The History of Belton, Texas July 4th Activities

MEMORIES OF BELTON, TEXAS 

JULY 4th CELEBRATIONS

Memories of the children of Mart & Pearl (Griffin) Digby:

The Kids of Mart & Pearl (Griffin) Digby
(Back yard of Glenn & Jeannine Blair in Belton, Tx. - 2006)

                            1            4                        1.  Dwayne Digby
                        2             3       5                  2.  JoAnn (York) Digby (Dwayne's wife)
                                6                                  3.  Rita (Digby) Locklin
                                                                    4.  Mattie (Digby) Wesson
                                                                    5.  Gale (Digby) Cosper
                                                                    6.  Jeannine (Digby) Blair

Memories of Wanda Jeannine (Digby) Blair (“Jeannine”):

Jeannine Digby (just before marriage)

Wanda Jeannine Digby

“In the 1950’s and 1960’s my husband, Glenn Blair, and his dad owned Hill Top Courts Motel, Restaurant, and Service Station (a truck stop) just south of town, on South I.H. 35.  Many of the rodeo contestants and performers stayed there.  Our home was also on the premises.  My older children remember a group of Native Indian dancers that stayed there and built a campfire in the gravel driveway and practiced their songs and dances for their rodeo performance.  I think they were an Anatonka tribe from Oklahoma.  There were lots of horse trailers on the empty land, so there were always a lot of cowboys around.  Of course, when I was still a kid at home, we wanted to go to the carnival in Yettie Polk Park.  We didn’t have much money to spend, but it was still fun to go.”

Memories of Mattie (Digby) Wesson (“Mattie”):

Mattie Digby

“My earliest July 4^th memories in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, are of picnics in Yettie Polk Park with our parents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  We would spread our quilts on the ground to sit and eat on.  We would have fried chicken with all the trimmings and ice cold watermelon.  There was country music, fiddle contests and singing.  I remember how clear and pretty Nolan Creek was then and the three beautiful swans that were always there.  There was one solid black one and two white ones.  They looked so graceful as they swam by. 

     “I loved playing on all the playground equipment, but my very favorite was the big carousel merry-go-round.  I’m not sure exactly when we started doing the carnival thing, but when we were pretty young, I guess, because I can remember riding those little kid rides like the little cars and stuff, and of course the merry-go-round.  As I grew older, my favorite rides were the Ferris Wheel and the Merry-Go-Round.  I’m prone to motion sickness, so rides like the Tilt-O-Wheel, Octopus, and such always made me sick, but I rode them anyway.  I’m sure I would ride very few of what they have today, but now in my late 70’s, I will never be too  old to ride the Merry-Go-Round.

     My best memories of the rodeo are probably since the late 1940’s.  The rodeo ground was down across from the Confederate Park in the area of where the Park & Ride is now.  We spent a lot of exciting nights and July 4^th afternoons at the rodeo.  There have been a lot of “good ole cowboys” from the Bell County area and the rodeo isn’t the same for me since they aren’t around or aren’t involved anymore.  Those our family probably knew the best are Johnny Melon, Johnny and Eddie Boren, Cotton Proctor, and Cecil Elllis (clown).  They were all close friends of our family.  Johnny Mellon was related to us by marriage.  We had lived across the street from him on Avenue J two different times.  He used to pitch my older sister and me up above the rafters in his barn.  He was a good catcher, because we are still around.  Johnny Boren was a business partner of my brother, Dwayne, for a number of years.

     When I  was very young (1930’s/ early 1940’s), my uncle Emmitt Digby, owned a gray horse named Grey Buck that he had trained to do tricks, and they performed at the rodeo.  Pat Digby and Kay (Digby) Claunch said that Grey Buck used to bite other horses as well as people, but would never bite when Emmitt was around.  Jeannine (Digby) Blair was scared of Grey Buck for this reason.  A girl named "Bunkey" used to take care of Grey Buck.

