A local cowboy was inducted into the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame as the Working Cowboy Inductee during the special induction ceremony on Saturday, November 4.
Orban Leon Stephens, joined by more than 50 friends and family members, traveled to Dodge City for the ceremony.
Stephens was a ranch hand his entire childhood. The son of Paul Leon and Irene Uhls Stephens. He grew up in the saddle. As a family they moved from ranch to ranch. Over the years, Orban attended 10 different schools before the family settled in Rosalia. He graduated with the Rosalia High School class of 1971.
He went on to attend Butler County Community College and Ranch Management School in Coffeyville.
His wild day ranch hand stories come from the Vestring Ranch headquartered in Cassoday, in the heart of the Flint Hills. He worked for several years alongside his father and again after attending college, where the real stories happened with D.J. Matile.
On April 23, 1977 he married his wife, Sharon Ann (Roths) Stephens and in January of 1979 began working for the Spring Creek division of the Matador Cattle Company Ranch in Reece. While on the Matador they welcomed daughters Kacy Jo and Kelly Ann to complete their family. In 1989, Orban went to Matador, Texas on a trial to work on the main ranch. While doctoring some cattle in the pasture there, his horse slipped on some loose hay, fell, and consequently broke Orban’s neck. However, in true cowboy form, he gathered his horse and rode back to the ranch, blind without his glasses, trusting his horse to take him there. After he recovered, life led him to the Diamond R Ranch outside of Fall River. He worked at this ranch from 1989 1998. Both the Matador and the Diamond R were cow/calf operations that operated roughly 15,000 acres each.
In 1998, Orban became a day worker (cowboy) for several ranchers in the Southeast Kansas area. He helps on ranches, builds fence and pens and also takes in cattle to care for on leased ground. Over the past 25 years, he has helped countless cattlemen and women with their operations and built hundreds of miles of barbed wire fence and pipe pens. He continues to help ranches that spread from El Dorado to nearly the Missouri line and from the Oklahoma border to Eureka.
During his lifetime, he also has seen and participated in the birth of the Ranch Rodeo, attending his first one in 1988 in Uniontown. He recalls it vividly with teammates Casey and Deb Jones and Russ Spaht, winning 4 out of the 5 events. From then on, he was hooked. He traveled with many cowboys over the years and joined the Working Ranch Cowboys Association in 2005. Orban participated in the WRCA Championship Rodeo in 2008 and in 2010 with Beachner Brothers Livestock and Broken H Ranch, claiming the Reserve World Champion title in 2010.
Today you can still find him and his wife near Fall River, still helping ranchers in Southeast Kansas, riding good horses, following his grandkids to all their activities, and working at the Eureka Sale Barn on Thursdays.
He passes down his knowledge and has impacted several generations who look up to him and go to him for guidance, most notably his three grandchildren, twin granddaughters Jacksen Irene and Masen Jo and grandson Colter Ryan.
Others being inducted during the special ceremony were Phil Epp, Entertainer/ Artist; Rodney Cook, Cowboy Historian; Charles R. McKinney, Rancher/Cattleman; George Steinberger, Rodeo Cowboy.
For more information visit boothill.org (Courtesy photos)
