We picked up a copy of the Cenizo Journal somewhere near Presidio. It’s a quarterly “neighborhood” magazine for the Big Bend country. I thought it was proof - both of the scarce population in the area and of Merlene’s ability to meet people - that she had met several of the people who were interviewed for articles in the short time she lived there.
You can go to yourself and see the magazine. I hope you’ll download the 4th Quarter 2009 issue and read “The Passing of A. Kelly Pruitt” on pages 4 and 27.
There are many fine western artists who have never really lived the cowboy life they portray. A phrase I heard recently to describe such a person is “Too much hat and no cow.” Kelly was born and raised in the Rio Grande country. The article in the Journal says he “touched people’s lives with his philosophy of living simply, his kindness and unique spirit.”
He lived in the desert in a converted school bus with two dogs, a wolf, two horses, a burro and 35 sheep. When he started having heart problems, Kelly started digging his own grave in a nearby cemetery (not the one in my picture, however). He was shoeing his horse one day soon after and evidently had a heart attack.
When a friend found him lying in his cot, unable to rise, Kelly said he would not go to a doctor, nor let one come to him. “I have not been to a doctor since 1947,” he said, “and if I go now they will want to cut me open. I do not want that.”
So his friends all came and sat with him in a vigil, and finished digging his grave. “Isn’t this wonderful?” he said. “A great funeral, and I am here for it.”
The author of the article spent time writing down what Kelly had to say just before he died. My favorite quote is...”Somehow, the Universe works. Yesterday I was involved in the business of the world. Today I am not.”
It’s really as simple as that, isn't it, when you eliminate the middle men?
No comments:
Post a Comment