Grey Buck (also spelled Gray Buck)
(Source of Image: Mattie Digby Wesson. Emmitt gave her this picture)

Emmitt & Alta (Ray) Digby with Grey Buck, July 1938
(Source of Image: Pearl Griffin Digby)

The following quote came from The Victoria Advocate newspaper dated October 2, 1938 in an article titled "Hi School Horses Among Attraction at Prison Rodeo":

"Huntsville

...A new performer to prison rodeo fans this year will be Gray Buck, high school pony belonging to Emmett D. Digby, of Belton, Texas.  Digby just recently returned to Texas from Hollywood to take part in the annual Huntsville show.  He spent two months in the movie capital showing his trick horse at various resorts.  Booked for an afternoon performance at Hollywood Rodeo in Gilmore stadium, Digby and the intelligent pony made such a hit with the audience that they were promptly billed for the night show.  On both occasions they were called back for encore appearances.  Grey Buck and his trainer also appeared in "Covered Wagon Days" at Redondo Beach, on of the most popular pleasure centers in California, and in the big Spanish Fiesta at Venice Beach.  They performed at several of the best nightclubs in Los Angeles, Hollywood and Culver City, and were photographed by Look magazine and Universal News Reel."

Emmitt with Gray Buck in front of
O'dell Hyer's gas station in Belton.
Leonard Cosper is standing on Gray Buck.
(View is SW to NE).

Emmitt Digby on Gray Buck.

Emmitt Digby & Grey Buck in Belton, Texas.

Emmitt Digby's Business Card
(Source: Pearl Griffin Digby)

Emmitt & Jeannine Digby with Grey Buck.

Emmitt Digby gives proclamation
to Texas Governor Pappy O' Daniel
at the State Capital in Austin.

Emmitt Digby rode the last leg of a Pony Express public relations event to the State Capital in Austin. Each leg of the event from Houston to Austin was five miles. Emmitt was proud to get to ride the last leg and have his picture taken with Grey Buck and the Governor (see the above, right picture). After Grey Buck no longer performed, we kept him on our place outside of town, and it was my job to take care of him.  I fed and groomed him and got to ride him a lot.  I loved that old horse.  In my teenage years, I remember the Barbee girls from Dublin, Texas who were trick riders in beautiful costumes.  They performed for several years.  That was in the mid 1940’s through sometime in the early 1950’s.  Finally, Grey Buck was sent to Red ________ in Dublin for pasture.

The parade has always been a must for the Digby clan.  We’ve always had family in the parade in some way or another – on horseback, with little league teams, in the band, on floats or pulling floats, with cheerleaders, on fire trucks, or in vehicles representing city/ county governments to name a few.  There are certainly always people we’ll be watching for.  My favorite spot for watching the parade was always the Carnegie Library (now the Bell County Museum).

     My daughter told me not to forget the fire truck.  In 1964, our dad had purchased an antique fire truck from the Holland Fire Department.  He drove it in the parade, and all the grandchildren were dressed in matching outfits riding on it.  It had a siren that had to be cranked by hand.  I can’t remember who rode up front and cranked the siren, but they had it going most of the way.  The grandchildren really thought it was special to ride on that old fire truck.

     I remember when everybody in Bell County and beyond that owned or could borrow a horse, probably rode in the parade and the rodeo grand entry every night.  After I married in 1950 my husband,Bill, and I continued to enjoy all the 4^th activities.  He had a horse and rode in the parade and I was always there to watch.  We always attended the rodeo too.

     As our children were growing up, they were in the parade a lot.  Riding horses with their aunt and uncle, Joe and Gale Cosper, on little league baseball floats and such.  Our daughter was in the band and on the drill team, so naturally, she was in the parade each year.  In 1973, our band boosters club was raising money for the band to go to the Rose Parade.  One of the fundraisers was selling helium balloons at the July 4^th parade, so naturally the parents got that job, because the band was marching.  Along with other parents, I painted my face, dressed as a clown, and joined other parents walking the streets during the parade selling balloons.  It turned out to be a good fundraiser, but I never wanted to do that again.

     In the 1950’s and 1960’s, businesses went together to sponsor professionally decorated floats.  They were beautiful, and along with the floats decorated by local organizations, churches, clubs, etc…, we had a lot of pretty floats.  Mary Hardin-Baylor College/ UMHB has always had a beautiful float in the parade.  We don’t have very many floats in the parade now, and I miss that a lot.

     My favorite parade things: floats, army bands, Marching 100 Band, anything military, and the horses!  There are a lot of places around here having 4^th of July celebrations now days, but there is still no place I’d rather be than Belton’s July 4^th festivities.”

