Finisher Clay Ward (at left) heats a portion of the monument “Good Ride Cowboy,” as sculptor D. Michael Thomas (in cowboy hat) applies patina to the statue outside Ward's Frannie shop. The life-and-a-half size statue of the late rodeo and country music star Chris LeDoux is being installed in LeDoux Memorial Park in Kaycee. Tribune photo by Carla Wensky

LeDoux memorial to be unveiled Saturday in Kaycee

All hands were on deck Monday evening at finisher Clay Ward's shop outside Frannie as a busy crew worked to put finishing touches on a massive bronze statue of the late country music star Chris LeDoux.

“Is the end in sight?” asked one.

“It will be when we get it on that truck,” came the response.

With the help of a large crane, the 3,500 pound statue shipped out Tuesday morning, bound for the new Chris LeDoux Memorial Park in the cowboy's hometown of Kaycee.

Saturday's dedication of the memorial park will complete a project that began not long after LeDoux's death in 2005.

LeDoux was a world champion bareback rider and later a successful country musician. His music career included a top 10 hit sung with Garth Brooks — “What You Gonna Do With a Cowboy” — and more than 6 million record sales worldwide. He died at age 56 of a rare form of liver cancer. LeDoux is a member of both the Cheyenne Frontier Days and pro rodeo halls of fame.

“Chris' passing hit me like a ton of bricks right in the gut. I always had an idea there needed to be a monument of this fellow. He was Mr. Wyoming,” said sculptor D. Michael Thomas of Buffalo. Thomas began work on the statue in early 2009. It's titled “Good Ride Cowboy,” named after a posthumous LeDoux tribute song by Brooks.

Many local craftsmen and women have had a hand in the sculpture's creation, with molding done by Art Mountain Molds and casting by the Caleco Foundry, both Cody businesses.

Ward, whose Clay's Bronze Finishing shop sits about a mile south of Frannie, assembled the statue from more than 200 pieces over the past six months or so, welding it together, grinding off those welds to make it seamless and then replacing the statue's texture.

“It's like a big puzzle,” Ward said.

The Memorial Park where the finished piece was headed is located on downtown Kaycee property that LeDoux and his wife Peggy purchased many years ago. The park will be dedicated with a match bronc riding Friday night and a series of events Saturday, including a performance by LeDoux's band, Western Underground.

More information is available at www.kayceewyoming.org.

“People often come into Kaycee wanting to see something about Chris' life. Now they will be able to bring their families to the park and tell their kids about Chris — how important family was to him, his artistry and how no dream is too big,” said Kaycee resident Pam Kinchen, coordinator of a memorial foundation that raised money for the monument.

The crew working Tuesday night in Frannie included Ward's family and friends, sculptor Thomas, mold maker Melodie Ferri, the truck driver taking the piece to Kaycee on Wednesday and others. As they worked, they talked about their favorite LeDoux songs; pictures of Ward's children and LeDoux hung on a bulletin board nearby.

The towering sculpture they polished is life-and-a-half size, which qualifies the piece as a “heroic” statue; monuments are classified as life-and-a-quarter size.

“It's really not a monument, it's a heroic piece,” said Ward.

Thomas' “Good Ride Cowboy” depicts a grimacing LeDoux astride a bucking bronc. The horse's two front feet are planted on a replica of LeDoux's guitar, with the words “Beneath These Western Skies” along its frame.

The words are the title of a LeDoux song describing his love of the West. It closes:

“I gotta be where I can see those Rocky Mountains, ride my horse and watch an eagle fly, I gotta live my life and write my songs beneath these Western skies, when I die you can bury me beneath these Western skies.”