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S TA N L E Y • FA I R F I E L D • S H O S H O N E • P I C A B O
Sochi Olympics PAGE 3
Habitat For Non-Humanity PAGE 17
Picabo Rancher Named to Idaho Hall of Fame
What Does Love Look Like?
READ ABOUT IT ON PAGE 21
PAGE 18
F e b r u a r y 1 2 , 2 0 1 4 • V o l . 7 • N o . 8 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
For Lovers & Dreamers PHOTO AND STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK
It started out as a cabin fever reliever—something to fill the nexStage Theatre on a long Presidents’ Day Weekend. Now, February Follies has morphed into a “Cozy Winter Cabaret.” Patty Parsons Tewson, who directs the swinging Sun Valley Hallelujah Chorus, has enlisted some of her favorite singers in a cabaret concert to be held at 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 15-16, at the nexStage Theatre, 120 S. Main St., Ketchum. “We were emerging from a ‘January Blues’ month in which there was little snow. So we put together an emergency cabaret because we were all bored with no snow. So, of course, it’s snowing now!” Parsons Tewson said. The 90-minute cabaret show will feature baritone Steve Antry, a guest performer from Tulsa, Okla., who has a home in Elkhorn. He will sing a Josh Grogan song, as well as “Rocking in Memphis,” which he says is popular among his audiences in Tulsa. He also will do a duet with Parsons Tewson. Other soloists—most of them from the Sun Valley Hallelujah Chorus—will perform hits from the 1950s and ’60s and other standards, including “Where the Boys Are,” “Sincerely,” “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” “Goodnight Sweetheart,” “Goody Goody and Tweedlee Dee,” “Send in the Clowns” “How High the Moon” and “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.” Sun Valley Resort’s pianist Joe Fos will play a couple numbers, and pianist Jim Watkinson will accompany the performers. There will be cabaret seating and a no-host bar for wine, beer and hors d’oeuvres.
Kodi Parsons is among those who are likely to offer up a song Friday and Saturday night.
Tickets are $20, available by calling 208.726.9124. “It’s for the lovers and the dreamers,” said Parsons Tewson. “Just some good old-fashioned ski town Presidents’ Day Weekend fun!”
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BUCKIN FOR A BY KAREN BOSSICK
K
elly Wardell thought he’d ridden the last of the bucking broncos when he hung up his spurs in
2003. But the four-time National Finals Rodeo cowboy is back in the saddle, so to speak, spurred on by the chance to win a million dollars at RFD-TV’s The AMERICAN March 2 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Rural TV’s The AMERICAN will be the richest one-day rodeo in history with a payout of $2 million. “I’ve been away 10 years but when they came up with that, I couldn’t resist. And, why not? I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in my life, thanks to the mixed martial arts I’ve been doing,” said the soft-spoken Bellevue cowboy. Wardell qualified for the bareback competition—considered one of rodeo’s most grueling events—at Rapid City, S.D., on Nov. 17. The 5-foot-10, 160-pound cowboy spurred his horse out of the chute, his hand holding onto rigging cinched around the half-ton animal’s girth. Then he hung on for eight seconds, his neck getting whiplashed backwards as his boots bounced up in the air—just like in the old days. Now he heads for The AMERICAN semifinals Feb. 22-23 in Mesquite, Texas. At 50, Wardell will be the oldest of the five bareback qualifiers vying for a spot in the March 2 Finals. Fellow qualifier Cimmaron Gerke, who was crowned College National Finals Rodeo bareback riding champion the year Wardell retired, said he considers Wardell his idol. “It’s kind of a unique story that someone who rodeo’d all his life would come out of retirement when he just turned 50. This is huge in a young man’s sport. RFD is using Kelly’s ride for their ads,” said Barb Patterson, Wardell’s
MILLION
partner of 20 years. Wardell broke his dad’s racehorses as a kid growing up near Big Piney, Wyo. Then he followed his dad—five-time world champion bareback rider Ray Wardell— into the rodeo arena. “When you’re riding good and have a good horse, it’s a lot of fun. There’s no drug you can take that gives you the feeling when you make an awesome ride,” said Wardell, who used to compete for as much as $13,000 a night. “But when things go wrong or you get a strong horse pulling away from you and trying to jerk your arm off, there’s a lot of force on your neck and back. Then it’s kind of like having your hand stuck in a vice and getting in a car wreck.” Wardell’s bushy mustache makes him a dead ringer for Tom Selleck, for whom he’s been asked to play a double. In 1997 he was voted the original Coors Fans’ Favorite Cowboy. And he appears on the cover of “American Cowboy’s” February/ March 2014 issue, courtesy of Sun Valley’s cowboy photographer David Stoecklein. In 2001 Wardell was ranked as the best bareback rider in the world heading into the National Finals Rodeo. But after 360 days as America’s No. 1 bareback rider, he lost his chance for the golden ring when he pulled his groin, had his riding arm stepped on and bruised his entire CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 right leg.
He wound up tying for fifth place, pocketing about $4,000 in contrast to the $86,585 his traveling partner Lan LaJeunesse ended up winning along with the 2001 world championship. Still, Wardell came back to win a silver medal at the 2002 Olympics before retiring. “I rode the last 10 years of my career
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