National Endowment for the Arts Statement on the Death of National Heritage Fellow Wallace McRae

Washington, DC—It is with great sadness that the National Endowment for the Arts acknowledges the passing of cowboy poet Wallace "Wally" McRae, recipient of a 1990 NEA National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Rooted in the frontier style narrative of day-to-day life of the early settlers of Montana, McRae’s work preserved the tradition of oral narrative poetry and infused it with originality and unforgettable turns of language and inspiration.

Wallace McRae was born in 1936, the son of a second-generation rancher from the Rosebud Creek area near Colstrip, in southeastern Montana. McRae's family ranch was bordered on the east by the Tongue River, just north of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Both of his parents were born and raised on Rosebud Creek, and his family raised sheep and cattle in this region dating back to 1885.

McRae grew up working on his family's ranch, the youngest of three children, and spent much of his time as a cowboy. He attended local schools and then enrolled in Montana State University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology. In 1958, he was commissioned as a naval officer and served in the Atlantic and Mediterranean fleets. After the death of his father in 1960, he returned to Montana with his wife, Ruth Hayes, and took over the operations of his family ranch.

Growing up in Montana, McRae was fascinated by the written records left by early settlers, including diaries, letters, and journals. They also left a distinctive style of poetry carried on among working cowboys and ranchers that recounted exploratory adventures of life in their settlements.

McRae recalled that he recited his first poem, a "Christmas piece," delivered at the local one-room schoolhouse that his sisters attended, when he was four years old. He wrote more than 100 poems in his lifetime, and, in 1985, was among the small group of folklorists and poets who helped launch the first National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. He became a regular participant at the annual event which celebrates the creative richness of cowboy and ranch life. In 2020, McRae was inducted into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame.