Barbara Busey

By Dan Cunningham

“Art is something I really enjoy. I think it has added to my life,” says Barbara Busey.

Barbara is the current artist on display at Old Trail Gallery in the John W. Rawlings Heritage Center, Sixth Street and Bent Avenue.

Her display of artwork includes the first, tentative drawings she made of a dog, people, a windmill and a house.

“My mother saved them,” she says with a laugh.

Her art has obviously come a long way, judging by her more recent attempts to depict a pioneer home, a small town street and the colorful scenery around Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.

Still, her progress in art was delayed because there was no formal art instruction in Las Animas in the days of her childhood and her teen years.

It wasn’t until she enrolled at Western State College in Gunnison that she took her first formal class. She eventually graduated with a major in education and two minor degrees in both art and English. Her college years had an interruption, though, when she married Ben Millikan of Manzanola while she was a sophomore. He was a Naval pilot and was killed in an accidental plane crash while doing recreational flying with his squadron. His death left behind a widow, and two children.

Barbara returned to Gunnison to finish her degree and embark on a teaching career. She began teaching elementary school, but after a few years were able to teach art to both elementary and high school students.

While teaching in Gunnison she met and then married Larry Busey, of Grand Junction.

“He was in the business department at Western State. He had a little boy, so we had three children to take care of.”

While raising their blended family and working, their lives began to travel down a different path.

Barbara had always been interested in the American Indians and her husband became interested in the culture and the people.

They met a Navajo Indian and together they all opened Two Rivers Trading Post in Gunnison, which offered native art and crafts. The Busey family was happily operating this business on the side until the late 1960s.

“We saw this advertisement for an Indian trading post down near Shiprock, New Mexico. We went down to see it.”

They liked what they saw. Barbara quit her job; Larry quit his job. Their children were out of high school and so the couple moved to Fruitland, N. M.

“The store was established in at least 1886. We do not know for sure how far back it went,” Barbara relates.

“We liked it. We liked the climate. We got along real well with the Navajo. We increased the business quite a bit. About 95 percent of our trade was with the Indians.

Their new trading post venture offered food and dry goods, supplies and hardware.

“We pawned. There was a slaughterhouse out back. We made a lot of friends.”

When her husband Larry died in 1989, her son Paul Millikan ran the business together for another six years until it was sold in 1995.

Barbara moved back to her hometown of Las Animas, where she still had two sisters, though both are now deceased. One was Martha Lowe, the mother of former Bent County Democrat owner Jack Lowe, and Katie Bono.

Today, Paul Milliken has a construction business in Farmington, N. M. His sister, Janice Lloyd, lives in Honolulu where her husband recently retired after serving as a U. S. Marshal. Barbara’s stepson, Tony Busey, lives in New York and works for a large international construction company.

Barbara has one grandchild.

She continued her art education by taking classes when she was in New Mexico. Since returning, she has taken classes at Otero Junior College. Barbara also went on to art trips sponsored by OJC — one was to Italy and the second trip, a longer one of three weeks, took in the British Isles and ended up Paris.

Since moving back to Las Animas, Barbara has also vacationed at the Ghost Ranch, a 22,000-acre spread owned by the Presbyterian Church. The ranch offers visitors the opportunity to stay for one or more weeks while taking classes in art, music or religious studies.

Barbara currently works in watercolor and pastel and her exhibit includes a collage.

“I like to draw. I do not do oil painting any more.”

Locally, Barbara has taught a watercolor class but her own production has slowed because she is quite busy as the art guilt president and as a member of the Pioneer Historical Society.

Her interest in art is wide ranging.

“I like to look at it. I enjoy doing it. I like to read about it. But art is more of a hobby now.”

She confesses she has never entered any serious competition — except for the Eads art show.

Her favorite subject matter includes landscapes, old buildings and flowers.

But looking back on her life as a whole, she sums up:

“It has been interesting, to say the least.”