Here’s another chance to revisit some of the great women’s bass organizations of the past. I came across this amazing photo of the Texarkana Bass’N Babes featuring a lot of their members, as well as a lot of their tournament trophies. It was part of a write-up from a story in Fishing Facts magazine authored by Genie Howard in February 1977. They had just finished holding a Powder Puff Tournament the previous year (June 12-13) at Millwood Lake, AR.
The event had 85 lady contestants from 6 states: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Unfortunately, they only listed the top-10 finishers for the event and the only name I recognized was Chris Houston, who finished in 6th place.
The tournament had a lot of industry support, some of the biggest names in the industry at the time. Here are Genie Howard’s words regarding the companies that supported the event:
“Our top prize was $1000.00 cash and, thanks to Ron Pierce of Bass Cat Boats, a beautiful special color, fuchsia and white, high performance bass boat as well. We had help from so many people in the fishing industry. People such as: Jim Bagley, of Bagley Bait Co.; Forrest Wood, of Ranger Boats; Jim Rogers, of Silvertroll; Jim Jost, of Evinrude Motors; Bill Norman, of Norman Lures; Lindy Tackle Co.; Creme Lure Co.; Fishing Facts Magazine; Heddon Bait Co.; Lowrance Electronics; Lazy Ike Co.; Nasty Bait Co.”
Here’s the Top-10 as listed in the article:
- Freda Cleveland – Tulsa, OK
- Polly Bryan – Ashdown, AR
- Maxine Lawrence – El Dorado, AR
- Rosemary Lach – Texarkana, AR
- Barbara McConnel, El Dorado, AR
- Chris Houston, Tahlequa, OK
- Judy Grady – Texarkana, AR
- Carol Massey – Little Rock, AR
- Nancy Millican – Houston, TX
- LaMona Eley – Little Rock, AR
If any of the lady anglers out there can put names with the faces in the image above, please leave a comment below. It’d be cool to have all their names listed with this piece.
I will see if Mom (Genie) can name them all.
Tom, now that would be cool.
A little more backstory for you, Terry. Linda Scott (Bobbie Cutshall’s daughter) here. My daughter, Taylor Kennedy (Bobbie Cutshall’s granddaughter and Judy Matthew’s great niece) looked Judy (Bobbie’s sister and my Aunt) up online and found the article, so she asked me about it. I showed the article and picture to Aunt Judy and asked her how many she could name and she was able to come up with a few. Then we reached out to Genie via Facebook on the 17th, especially since she wrote the article. Genie, my mom, my aunt and a couple of other ladies from the Texarkana area were the founding members of the Texarkana Bass’n’Babes bass fishing club. They were certainly trailblazers! Sadly, many of them have passed on, but some of those still living are on Facebook and are pitching in with names of those they remember, so we’re working on getting as complete a list as possible very soon.
Linda, wow!!! I really appreciate what you and Tom are doing to help us preserve these ladies’ history. For a long time both Brian (the author of this piece) and I have wanted to dedicate a full monthly column to the ladies who took on competitive bass fishing back in the 70s. There is a rich history of these trailblazers and we would hate to see it all die. Our problem, which is illuminated by this picture, is we don’t know much about the ladies’ leagues. It’s hard to write about the history when we don’t know anything about it. With help like you and Tom are providing, it gets us a little closer. Now if we could just find someone to help us with a column, that would be eve better.
Thank you so much for all your help. As soon as you’ve exhausted your contacts and you have the list of ladies as complete as you can get it, let us know and we’ll update the image with everyone’s name in it. You can reach me at terry@bass-archives.com Thank you again! Terry
R – L front row: Jo Ann Hawthorne, Lucille ? (had a store on Sugar Hill), Terry ?, Betty ?, Bobbie Cutshall
L- R 2nd row: Jeanie ?, Linda Morgan, Polly Brian, Fran Wade, Barbara Penny, Mary Stueart
L- R. 3rd row. ?, Rosemary Lach,, Ruby ?, Genie Howard,, Juanita Trammel, Judy Mathew, Sue Morgan, Carol Neilson
Tom, wow. This is awesome. I appreciate you running this to ground for us. It would be a shame to have these ladies’ legacy be lost to history. We appreciate all you are doing!