09/14/03
Deb Mohon died of a head injury Sunday night 9/14/03 at a Tyler hospital. Mohon is an eleven-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier from Gladwater and 1990 World Reserve Champion. She was no longer competing at the time of her death, but was training a colt for barrel racing on her property outside of Gladewater when she was thrown. She was 56.
UPDATE: They have set up a memorial fund at the City National Bank, P.O. Box 1464, Gladewater, TX 75647. Send it Att: Todd Clifton. The Service is Wed. Sept 17 2:00pm At the Gladewater Rodeo Arena.
The Mohon's address is:
Rt. 6 Box 33M
Gladewater TX 75647
For those of you who didn't get the opportunity to go to the service Wed, you missed a nice service. There were several that said they were very touched when "Brown" was brought up to the coffin and touched Deb with his nose as if to say Good Bye. It touched many people. Keep the Mohon family in your prayers.
{Reprinted from the News-Journal.com}
"She was a very high-profile person, always looked good, rode good and acted good maybe I shouldn't say good but great," said award-winning barrel racer Martha Josey, who said she has known Mohon for 40 years. "She is one of the most respected barrel racers ever."
Don Wasson grew up with Mohon and described her whole family as very rodeo-oriented. Her husband, Bubba Mohon, and son, Monty Mohon, both did cow roping, and her daughter-in-law, Bobbie Mohon, was a barrel racer.
Mohon, who was born in Gladewater, also valued her friendships, Josey said.
"When I moved to East Texas 24 years ago, Deb was one of my very first friends here," said family friend Deb Wasson. "She took me under her wing. She was my mentor."
Mohon had ridden horses since she was about 10 years old, and rodeoed all over the world with her barrel racing horse, Brown. Mohon had a talent for picking out winning horses, Josey said. Brown was crippled when Mohon got him, but she worked with the horse until he was well. Then the two of them went on to the PRCA National Rodeo Finals 11 times, and in 1990 she was named the reserve world champion.
"You don't find a great horse and a great barrel racer together, but they were," Josey said. "She's been one of the most respected barrel racers ever because she's always done a wonderful job training her own horses."
Gene Hood has shod the Mohons' horses for more than 35 years. He said Mohon would fly him out to wherever she was competing, just to have him shoe Brown. He said Mohon got Brown as a trade for training another horse, and that within a year she and the horse were winning awards.
"He was a horse that just fit her," Hood said. "They went out of their way to take care of him."
Hood described the Mohons as a husband-and-wife team. Her husband would sometimes drive all night to get to a rodeo while she slept.
"She couldn't have done it without him. It was a team, both of them and the horse, too," he said. "She's went further with her horses than any other little 'ole country girl; she's been a good cowgirl."
Josey said she was asking Mohon for some advice on a new horse only a week ago.
"I asked her What do you think about that horse? and she said, I like that horse.
