June 20th is Audie Murphy’s birthday. He was born in Texas in 1924. The war-hero and actor developed his fondness for Tucson, while making several movies here.
The most decorated combat soldier of World War II, Audie Murphy had it all. Murphy had received 33 medals, including the Congressional Medal of Honor. He had movie star good looks and a list of successful motion pictures to prove it and he wrote the best selling autobiography “To Hell and Back.” In 1956, he added a couple more items to his list of possessions.
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1956 Jack Sheaffer photo
Audie Murphy on the set of “The Guns from Fort Petticoat”
Murphy was filming “The Guns of Fort Petticoat” at Old Tucson in 1956. In the movie, he played a Union Army deserter in Texas who trains a group of women homesteaders to fight off an anticipated Indian attack. He also had been here to film “Walk the Proud Land” or as it was called at the time “Apache Agent.” That movie co-starred Anne Bancroft and Jay Silverheels. Murphy liked Tucson.
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While here, Murphy purchased a stable of racing quarter horses from Bill Horton of Buffalo, Wyo. and Tucson. Two of the horses, Gunny Sack and Sir Twist, had raced at Rillito Race Track. Murphy said “Now that I’ve got the horses, I need a ranch for them. I’m looking for one around here.”
He found that ranch about 30 miles southeast of Tucson. It was the Mack Ranch located on Benson Highway. The property extended from the highway at the Southern Pacific tracks south to the Empire Mountains. Water was supplied by Cienega Creek which ran through the land, as well as Davidson Canyon.
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1956 Jack Sheaffer photo
Murphy, left, arrived for a weekend visit at his TM Ranch in Tucson with horse trainer Dallas Clark. Susan Scherrer was the stewardess on the plane that flew them here.
The ranch had once been part of the Empire Ranch and was sold by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Mack. Murphy paid $180,000 for the four sections of deeded land and 22 sections under state lease. It also included over 400 cattle, a ranch house and a place to keep his quarter horses.
Murphy was killed in a plane crash in Virginia in 1971. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. For more on Audie Murphy, you can check out a
website devoted to his memory.
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