Richard Passmore Gibson passed away on Monday, May 16, 2016, at home on the Black Canyon Ranch near Heber after a long battle with cancer. Friends and family are invited to join Bonnie for a celebration of a Cowboy’s Life on Saturday, June 11, at the Black Canyon Ranch, home of Bonnie and Richard Gibson, beginning at 2 p.m. Food and drinks will be provided. Please RSVP to Kathy Gibson Boatman, P.O. Box 581, Heber, Ariz. 85928, email Kathykg26158@msn.com or by phone at (480) 570-1586. He was born at Mesa Southside Hospital, Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona Sept. 12, 1932. Richard’s father Irving L. “Gibby” Gibson moved to Arizona from Fredericksburg, Texas, during the last week of 1919, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Charles Lane Gibson, and his great-grandmother, Mary Mallery Gibson. His mother, Margaret Otis Blake Gibson, was born in Prescott Jan. 6, 1898. The Gibsons were true Arizona pioneers. Richard’s parents, Irving and Margaret, purchased their Black Canyon Ranch near Heber in 1935, and later added the Halter Cross and Dry Lake outfits to the family business. The family traveled with the livestock between their winter pastures in the high desert and the summer pastures on the Mogollon Rim. Richard grew up as a ranch hand, learning to ride his mule Jenny when he was a boy. He started his own cowherd with the purchase of his first cow, Nancy, bought from the Therber Registered Hereford Ranch in Sonoita. He began working fulltime for his dad and his dad’s partner, O.G. Johnson, following graduation from Chandler High School in 1951. Richard began dating Bonnie Constance Barton of Holbrook Christmas Eve, 1954. He invited her to come help him build fence in Purcell Canyon near the Black Canyon Ranch in the spring of 1955 where, he discovered she was a great ranch hand. He proposed to Bonnie that very day. They were married in Holbrook, July 16, 1955. It was the beginning of their 60-year partnership working the ranches, raising three children and making due in what was still the Wild West. Richard and Bonnie eventually bought Johnson’s share of the ranch to realize ranch dream of owning their own ranch. They sold the ranch in 1982 after years of hardship and joy, good times, hard work, drought, debt and endless struggles, and through it all, they remained shining examples of strength, love and honor to the rising generations. Their son Lawrence “Larry” Gibson continues to work and manage this ranch. Family members who will carry on Richard’s love and passion for the land and the cowboy life are his wife, Bonnie; sons Edward and Larry (wife, Janet Kay Gibson); daughter Kathy Gibson Boatman (sweetheart, Kenneth Garvin); brother and sister-in-law, Hugh Blake and Joyce Gibson; grandchildren, Travis Gibson and Cathy Gardner, Shane Gibson and Amber Gibson, Will Gibson and Leesha Prater, Holly Gibson Despain and Frank Despain, Dirk Boatman and Jessica Bastedo; four great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. The cows have come home to the mountain and Richard has gone home to Heaven. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Hospice Compassus. Silver Creek Mortuary of Taylor was in charge of the arrangements.
