The Ties That Bind
Summer 2000

The work material, packed in boxes, sits on shelves by the door. Nearby, hang the coveralls and cowboy hat. Business signs are pasted on the washer and dryer, while business cards are tucked around the house in kitchen cabinets. Inside, the living room is adorned with Western art. Along one wall is a collection of drawings commissioned to celebrate a young cowgirl's success. A cartoon shows the foibles of shoeing horses for a living. Also hanging from the walls are objects forged from metal, done with care by talented hands. There are a few pictures atop the computer. A wedding photo, the gathering of a family celebrating a mother's birthday. "This is us," motions Wendy Clark. "Everything is just like it was. All his stuff is still here. I just walk around it now. "This house is us. Everything we have is wedding gifts. We had planned everything. "All of a sudden, I'm on my own."

Wendy Badgett was a standout athlete at Broadus High School. A two-time high school allaround champion, she put away her rope to play basketball at Montana State-Northern, where she would become a 4-year starter on teams that won four consecutive Frontier Conference titles. He saw her first.

Jim Clark was from Havre. His mother, Betty, was the rodeo coach at the college. The small-town girl, straight from the ranch, was hesitant to begin a relationship with the young man who always made people laugh. "He pursued me," remembered Wendy Clark, sitting in her living room at her house in Laurel on a Saturday afternoon. A dog Gator, his dog, sleeps comfortably under a set of cabinets. The cat, Kitty-Kitty, continually walks through to check out the visitors. "I put him off. I was thinking, 'I can't handle this.' I was so overwhelmed with the whole college scene, being homesick and adjusting to how hard college basketball was."

Jim Clark remained undeterred. He went through some of her teammates who lived in the same apartment building. Wendy was committed to college basketball, playing for a demanding Sherry Winn, who expected no less than a best effort, every single day. Winn, coaching at Southern Colorado, now provides a strong leg of support. Jim Clark finally won. "He survived my basketball playing days," said Wendy. "Neither of us wanted a boyfriend or girlfriend who smothered each other. We each had our own interests. We were perfect for each other. "I knew we were happy dating. Everybody else had us figured out for marriage."

Jim Clark graduated from MSU-Northem in diesel mechanics in 1995. He then shifted gears
and attended school at Montana State-Bozeman to become a farrier. In October 1997, he proposed.
Before proposing, Clark phoned Wendy's father from the cell phone in his pickup truck
for permission.

They got married in July of 1998 in Broadus. She had already accepted a job as a physical
education teacher at Laurel Middle School. The couple moved to Laurel after their honeymoon in the Black Hills. "That wedding was a ball," Wendy said. "I can't even explain how much fun it was. He's funny, extremely nice. Jim always treated me good. He used to help anybody, almost to a fault. We would be set to go somewhere and he would be working late, helping somebody." The two did some team roping together. Both loved horses. "That was our common bond," she said.

Laurel did not provide much work for a horse shoer. That did not bother Wendy. "I wish more people understood how much we supported each other," she declared. "He was always wishing me luck at rodeos, how could I not turn around and support him?" Wendy taught school and coached volleyball and basketball during their first year in Laurel. Her husband picked up work by helping a local veterinarian. The two saved enough money to buy some land, 160 acres north of Laurel. Almost dreamily, the two discussed their plans, their future which included children. "Our friends joked that we would build an arena, a blacksmith barn and a house, in that order, " said Wendy.

This year, Wendy decided to rodeo hard again. Before, basketball had always taken precedence. Now basketball was done and it was time to rope again. In March, she set her goal of making the NWRA Finals for the first time. Wendy also needed another outlet for her competitive nature.

"I'm competitive in everything," Wendy said. "Doesn't matter what ... card games ... everything. It's a big part of who I am. I had the support system. I knew I could go to the Finals if I rodeoed hard." Wendy traveled to rodeos or roping jackpots almost every weekend. At the same time, Jim Clark was involved in the horseshoeing competitions around the state. Both took their pursuits very seriously. In mid-August, Jim Clark had a horse shoeing competition in Missoula. He asked his wife if she wanted to come along. Wendy declined, because there was a team roping event in Billings that same weekend. "We joked about who was going to win more money that weekend," said Wendy. "Turns out, he ended up winning more." Jim Clark won a gold buckle in Missoula for being the Montana State high-point champion. He then traveled to Havre to do some work and planned to stay in town for a friend's wedding. Wendy stayed home, preparing for the upcoming school year. "He called every day," she said. Jim Clark's last call came Friday night. It would be the last phone conversation between the young couple.

