Boots and saddles and everything in between. Dean Wallace sold it all, to everyone from ranchers to Hollywood folk — among them a lass by the name of Raquel Welch.
"He said he never met a woman with bigger feet. He sold her a pair of men's boots,"says Mary-Jean Wallace, Wallace's daughter-in-law.
Wallace, 84, who died on Christmas Day, was one of the last in town to sell Western goods as a family enterprise.
It all began in 1954 when Dean and his wife, Gloria, bought Buck Jones Cowboy Outfitters on Scott Street Downtown, where Gloria had been working for a couple of years.
In 1957, they changed the name to Wallace's Cowboy Outfitters, a name that would stick for the next 33 years.
Even so, Dean kept his "day job" at what was then Hughes Aircraft up until the mid-1960s, working at Wallace's nights and weekends.
That sort of financial prudence came naturally.
Born in Enid, Okla., Dean and his mother scraped by during the Depression, with Dean working odd jobs.
Perhaps the oddest of all: "test driving" rides for a traveling carnival one summer, to make sure the rides were safe.
During World War II, Dean became a fighter pilot, then flight instructor at what was then Davis-Monthan Field.
There, he met Gloria Holcombe. "Her father managed the officers' mess and Gloria was the cashier," says Steve Wallace, one of two kids born to Dean and Gloria Wallace after their marriage.
After a brief stint as a TWA pilot after the war, Dean settled for good in Tucson.
In the late '50s, the store relocated to 64 E. Pennington St. Among its stock in trade: saddles.
"We built our own saddles, all the stores did," says Steve. "There was still lots of farming and ranching."
Men's duds also moved smartly out the door.
"It was cowboy shirts and jeans and boots and hats," says Joyce Clark, who learned to appreciate tight-fitting jeans during her 34 years at Wallace's. "To this day, I still wear tight pants, and I'm 70."
Clark also rode a horse in the rodeo parade every year, representing the store.
John Wayne and Lee Marvin ambled into the store from time to time. So did royalty. "I was U of A rodeo queen in 1977," says Mary-Jean, who met Steve at Wallace's. "He helped me with a hat," she says.
Movie companies — as well as the stars — frequented the store while filming around Tucson.
"We sold 200 pairs of boots for the movie, 'Flash Point,' " says Mary-Jean.
But the Wallaces didn't just sell Western. They were Western.
Dean helped found the Arizona Junior Rodeo Association and both Steve and his sister, Candy, were active in rodeo and 4H. Dean also dabbled in quarter-horse racing.
In 1963 Wallace's dipped its toe in suburbia, opening a second store on North Campbell Avenue near East Fort Lowell Road.
When a new Wallace's went in on North First Avenue near East Grant Road in 1967, the Downtown store, and then the Campbell Avenue store, shut down.
"Dad said when the doctors moved out of Downtown, it was time for them to move, too," says Mary-Jean.
In 1986, Dean retired and Steve and Mary-Jean kept the store going until 1990, when it closed.
"Today, there's nothing but chain stores," says Mary-Jean.
Ah, but the memories still live on. "Dean was absolutely great," says Clark. "In 34 years, I never saw him grumble." Adds Steve: "His word was good as gold."
