Pederson’s Broken Heart Ranch – 3
On November 23, 2014, we said goodbye to our wife,
mother, grandma and great-grandma, and ranch matriarch,
Helen Pederson. She left us 96 years young and after being
married to Grandpa Ralph for just over 71 years!
Grandma lead a great life. It’s hard to imagine all the
changes Grandma witnessed. Grandma Helen was a true
ranch wife – many ladies of her era were housewives who
occasionally helped on the ranch. Grandma Helen was
a ranch wife through and through who could and would
complete any task on the ranch. Two of her favorite ranch
activities were working cattle, where she always had to be
bringing cattle up the alley (even at 80+ years of age) and
driving silage truck – I don’t think her foot knew where the
brake was at!
Grandma offered a vision and foresight that made our
ranch the success it is today – both on the cattle and horse
parts of our operation. It was her vision that convinced
Grandpa Ralph that we needed to breed our then commer-
cial Hereford cattle to Red Angus bulls, and then pushed
him to purchase our first Red Angus female in the early
1960s. That decision has allowed us to remain faithful Red
Angus breeders for well over 50 years.
It was Grandma’s love and passion of horses, especially
racehorses, that drove our ranch legacy of breeding Quar-
ter Horses for over 50 years too. Grandma appreciated the
economic impact of the cattle portion of our ranch, but her
true love was her horses. Because of her love and dedica-
tion of breeding, she and Grandpa’s home is filled with rac-
ing awards from around the country. They even bred and
raised an AQHA World Champion in Western Riding.
Grandma was a humble and kind individual. She knew hard
times and even harder work, both of which made her ap-
preciate good times and success.
We’ll miss you Grandma Helen, but know you are watch-
ing cows and mares grazing belly deep in hard West River
grass, while their calves and foals are playing in the sun on
the hillside. We also know you won life’s greatest race, and
will be winning many more horse races in heaven.
We pledge to keep your humbleness, passion, faith, work
ethic and kindness alive for many generations to come.
