Remembering Benny Damele

Update! February 25, 2009 - New video submitted by Top O' the Hill Farm! CLICK HERE!

Benny Damele with his curly, Shoshone D on the Dry Creek Ranch
Photograph from Jay Hensley's collection

BERNARD GLENN DAMELE, born April 24, 1930, the second son of Peter & Loraine Glenn Damele.  "Benny" grew up in Lander County, Nevada where his folks ranched.  He attended high school where he played basketball; then attended the University of Nevada, Reno where he was on the boxing team and joined the Sigma Nu Fraternity.  He later served with the Nevada National Guard for a number of years and with the U.S. Army in Korea.  As a member of the Pony Express club of Nevada, Benny rode on of his Curlies in the Centennial Re-Ride of the Pony Express Trail in 1960.  He was invited to the Pasadena rose Parade n 1984, an honor of which he was very proud.  Too, he was the first vice President of ABC when it was organized at Ely in 1971.  Benny also drove his own team of horses for the White Pine Historical Society's antique stagecoach in Ely's Centennial Parade, August 1987, fulfilling a life-long dream to drive a stagecoach.  Benny's hobbies included gun collecting, rope-making, leather work, rebuilding old wagons and other horse-dawn equipment, and his beloved Curly horses. Although a confirmed bachelor he loved to dance, especially the old-time dances, enjoyed cowboy get-togethers and had a dry wit that could keep folks laughing for hours.  Having always lived in the country, Benny had a real love for the land and it's animals, and was one of the finest horsemen one could find.  His animals all loved him too and he seemed happiest when surrounded by them, horses, mules, donkeys, calves, chickens, dogs, cats and most had the run of the ranch and the big rock house at Dry Creek. The Curly Horse world was deeply grieved over the loss of Benny on November 12, 1991, after a lengthy illness.  He was the last of the Damele family, breeders of Curly horses since 1952, his folks and older brother, Peter J, having preceded him in death. We owe many thanks for the dedication of such fine Curly Breeders.

Video Submitted by Betsy Lirakis of Top O' the Hill Farm.

"Short video with Benny Damele and Baha-Toiya as a 2 year old. Taken from an old VHS video which was taped around the time of the ABC convention in 1986 or 1987. I did not film the original video- I converted the VHS to DVD, then onto my hard drive." Betsy

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Other Interesting Links:

Curly Tom
The Yellow Hornet
Qcard
Ruby Red King
Dixie D
Joe Mead
Sunny Martin
Benny Damele
Photos of the Foundation Curly Horses
More Interesting History about specific lines, including Gaited Curlies
ICHO - More interesting History Links