Always a Cowboy is a vivid, true-life portrait of an authentic American cowboy whose life embodied grit, honor, and the untamed spirit of the West.

Born in 1916, Bill Haynes came of age riding freight trains, breaking wild horses, and earning his keep on Montana ranches long before modern machinery softened ranch life. From the windswept plains of Cut Bank, Montana, to World War II service caring for Army remount horses overseas, Bill’s story captures a disappearing way of life where horsemanship meant survival, and courage was measured daily.

Through firsthand accounts and rich family memories, author Grace E. Larson brings readers inside the demanding world of ranching, rodeo life, horse breaking, team roping, and frontier resilience. The book chronicles Bill’s work supplying horses to the U.S. Army, his post-war rodeo years, and his lifelong partnership with Fay an accomplished horsewoman and rodeo secretary whose strength matched his own.

This is not a romanticized Western it is the real thing. From dangerous broncs and rattlesnake encounters to hard-earned triumphs in rodeo arenas and ranch work, Always a Cowboy preserves the legacy of a man who lived the cowboy code every day of his life.