Sparta's Stolt looks back over 76 years of a remarkable life By ROBBY LUCKE Staff Vernon Stolt says it's a small world. He should know. By the time he was 21, he had been a rodeo rider, Golden Gloves boxer and World War II hero. His experience in Europe included surprise encounters with people he had known back home and a heart-wrenching discovery involving family ties. Now 76, he has had eight heart attacks and was clinically dead twice. Stolt has resided in four different states and now enjoys living in Sparta with his wife Carol, whom he married twice. He has plenty of stories to tell. Stolt said when he told his brother Loren he was about to be interviewed, "My brother said, 'If they told everything you've done, the Sears catalog wouldn't be big enough.'"

Carol Stolt sits at the desk her husband Vernon made for her, one of his many woodworking creations seen around their house.

Stolt grew up in Minnesota. He began riding in rodeos when he was 14 or 15. "I've always liked horses," Stolt said. "I still do."

"It's a whole lot different than what they do now," Stolt said. "They got horses out of Montana or Wyoming, wild mustangs."

He remembers well his first experience riding. His father and uncle had taken his brother and him to a rodeo held in a farmer's pasture. The scheduled rider was unable to be there and the announcer offered $10 to any man who could ride a horse named "Thunderhead" three times, then known as "jumps."

Stolt said he asked his brother if he dared him to do it. "My brother said, 'If you want to break your neck, go ahead.'" Handlers would rope a horse and put him down, Stolt said. "You got on him while he was down. One yank of the rope and he was free."

Stolt said the horse's name was deserved. "The first time he went (bucked) five or six times. All I had to hold onto was the mane."

He was allowed to use a rope to hold when he got on a second time. "It was eight minutes before he quit bucking," Stolt said. "I got so scared I froze to him. When he quit bucking, it took three fellas to pry me off him. I was bleeding out of my ears and nose."

His father, however was unaware of his actions. "My dad was at the other end, he couldn't see who it was," he said. "My dad didn't know I'd ridden him until we left. I had cleaned up by then. I told Dad to stop at the gate and collect my money. They gave me $15 and a leather jacket. Let me tell you, I (felt) rich."

Stolt continued in rodeos for about two years. In addition to riding horses, he did some bulldogging, in which "you gotta throw a bull from a horse. I enjoyed that," he said.

"They didn't have rodeos every week," Stolt said, but "sometimes once, sometimes twice a month. In the wintertime they didn't have rodeos."
 
 

Get the rest of this article in this week's issue of the Alleghany News!

Email: news@alleghanynews.com