Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire obituary of an ol cowboy

I don't think anyone would object to me posting this here, it was in the local newspaper. I have a convoluted attachment to this family, that goes back past me, to my father, mother, and so on.
I might mention you just have to think about rounding up broncs back in the day. To say these fellers were tough is an understatement. Soft spoken, kind to children and women, but tuff as friggin nails. His son J.C. was something like three times R.C.A. national bronc rider champion for those who know what that means. We did have real john waynes once upon a time. This man was one of them: In his memory:

home : obituaries : obituaries Share June 11, 2014


6/11/2014 6:04:00 AM
Obituary: Manuel Albert "Pecos" Trujillo
Manuel Albert �Pecos� Trujillo
Manuel Albert �Pecos� Trujillo

Manuel Albert "Pecos" Trujillo went home to the Lord our Savior and to be with his beloved wife on June 6, 2014. Born on Oct. 8, 1914, in Magdalena N.M., Albert was the youngest of six children. He came to live in Prescott, Ariz., at the early age of 5, when his dad went to work driving a mule train for the construction department at Fort Whipple (the Veterans Hospital).

Albert grew up in Prescott, attending Washington Elementary, Prescott Jr. High and Prescott High School. In the early days, Albert spent his spare time rounding up the wild burros and horses that used to populate the Prescott area. At 15, he entered his first pony race at the Prescott Frontier Days rodeo and eventually started riding bareback horses and started putting on little rodeos in Jackass Flats (Prescott Valley) and South Gate of Prescott (where Yavapai College sits) with his best friend Earl Hendricks. In 1936, Albert entered his first big rodeo, the Prescott Frontier Days 4th of July performance riding "Man O' War." Albert also spent time working on the many ranches that populated the Prescott area and even tried his hand at acting in some of the Western movies with the likes of Tom Mix and Tex Ritter that were being filmed in and around the Prescott area. During the Depression, Albert took a job with the Works Progress Administration to help support his parents and siblings. A musician at heart, Albert grew up playing the guitar and banjo. Around 1938, Albert was persuaded to head to California with evangelist Ray Boatright to play gospel music and help open up new churches, but the love of Prescott soon brought him back home where he worked for a short time as a stationary engineer with the Santa Fe Railroad before being told to report to Uncle Sam. During WWII he was assigned to Patton's 3rd Army 807th Tank Destroyers Division where he was trained as a medic and received two battle stars for fighting in the European conflict. In 1943, prior to being shipped overseas, Albert married the love of his life, Stella Martinez, on Nov. 30, in Yuma Ariz.

While overseas, Stella stayed with her family in California and gave birth to the first of their three children, Irene. When Albert returned from the war he immediately moved his wife and daughter home to Prescott, where he and Stella had two more children, Frank and J.C. During this time, Albert also went to work at Fort Whipple helping to run the powerhouse. He worked at the VA until he retired after 29 years of service.

From the time that Albert moved his family back to Prescott, he and Stella devoted their lives to raising their children. They would spend their off-time taking their children and many of the other kids from Prescott to countless rodeos. They also enjoyed fishing, camping and enjoying all the great things rural Prescott had to offer. Albert spent many hours team roping and often found himself "sitting" on a saddle so his good friend George Phippen could use him as a model for his art work. The Western way of life was something that Albert not only lived, but a tradition that he lovingly passed to his children down to his great-great grandchildren. Albert would spend hours reciting Western poems, singing the old cowboy songs and telling the true stories of his youth.

After retirement, he and Stella joined the Fraternal Order of the Moose and began to travel to Mexico with close friends from the Moose. It was not long before they both fell in love with Kino Bay, Mexico, where they built their winter home. He and Stella would travel to Kino until they could no longer travel.

Albert never met a person whom he did not like or have a kind word for. He will always be remembered for his passion for life, his smile and his wisdom.

In March of 2013, Albert and Stella moved to the Peridot Assisted Living. In April of 2014 his "first" wife of 70 years, Stella, passed away. A month and half later, Albert left us to be with her.

Albert is also preceded in death by his father Joe, mother Raquel, brother Frank, sisters, Mary, Alice, Frances and Josephine, and many uncles, aunts, and cousins and dear friends. He is survived by his daughter, Irene Trujillo Jenkins; son and daughter-in-law Frank and Anie (Wayman) Trujillo; son and daughter-in-law J.C. and Margo (Growney) Trujillo; niece Margaret Ann (Craig) Migasi; 11 grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; and six great-great-grandchildren.

