LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Austin C. "Slim" Green, a saddlemaker who created hand-tooled works of art, had died. He was 91.
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Green died Saturday, his family said. A cause of death wasn't given.
Green's saddles have been featured at the Smithsonian Institution, the Professional Ropers and Cowboys Association Museum, the Gene Autry National Western Heritage Museum and Oklahoma's Elk City Butler Museum.
They also have been collected by movie stars, politicians and rodeo stars.
After living in Santa Fe for many years, Green moved to Las Cruces in 1996. A few years later, he donated his entire shop and tool collection to the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, where it's currently on exhibit.
Born in Oklahoma in 1916, Green moved with his family in a covered wagon to Texas, where he learned to be a boy rodeo rider and roper. He apprenticed himself to the legendary saddlemaker Pop Bettes and made his first saddle in 1936.
He continued to make saddles while serving in the Army during World War II.
After the war, he moved to Santa Fe, became one of the co-founders of Rodeo de Santa Fe and worked with the New Mexico Art Division Apprenticeship Program teaching the next generation of saddlemakers.
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