Award-Winning Secretary/Timer Brenda Crowder Passes Away
Brenda Crowder, the 2019 PRCA Secretary of the Year and 2020 Timer of the Year, passed away Aug. 21 in Stephenville, Texas. She was 69.
Crowder, who was a timer at the National Finals Rodeo in 2001, had been involved as a PRCA secretary and timer since 1974. She was the secretary at the 2020 National Finals Steer Roping in Mulvane, Kan.
“She grew up in Dallas, and then after that we moved all over,” said Shawna Ray, Brenda’s daughter, a PRCA timer. “Her dad, Bill (Crowder), was a roper, and her mom, Pat, was a rodeo secretary. That’s how she got involved with rodeo. What she loved most about the rodeo business was all the guys. She loved every one of them. She loved helping the guys with anything they needed. She loved all the committees and contractors she worked for.”
Judy Crowder Jackson, Brenda’s sister, is also a rodeo timer.
“We get to travel all over the country working rodeos together,” Brenda said before working the Jr. NFR in June. “This is the best life that I can imagine living. We have so much fun together, and I wouldn’t trade my life for anything.”
Brenda worked the RAM Texas Circuit Finals Rodeo for years and was most recently working as a secretary and timer for Stace Smith Pro Rodeos.
PRCA announcer Mike Mathis, a friend of Brenda’s for more than 30 years, praised what she did in the rodeo business.
“I know of no one who loved rodeo more than Brenda,” Mathis said. “It was her life. She was not only an amazing secretary and timer, but she loved every aspect of rodeo, the people and was fiercely loyal to cowboys and cowgirls. She did so many things for me from fixing programs to finding information for me. She was an amazing friend. She was so dedicated to this sport and the PRCA.”
Mathis remembered some of their times together.
“Back in the day, we used to do a lot of Bad Company rodeos,” Mathis said. “They were noted for having huge numbers of contestants. Sometimes in slack alone, we might have had 300 to 400 runs. It used to tire out everybody, except Brenda. When Brenda mashed the watch the last time, she would say, “Is that all? Do we have some more?’ She loved it.
“She worked at her job. She not only loved it and cared about it, it mattered to her that her timing job was something she understood that she had somebody’s future, career, paycheck in her hand. She was adamant that she was exactly right. Secretary-wise, she just didn’t make a mistake. I’m going to miss her personally and professionally, I’m going to miss her every way there is to miss someone.”
Brenda is survived by her sister, Judy; brother, Dale; daughter, Shawna Ray; and son, Billy Jack Ray.
There will be a visitation from 6 to 8 p.m. (CDT), Aug. 25 and a service at 2 p.m., Aug. 26. Both will be at the Cowboy Church of Erath County in Stephenville.
Courtesy of PRCA