Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Miss Letta Wilson, the female bronco buster who had been giving rodeo exhibitions in Spokane the last few weeks, suffered a horrifying accident during an exhibition in Hillyard.

She mounted a horse and it immediately “began a series of short, quick bucks.” The animal then stepped into a depression in the ground, which caused it to fall and throw Wilson violently to the ground.

Then the horse rolled over, pinning her underneath, and jamming the saddle horn into her back. It began to kick hard, and before spectators could rush to her aid, the horse kicked the woman several times in the face, head and elsewhere.

She was carried to a nearby home, where a doctor came to treat her. Her internal injuries were so severe she could not be moved to the hospital. The doctor was not optimistic about her chances of recovery, but a subsequent story said that it looked as if she might pull through.

She had been the star attraction at an informal “Wild West Show” organized by a Hillyard stable owner. She had guaranteed that she could “ride any animal offered her.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1939: King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, arrived at Niagara Falls, N.Y., from Canada on the first visit to the United States by a reigning British monarch.