I have a small horned toad made of spoons and forks. It is a clever piece of whimsical art produced by Roger Stanley who lives on a ranch near Cleburne. “We call it Bent Wheel because we found an old bent wheel and put it on a gate,” says Roger. When I met him for the interview, the first thing he did was pull out his guitar and start playing Red River Valley. He went through a couple of tunes and ended up with Ghost Riders in the Sky. His daddy gave him a guitar when he was 13.
‘I learned to play the guitar by looking in a mirror. I’d put a record on the record player and try to duplicate it. My daddy was musical and loved the old cowboy ballads. When I was 5 years old we’d go chase cows and I’d be standing up in the front seat listening to daddy sing.”
Roger is extremely talented when it comes to making things with his hands. “I used to make my own toys from old skate wheels, pieces of junk, just anything. I made myself a rod and reel when I saw one for the first time. I was 7 or 8 then. I have this little porch on the house and it has a wood-burning stove in it. That’s my world. I sit there with a jeweler’s torch and make things.” His items are popular at Cleburne’s weekly Wednesday flea market. “I always bring a bunch of my art items. We also liquidate estates and we have a lot of that stuff with us.”
In the 3rd grade Roger read through a complete set of encyclopedias. He makes custom hunting knives and is learning to make arrowheads. He built 2 cars from scratch, starting with the frames. One of them was featured in a hotrod magazine.
Roger writes and recites cowboy poetry and performs it at poetry gatherings all over the state. Once when he was at an event in the tiny town of Woodbury near Hillsboro the person on stage asked the audience of anyone had a joke or story they would like to tell.
Roger walked on stage and recited a poem about a wolf that he had written. “It went over pretty good and they invited me back several times. One time a publisher was in the audience and suggested I do a book, so I did. I went to a Red Steagall event at the stockyards in Fort Worth, recited some poetry and the book sold out.
I’ve also done a few CDs of my poetry. It got to where I was doing commission poetry for everything from fraternity parties to family reunions. I do poetry every month in Cleburne’s Performing Arts Center.”
His daddy dabbled in art, making sculptures of flying ducks and other wildlife. Roger called his mother a Cherokee Squaw and she was an artist with a needle and thread. “She had me making little leather pouches, doing the beadwork and everything. I keep one with me all the time. It contains things that are special to me, little things my wife has given me over the 50 years we’ve been married.”
Roger has made his living in construction, both designing homes and working as building foreman. He taught woodshop in high school and later painted the interiors of 14 schools in central Texas. I treasure my little silverware horned toad.