Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Woman is 'poster girl' for exhibit

T.S. Last El Defensor Chieftain General Manager

TSLAST It's fitting that Evelyn Fite-Tune's image is featured on the promotional poster for Ann Bromberg's photo exhibit "Ranchwomen of New Mexico," now on display at Macey Center through Sept. 28.

Not only is Evelyn a local girl, she lived the life of a ranchwoman on the Fite Ranch a few miles east of San Antonio, N.M., for 67 years.

The exhibit pays tribute to the all-too-often unheralded heroines who played vital roles in the state's rich history of ranching — and Evelyn was one of them.

"Men can't get along without us," said Evelyn, still full of vitality at age 90, during the exhibit's opening reception last week.

Surely, Dean Fite couldn't have gotten along without Evelyn, but he almost had to early on.

"I didn't think I'd stay married two years," Evelyn said. "We used to have some good fights, let me tell you. I packed my bags a lot."

But Evelyn stuck it out and the marriage lasted 50 years until Dean's death.

Evelyn got roped into a ranching lifestyle, something she knew nothing about.

"It was Ranching 101 for 67 years and I never graduated," she joked. "There was always something to learn. There were sick animals to deal with, wild animals, snakes."

Evelyn didn't even know how to ride a horse when she married Dean, but she learned.

"My husband saw to it I had a gentle horse to start," she said.

There was a lot of on-the-job training, but Evelyn learned to adapt.

"You make yourself indispensable," she said. "I'd help work on windmills, brand cattle and cook three meals a day. There were usually a couple of guys working on the ranch and I'd cook for them, too."

The Fites butchered their own beef and Evelyn made her own butter and cottage cheese, and did a lot of baking. For a long while, they went without electricity and had no refrigerator to preserve their foodstuff. They fetched their water from a well.

Ranching was a hard way to make a living, Evelyn said. The Fites were married in 1937, while the country was in the midst of the Great Depression. Business got better during wartime when cattle prices went up, she said, but it was never easy.

"It was working to pay the bank," Evelyn said. "You knew you finally made it when you paid the bank."

No matter how hard they worked to pay the bank, there were some things they couldn't control.

"You learn to look to the sky and wait for rain — and appreciate it," Evelyn said. "The sky determined our existence."

But Evelyn learned to love the life of a ranchwoman. Whether it was mending fences, moving cattle or baking bread, she enjoyed it.

"Never was there a day that was the same. We were never sure what was going to happen that day. It was never routine," she said.

Asked what ranching taught her about life, Evelyn said, "I have a sign in my house that says, 'No sniveling.' That's my attitude. Just get on with it."

Evelyn is now a retired ranchwomen, but she still makes her home in Socorro and finds ways to keep busy.

"I never had children but I've got lots of nieces and nephews. They're my entire life," she said.

tslast@dchieftain.com

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