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Gloria England: A Real Arizona Ranch
Woman Returns to the 77th Florence Junior
Parada Open Rodeo and Parade 2009
Gloria and her animal pens with
her favorite cow.
Gloria England had the
distinct honor of being the very first female parade
marshal for the Florence, Arizona, Junior Parada Rodeo
back in 1955. Now, fifty-four years later, she is being
honored as the parade marshal for the 77th
Junior Parade once again.
Her fascinating life
reads like a best selling novel. At age five she moved
with her parents from Phoenix to Kearney. She fell in
love with he ranching life on visits to a small ranch of
her uncle, Ernest Bass. She attended ASU, married Jemes
Elkner, the father of her twin boys. He was killed on
the island of Luzon during World War II. She became a
fashion model in the forties in Los Angeles.
From the 1940's; Gloria on a horse
reaching up to decorate a saguaro cactus for
Christmas. Photo Courtesy Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.
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She came back to
Arizona and met Cecil England at her uncle’s
ranch. England at the same time owned the A
Diamond and the Battle Axe ranches east of
Florence. After marrying Cecil in 1947, they
farmed cotton near Coolidge and raised cattle.
In 1958 England purchased the Rafter Six Ranch
near Kearney and the F Mountain Ranch near
Poston Butte in Florence. |
The F Mountain Ranch
location is a part of early Florence, Arizona, and Pinal
County history. It originally belonged to Aaron and
Charles Mason. Charles Mason was one of the original
founders and owners of the Silver King Mine that was
discovered in 1875 and made Florence into a boom town.
The Masons sold the ranch to James Treat who was known
as the land merchant of Florence. He is the one who sold
it to Cecil England. Gloria learned firsthand the work
and joy of cattle ranching from some of the Florence
cowboys like Eddie Vasquez and Leonard Le Baron. The
Englands sold the F Mountain in 1976 and bought a track
of land between Florence and Coolidge and called it Las
Campanas. The property was basically just the land
surrounded by perimeter fences and a few tanks.
Tragedy struck that same
year when Cecil died. Gloria was left to build the
property into a fully operational ranch with house,
corrals, wells, and cross fencing. An Arizona Republic
article of 1983 by A. V. Gullette, quotes Gloria, "I
wasn’t ready to join the sewing circles yet," so she
hitched up her Levi’s and went to work. By 1978 she was
one of four-hundred-sixty-seven women in Arizona who
were sole or principle operators of ranches or farms.
Arizona Days and Ways did
a feature article on her in 1962 titled, "The Cowboy is
a Lady." The article described Gloria the way, "her life
is not all riding, branding and tending to calving cows
and sick steers. She also does the things any wife and
mother does. She cooks, keeps house and finds time to
entertain friends. She paints, does mosaics, studies
French and practices that fast-vanishing art of home
canning. She apparently enjoys it all, whether it is
canning or cutting cattle, although the latter might
have a slight edge. Cattle, she said, is a personal
thing with her.
Over the years, Gloria
was an active member of Arizona Cattlegrowers
Association, AgriBusiness Women and secretary of the
Southern Arizona Cattlemen’s Protective Association.
Truly this woman was a
real trailblazer and inspiration to generations of
cowboys and cowgirls. The 77th Florence
Junior Parada is honored to have Gloria England return
as its parade marshal. The parade will be on Saturday,
November 28th, 2009, down Main Street in
historic Florence, Arizona and will begin at 10:00 a.m..
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