Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Anne Marion
On the eve of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, an extended cattle drive will take place in the Fort Worth Stockyards, honoring one of city's trailblazers of Western culture.
The cattle drive — dubbed "Point Em' West" — will take place Wednesday at 4 p.m. in commemoration of Anne Marion, the iconic Fort Worth rancher, horse breeder, business executive, philanthropist, and art collector, who died in February at the age of 81.
The cattle will follow an extended route that starts at the Fort Worth Livestock Exchange building, heads west across North Main Street onto West Exchange Avenue, and ends at the new, seasonal Four Sixes Supply House at 200 W. Exchange Ave.
The Fort Worth Herd and cowboys from the Four Sixes Ranch, which was founded by Marion's great-great grandfather Samuel “Burk” Burnett, will participate in the cattle drive. Loan agency Lone Star Ag Credit is the underwriter for the event.
“We are honored to be part of this special cattle drive,” Kristin Jaworski, trail boss of the Fort Worth Herd, said in a statement. “Anne Marion was an important female leader in Fort Worth and in Western culture and paved the way for many with her philanthropy and leadership.”
Marion was particularly involved in the arts, contributing to the construction and design of a new building for the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in 2002, as well as founding the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe.
But she was also a cowgirl, serving as the City of Fort Worth’s honorary trail boss in the Fort Worth Herd’s inaugural cattle drive held on June 13, 1999.
Notably, during that first drive through the city, Comanche Chief Quanah Parker and Burk Burnett paused at the north steps of the Tarrant County Court House to remember their ancestors’ mutual respect and progressive business relationship that established routes to the railheads of Kansas.
As a homage to that moment, the Fort Worth Herd will honor both Marion (the great-great granddaughter of Burnett) and Ben Tahmahkera (the great-great-grandson of Quanah Parker) by welcoming a new steer named "Tahmahkera." A naming ceremony will take place prior to Wednesday's cattle drive.
The cattle drive is free and open to the public. Prior to the event, a spiritual blessing of the Fort Worth Herd will take place at 3:30 p.m. on the north side of the stock pens; and after the drive, cowboy artist Chance Hays will live paint original works of art at the Four Sixes Supply House.
