Helen Kleberg Groves passed away peacefully at home in San Antonio, Texas on Friday, May 6, 2022.
Raised on the King Ranch, Helen led a rich and varied life in pursuit of her passions: ranching, land, livestock, good horses, and family.
Helen ranched her entire life, from overseeing King Ranch’s Buck and Doe Run Valley Farms in Chester County, Pennsylvania, to her own Silverbrook Farms in Staunton, Virginia, to Silverbrook Ranches in Texas, she focused on raising the best Santa Gertrudis cattle and Quarter Horses in the country. She campaigned many champion cutting horses including Miss Peppy Also and Pay 21. She was a skilled rider and loved competing across the country, winning many championship buckles and collecting limitless friends along the way. Known as the ‘First Lady of Cutting,’ she was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1998.
As a rancher, horsewoman, educator and philanthropist, Helen left an indelible mark on the ranching industry. Her contributions will be felt for generations to come. In 2006, she was the recipient of the National Golden Spur Award.
In 2020, Ranch Record editor Sue Jones had the opportunity to speak to Helen—along with another notable woman of the West, Linda Mitchell Davis—about their experiences. The following article appeared in the Fall 2020 issue of Ranch Record.
Women of the West
By Sue Hancock Jones
No one has ever named a woman the Grand Dame of Ranching, but Helen Kleberg Groves and Linda Mitchell Davis would be contenders for the title on the Texas/New Mexico side of the American West.
The two women are each fourth-generation ranchers born three years apart to famous ranching fathers. Their names are forever linked to the ranches that “birthed” them and the ranches they own.
“When you talk to Helen Kleberg again, tell her I send my most fond regards,” Linda Davis said as we ended our recent phone conversation. That conversation actually began with a call from 93-year-old Helen who read our recent Ranch Record article about Linda Davis.
Helen called to tell me that I should ask 90-year-old Linda about the time she was bitten by a rattlesnake. Like a good editor, I followed the story, particularly when the great-granddaughter of Capt. Richard King of the King Ranch calls to make a suggestion.
Both Helen and Linda have ranching heritage in their DNA. Linda is the daughter of Albert Mitchell, who owned the Tequesquite Ranch north of Tucumcari, N.M., and managed the nearby half-million-acre Bell Ranch. His impact on the ranching and livestock industry was so great that he served four terms as president of the American Quarter Horse Association and was the first person honored with the National Golden Spur Award in 1978.
Linda Mitchell Davis was recently given the Women of the West Award by Western Horseman magazine for her continuous contributions to the stock horse and ranching industries. She was named to the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the National Golden Spur Award in 1992.
All the awards and her years on the 147-year-old CS Ranch in Cimarron, N.M., might not have happened if a snakebite hadn’t resulted in a frantic 180-mile drive from the secluded ranch to the nearest hospital in Raton, N.M.
Linda was 4 years old when her mother died and left her grandmother to look after the three children. One day Linda was playing catch and chase with her brother in tall grass when he accidentally kicked a rattlesnake just as she ran up behind him. The snake retaliated by biting Linda on the inside left ankle.
Linda’s father was out of town and her frantic grandmother couldn’t drive, so a couple working on the secluded ranch put her in the car and headed for Raton. At the same time a young doctor at the hospital headed out from Raton to meet them on the road in Springer. The year was 1939 and the doctor had interned in San Antonio, where he was able to gain experience with rattlesnake bites. He lanced the bite and drove Linda 60 miles to the Raton hospital from Springer. She stayed in the hospital for nearly a week and then recovered slowly at home until she could put weight on her ankle again.
Both women grew up surrounded by remoteness. Helen’s father—Robert (Bob) Kleberg Jr.—operated the King Ranch for 56 years before his death. Helen remembers that one of the biggest changes in her youth was completion of the first stretch of Highway 77 cutting through the King Ranch from Kingsville to Brownsville. Wagon tracks were all that existed before the highway was built.
As children, both women were initially homeschooled using the Calvert school system correspondence course. Both rode and roped as children and eventually went off to eastern schools. Linda attended Cornell University and Helen went to Vassar College. Neither one finished college because they both came home to family emergencies.
Helen was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1998 and received the National Golden Spur Award in 2006. She was inducted into the National Cutting Horse Association Hall of Fame in 1996 and over the years has become known as the “first lady of cutting.” Helen spent decades competing in major cutting shows and breeding, raising and riding cutting horses on her Silverbrook Ranch south of Baird, Texas.
Helen has moved off the ranch and into San Antonio now that she is in her ninth decade. Linda, on the other hand, is still on the CS Ranch but admits she doesn’t get out of the house much and her hearing makes visiting on the phone a little difficult.
Both women have six children, and the children share that same DNA passion for horses. They also share a unique heritage passed to them from strong women who grew up in the saddle.
When Helen Kleberg Groves called to suggest I check on the rattlesnake story, our conversation wandered in unique directions. She advised me to iron my shirts with the old flat irons like the pioneers used.
“Do you iron with a flat iron?” I asked.
“I used to,” she said. “When I lived in Virginia, I would put the iron on my electric stove to get it hot and then I’d iron my shirts. That’s the best ironing you’ll ever get.”
As we were about to hang up, Helen said she was headed upstairs to bed.
“Do you have stairs in your house?” I said.
“They’re good for you,” she answered. “Stairs keep you healthy and in shape.”
Of course they do. You’re a woman of the West.
In lieu of flowers, Helen’s obituary requests that donations be made to the various charities she supported. Helen was a long-time Society of the Brand member of the Ranching Heritage Association and to honor her memory, the RHA executive committee will be making a donation to the association in her name. If you are moved to support the mission of promoting and preserving the ranching way of life, you can make a memorial contribution here.
