WILLCOX Cowboy Hall of Fame inductees

W.D. "DEE" WEAR JR. (16)
1913
1991 COWBOY HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE

The following biography was written at the time of Mr. Wear's induction.

W.D. Wear Jr. was born in Marathon, Texas in 1913. When he was only three months old, he came to the ranch his father had homesteaded the previous year in the Sunset area on the eastern slope of the Galiuro Mountains. He spent most of his life on that ranch or on ranches nearby.

While growing up, Wear attended school at the Mountain View schoolhouse, which was built to accommodate the families in the area. One teacher taught all grades at the school. Wear and his sister, Clarice, attended the school with numerous cousins and people from the area. Years later the Mountain View School consolidated with the Sunset School and eventually with the Bonita School.

When hard times hit and the War Finance Company took over, Wear and his family lived on the Eureka Ranch, where his father worked as manager. When the ranch sold to the Boice brothers, the Wear family moved to O-Bar-O, where Wear's father was manager for many years. During that time, Wear was in high school and drove himself to school.

Although Wear says the ranches his dad managed were "home," they always maintained the ranch in the Galiuros. Once again the ranch became home when Wear married his wife, Peggy. They had two children, the late Bob Wear and "Honey" Betty Jo Wear Nicholson.

Until Bob was in the eighth grade, Peggy drove the school bus and the children attended Bonita School. Peggy and the children then moved into Willcox for the children to attend school. They went home to the ranch for some weekends and summer vacations.

Wear raised, trained, showed and sold quarter horses for a number of years, In 1940, Wear, Ernest Browning and Burns Blanton of Bowie went to Ft. Worth, Texas when the American Quarter Horse Association was founded. Not only was he a charter member, but a stockholder and director as well.

He is also a member of the Cochise-Graham Cattle Growers and Arizona Cattle Growers Association. Both Wear and his wife are Honorary Chapter Farmers of the Willcox F.F.A.

The ranch has now grown after the purchase of the DeBorde Ranch, which adjoined their property. They also have land in the Kansas Settlement and on Circle I Road north of Willcox.

Wear has six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren who visit him at the ranch and help with the ranch work whenever they can.