men of the rodeos. Some stayed at home to run ranches, work outside the home and raise children. Others accompanied their husbands on the rodeo circuit. A few were rodeo participants.

The reader gets a glimpse of rodeo life from the days of camping out in tents and sendign telegrams to the age of traveling in horse trailers with built-in living quarters and talking on cell phones.

Profiles include: Vicki Herrera Adams, Margaret Hart Deakins, Jo Ramsey Decker, Decie Nowlin Goodspeed, Jackie Smith McEntire, Donna Casity McSpadden, Cleo Crouch Rude, Linda Ament Russell, Nell truitt Shaw, Michelle Smith WEst and Cassie Loegel Whitfield. There are over 80 photographs.

Judy Goodspeed is the daughter of Buck Goodspeed, professional steer roper and Cowboy Hall of Fame honoree, and Decie Goodspeed, whose life story is included in the book. Goodspeed is a graduate of Wetumka High School in Wetumka, Okla. and East Central State College in Ada. She was a junior high school teacher and coach for 30 years.

After retiring from teaching, she began writing. She has had articles published in Outdoor Oklahoma, Good Old Days, and The Ketchpen (a publication of the Rodeo Historical Society.) She was a contributing writer for the Wewoka Times and published articless in the Holdenville Tribune. She is the author of the children’s illustrated picture books “Perky Turkey’s Perfect Plan” and “Perky Finds a Friend.”

Goodspeed is a member of the Professional and Amateur Writers Society and the Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc. She lives on a farm in rural Oklahoma.