CHARLIE RANKIN
Tue, 2016-01-12 21:53
News Staff
Charles Davis (Charlie) Rankin died Friday, January 8, 2016, at his home in Boerne, Texas from the effects of emphysema. He was 90 years old. Born June 2, 1925 to Winnie Lee (Davis) and Charles Duncan Rankin in Dallas, Texas, he graduated from high school there in 1943, then enlisting in the navy and serving as a boiler tender on the USS Takanis Bay (CVE-89). His ship was one of the first to dock at postwar Japan, and they brought back hundreds of American soldiers who had fought the Japanese. The Takanis Bay was one of those smaller carriers which the United States made by the dozens during the war. After mustering out of the Navy in late 1945, he headed to College Station and Texas A & M College, where he was graduated with an animal husbandry degree in January, 1950, complements of the G.I. Bill. His real love, though, was rodeo, and he was a member of the Aggie rodeo team. He said he paid for his 'extras' at college by winning a 'purse' at the rodeos. While at A & M Charlie met Sue Evelyn Moore at the Bandera Stompede, courted her and married her on September 21, 1950.
Charlie said the need for a national organization to govern college rodeo was apparent to him and to fellow cowboys. So, on January 30, 1949, the NIRA-- the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association was established, with Rankin elected the first student president. The NIRA was student-created and student-led, and it is still the college rodeo governing body today. After graduating A & M, Charlie became the first NIRA Executive Manager, a job he held only months before he was called back into service during the Korean War. After Korea, he worked in Eden, in West Texas, as an agent for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. After awhile, he tried his hand at selling insurance in Dallas, but realized that was not for him. He started doing a program of agricultural news and markets on WACO Radio, in Waco. The owners of KRGV Radio in Weslaco offered him a job as farm broadcaster not long after, and he moved his family to the Rio Grande Valley. Charlie started doing an early morning radio program on KRGV. KRGV then added a noontime radio and television program, and the Charlie Rankin farm program was heard and seen in many Valley homes. Charlie continued his interest in rodeo, helping organize the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Alumni Association and was elected 2007 NIRA Alumnus of the Year, something of which he was very proud. He garnered many awards in the agriculture community, both in the Valley and statewide, over the years.
In 1985, wife Sue died of pancreatic cancer, and Charlie married a high school friend, Billie Marie Tolbirt. Billie made Charlie very happy and she continues to live at Morningside Ministries at Menger Springs. Her children, Gayle Eason and Randall Tolbirt, and their spouses, Bill and Tannah, became a second family, and he was enveloped by them, their children and grandchildren in love. He is survived by a daughter, Susan, of Dallas, and her daughter, Alexandra Amanda; a son, Davis, of McAllen (Shan), and his two sons, Marshall and Duncan, and Gayle and Bill Eason of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, and Randall and Tannah Tolbirt of Pleasanton, Texas, and many grand and great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held Saturday, January 16, at 11 am at Kreidler Funeral Home, 314 N. 10th Street, McAllen, Texas, with a reception following the service at Grace Presbyterian Church at 4701 N. 29th Street (the northwest corner of Buddy Owens Drive (3 mile line) and N. 29th Street). The family will hold a visitation Friday from 6--8 pm at Kreidler's. A private burial for family at Roselawn Cemetery will precede the funeral service. On Monday, January 18, midday memorial service will be held at the Morningside Ministries Menger House, where he lived. Those wishing to honor his memory may make a donation to The Museum of South Texas History (MOSTH), 200 N. Closner Blvd., Edinburg, Texas, 78541; Texas Aggie rodeo, P.O. Box 120674, College Station, Texas, 77842 or Morningside Ministries Covenant fund, 700 Babcock, San Antonio, Texas, 78201.