Born in 1941, Betty Lorraine (Blair) Steele grew up training and riding horses. In her sophomore year of high school, and the two years following, Betty won the all-around at the district level and was runner-up at state, competing in breakaway, pole bending, barrel racing, and cutting. She made the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA) finals in Dickinson, North Dakota, and won the all-around.
In 1965 Betty won the Big Sky Rodeo championship barrel racing saddle as well as the barrel racing championship for the North Central Montana Rodeo Association. Betty served as director of the NCMRA (which later became the Northern Rodeo Association).
Betty married bronc rider Tom Steele in 1965 and committed to rodeo full-time. The first summer they were married, the couple worked in the Lewistown area then went to work for Bub Nunn on the Missouri River Breaks north of Winnett.
After that, the Steeles went to work for Jess Burner of Malta, who ran 5,500-6,000 yearling steers during the summer. Betty and Tom roped and doctored steers and trained their own horses. When the Burner ranch sold, they purchased a small place near Malta. The couple continued to rope and train horses, a pastime they enjoyed together. Later, Betty took a brand inspecting job along with working for Page-Whitham, a large cow outfit from Kansas that brought 4,000 head of yearlings to pasture in the Malta area every summer.
Working for them, Betty qualified for the International Feedlot Cowboys Association roping and barrel races.
The highlight of Betty’s career was in 1976, when she won the 10-steer average at Baker. In 1989, 1990, and 1991, she qualified at the regionals in Columbus and went on to compete at the International Feedlot Cowboys Finals in Winnemucca and Elko, Nevada, winning the barrels and placing in team roping the final year. During this time, she helped kids train their horses for all events at the Milk River Pavilion indoor complex. When Betty heard that the complex was going to close, she offered to manage the premises in exchange for keeping her horses there.
Now in Wyoming, Betty has quit riding barrels, but her life continues to honor Montana’s Western heritage. She looks at her age as just a number and contemplates what else she might do to make memories.