Obituary for Ted Holloway: February 7, 1942 to June 28, 2026

Smith Valley NV – September 1, 2026

 Ted Holloway passed away peacefully at his home in Smith Valley, Nevada on June 28, 2026, at 84 years of age.

Ted was born February 7, 1942, in Enterprise, Oregon, to Merritt and Winona (Johnson) Holloway, who at the time were farming wheat in the north end of Wallowa County. They named him Teddy Joe, because Theodore sounded too formal.

When Ted was four years old the family moved to central Nevada, where his father was a buckaroo and his mother taught in one room schools. After many moves around Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, and California, they ended up in Lancaster, California, where Ted graduated from Antelope Valley High School in 1960. He married Patricia Campbell in 1963 and after several years of itinerant ranch life they settled in Walla Walla, Washington, where they raised their children Dayna Jo, Tedra Kay, and Merritt Alan.

Ted and Pat divorced in 1985. He was married to Judy Chamberlain from 1986 to 1998. In 1998 Ted relocated to Smith Valley where he and Sabina Baltrusch were married.

Wherever he lived and however he earned a living, Ted was always an old-time cowboy in his heart and his lifestyle. If anyone said he was born a hundred years too late, he would have agreed. He never lived in town, and always kept horses, and usually mules, to ride and drive.

Ted loved to collect anything old and western, from tack and gear to harness and wagons. A self-trained farrier, he shod his own horses and those of the people he liked.  Shoeing horses eventually became his full-time vocation.

He loved to pack mules in the high country, wrangle livestock with his children and friends, and drive teams of whatever he could put together. For many years he drove the chuck wagon during the cattle drives at the Hunewill Ranch in Bridgeport and provided buggies and wagons that were star attractions at Bodie days.

After finishing colts and harnessing teams became more difficult, he avidly joined the local Model-T club, restoring and driving another century-old rig. A lot of old-time knowledge and a corresponding outlook on life has been lost with Ted gone.

Ted is survived by his wife Sabina of Smith Valley, daughter Tedra Holloway of Smith Valley, son Merritt Alan Holloway of Fremont, California, grandsons Talen Bromps of Smith Valley and Jesse Bromps and wife Carlie of Reno, granddaughter Jade Pandres of Calgary, Alberta, sister Winona of Yerington, brother Tipton of Yerington, and brother Tom of Portland, Oregon.