Ansel's last ride... he threw a leg over and rode what he brought... off to his Saviors side in Glory

Ansel Noble Marshall, 100 years old, still of sound mind and his gentle wit, passed away peacefully at his home in Bend, Oregon with his wife Cyndy at his side on March 15, 2015

Ansel was born at his grandparents homestead in Troy, Iowa practically horseback. With his father making his living with horses, being a freighter and then as a race horse trainer, the Marshall family traveled and lived many places west of the Mississippi. Ansel became the family jockey at age 13, after his older brother’s death. They raced all over, up and down the west coast from Vancouver BC to Tijuana, MX. Ansel had many wins and track records; he raced with the legends Johnny Longden, Georgie Woolf, Eddie Arcaro, and Red Pollard. In 1935 he gave up the irons, and went to training race horses and working all facets of the industry. In 1938, Ansel found himself training race horses on the breeding farm of J.D. Spreckles III in Prineville, OR. There he met the love of his life Martina Wilkes, they were married in 1940 in Yuma, AZ in between race meets. While still working the tracks and training horses in SoCal, their son Terry Van was born in 1942. Ansel and Martina enjoyed 64 years of marriage and many, many gatherings with friends.

In 1944, tired of the vagabond lifestyle of horse racing, Ansel, who always dreamed of owning a ranch, purchased a 40 acre, 5000 head, “turkey” ranch in Redmond, OR. After 2 years of trying to keep turkeys alive and the coyotes at bay … Ansel decided raising turkeys was for the birds, sold out and purchased a cattle ranch on the north side of Malheur Lake at Lawen, OR in Harney County. In following years they purchased the rest of the Hayes ranch north of the Paiute Reservation on the Silvies River.  Ranching and raising fine AQHA horses was his passion for another 60 years. Ansel continued to train a few race horses, made lots of fine cowhorses and rope horses. He bragged of draggin more than 10,000 calves to the fire over the years.

Ansel never had an enemy, maybe a few neighbors unhappy with his fences or the lack there of… he never knew a stranger. Ansel was very involved in the community; he helped bring the Harney Electric Coop lines to Lawen and Crane by gathering signatures while selling insurance door to door, well, ranch to ranch :-) He served on the Crane School Board and the Harney County Fair Board in many different capacities. He proudly served as Fairboard President in 1957 and 1958, and was honored to serve as Grand Marshall in 1989. Ansel said “I’ve been a Marshall all my life, but that was the first I’d ever been a Grand Marshall”. Ansel was also honored to attend the 2014 HC Fair Banquet and to be honored as the oldest living Grand Marshall. Ansel gave selflessly to help many a 4-H’er with their horses. Over the years, the Marshall ranch was home to many young men who lived and worked with Ansel to learn his special way with horses.

Ansel loved to tell his stories; ranging from the family losing everything in 1920 and traveling by covered wagon to TX. and camping out of it for 2 yrs to start over, traveling in box cars with race horses up and down the west coast, flying with Stuart Hamblen’s horse for the maiden flight of a race horse on the west coast, shooting geese on his Lawen ranch with Gary Cooper, and his escapades as a young jockey. He continued sharing those stories right up until his passing.  Ansel will be remembered for his gentle spirit, willingness to help anyone in need and quick wit and sense of humor.

During the 60’s and 70’s of Martina’s many years as a top producing  Avon District Manager, the Marshall’s kept a 2^nd home in Klamath Falls as her distribution base. In addition to running the ranch, Ansel logged 1000’s of miles across the State of Oregon, delivering bulk Avon shipments for Martina.  During the early 80’s the Klamath home was sold and the rural Bend property was purchased. While keeping their strong ties to Harney County, Ansel and Martina sold most of the ranch and retired to Bend in the early 90’s, continuing their breeding program and selling their fine horses. Their son Terry joined them in Bend during the late 90’s, helping with marketing and care of the property. Ansel was still caring for and feeding his horses until 2012.

Following Martina’s death in 2004 and son Terry’s untimely death a few months later, Ansel married Cyndy Coleman, longtime friend and fellow rancher from Burns, OR. She brought him great happiness in the last 10 of his 100 years. Together they crossed many items off his bucket list; like attending the Belmont Stakes to see a possible Triple Crown, putting his toes in the beach sands of the Atlantic, seeing Old Faithful, seeing the homestead in Troy, IA where he was born, finding his brother’s grave in SLC, finding former homes in SLC, OK, San Ysidro, and San Bruno, seeing his parents graves for the first time in Chula Vista, CA. and lastly to be able to pass into eternity peacefully at home.  

Loving Jesus and serving Him, was a huge part of Ansel’s 100 years. His Mama taught him to love the Lord as a tiny tyke and he always found a church home where ever he lived. He attended Westside Church of Bend for more than 24 years and spent his last three years at Whiterock Cowboy Fellowship in Redmond, OR. Neither snow, nor rain, nor sleet kept 100 yr old Ansel from attending every Sunday and when he just couldn't make it to the last Sunday Service, Pastors Dave and Ramona of Whiterock CF brought their guitars to the house and sang worship at his bedside and he just smiled and smiled…

Ansel is survived by his wife Cyndy , of Bend, OR, step son Eric Smith, grandchildren Taylor and Tage Smith of Salem, OR. Almost adopted son, Robert Meck, brother’s in law, Bob Stoy and George Sahlberg, niece Granita Wilkes Russell and husband Tom, and niece Pam Stoy Feely and husband Frank and many many great and great great nieces and nephews. Most of all Ansel is survived by many dear friends who became family, and their children who became grandchildren, they are too numerous to mention.