Memories of Martin Dwayne Digby (“Dwayne”):

Dwayne Digby

Dwayne & JoAnn Digby and their children
(Craig, Cindy, and Dawn, in front)

     “I have always loved the parade.  The first time I rode in the 4^th of July parade, I must have been about five years old and rode a Shetland pony.  When I was in Jr. high and high school, I always had a horse, and I loved to ride.  I always looked forward to the 4^th of July, so I could ride in the parade.  Back then, all the horses were at the end of the parade and were there a lot of horses!  Mack Hyer and I would always get as close to the front of the line of horses as we could, and by the time we got to the end of the parade route, we would have time to ride back and ride through again.  There was not a charge to ride your horse in the parade as there is now.

     I remember John Mellon.  He was a deputy sheriff and a calf roper.  He also loved kids.  If he saw a young child sometime before the 4^th, he would always tell them, ‘If you get your dad to bring you to the parade on the 4^th, I’ll have you a horse to ride’.  I do not know what he would have done if they had all taken him up on it.

     After high school and I had to make my own way, I could not afford a horse, so I always made sure I had a good place to watch the parade. 

     The 4^th of July in 1959, the year before my wife JoAnn and I married, she spent the holiday with my family.  I borrowed a pony and cart from Windy Wallace.  JoAnn and I rode this cart in the parade.  I thought that was a good way to introduce her to Belton’s 4^th celebration.

     After we married and had children, we would never miss a 4^th celebration: the parade in the morning, the park in the afternoon, and the rodeo at night.  We did it all and still enjoy its good family fun.

     The rodeo was always a fun time for me.  Belton had a Riding and Roping Club when I was in high school, and back then they had a grand entry at the start of the rodeo.

Belton Rodeo Ticket
(Source: Barbara Thornton Gillam scrapbook)

The Belton Rodeo "Grand Entry" in process.

It would consist of rodeo contestants, trick-riders would carry the flags, and the riding clubs from Belton and other area towns – almost anyone who owned a horse would ride in the grand-entry.  It was fun!

     The Riding Club would help promote the 4^th celebrations.  The week before was western week in town.  If you got caught without at least two pieces of western attire on, you got put in jail (which was an iron cage placed on the courthouse lawn).  They would keep you locked up for a while.  One year we borrowed a covered wagon from Jr. J.W. Pittman and parked it next to the curb on the north side of the courthouse.  We tied a goat to it, and stacked some wood to look like a camp fire.  Dude Wallace manned the wagon during the day.

Mart Digby (2nd from left, as "sheriff"; Johnny Mellon (behind child in middle)

My dad played the sheriff and would lock businessmen, like Halley Cox, up in the jail cell for not having western wear on.

     The Chamber of Commerce organized booster trips to surrounding towns as far as Lampasas to the west, Cameron to the east, and Taylor to the south.  They would have a flatbed truck for the band to set up on.  Cars would follow each other from town to town, stop for about 20 minutes and promote the rodeo, then head to the next town.  On these trips I had the job of going to the stores and putting out posters in their windows.

     Another thing that I always enjoyed was at the rodeo.  There were always many good local cowboys – Johnny and Eddie Boren, Cotton and Bill Proctor, Bud Humphries, Red Walker, Harold Watson, and Johnny Mellon.  Not only were they local, but they were good.

     I think my best memories of the 4^th will be the times when my wife and myself had our grandchildren riding in the parade with us.  The years I served on the city council and as mayor of Belton, my family would ride with me in the parade.  One year, then Governor George W. Bush, marched in the parade.  My wife, JoAnn, had brought a red, white, and blue quilt which her mother made.  We were going to use it to pad the seat of the convertible we were riding in during the parade.  Governor Bush was signing autographs.  Not having anything handy for an autograph, JoAnn remembered the quilt.  That was, and still is exciting.  Which one of our children will that be passed down to?”

Memories of Gale (Digby) Cosper (“Gale”):

Gale Digby, 1950-51
(Tyler Elementary photo)

Gale Digby

“Late 1950’s – Miss Belton Contest:

     Each year before the 4^th celebration, there would be a “Miss Belton” contest where different businesses would sponsor contestants.  Each dollar the contestant raised counted as a vote.  In 1958, I was selected as a contestant.  My sponsor was T.E. Sanderford, Southwest Transit.  His daughter, Jane Potter, loaned me a formal to wear on the float in the parade.  I thought it was the most beautiful dress I’d ever seen.

July 4th, 1968 Belton Parade
Back left to front right: Gale Digby, Carolyn Ketchum, Zona Preece, and Nona Ratliff.

