Western Heritage Award and three-time Spur Award-winning author Dusty Richards was the author of over 100 acclaimed westerns. He spent his youth in Arizona and worked as a rancher, auctioneer, rodeo announcer, and TV anchor before he moved to writing full time, going on to become the only author ever to win two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America in one year (2007). He received his third Spur Award for The Mustanger and the Lady, which was adapted into the film "Painted Woman." An inductee of the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame, Dusty was also the recipient of the Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction and was honored by the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2009. He was a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the International Professional Rodeo Association, and served on the local PRCA rodeo board.