Cherokee Rose: A Novel of America's First Cowgirl

Judy Alter

Random House Publishing Group, Mar 31, 1997 - Fiction - 432 pages

Raised on an Oklahoma ranch where her father taught her to rope and ride, Tommy Jo Burns knew she was destined for greatness. At fourteen she so impressed Teddy Roosevelt that he dubbed her America's first cowgirl. Filled with dreams of joining a Wild West show, she left her parents to create her own family of friends on the road with Colonel Zack Miller's 101 Ranch Show. It was a new and exciting life so she took a new name: Cherokee Rose.

Cherokee Rose's adventures would bring many different men into her life. She could rope with the best of them and she got tangled with a few: the awkward ranch hand, Bill Rodgers, who emerged on the show circuit as Will Rodgers; a handsome husband who resented her fame; a wealthy gambler who taught her to follow her heart. Filled with the excitement of the unconventional, "Cherokee Rose" captures the essence of this celebrated woman of the West.

Contents

• Section 1: 3
• Section 2: 33
• Section 3: 57

About the author

Judy Alter was born in 1938. She earned a B.A. from the University of Chicago, followed by a Ph.D. in English with special interest in the literature of the American West from Texas Christian University, and an M.Ed. in English from Truman State University. Alter is an author of books for adults and young readers. Her novel Mattie won a Spur Award from Western Writers of America as the best western novel of 1987; Luke and the Van Zandt County War was named the best juvenile of 1984 by the Texas Institute of Letters. Fool Girl and Sue Ellen Learns to Dance, won the Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, with Sue Ellen also winning a Spur from WWA. Alter has been director of TCU Press Texas, since 1987. She is a past president of Western Writers of America and served several years as secretary-treasurer of the Texas Institute of Letters. In 1989 the Mayor's Commission on the Status of Women named her one of the Outstanding Women of Fort Worth.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Cherokee Rose: A Novel of America's First Cowgirl
• Author: Judy Alter
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 1997
• ISBN: 0553573195, 9780553573190
• Length: 432 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Historical / General; Fiction / Romance / Historical / General; Fiction / Westerns