Gale Digby - 1958 Belton parade.

Gale Digby - 1958 Belton parade.

Gale Digby on Seashell float, 1958 Belton July 4th parade.

I’m sure my Mom and Dad were thankful, as they did not have to purchase one.

1958 "Miss Belton" - Belton Rodeo Arena
(Gale Digby on bottom right; Linda Long as child at bottom center).

1958 "Miss Belton"  - Belton Rodeo Arena
(Gale Digby - front right; Charlie Griggs with cowboy hat).

I came in 3^rd place.  First was Mary Elaine Naismith and 2^nd wasa Betty Sue Wilhite.  I remember my father was not in favor of me asking for donations, but I think he was proud of me representing our town.  We three winners rode a float in the arena before the rodeo on the night of the fourth.  That meant that I had to have another formal dress.  My mother, with help from my Aunt Georgia (Griffin) Roen, made this one for me.







1950’s – Courthouse Square:

     One year there was a covered wagon set up on the courthouse square.  Refreshments were served from this wagon.  They set up a fake jail cell on the courthouse lawn.

Mart Digby (right) & ? dressed as "Sheriff" on July 4th in Belton, Texas.
(Note the booster club flatbed truck in the background).

Johnny Mellon and our father Mart Digby played sheriff, and even wore guns.  My dad did not like guns at all, so I’m sure they were not loaded.  They would go into the different stores and arrest any employee not wearing western wear, lock them up, and someone would have to pay a fee for their release.

     I remember they staged a fake hanging on the courthouse lawn.  The victim I remember them “hanging” was Halley Cox from Peoples National Bank.  I believe there is a picture of this in the 1^st Edition/ Bell County History.  It really looked real!

1950’s – Booster Trips:

     Each year the week before the 4^th celebration in Belton there would be a caravan of cars that would go from town to town advertising the celebration.  The cars were decorated with crepe paper streamers, signs and balloons.  In the caravan there was a flatbed truck.  When we stopped in the different towns, a band would set up on the truck and play music.  One of the popular songs then was “Davy Crockett”.  People would gather around and listen to the music, dance in the street, or sing along with the band.  Dan Coats, rodeo announcer, was always along on these trips advertising the rodeo in Belton.  Dwayne would help him display posters in store windows.  This was something we always looked forward to and Dad always made sure he was free to go with us.

Misc. Memories:

Mart Digby in front of his office at Belton Car Mart in 1966.
(Last picture taken of him; note the hospital bracelet).

     1966 – On July 4^th, 1966, my father was ill with cancer, and my first child had just been born.  Mr. and Mrs. Heartfield invited us to watch the parade from inside the Florist shop where it was cool.

     1950’s – I don’t remember the carnival much, due to the fact my parents did not take us.  Back then, the traveling shows were not clean and there was a big scare of polio.  Rita remembers winning a big bear at the carnival, so I guess at some point we were allowed to attend.

     The store windows in town were decorated by local artist Jimmy Coppin to advertise the rodeo.  His paintings of the rodeo events were so real looking you would think that bull was coming straight at you. 

     The parade had beautiful floats and lots of horses.  My favorite was always the Army Band from Fort Hood, and of course the Marching 100 from school.  That music made anyone proud to be an American!

     Can’t remember the year (in the 1950’s), the western movie star Audie Murphy was attending the Belton Rodeo (He was here from Fort Hood).  I was lucky enough to get his autograph, which I still have today.

     My father’s car dealership, Belton Car Mart, was on East Street, directly behind the Carnegie Library on Main street.

Family & friends gather at the Belton Car Mart.in Belton, Texas.
(Mart Digby's office is directly behind Mart & Pearl Digby; view is S. to N.)

On the day of the parade, my Mom and Dad would ice down soft drinks and have the urn full of coffee.  Friends and family, many from out of town, would meet at the car lot, have refreshments, visit, and then walk over to main street and watch the parade in front of the library.

     Dwayne, Rita, and myself almost always rode our horses in the parade, and some years our dad would join us.  Mom never did the horse thing, but she always had our shirts starched and our boots polished.

1960’s and later – After I married in 1960, my husband and I continued our family’s traditions of riding in the parade, often letting our young nieces and nephews ride with us.  That long line of horses was always the last thing in the parade, as they left a trail no one wanted to follow.

