PHILLIPSBURG – Nat Berney left this world fifteen years ago, but his legacy lives on through rodeo and through Kansas Biggest Rodeo.

Berney, a former bareback rider, calf roper and bull rider, grew up in Phillips County and competed professionally across the Great Plains states. But his heart was in Phillipsburg.

Nat, the son of Nathaniel John and Edna (Bandt) Berney, rodeoed during his high school days, then served in Korea. He loved rodeo so much, while in Korea he built a barrel to practice riding so he could stay in shape.

Before he went to Korea, he and Betty Munyon married. They had been engaged for a year, and with the Korean Conflict going on, “we didn’t know what to do,” Betty said. “So we decided to go ahead and get married,” which they did in 1951. Nat went to Korea, and Betty went to work at the gas company.

When he came home, their lives returned to a routine for the young couple: work during the week and take off on the weekends to rodeo. Betty often traveled with Nat, and because he needed a horse for the calf roping, they traveled with a horse trailer, sleeping in the back of it or in the bed of the truck during the overnight trips. Betty, with a contagious laugh and a light-hearted attitude, loved being on the road with her husband. She loved all parts of rodeo, but the bull riding wasn’t always her favorite. “I didn’t always like to see him ride bulls,” she said. She remembered at a rodeo in Lewellen, Neb., one time, that he and world-champion cowboy Jim Shoulders drew the same bull. Nat rode it; Shoulders didn’t. “I never will forget that,” she said. “That was really something.”

Throughout his rodeo career, he never suffered serious injuries except for one. It was at a rodeo in Nebraska, when he got bucked off a bull and landed flat on his back. He was in the Phillipsburg hospital for that one, a “bad one,” Betty said. The doctor used pulleys on his legs, to stretch them out, Betty remembered. His time in the military was harder on him than rodeo was, Betty said. When Nat visited the doctor in Wichita, the doctor would pick out pieces of shrapnel from his limbs.

Nat, who worked as maintenance supervisor at the refinery in Phillipsburg, quit riding when his boss told him to slow down with his rodeo competing, or he might lose his job. His boss didn’t like it when Nat was injured and couldn’t work.

The couple had three children and two others who considered them like second parents. Their children: Rand, LaRhonda Groen and Lisa Todd, often traveled with them when Nat was competing. All three enjoyed riding, and Lisa competed in the barrel racing at the Phillipsburg rodeo once. When Nat’s parents died, they raised his brother, Larry. And when Danzey Price’s parents passed away, Danzey would sleep in his pickup in their driveway, “till Nat put a stop to it,” Betty said, and invited him into the house.

Betty loved being on the road with Nat and she would sit behind the chutes with the cowboys and listen to them talk. She has a knack with words, poetry and songs, and she got lots of ideas through the cowboys’ conversations. She wrote poetry, including “Being A Cowboy’s Wife,”, and songs like “Riggins, Rosin and Rodeo,” which she copyrighted. She’s had songs recorded, which played on local radio station KKAN-KQMA during rodeo time.

Nat and Betty both became involved in the Phillipsburg rodeo. He was a shareholder and served as secretary after Wally Sullivan. The couple did a little of everything with the rodeo: carried flags in the parade, served as secretary, and Betty was asked to write tributes to volunteers. She wrote a tribute for long-time rodeo secretary Sullivan, when he retired, and for volunteers Bill Kennedy and Ray Lake.

They made good friends with rodeo people, too. Betty remembers pro rodeo announcer Hadley Barrett, who announced the Phillipsburg rodeo from 1977 through 1983. He and Nat were friends. Glenn Strange, the bartender from the TV series “Gunsmoke” made an appearance at the Phillipsburg rodeo and came to the Berney household, where he and Betty sat on the patio and talked. And steer wrestler Wilbur Plaugher (who also was rodeo clown at the Phillipsburg rodeo) was friends with Lisa, the youngest Berney child, when she was four or five. “Lisa would walk out with him at the rodeo grounds, holding his hand,” Betty said. “He loved to come out here” to their house.

In his older days, Nat became a rodeo judge for Little Britches Rodeo and pro rodeo. The Little Britches contestants appreciated him, because he would help them and give them tips on what to do. He judged pro rodeos, including the Phillipsburg rodeo once, when a judge didn’t show up.

He died suddenly of pancreatitis in 2002 at the age of 71, and Betty still misses him. “I loved him so much,” she said. Everybody liked Nat. “He was the guy that would stop and talk to people,” Betty said. “He was just a special person, and he was usually on a one-to-one basis with everybody. He would listen to them.”

With his memorial money, Betty bought a flagpole for the rodeo grounds, and a stone marker with her husband’s name and his contribution to the rodeo. “I think he would have liked that,” she said. “He was very patriotic.” The pole and memorial sit in front of the rodeo office on the east side of the grounds.

Betty, who is 85 years young, makes it out to the Phillipsburg rodeo each year, unless she has company. Then she needs to rest up. Her kids are grown and gone: Randy lives in Manhattan, LaRhonda in South Carolina, and Lisa in Missouri. She has six grandsons and two granddaughters, two great-grandsons and a great-granddaughter.

The Phillipsburg rodeo takes place this year August 3-5 at the rodeo grounds one mile north of Phillipsburg. Performances begin at 8 pm each night, and tickets can be purchased at Heritage Insurance in Phillipsburg (785.543.2448) and at the gate. They range in price from $12 to $18.

For more information, visit the rodeo’s website at KansasBiggestRodeo.com, its Facebook page (search for Kansas Biggest Rodeo) or call 785.543.2448.

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Cutline: Nat Berney gets on a bareback horse at the Phillipsburg rodeo. The Phillipsburg native, who passed away in 2002, also competed in the bull riding and calf roping and was a member of the Phillipsburg Rodeo Association.

Cutline: Nat Berney rides a bull at a rodeo. The Phillipsburg man was a contestant, member of the Phillipsburg Rodeo Association, and a rodeo judge.