Description

C. W. "Doc' Pardee (b. 1885 - d. 1975) was born in Belleville, Kansas and died July 17, 1975 in Glendale, Arizona

‘Doc” Pardee was a bronc rider, movie maker, rodeo announcer and trainer and breeder of thoroughbred horses. He picked up the nickname “Doc” from his veterinarian school days. He was named to the Arizona Horsemen’s Hall of Fame in 1965 by the Arizona State Horsemen’s Association. He was known for his rodeo announcing at Prescott Frontier Days and for his management of the Arizona Biltmore Stables in Phoenix, Arizona

In his early years, he and his family were driven by drought to new farmland when the  Oklahoma Territory opened up. He rode his first horse race when he was eight. He left home at 10 to work in a cotton gin and went into business for himself at 14 by buying a small livery stable in Wellston, Oklahoma. By 1907 he was buying horses in Nebraska and shipping them to Texas and Oklahoma. He started his own Wild West shows. He was friends with Tom Mix and worked with him at the Selig Polescope Co. 

He was rodeo announcer for many years at the Prescott Frontier Days Rodeo and owned a livery stable there. In 1923, he moved to Phoenix and began a long career buying and selling horses and working at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. In 1942 he acquired acreage in Glendale where he maintained a horse breeding farm. In 1968 he was named honorary chairman of Prescott Frontier Days.

His wife, Edith M. Pardee (b. 1889 - d. 1975), died in April 1975. He died at his Glendale home. The Pardees are buried under a joint headstone  in Glendale Memorial Park and Cemetery.

The back of the photograph carries the following names:

Top Row: 2. Homer Wood; 3. Lawyer Hammond, 4. E. A. McSwigger

Row 2: Floyd Thebold

Row 4: 1. ‘Doc’ Pardee

Row 5: 5. Dave Berry, 6. Roland Mosher (?)

Bottom Row 7. Loyd Jones, 8. Howell Stevers, 9. Fred Riefer, 13. Vernon Eckert

Sources: Obituary Arizona Republic, July 20, 1975, Family Search