HYLO - Billy McDonald, a family man, rancher, and well-known rodeo stock contractor from the Hylo area passed away on March 23, at the age of 59. He leaves behind two daughters, his wife, siblings, extended family, and a rodeo family that stretches near and far.
Lorraine McDonald said her husband was a very kindhearted person who “lived life to the fullest.” Much of that life included the rodeo industry.
Billy started his rodeo career by riding saddle bronc as a youth. Lorraine said the rodeo life is a family tradition, with his dad, the late Robbie MacDonald and other family members building up a rodeo stock business and creating the Wildrose Rodeo Association, an amateur rodeo circuit in Alberta.
“Billy won the championship in 1985,” Lorraine told Lakeland This Week.
It wasn’t always a rodeo and farm life for Billy. He also worked in the oilfields, served as a consultant in the oil and gas sector, and was employed in the forestry industry. All the while, though, said Lorraine, the boots, buckles, and broncs of the rodeo world were never far away.
In recent years, expanding from stock contractor, Billy created the Billy McDonald Rodeo Company, organizing rodeo weekends in communities across the region and beyond. The McDonald brand on the sport has received national and international praise.
Over the decades he was involved in rodeo, Billy made many friends and colleagues in and around the rodeo world.
Scott Miller, the owner of Walking M Rodeo in Athabasca, has known Billy for 40 years.
“He went from a champion bronc rider to a rodeo producer to doing his own Billy McDonald rodeo series,” he said, explaining that his connections to Billy run through the generations of both families. Miller’s dad had worked with Billy’s dad, and the families had provided their best stock to each other's events for decades.
Miller also said Billy was known for his promotion of the rodeo industry to younger generations, and that he was a huge advocate of the rodeo-family atmosphere. He will remember Billy as a mentor who advocated for youth to be involved in rodeo.
“He spent countless hours with his horses doing rodeo events, but more importantly, getting kids involved who needed a chance,” he stated.
Mark ‘Sparky’ Dreesen is the owner of J Bar J Rodeo in Montana. He’s known Billy since the late 1990s, first meeting him at a bucking horse sale.
Dreesen said Billy was kind and knowledgeable and held family and the rodeo lifestyle in high regard. Like many others who knew Billy, or knew about him, Dressen said Billy had a pure spirit.
“Billy was as honest as the day is long,” he said.
McDonald passed away in an Edmonton hospital after battling illness with family members at his side.
A funeral service for Billy McDonald will be held at Lac La Biche’s Evangelical Free Church on Thursday, March 28. He will be buried at the Hylo Community Cemetery.
