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LONGTIME HORSEMAN MARVIN BARNES DIES
Marvin Barnes prepares to parade Mr Master Bug in front of the Ruidoso Downs grandstand upon his retirement from racing in 1984.
© Ruidoso DownsADA, OK—NOVEMBER 30, 2016—Longtime Oklahoma horseman Marvin Barns passed away today after suffering a heart attack at his home near Ada, Oklahoma. He was 96.
Services will be held 11:00 a.m. Saturday at the Criswell Funeral Home Chapel in Ada. Reverend Jimmy Balentine will officiate. Burial will follow at Rosedale Cemetery.
He was born March 26, 1920 in Cumberland, Oklahonama to Elmer and Ivy Lee Dunham Barnes. He graduated from Ada High School.
Marvin married Lela Stanley Whittle on December 31, 1957. She preceded him in death on August 14, 2009.
Marvin and the two females who arguably had the biggest influence on his life in the past half-century—his wife Lela and their broodmare FL Lady Bug—were induced into the Oklahoma Quarter Hall of Fame in 2009. Lela died later that year.
Marvin and Lela Barnes has been among Quarter Horse racing’s most influential owners and breeders during their 51-year marriage. They won the All-American Futurity when the Ruidoso Downs fixture was the world’s richest horse race, and, through FL Lady Bug — a 1945 foal Barnes originally purchased for $1,000 and bought and sold several times over the years before buying her back for keeps in 1955 — and other horses produced at Lady Bug Stallion Station, they established a line that is still having a huge impact on the sport today.
FL Lady Bug’s son, Lady Bugs Moon, was part of an historic running of the All-American back in 1968 when he finished second in a 10-horse field where the second through fifth-place finishers were all bred by the Barnes.
Lady Bug's Moon, pictured with owner's Marvin
and Lela Barnes after winning the 1969
Rainbow Derby at Ruidoso Downs.
© Ruidoso Downs
Lady Bug’s Moon also was third in the Oklahoma Futurity that season and returned the next season to win the Rainbow Derby. Retired at the end of his sophomore season, Lady Bug’s Moon left the track with a 23-11-5-3 record and $191,536.
At stud, the stallion sired 15 crops of foals. Of those foals, 770 were starters, including 491 winners, 40 stakes winners and the earners of $4,031,691. At the time of his death in 1995 he was the fifth-ranked broodmare sire in the industry. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2013.
Marvin Barnes and his wife, Lela, pictured
with Mr. Master Bug in 1982.
© Lynette Shurtleff / Ada Evening News
In 1982, Marvin and Lela Barnes ran first and second in the Grade 1 All American Futurity with Mr Master Bug and Miss Squaw Hand at Ruidoso Downs.
“Nobody’s ever done that before,” Marvin said at the time. “And that was the first time anybody ever got $1 million for winning a horse race.”
Barnes runners are estimated to have earned over $5 million in purses, with more than $1.7 million of that total coming from Mr Master Bug.
“I’ve won every stakes race run at Ruidoso,” Marvin said. “Mr Master Bug (whose earnings total would have been higher if he hadn’t been disqualified after winning the All-American Derby at Ruidoso in 1983) is still a leading money-winning Quarter Horse.”
Marvin, who had trimmed his operation significantly since his glory days in the 1960s, ‘70s and 80s, still lived on the ranch he and Lela built near Ada.
Survivors include three nieces, Almeda Harrel of Ada, Cheryl Parks of Minco and Beverly Johnson of Austin, TX; one nephew, Kenneth R. Morris of Minco, and two step-grandchildren, Cory and Vaughn Whittle of Aubrey, Texas.
Marvin was preceded in death by his son, Michael Barnes and a step-son, Jerry Vaughn Whittle.
Horse racing was a family affair as Marvin was also preceded in death by his brother-in-law A.F. Stanley, Jr., who co-bred First Down Dash, and stepson Jerry Vaughn Whittle raced numerous stakes winners including Dash For Cash Derby(G1) winner Showcase Six.
Bearers will be Troy Reust, Travis Reust, Vaughn Whittle, Kenneth Winters, Mike Parks, Justin Magness. Honorary bearers will be Johnny Barney and Fred Frederickson.
Obituaries may be viewed and online condolences sent to criswellfh.com.