Today we’d like to introduce you to Betty Wills.
Betty has over forty years combined experience as a publisher, television producer, director, editor, video photographer and creative writer of over 300 scripts for television and video. She is an award-winning writer/producer/director of nature programming for PBS, and equestrian and water sports programming for cable and commercial television. She began her broadcast career in 1988 working as a feature scriptwriter for the weekly cable TV series, “On the Right Track”, which featured Thoroughbred horse racing highlights produced by Criterion Productions in Dallas, TX. She also wrote feature scripts for Criterion’s weekly series, The Travel Show on the newly launched Travel Channel. http://www.bettywills.com/tv-series
In 1989, Wills created and produced “Water Sports Weekly”, a national sports cable series that featured a variety of water sports including fishing, boat races, boat and yacht building, shark adventures, scuba diving and water skiing. She also did the post production work for “Hoofbeats”, a weekly horse program that aired on KTVT, Ch 11, a Gaylord Super Station. In the early 1990s, Wills presented a broadcast proposal to the National Cutting Horse Association including a teleplay highlighting the excitement of the event and incorporating celebrity participation during the NCHA Futurity. Her presentation launched the first televised NCHA World Championship Cutting Horse Futurity, and the very first NCHA Celebrity Cutting at the Futurity. In 1992, Wills produced the PBS special, “A Celebration of Horses: The American Saddlebred” with William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk, Star Trek franchise). The program received the Media Broadcast Excellence Award from the United States Equestrian Federation (formerly the American Horse Shows Association). Wills also created and produced “Trinity Meadows Raceway”, a weekly series for KTVT, Channel 11, which featured racing highlights, interviews and human-interest features.
Wills grew up during the years of the television documentary series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau (1966-1976). Her love of nature and fascination of the underwater world inspired her to become a scuba diver, and certified (SSI and NAUI) advanced open water & NITROX instructor (now emeritus). She also taught underwater photography and videography which, combined with her experiences as an accomplished equestrian, eventually led to a working relationship with American Public Television (formerly American Program Services) and the production of nature programming for PBS broadcast. (http://www.bettywills.com/pbs-series) She worked closely with KUHT-TV, the PBS affiliate in Houston, TX, and WKNO-TV, the PBS affiliate in Memphis, TN. Her first nature documentary project was a 3-part series titled Exotic and Unusual Species, the first of which was “The Alligator Gar: Predator or Prey?” which debuted in 1992 during the July sweeps, and was the highest rated primetime program of the evening. The 2nd in the series was “The Paddlefish: An American Treasure” hosted by Alex Cord (Archangel in CBS series Airwolf), which received a North American Film & Video Award. The 3rd special was “Sturgeon: Ancient Survivors” hosted by James Drury, (NBC series The Virginian), which was featured at the Golem Wildlife Video Festival in Italy.
Entrepreneur and freelance writer: Wills has been an entrepreneur since the age of 18 when she and her first husband built a horse boarding stable on Bellfort St. and Sims Bayou in Houston, TX where they also offered hourly horseback riding and riding lessons. http://www.bettywills.com/publisher From that location, she created a membership organization called Open Horse Shows America which quickly grew to a thousand members…it was quite the juggling act back in the late 1960s early 1970s for a young woman to manage a growing career while being a wife and new mother. Wills began publishing a monthly news bulletin which featured open horse show information, upcoming shows, horse show results, contestant profiles and advertising. The bulletin inspired Wills to create and publish a regional Quarter Horse magazine titled, The Texas & Southern Quarter Journal which became the official publication of the Texas Quarter Horse Association. It was the demand to keep photographs in the magazine that kept her photographic career on track.
Wills remarried in 1978, and moved to Fort Worth, Texas where she and her late husband owned and operated a Quarter Horse breeding facility and where she resides today. She has been a longtime member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and was the founder of http://www.earthwave.org Earth wave Society, a non-profit environmental organization that focuses on conservation through information and education. As a freelance writer, she created an award-winning humorous short story series, http://www.bettywills.com/how-to-buy-a-boat“The Adventures of George & Nan” for Bass ‘N Gal Magazine, and In-Fisherman. She also wrote a relationship column, “Straight-Talk” that was distributed in the Bonaire Repair and throughout the Caribbean and has also written articles for Scuba Diving Magazine. Wills has produced numerous other TV and DVD productions for conservation and educational purposes, http://www.bettywills.com/tv-dvd such as “River Invaders: The Scourge of Zebra Mussels”, “A Vanishing Melody: The Call of The Piping Plover”, and “One Good Tern Deserves Another”.
Photographer: (http://www.bettywills.com/bokeh-magazine-article) Wills’ learned about studio photography at age 12 while living in Houston, TX. It was a hands-on learning experience while working for Jenny Lowe, a studio photographer who lived a few houses down from where she grew up as a child. (http://bettywillsphotography.zenfolio.com/about.html) Wills described how she sees photography in the following quote: “Photography is so much more to me than simply capturing an image. It is conceptualizing an image that is teaming with unlimited possibilities.” Many of her photographs have earned national awards and honorable recognition. Most recently, a few of her underwater photographs have been https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2015/R2/Gallery 2015 & https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2016/R2/Gallery 2016 Picture of the Year Finalists on Wikipedia. Her photograph, “Riding The Range” was selected by the American Quarter Horse Association to be exhibited in the https://www.aqha.com/museum/exhibits/american-quarter-horse-photography-show/betty-wills/ AQHA Hall of Fame Photography Exhibit.
