Part of the Reno Rodeo Queens of Douglas County exhibit at the Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center in Gardnerville.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
In one corner of the new exhibit featuring the half-dozen Reno Rodeo Queens from Douglas County, next to a pair of red cowboy boots emblazoned with the Rodeo’s logo, there’s a photo of a woman astride Bertha the elephant in a parade.
While the shadow obscures her face, it’s almost certainly 1987 Rodeo Queen Natalie Prupas Pramenko.
On June 4, the daughters of two Reno Rodeo queens unveiled the exhibit at the Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center to a packed house.
Cousins Krista Jenkins and Lisa Cordes Filbin have been working on the exhibit since they realized that Krista’s mother, Myllie Cordes Hoover, and Filbin’s, Betty Chism Cordes, were both queens in 1952 and 1958.
“Lisa and I were talking about the past, and said ‘wouldn’t it be great if we could do some type of exhibit bring awareness to how many rodeo queens have been to Douglas County.’” Jenkins said. “We were working on this for quite a few months.”
Because McKinna Jackson was named queen in 2025, they knew there were at least three.
During their research, they found that Jackson’s grand aunt Pat Martin Rahbeck was queen in 1955, one of three queens named in the 1950s.
Prupas Pramenko broke a 29-year-drought when she was named in 1987. Jessica Helms Patanella was crowned in 2002.
Gathering the items from the queens for the exhibit was a big part of the challenge, Jenkins said.
“One lives in Texas, and one lives in Colorado,” she said. “We were ‘can you send something,’ and they were like ‘I’m so busy, I can’t send something right now,’” but the cousins persevered and were able to fill the exhibit.
“By and large we got what we needed,” she said. “We are happy and proud with what we did.”
The Reno Rodeo opens with arrival of the annual Cattle Drive on Sunday.
Visit renorodeo.com for more information.