A celebration of Albert's life will be 10 a.m. Friday, June 13, 2014, at the Hillside Community Church of God, 937 Ruth Street, Prescott, with graveside service to follow.

Donations to the Church of God on Ruth Street appreciated.

Sounds like 1 helluva cowboy!

RIP Manuel Albert �Pecos� Trujillo.

Happy Trails, cowboy.

I stopped reading at Manuel.

Seems a bit narrow minded.

I stopped reading at "grovey".

I'm sorry. I apologize. It was a perfect bp fastball....80mph, belt-high, right down the middle. I HAD to take a swing at it!

Ron

Is what it is boys, is what it is. Atta boy Ron, i'll remember that.

a dick from pennsylvania.

GFY texacan.

Old feller was a real American. RIP.

Born and raised in the US, Grovey, same to ya... GFY, willing to bet you are not an "original" "American". Not many of us are...

Heck of an obit and amazing to me often, that as close as husband and wife can get, over many years, they often seem to die of a broken heart when the other passes and they are often not far behind..

RIP cowboy! GFY Grovey.

Thanks - that was a good read, and a reminder of simpler days.

Thank you for your service, Albert, and may your next chapter be as peaceful as you wish, and spent with loved ones.

I debated about posting that, because i figured it might draw a bonehead or two, which evidently it did.
Funny thing, I really didn't know what racism was until i went to college having been raised around people with mexican heritage, indian, slavic, etc backgrounds. We all kind of accepted each other on the basis of who we were, the kind of people we were/are.
One of the people i hold most dear in my life is an old guy first name orlando. He can trace his family roots back almost to the 1700's in what is present day new mexico. He is a korean war vet among other things, and is more of what i would call an american than some bonehead dripping nose snot from Pa. I have railed on illegal immigration for years on these forums, but it never has had anything to do with race. It would be hard to do, given the croat/slav/russian jew/spanish/mexican/pima indian/ and probably a few other hypens in my family. There is a statue in prescott on the courthouse square. It upsets me everytime i see it, with the names of guys i personally knew that didn't come back from vietnam. One of the names is Yesces. Good german name right? He never got to see his baby girl born while he was spilling his blood in vietnam so some snotnose from Pa can mouth off about the name manuel. So, Mr. Pa. besse mi cola.
if i spelled it right.
oh, i might add, if you had got past the name manuel, maybe you would have noticed his service as a medic in WWII in patton's army. Have a good day at the dentist getting your dueling banjo teeth fixed.

Ron, thanks for posting the Obit. I am a third generation cowboy and have know a few great old ones, hell I am an old one now lol. I really there were more great men in that generation than we see today, hell even the outlaws were better. I know and have known good men in just about every race. I like you never thought about race till I was in the Army, but the trailertrash was just as worthless as the others. I knew of J.C. when he was riding, bet his wife is John Growneys sister. Thanks again for posting about Albert. ED

well, now i am glad i posted the obit thinking some would know of the family out there. J.C. was in my high school class, and i have a captain in the air force, my grandson, who is coming into town tonight, he is related by blood to the family. Which accounts for my rant among other things. There are other family connections too. J.C. is still around by the way, works on the prescott rodeo committee for the frontier days rodeo. One of the chairmen.
I probably shouldn't try to get others to understand the character of these old boys, and women, we have lost a number of them recently. Some of the nicest people you would ever want to know, but just tuff as cobs. Race had nothing to do with it, and it is insulting. I would dearly like to see the results if somebody mouthed off that way in my home town. Albert spent a LOT of time, so did stella, with the kids in prescott, and everybody loved him. We knew he was gonna go, over a broken heart, when stella died a couple months ago. Unless one was raised in it or around it, there is no understanding of the lifestyle.

Thanks, Ron. I knew "Pecos" and when we lived up there had some wonderful moments with him - fine man - soft and hard in all the right places. A true old west cowboy. Did not spend any time with J.C., but well know his successes.

May he RIP in the arms of our Lord. After 70 years of marriage to his "first" wife I imagine he was happy to hit the eternal trail...

AMEN that, may he sit at the Lords table.

Border state sympathizers. Who'd thunk it. No wonder the country is infested.

If you knew me you'd know I'm not a sympathizer.

I do respect and sympathize with American citizens that put their as.s on the line in defense of me and my country.

I don't understand why you're trying to pick a fight where one doesn't exist.