Keepin’ the West Alive with Bobbi Jeen Olson
I had the honor of meeting and visiting with Daryle Ann Pickens (daughter of Slim Pickens...the western movie actor) at the Western Writers of America Convention in Albuquerque NM. I loved hearing the stories about her childhood and how much of an inspiration her father was to her (as well as many others). Daryle Ann is a huge promoter of the western lifestyle and does so in a positive, informative, exciting manner. She sharers stories of Hollywood, some of the greatest actors of our time and of the old western films we have all come to love.
Thank YOU Ms Daryle Ann Pickens for Keepin’ the West Alive!
Bobbi Jeen Olson
About Slim Pickens:
Slim Pickens spent the early part of his career as a real cowboy and the latter part playing cowboys, and he is best remembered for a single "cowboy" image: that of bomber pilot Maj. "King" Kong waving his cowboy hat rodeo-style as he rides a nuclear bomb onto its target in the great black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Born in Kingsburg, near Fresno in California's Central Valley, he spent much of his boyhood in nearby Hanford, where he began rodeoing at the age of 12. Over the next two decades he toured the country on the rodeo circuit, becoming a highly-paid and well-respected rodeo clown, a job that entailed enormous danger. At the age of 31 he was given a role in a western, Rocky Mountain (1950), and quickly found a niche in both comic and villainous roles in that genre. With his hoarse voice and pronounced western twang, he was not always easy to cast outside the genre, but when he was, as in "Dr. Strangelove", the results were often memorable. He died in 1983 after a long and courageous battle against a brain tumor. He was survived by his wife Margaret and three children, Daryle Ann, Thom, and Margaret Lou. His brother has acted under the name Easy Pickens.
It was a better world when Slim was here.
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I new Daryle Ann when we were neighbors on Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake. I was singing professionally and I believe she was acting. A delightful person. In 1979, my daughter passed. I left L.A. Daryle Ann was so kind. Her dad was such a great film actor. Hope she is doing well. Hugs to her!
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