The Garone Family
Craig Wyatt Garone was born in Bakersfield, California. He was a resident of Bakersfield, California for 50 years and Milburn, Oklahoma for 25 years. He passed away September 8, 2020. Garone grew up on the family farm in Greenfield. He attended Pasadena Nazarene College for two years and then transferred to Cal Poly University at San Luis Obispo. He was on the rodeo team at Cal Poly. He always said his first mistake on the rodeo team was to try and ride bulls! He quickly found out that steer wrestling or bull dogging was his event. Garone had a brief career in the movie business thanks to his cousin Walter Wyatt. He decided living in Los Angeles was not for him, so he came back to Greenfield and started rodeoing. Garone was a lifetime member of the Professional Cowboys Association. He traveled all over the central and western states steer wrestling—he competed at many local rodeos plus many of the big ones: Reno, Prescott Frontier Days, Cow Palace, Salinas, Houston, Cheyenne Frontier Days, Phoenix, National Western Stock Show, and many, many county fair rodeos. Garone was exceptionally proud when pictures of him steer wrestling made the cover of the Bakersfield newspaper, The Daily Oklahoman and the ProRodeo Sports News.
Ranching and farming were a big part of Grone’s life. He was proud to live and work on the original Garone homestead in Greenfield. His ranch was in the Tehachapi Mountains and he said his good days were being on horseback there. He hoped his legacy of the love of horses would be passed on to his grandchildren. Garone mentored many high school boys who wanted to learn how to steer wrestle. He also hauled his team of bulldogging horses to high school rodeos all over California for them. In 1995, he moved his family and ranching operations to Milburn, Oklahoma. He said it was his sons’ turn and he loved being involved in their school sports, 4-H, and FFA. Garone also served his community being on the board of the Tishomingo Hospital.
He leaves his legacy to his wife Nellie; sons Tyler and wife Lindsey and Chris and wife Sarilyn; grandchildren: Gabriel, Sophia, Jaxton, Kiercy and Korbyn; daughter Joline and grandchildren: Jade, Sean and great grandson Kellan.