     After my father passed away in 1966, the 4^th of July was never the same for me.

     When my children came along we gave up the horseback riding but would still attend the festivities.  When my two children got older, they would ride in the parade with their ball teams, etc.  But, it was not until my son was a teenager that my family had someone back riding a horse in the parade, and then his son after him.

Some of the ‘ole time rough and tough’ cowboys we remember are:

The Hoods – Joe, Les, Marshall, Charley

Cecil Ellis – one of the most well-known rodeo clowns

Bill and Cotton Proctor

Johnny and Eddie Boren

Mart Digby & Dan Coats (right) at outdoor rodeo arena in Belton.
(Taken on south end of arena; view is east to west. The animal chutes
are located just behind them).

Dan Coats, Rodeo Announcer

Duke Gibbs, Rodeo Producer

Johnny Mellon (Who did not love that man?)

The Prater and Elms boys

Harold Watson

Red Walker

Bud Humphries”

Source: Rita (Digby) Locklin (“Rita”):

     “July 4^th was always one of the favorite holidays in the Digby house.  I was the youngest of five children.  Jeannine and Mattie were the oldest two and were married and out of the house before I really started to participate in the 4^th activities, other than going to the parade and getting together with family and friends for bar-b-que.

     We had moved to town, when I was 3 years old.  So I guess you would call us “city cowboys and cowgirls.”  Dwayne, Gale, and I each had our own horse, and we were members of the Belton Riding Club.

     One of my favorite things we did each 4^th was the booster trips.  The Chamber of Commerce would organize the trips and half the town would participate.  The week before the 4^th was when we would have the booster trips.  Each day we would go a different direction.  Our cars would all be decorated with signs and red, white and blue crepe paper.  There was a flatbed truck with bales of hay, and each town we would go through, we would stop and the country western band would set up on the flatbed truck and play.  It would really bring the town people out and we’d all dance in the street.  Dwayne would help Dan Coats (rodeo announcer) put signs in the store windows, and Gale and I and some of the other kids from the riding club would  pass out flyers.

     The parade was one of the grandest.  Two or three of the businesses would go together and have a float made.  Some of the prettiest you’ve ever seen.  Miss Belton and the Dutchesses would ride on the floats.  We always had a lot of floats.

     We always rode in the parade.  We always had to have our horses clean and groomed.  This was always great family fun: Dad, Dwayne, Gale, and I getting our horses ready and mom getting us ready.    

Mart Digby at the Belton Car Mart.

We’d go to Dad’s car lot after the parade.  There was always lots of family, and friends from all around would gather there.  We would take our nieces and nephews riding on our horses.  We would ride our horses home, unsaddle them, rub them down, and feed them and then back to the fun in town.  Some of us kids would walk to the carnival from the car lot (Belton Car Mart behind what is now the Bell County Museum) to Yettie Polk Park.  I’ll never forget winning a big black and white teddy bear for a nickel.  I had to pitch nickels and try to get it in a little glass bowl.  I won that bear on my first pitch.  Then I think I tried 5 or 6 more and never got it in.  We could go to the carnival with $ 2.00 and we thought we had a lot.  Today, you can’t play but one game for that.

Rodeo:

     We would go to the rodeo every night.  We always rode in the grand entry each night.  We always wore our boots, hats, jeans, and those starched, long sleeved western shirts.  The rodeo arena was outdoors (where the youth center is now), and back in those days, the 50’s and 60’s, we never thought much about the heat.  We were having too much fun.

     There were a lot of Bell County cowboys riding in those days.  Many of them were friends of my family and we really cheered them on.

Parade:

     I got married in 1963, and my husband wasn’t a cowboy (He liked fast cars), but he loved the 4^th of July.  He was in the army in Fort Sill, Oklahoma when we got married – but he made sure we got home on the 4^th.

     I had kind of given up my horses then to raise a family.  We had four children and I don’t guess we ever missed a parade with them – Loyd would always go early to get a spot on the courthouse lawn.  We enjoyed the music and goings on before the parade started.  Our daughter was in the Marching 100 and always marched in the 4^th parade, and the boys would ride their ball team floats.  One year we had a float for First Texas Bank (where I work), and some of my grandkids rode on it with water guns.

