Honeycutt family bids farewell to patriarch Roy

ALAMOSA – Longtime, award-winning stock contractor Roy Honeycutt, 82, died at his home on March 25 with his children at his side.

Roy and his late wife Virginia were presented the Donita Barnes Contract Personnel Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 for their lifetime commitment to the rodeo industry. Virginia, the longtime matriarch of the Honeycutt rodeo family died Dec. 1, 2018, at the age of 76.

Roy and Virginia started the Honeycutt Rodeo Company in 1976 in Alamosa, Colo. They traveled across the country and the world producing rodeos – every performance held on a Sunday included cowboy church. Their son, Jerry, has owned Honeycutt Rodeo Company since 2012.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Roy, when notified he was receiving the award last year. “This is emotional. It is great to receive this honor. I’m very excited. This is a big deal.”

The Donita Barnes Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Roy at the PRCA Awards Banquet at the South Point Hotel & Casino on Dec. 4.

“In the rodeo business tradition means a lot,” Jerry Honeycutt said. “We as a younger generation got to step in and realize the fruits of guys like my dad, Walt Alsbaugh, Harry Vold, Cotton Rosser and Mike Cervi and Neal Gay and guys I’ve missed who came before us and deserve a lot of credit.

“My dad started from nothing and he established a lot of stuff and he did it on his own and I’m proud of him for that fact. I’m also proud of him raising a great family in the midst of all of it.”

Jerry, his younger brother Scott and younger sister, Janet all worked in the rodeo business with their dad.

In 1886, Honeycutt’s great-grandparents homesteaded to Alamosa from New York. Virginia was the daughter of Walt and Alice Alsbaugh. Walt Alsbaugh was a legendary PRCA stock contractor who was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1990. Virginia’s brother, Art Alsbaugh, and his wife, Linda, were the recipients of the 2012 Donita Barnes Lifetime Achievement Award.

“I was involved with my father-in-law, and I appreciated that so much,” Roy said.

Jerry said Roy’s start in rodeo came from Walt Alsbaugh.

“He had a truck and trailer, but he didn’t own any bulls or horses, didn’t own one saddle, not one flank, nothing,” Jerry said. “He got along with people and he leased everything from my grandpa (Walt Alsbaugh).

“At that time, my grandpa was running 700 to 800 head of horses and 200 head of bulls. My dad would pay my grandpa a lease and then my dad would go put on his own rodeos.”