That Saturday night, Wendy competed in breakaway roping at the Montana Fair Rodeo in Billings. Following the rodeo, Wendy traveled with Vickie MacCarty, Heather McDowell and Karen Miller to Deer Lodge. They arrived early because slack was scheduled for Sunday morning.

In Havre at the wedding, Jim Clark, as usual, was making friends laugh. The group of men decided to kidnap the bride and Clark sat in the back of the pickup as they returned to the reception. He fell out of the back and struck his head. Clark was air-lifted to a hospital in Great Falls a little after midnight. No one could contact his wife. The group of cowgirls slept in a trailer. The cell phone was left in the pickup truck. After hours of frantically searching, Judy Badgett made a phone call no mother should ever make to her child.

Wendy got a phone call no spouse should ever receive. "One thing I wouldn't wish on anybody is that phone call," said Wendy softly, while looking down at the floor. "It was the worst pain I ever felt. My world stopped. It still makes me shake just remembering. I probably won't ever go to that rodeo in Deer Lodge again because of the memories." Deer Lodge rodeo organizers found a pilot and plane to get Clark to Great Falls. "I don't remember much. I was in such a daze," she said. Clark walked into her husband's hospital room. "He looked fine," she recalls. "His hand had a little scratch. The hardest part was I went in there with a little hope and had to leave him there." After waiting 24 hours, Wendy and family members decided it was time and donated Jim Clark's organs. Her husband of just 13 months, and just 26 years old, was dead.

Wendy spent a week with her in-laws in Havre. "They've been incredible to me," she said. The Laurel school district granted all the time she needed for her grieving. Upon her return home, the phone rang. It was Marcey Chaffee of Billings, the defending NRA breakaway roping champion. There were three Labor Day weekend rodeos remaining on the schedule. Clark was on the bubble for qualifying in the top 10. After some small talk and condolences, Chaffee told Wendy, "If you think you can go, we'll take you." Wendy was torn by mixed feelings. "At first I thought, 'I can't possibly go,' " she said. "But then Jim wouldn't quit -on anything I decided-to go. I felt like that's what he would have wanted. For me to go." An emotionally numb Wendy arrived in Hamilton. It was in the arena, she found solace. "I didn't really have any feelings," she said. "But I remember thinking, 'I can do this. This is something I can control. If I miss, it won't change my life.'  To somebody ultra-competitive as myself, that was a whole new perspective." Wendy finished fifth and won $194. She did not place at White Sulphur Springs or Helmville. However, that $194 was enough to qualify her for her first Finals by $75.80 in the 10th and final spot.

Wendy has returned to teaching in Laurel. "I'm really happy to have made it," Wendy said. "I can just imagine Jim pushing my calves and me looking back for his high-five after I've done well." Then Wendy starts remembering. "That dog has been my connection," she said as the dog slowly lifts his head. "Those are the times I know he is here. I'll be on the couch thinking about Jim and life, and Gator will come over and rest his head on my leg. My heart kind of skips a beat. The clanging, I'd like to hear the clanging of the anvil again. We built our lives with each other, not through each other. We got a lot of strength from each other. We didn't take away each other's individualness. We just added on. I understand the true meaning of one day at a time. I really do. I know I'm strong enough to get through this. I don't want to be." Her late husband never got a chance to show his wife the buckle he won in Missoula. It is the one she wears today.

Two scholarships have been established with the MSU-Northern Foundation in Jim's name. Contributions may be sent to The Jim Clark Memorial Diesel Technology Scholarship or The Jim Clark Memorial Rodeo Scholarship c/o the MSU-Northern Foundation, P.O. Box 1691, Havre, Montana 59501.