Fonds glen-2981 - Stastia and Jim Carry fonds

Stastia Cross, 1898-1995, was born in California, USA, the daughter of western artist, Henry H. Cross, and Nora Hauk. She learned a great deal about animals while growing up and in her teens moved to Chicago as a circus performer, working with elephants and horses. Among the circuses she worked for were Sells Floto, Sparks and Gollmar. In 1922 she married Jim Carry, 1895-1970, while both were working as wild west performers in USA-based circuses. Jim was born in Morden, Manitoba and grew up near Kirkcaldy, Alberta. During the First World War he served with Lord Strathcona's Horse. In the mid-1920s the Carrys returned to Jim's ranch at Kew, Alberta and developed their own wild west show, A. J. Carry's Wild West and Hippodrome Attractions, and also worked very closely with their neighbour, Peter Welsh, in the Alberta Stampede and Rodeo that travelled to Toronto, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal and Buffalo in 1926 and 1927. Jim and Stastia later homesteaded near Grande Prairie, Alberta but returned to Black Diamond in 1943 where they managed a ranch for Colonel J. Fred Scott and raised race horses. They had no children. For further information see "Stastia Cross Carry" in Building a Province : 60 Alberta Lives / Brian Brennan. -- Calgary : Fifth House, 2000, p. 65-67.