Equestrian: Wills has been a horse lover beginning when she first uttered the word “horsey!!” From her earliest career as an exercise rider for Red Barn Thoroughbred Farms in Houston to the boarding stable in Houston, TX in the late 1960s to the current day Wills Ranch in Ft. Worth, TX, Betty Wills has been living her dream. As a teenager, she wanted to pursue a career as jockey – to be the first female jockey to ride in the Kentucky Derby. That part of her life was short-lived when she married at age 18. She showed in open horse shows early on, followed her career with Open Horse Shows America, the Texas & Southern Quarter Horse Journal, and settled for good as the wife of the late Connie Dale Wills raising two beautiful daughters, Christine and Rebecca. http://www.thewillsranch.com/ranch-history-1 The family showed Quarter Horses together – traveled to many different AQHA circuits across the US, exhibited winning horses, hosted AQHA events, 4-H shows and judging clinics at the ranch. http://www.thewillsranch.com/the-family Betty has ridden or shown horses in almost every discipline including jumping, racing, barrel racing, pole bending, western pleasure, reining, western riding, trail, and cutting. She even tried bareback bronc riding…once. Her favorite is and always has been raising and showing cutting horses. http://www.bettywills.com/equestrian She and her late husband were long time members of the National Cutting Horse Association. Betty is a former NCHA Judge, the 1985 NCHA National NonPro Champion (Combined Area Work-offs), 1984 Top Ten NCHA NonPro Lmtd World Champion (4th), West Central Cutting Horse Association (WCCHA) Res Non-Pro Champion (1985 & 1986), WCCHA Lmtd Non-Pro Champion (1984), and Texas Quarter Horse Association Top Ten National Stakes (1986).
Today, (http://www.thewillsranch.com) The Wills Ranch is a horse boarding facility located on Hwy 377 South, Ft. Worth, TX 76126. The facility is managed by Betty and her daughter Christine. The facility can stall 100 head of horses, and includes a 300 ft. x 128 ft. indoor arena, a 100 ft. outdoor round pen, large box stalls – some with runs, turn-out pastures, a beautiful wooded creek, free roaming white tail deer, and riding trails. The ranch has a wonderful history that dates back to when the late Connie Dale Wills worked for E. Paul Waggoner who owned Poco Bueno, and after that, he worked for RQ Sutherland (Sutherland Lumber) and then for Rex Cable who owned Cutter Bill Western Stores in Houston and the famous palomino cutting horse, Cutter Bill. The ranch welcomes visitors and as Connie used to say… “the coffee is always on, come see us.”
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The biggest obstacle was the juggling act between career and family during a time when women were basically subservient when it came to marriage, education, pay scale and career opportunities. There actually was a time when marriage was supposed to last a lifetime – which looked great on paper – but highly unpractical in the real world. In the 1950s-1960s brought dramatic changes to what were once considered “societal norms”. It took a few more decades before women were even close to being “competitive” in careers that were primarily dominated by men.
Please tell us about Betty Wills.
Entrepreneur – owner of the Wills Ranch, which at one time was one of the top ten Quarter Horse breeding facilities in the DFW area, and is now a quality horse boarding facility. I worked hard to be the best I could be at whatever endeavor I chose, ranging from photography to my work as a documentary filmmaker, to Cutting Horse competition, to my volunteer work today writing quality Wikipedia articles. I’ve always seen competition as a self-challenge rather than competing against others.
Things I enjoy most (excluding being with my children and grandchildren who come first) include photography, documentary filmmaking, writing/storytelling, exploring, scuba diving, teaching and sharing knowledge, and cutting horse competition. I am most proud of the work I’ve done in the field of conservation, increasing public awareness to environmental concerns, and helping to educate others about the fascinating creatures that live underwater.
I am proud of the Wills Ranch that my late husband and I built, and his accomplishments in the Quarter Horse industry, from when he was a teenager working with the legendary Pine Johnson, and E. Paul Waggoner’s stallion, Poco Bueno, to the work he did with Cutter Bill when he worked for Rex Cauble, and his incredible work as a breeder of quality Quarter Horses to becoming one of 5 founders of the Texas Quarter Horse Association. I am proud of my accomplishments as an equestrian, carrying on with the Wills Ranch as a horse boarding facility after my husband’s death. I am proud of what I accomplished in the cutting horse industry, having introduced the NCHA to televising the NCHA Futurity and acquiring corporate partnerships, and utilizing their celebrity members at the Futurity. I am proud of having been an NCHA judge, and the 1985 NCHA National NonPro Champion.
I am proud and delighted that my youngest daughter, Rebecca Wills-Fussell and her oldest daughter, Madison, are carrying on the family’s winning legacy as champion equestrians in AQHA competition, and I am proud of my oldest daughter, Christine Wills, and all that she has won in NCHA Youth Cutting, and her dedication today to raising and showing Champion American Bulldogs and Frenchies.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
The past is past, the future is yet to be – ne’er the twain shall meet. I have always lived my life with future goals in sight.
Contact Info:
- Address: The Wills Ranch
16151 Hwy 377 S
Fort Worth, TX 76126 - Website: www.thewillsranch.com and www.bettywills.com
- Phone: 817-443-0258
- Email: betwills@gmail.com
- Other: www.earthwavesociety.com
Image Credit:
Betty Wills owns the copyright to all images
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