About Buckshot Dot



Dee Strickland Johnson “Younger than Springtime; older than dirt.”

Dot is as Arizona as ponderosa, sagebrush, saguaro, and stone logs, having been born or lived in the habitats of them all. Born in Flagstaff, she grew up on the Navajo and Hualapai (Wal-a-pi) reservations and at Petrified Forest National Monument. There were some hickories too, as she and her husband John “Ol’ Buck” had a cattle ranch in the Arkansas Ozarks in the 1970s.

Dot is an Arizona Culture Keeper, has opened for Lyle Lovett, and been an AWA (Academy of Western Artists) Female Cowboy Poet of the Year. Dot’s most recent book, Arizona Women: Weird, Wild and Wonderful was WMA (Western Music Association)’s Cowboy Poetry Book of the Year. Both it and Arizona Herstory: Tales From Her Storied Past have been awarded the Will Rogers Medallion Award by AWA. They are both illustrated with Dot’s drawings and scratch boards from historical photographs. Other books are Cowman’s Wife and First Roundup.

She has been featured at The National Auditory Theater Festival, National Society of Poetry for Therapy, the AZ Lecture Series, and Goldwater Lecture series, etc., and has appeared in sixteen states, Canada, and the British Isles. Dot has recorded five albums. Her song, “Old Hank Morgan’s Place” from the CD Buckaroo Bonanza, was a finalist for AWA’s Cowboy Song of the Year and has been recorded by Jean Prescott. Her latest CD is One More Dance, one number from which is included in Marvin O’Dell’s Silver Screen Project album. Other albums include a collection of British Ballads.

In her “other lives” she has taught American history, drama, art, and English at secondary level, the gifted program in elementary grades, been employed as artistic director for U. of AZ Opera Theater, composed and co-directed four dance folk operas, written heritage articles for an Ozark newspaper, and dramatized and presented three Ozark folk tales.

Dot and Ol’ Buck raised three children, and have two grandchildren and five great grandchildren. They celebrated 60 wonderful years of marriage in 2020.

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Corral Dust About Buckshot Dot Team Ropers (Links)
Mercantile Postcards Tim

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