Don & Lynn Kimble
Don Kimble
Douglas - Cochise County
Inducted in 2020
The Kimble family migrated to Arizona in 1919 from Braggs, Oklahoma and Texas. The women of the family claim they landed in the southeast corner of Arizona because it was good ranch country. The men joke the other reason is because it was during prohibition and Agua Prieta, Mexico had whiskey available in large quantities and it was legal. Grass or good whiskey the Kimble family legacy has made the ranching community proud.
“In 1950 I was born in a ranch house about 40 miles northeast of Douglas, to Ralph and June Kimble. I have one older brother, Larry, and one sister, Virginia. I learned the art of ranching from my grandfather and Dad.”
“I learned to ride and rope from my granddad and Dad. We used to ride all day roping and doctoring cattle with screwworms. When I was 12 I started roping range cattle and building my own herd. I started running cows on the family ranch. When I went to college my herd had grown enough for me to lease land of my own.”
“I went to a one room schoolhouse in Apache, attended Douglas High School, Cochise Community College in Douglas and finished up at the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science and Agricultural Education. After graduation I worked around Tucson, putting on roping’s and doing construction work until I came down with Valley Fever. That cost me a lung.”
Kimble came back to Douglas and took a job teaching agriculture and was the rodeo coach for 11 years at Cochise College. “I always liked working with the kids, fine tuning their skills or teaching them horsemanship. I was kept busy staying one jump ahead of them.”
An excellent roper and during his college years he was the West Coast Regional Team Roping Champion for four years. In 1978, Kimble “narrowly missed” qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo. In 1979 and 1980 he logged 100,000 miles traveling to 60 rodeos around the country. His winning more than $7,000 at a single rodeo was a record for many years.
“We had ranched on the ‘home place’ since 1919. But after a year of drought in 2010 I made the decision to sell the ranch in 2013. This ranch is called Silver Creek and in Double Adobe.”
“There is an old saying that you can tell a true cowboy by the type of horse he rides. And I always ride great horses.”
His lifestyle has been hard on him. Kimble has had both knees replaced, a broken neck fixed, a hip replaced, a broken leg and a cut spinal cord. ‘My back is fused, I have rods up both sides.” But I am back to roping now.
“Ranching is synonymous with gambling. The Market, the weather, the financing and everything you do is a gamble. There is no set regiment to guarantee success. You make you own success by your own decisions. When the buyers come to video tape the herd it sells for what the stock market is that day.”
“I would like to be remembered as a person who treated other people jut like he would like to be treated, and that his word was always good. If your word and handshake aren’t good, there are no contracts to make up for that anyway.”
