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Chris LeDoux Statue To Be Dedicated At 2021 Cheyenne Frontier Days
A world champion rodeo cowboy and country music singer from Kaycee has returned to the Daddy of ’em All.
A 12 and 1/2 foot tall bronze statue featuring the late Chris LeDoux on a bucking horse, arrived this past Tuesday (June 22nd) in Cheyenne and was installed on a pedestal, at the park where the annual Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo and Western culture celebration will take place, from July 23rd through August 1st.
A CFD spokesperson says the 125th anniversary of Cheyenne Frontier Days will be dedicated to LeDoux.
The statue will be dedicated in a ceremony on Friday, July 23rd, and later that night his good friend Garth Brooks, will be performing a concert.
LeDoux grew up in Cheyenne and performed both in the rodeo and onstage at Frontier Days.
He died of cancer in 2005 at age 56.
His wife, Peggy, says when it came to performing on stage, he was a little bit of a wild man, but he didn’t let the fame and lights get to him.
Instead he stuck to his roots.
“When his music first took off, he hoped that they didn’t want him to move to Nashville. He said he wouldn’t and they said we don’t want you to move to Nashville. This is what kind of music you do, this is your culture, you need to stay right where you’re at, so that pleased Chris real well.”
Chris Ledoux won the 1976 National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City, but never won the Daddy of ‘Em All.
Musically, he recorded 36 albums that sold more than 6-million copies.
The statue in Cheyenne was sculpted by Michael Thomas from Buffalo.
Miniature versions of the Chris Ledoux statue are for sale through the Cheyenne Frontier Days gift store website.
