My good friend Pete Martinez lost his battle with cancer and
If you want to pay your respects his service will be this Wednesday Dec 20,2017
at 10am Our Lady Of Fatima Casper WY. He was my friend and I will be there. I
was called by the Casper Star Tribune they were doing an article about him and
asked me about our friendship and this is what they wrote. Pete I am going to
miss you and I will see you down the trail love you brother.
Pete Martinez called Casper artist Chris Navarro one day out
of the blue, maybe 25 years ago, and said they should meet. Both musician and
sculptor had a shared interest in rodeo and horses.
At some point later, Navarro decided to give Martinez the
basics on team roping. Martinez wanted to know how to do it safely, because, of
course, the Nashville musician “couldn’t afford to lose any of his digits.”
Martinez, a man known for strong family bonds, a sense of
humor and his success as a Nashville recording artist, died of cancer Dec. 10
in Houston. He was 56.
“The guy was a born entertainer, that’s for sure,” Navarro
said. “Just him and a guitar and bunch of guys sitting around you know, the
next thing you know, it’s a party breaking out.”
A full life Martinez was born in Leadville, Colorado, and
grew up in Casper, the oldest of three siblings, said his sister, Sandra Dixon.
His parents, Pete and Isabel Martinez, raised them around music and horses,
which remained lifelong passions for him, she said.
His music and business activity took him around the country and
even overseas to perform. But he visited his hometown whenever he could, even
if just to stop for dinner out with family before a flight out the next day,
Dixon said.
People always noticed the tall, thin man in his trademark
black cowboy hat, she said.
“I had to share him,” Dixon said. “I don’t think he knew a
stranger; and if he did, he would make friends immediately. He had the most
warm smile. People were just drawn to him.”
Martinez’s father taught him to play guitar when he was
young, Dixon said. Martinez graduated from Natrona County High School in 1979,
and he earned his bachelors degree in mechanical engineering at the University
of Wyoming and Metropolitan State University of Denver.
His albums recorded in Nashville included “Changes,” and “I
Would for You” on the Rodeo Records label, and his single “Bull Rider” became a
hit at rodeos nationwide.
He also recently recorded a gospel CD, Dixon said.
He was a hit with Casper audiences for his local
performances including the CNFR and Ranch City Party at the Casper Events
Center.
The son of a Navy veteran, Martinez performed his song “We
Thank You” for a D-Day commemoration event in 2014 at Omaha Beach in Normandy,
according to his Facebook page. A song he wrote called “The Horse” was featured
on an IMAX film, his sister said. Hank Williams Jr. helped on one of his CDs.
She recalled he’d often send photos from Nashville and call
his mother to say, “You won’t believe who I just got to watch singing or just
met.”
Martinez also ran companies in Colorado and Houston, where
he owned homes with his wife, Dixon said. He worked in the water resource
industry with experience in mining engineering, energy development and ranch
and farm brokerage, according to westernwaterresources.com.
Dixon looked up to Martinez, even as a child. He was
protective and could be bossy, so she’d tell him he was her big brother, not
her dad — and they’d laugh.
They’d go to the lake on the Fourth of July and jump off the
cliffs. Even if everyone else said not to do something, he’d be the one to say,
“Let’s do it, I’ll do it with you.”
His daring extended to competing in rodeo as a bull rider,
she said.
“He was a cowboy from his soul,” Dixon said.
Friendships Martinez’ friends remember him as down-to-earth
with a sense of humor and loyalty.
His childhood friend, Dick O’Hearn, said he never let
success give him a big ego. He was outgoing and generous with smiles,
handshakes and hugs. O’Hearn called him an active listener, paying close
attention and asking questions.
“He thought you were the most important person in the room
at that time,” he said. “He would just focus on you and play catch-up.” Martinez
always was eager to reunite over the years and reminisce about their years
together in church, little league baseball and school — from Westwood
Elementary through UW — and their times since then, he said.
“It’s always so great to see you,” Martinez wrote when he
signed his “Changes” CD for his friend. “We’re like brothers.”
Navarro, too, remembers him most as a good friend. After a
bad horse wreck on the trail ride in New Mexico, the first face Navarro saw
when he came to was Martinez.’ Martinez also was the first-person Navarro knew
to arrive at the hospital. He’d had his clothes cut off, so Martinez bought him
new ones.
Martinez called him a few weeks ago from Houston to tell him
it would probably be the last time they talk.
“He told me he valued my friendship and that I meant a lot
to him and that he wanted to let me know he loved me,” Navarro said. “Not many
cowboys tell each other they love each other, you know what I mean.”
