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Show The Salt Lake Tribune THE WEST Sunday, March 11, 2001 Al5 ichae Widowof Arizona RangerIs the Last Link To State’s Gunslinging, Wild West Past BY SCOTT THOMSEN any cover, and meals cooked over an open fire with a THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PATAGONIA,Ariz. — Rita Beaty still cries when she talks too long aboutherlate husband, Clarence. Hertears are tears of pride and love for a man who helped write one of the early chapters in Arizona history. Clarence Beaty was one ofonly 107 men who served as Arizona Rangers, a group of rugged lawmen organized in 1901 to tame cattle rustlers, thieves, claim jumpers and murderers so the Arizona territory could becomea state. “My husbandwas true to me andI was true to him for33 years,” Rita Beaty said in her yellow brick house in this U.S.-Mexico border town, 46 miles south of Tucson.“We used to talk all the time. He always used to-say, ‘It was a hard life for me and you, but we made itthrough thick andthin.’” Today, 87-year-old Rita Beaty is the state’s last directelink to the Arizona Rangers, who were disbanded in 1909. All the Rangers are dead. Beaty is the last widow.Shestill collects a $12,000 a year pension for Clarence’s law enforcement work. Beaty mether future husbandon the Fourth ofJuly, 1931, at a party. Within a year, the couple eloped to get married at the courthouse in Tombstone. The groom was 58. The bride was three months shy of 19, butlied on the marriage license to appear older. “T was lucky to get ahold of a man like him,” Beaty said.“I thoughtthe world ofhim.” Just after their wedding, Clarence started working as a watchman ata Patagonia mine.Beaty had no idea of her husband'searlierlife as a frontier lawman. “He told me he was an Arizona Ranger. I didn’t know anything about that,” she said. “He told me a Rangerhad to be a man.” Clarence Beaty stood about 5. feet 4 inchestall, whichled his friends to call him “Chapo” — “Shorty” in Spanish. Though small, he had a reputation as a brave and tough man. who could ride a horse at a slow lope upto 40 milesin a single day. The couple raised five children. Two sons, Marshall ahd Gilbert, survive, along with a daughter, Margorie a from Clarence’s first marriage. . Growing up, Marshall Beaty loved to listen to his father’s stories ofchasing smugglers, saloon shootouts and bringing in the bad guys. There were long days in the saddle, cold nights sleeping on the ground without | THE A 0 Dutch oven carried with the supplies on a mule. Clarence Beaty joined the Rangers in 1902 when he was 27, earning $100 a month. He stayed with the group, which consisted of 14 to 26 Rangers for the entire territory,until its end seven years later, leaving as a first sergeant. In the southern Arizona district he patrolled, Chapo was often the only law available. OneofMarshall Beaty’s favorite stories begins with his father on patrol near the border. Clarence Beaty andhis partner discovered some smugglers who had comeinto Arizona from Mexico, and started chasing them onhorseback. The pursuit wouldlast nearly two months, winding north through the White Mountains and into southern Utah before the Rangers captured the men near the Grand Canyon’s North Rim. During anotherincident, Marshall Beaty recalls, his father was in Naco whenhe wascalled to break up FTS STORE®. = a fight at the telegraphoffice. The telegraph operator was arguing with tailor from the shop next door. “They started shooting at each other,” Marshall Beaty said. “By the time they cameriding up one guy camestaggeringout shotfull of holes. The last words he told mydadwere,‘Did rget him? Did I get him?” My dad said, ‘Yeah, you did.’ He died right there in his arms. There was no valuetoit. It was over a suit of clothes.” Clarence Beaty survived the dangers of wearing a badge,dying in 1964 at the age of90. Beaty andthe other Rangers’exploits carved a place in Arizona history for the organization, which reformed in 1957 as a volunteer groupthat continues to assist law enforcement and youth explorer programs throughoutthestate. Clarence Beaty’s saddle and someofhis papers are nowpart ofthe collection at the Hall of Fame Museum in the state capital. His shotgun and Colt .45 are in the care of the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Tucson. Guns and Ammo magazineeven published a feature story on thepistol, with its sawed off barrel. Beaty cut the long gun downso he couldgetit out of his holster faster — a time saver that could have meantthe difference between making an arrest and going homeina wooden box. Rita Beaty still gets questions about her husband from people who are fascinated with Arizona’s Wild West past and wantto hear thestories. “They were something,” she said. “They were muy hombres” — very macho. SHINGLES . L ras 2 —— --REROOF FOR THE LAST TIME-¢ ALUMINUM SHINGLES e COVERS EXISTING SHINGLES e UGHT iT PROFESSIONALLY INSTALLED + LOW COMPETITIVE PRICES “BUY DIRECT FROM THE ere + PAGE ESTIMATES ineXT :}ni 3 3 y) SERVING UTAH, IDAHO, NEVADA TOLL FREE 1-800-658-5785 LUYOMING 840 W. 1700S. #10, SLC,UT “Birkenstock” Mens & Womens CROSSROADS WET LOCATION ONL “Haflinger” Custom evi f Moulding Fearn ny One |] caie Priced 71m eo,ee) al Birkenstock - Ecco- Josef Seibel - Rockport - ClarksDr. Marten - and many morelines to choosefrom. 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