Walter Lee Newell was born Nov. 8, 1904 in Bollinger County, Missouri (which is located in the Southeast part of the state) and died July 2, 1993 in Los Angeles, CA. He was born in a community known as Sank, Missouri which was a very small town with a general store and a post office in the store. He was the first of seven children of Doc and Nora Newell. My grandmother Fern Viola Newell was the second child and was born Jan. 17, 1907. Doc and Nora purchased a general store in the community of Schlatitz, Missouri after the owner of the store passed away and the store was put up for sale. The Newell’s lived for several years in that area before moving to Gravel Hill, Missouri. Walter moved to St. Louis around the late 1920’s or the early 30’s. In his 1944/45 catalog he states he has been established in this business for over twelve years. That would have put him back to around 1932 for his business. His business included a cowboy store, a music store and the saddle shop. He had a weekly music show on KXOX radio (St. Louis) in the 1940’s and I don’t know how many years that went on. In 1943 my grandfather moved to St. Louis from Southeast Missouri so my grandfather could help Uncle Walter in his business. My dad told me that Uncle Walter got a lot of government work because of the war and could not keep up with the orders and labor was hard to get. That was the reason for the move. My grandfather moved back to Southeast Missouri in late 1945. My dad can remember going to St. Louis in either 1949 or 1950 and visiting Uncle Walter’s saddle shop. He can also remember Uncle Walter showing him a black saddle with lots of silver on it. He told my dad he had made that saddle for Roy Rogers. In his catalogs there are pictures of him and Roy together. He closed the saddle shop in late 1950 or in 1951 and moved to Manitou Springs, CO, where he opened a western store selling western wear, new and used guns, and items for the tourist business but did not make any more saddles that I know of. He did make very good saddles, probably some of the best out there. He made a working saddle, which he kept in stock and is shown in his catalogs. He also made several custom saddles which were special orders. I think many of these custom saddles are still around today.

M.S. Collins