The Park:

     After the parade, Loyd and I (with the kids and later we added the grandkids) and some out of town friends would go to the park with our lawn chairs, blankets, and picnic lunch and spend the rest of the day.  We would listen to the Old Fiddler’s Contest and other music.  Us girls enjoyed the arts and crafts.  The kids loved the activities for them, and it was hard to keep them out of the creek.  We really enjoyed visiting with so many old friends from out of town.  So many people always would come home for the 4^th of July.”

    

Misc. memories of 1950’s – 1960’s of Billy Blair regarding July 4^th events in Belton, Texas:

1.        I remember that there were always 1-2 black men with shovels and trash cans on wheels to scoop up all the horse poop at the end of the parade.

2.       I believe that two trick riders with the U.S. and Texas flags would sprint their horses side by side down the length of the rodeo arena (south to  north) to begin the grand-entry.  There were so many horses that followed them in that you weren’t sure any more horses would fit into the arena.

3.       I remember our family watching the parade from inside First National Bank in later years (high school).  My dad would open the doors, but leave the black, iron gates in front of them locked so that we could hear the sounds of the parade.  I remember that Noah, who worked at the bank, was usually there with us.

4.       I remember being on a float as one of the men in uniform raising the flag at Iwo Jima.  Bucky Couch was across from me  and I think both of us leaned on the flag too much, making it difficult to stay in the correct position.  This was the only time I was ever in the parade.

5.       I remember that during the outdoor rodeo one night, a calf got injured during the calf roping and had to be killed.  After the rodeo, our family, relatives, and several of the cowboys stayed around while it was butchered.  I remember seeing the stomach being hung over the wooden fence.

6.       Carnival: I remember playing the game where you threw darts to break the balloons and was amazed that I seemed to hit every available space OTHER than the balloons.  I also remember throwing balls to knock over wooden bottles (painted white).  Even though I would hit them square in the middle, they would not fall (except for maybe the top bottle).  I also remember tossing plastic rings into glasses of water (the reflections from the many evenly spaced glasses disoriented your view).  I remember the penny arcade (“grip” machine; scantily clad “girly”photo cards you could look at through a viewer – which all kids were scared to do because their parents would find out; shooting gallery…).

7.       Main street (going north to south), then west to east on Central Avenue was the normal parade route.  Those streets were lined with people (several deep).  Getting to downtown early enough to get somewhere with a decent view was a big consideration on the day of the parade.

Other memories/ stories:
a.   Billy Ed Wilson (who was Mart Digby's nephew and a small child at the time) and Mart Digby were at the outdoor Belton Rodeo.  They were sitting on the east side in the stands enjoying the rodeo when a man pulled up in a van outside the rodeo fence behind them.  He was trying to see the rodeo without buying a ticket.  The man sat on top of his van.  Billy Ed would occasionally stand up and yell while he was enjoying the rodeo.  The man on the van would yell out, "Sit down, you little bastard!"  He said this several times.  Mart Digby quietly got up, walked over to the man, yanked him off the van, and punched him out. 

Sources: Bernetta Peebles wrote an article in The Belton Journal about the history of Belton’s July 4^th activities and asked the Digby family if they would submit their memories, which they did.  Mattie (Digby) Wesson’s daughter, Diane, knew that I would enjoy having this information, so she typed it up and sent it by way of her mother to me, along with a copy of the newspaper article.  I am forever grateful to them for doing this.  I will continue to add photos and other information/ memories regarding July 4^th Belton activities to this blog post as I find them. – Billy Blair.

1.  The Belton Journal newspaper article by Bernetta Peebles about the Belton Rodeo.

2.  Photos from the Belton Public Library.

3.  The children of Mart & Pearl Digby: Jeannine Blair; Mattie Wesson; Dwayne & JoAnn Digby; Gale Cosper; Rita Locklin.

4.  Billy Blair

5.  Photos from the children of Mart & Pearl Digby (especially Gale Cosper) as well as Pearl Digby.

6.  Barbara (Reed) Thornton Gillam scrapbook (Image of Belton Rodeo ticket from the 1960s).
7.  Billy Ed Wilson (memory of he and Mart Digby at the outdoor Belton Rodeo).
8.  Article referring to Emmett Digby and his trick horse, Grey Buck, in The Victoria Advocate dated October 2, 1938.
9.  Mattie (Digby) Wesson & Jeannine (Digby) Blair: July 26, 2006.
10. Pat Digby and Kay (Digby) Claunch: September, 2006.