Tougher Than the RestChris LeDoux

Chris LeDoux

Chris Lee LeDoux was born in Biloxi, Mississippi on October 2, 1948. His family moved frequently due to his father’s career in the US Air Force. LeDoux learned to ride horses visiting his grandparents' farm in Michigan and competed in his first rodeo at the age of thirteen in Texas. During high school, he won the Wyoming State Rodeo Championship bareback riding title and went to Casper College on a rodeo scholarship. He won the 1969 National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association bareback riding title, qualified for the National Finals Rodeo four times, and won the Professional Rodeo Cowboy’s Association Bareback World Championship in 1976.

On January 4, 1972, LeDoux married Peggy Rhoads. Together they had five children: Clay, born about 1973; Ned, born about 1978; Will, born about 1980; Cindy, born about 1981; and Beau, born about 1983. Besides being a singer-songwriter, Chris was also a rodeo competitor and a bronze sculptor. He made his home at his ranch, Haywire, near Kaycee, Wyoming.

In 2000, Chris was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis (a chronic liver disease) which required a liver transplant. Garth Brooks volunteered to donate part of his liver, but was incompatible. An alternative was located and he received his transplant on October 7, 2000. In November 2004, he was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma (also known as bile duct cancer). He underwent radiation treatments until his death on March 9, 2005 in Casper, Wyoming.