A Celebration of Life for Ansel Marshall will be held Saturday, April 4^th at 1:00PM at Whiterock Cowboy Fellowship, 5247 NE 15^th St. Redmond, OR. (2 mi east of Hwy 97, off the O’Neil Hwy) In lieu of flowers please make a donation in Ansel’s memory to the Harney County 4-H, c/o Lafollette’s Chapel, PO Box488, Burns, OR 97720.

Yes, he's a BIG DEAL !! Ansel will join the ranks of Centenarian on August 1st !!!

"Friend" Ansel on Facebook

     and be a bright spot in his day by posting a "Hello" to him.

I've been posting his stories and memories on his Facebook page

There are also lots of photo albums to check out:

  The Early Years
  Ansel's Racing
  Ansel and Martina
  Terry Van Marshall
  Ranching in Harney County
  Ansel and Friends

https://www.facebook.com/anselmarshall

Thanks, cyndy

Ansel loves cards

We are back in Bend after spending the coldest winter months at the Buckeye Ranch south of Tracy, CA. Ansel would very much love to hear from you. He loves getting cards, notes and especially post cards. Drop him a note and make his day !! Shoot me an email and I'll give you the mailing address if you don't have it. cowhorse7@yahoo.com

We will be celebrating Ansel's 95th birthday Aug 1st

When any one inquires of me how is Ansel doing? I always respond by saying, "He's still going, he's the energizer bunny in 4-low (4-low, referring to a how slow a 4x4 pick up goes in 4-low) He doesn't go very far very fast, but he keeps going".




When I saw this trailer parked at the Shilo Inn up the street, I turned around, drove back and made Ansel get out of the car to let me take this picture. The trailer was in town for the Hot Air Balloon Festival that was going on that weekend. One of the balloons was the "Energizer Bunny".


What keeps him going is feeding his horses every morning and every night. We have an elec golf cart with a utility bed on the back, I load the hay for him, and he drives around and feeds every day. For the horses in the barn, I wrestle the hay bales around, and put the hay in front of the stalls and then he feeds each one. He's been using a cane since Christmas, and takes that with him on the cart to feed the horses. I do the watering and take care of the fencing (such as it is) but he still feeds his babies every morning and every night.

In this picture Ansel is giving long time friend Judy Moorehouse a tour of the horses. Note the Mercedes emblem on the front of the cart. :0) When it's muddy or snowy the cart never misses a beat with the rear chains on.

A Nice Visit at Buckeye Ranch

This is the main gate into the ranch, it's 5 miles from the end of the county road. The pic was actually taken on a previous May visit. The hills are all green right now.

Larryann was trying to bond with one of her pups, and the cats wouldn't hear of it. They raise McNab cattle dogs. My Lucy is one of theirs. If you are interested, their contact information is on their website. http://www.pwlivestock.com/

Averyel Willis and Ansel enjoyed sharing some stories. Averyel was widowed last summer. She and her former husband, Porter A, live on the Buckeye in their own house, just down the hill from Port and Larryann's house.

Averyel fixed us a lovely dinner down at her house. It was a great Italian chicken dish that I can't pronounce. Ansel is there too, my self timer camera missed him.

There is a pig inside the dog house... Actually she is "Oink" Larryann's pet pig.

Ansel meets Greg Kent, who owns the Buckeye Ranch. Greg invests lots of thought into restoration projects and water development on the ranch.

Mutt and Jeff... Greg was a professional NFL football player for the Raiders, and as you know Ansel was a jockey.

Driving from San Ysidro, north to the Buckeye

When we left San Ysidro, Ca which is the US/Mexican border, we headed north to spend the night with friends at the Buckeye Ranch, which is west of Modesto and south of Tracy. It was about a 6 hour drive. I took this next picture, when I realized that we were almost the only vehicle on the highway north. It was a little uncanny, I was wondering if something was wrong. It didn't take very long though as we got closer to LA, before the traffic looked like this. I think it took longer to go through the LA area as it did to drive from there to the Buckeye.

Here's another one of those clever cell phone towers. This one looked more like fir tree.

Here's a truck load of Lemon's headed for the Northwest.

After a long climb up a mountain pass, when we came down the other side, the San Joaquin valley opened up for as far as you could see. All irrigated farmland. It was beautiful, well except for the wind. The wind was insane. The picture below is of a corrugated flood irrigated field.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd we had lunch at my newest favorite place. mmmmmmmmm In N Out. What I love about an In N Out, is you only go there to eat hamburgers and fries. Three choices on the menu; single, double or triple with fries. The fries are made literally fresh at each one. You can see them, washing the taters, peeling, them and putting them in the slicer and then carrying them to the fryer. mmmm they are so good. I feel that they have above average help than other fast food places.

Then it was on to the Buckeye. Once you get to the gate, then it's a 30 minute drive to go the 5 miles into the ranch.