Sherry Price Johnson, daughter of Lena and John Henry Price, was born in 1938 on the family ranch in Addington, Oklahoma. In the 1950s, she won the American Junior Rodeo Association barrel race competition three times in a row and the all-around championship two times. In 1955, she was the National High School Rodeo Association’s all-around champion as well as the barrel racing and breakaway champion.
In 1961, Sherry was the Girls Rodeo Association All-Around Champion. In 1962, she was the World Champion Barrel Racer. Sherry held the record for the most NFR qualifications until 1997. In the finals, Sherry trained and rode six different horses. Sherry is the only cowgirl to qualify for the finals over the span of five decades. She qualified for every single location in which the GRA was held, across seven different states, starting in Clayton, New Mexico, in 1959. She made her last appearance in the bright lights of Las Vegas, Nevada in 1991. At that time, she was 53 years old with two grandchildren: Chris and Zack Bradley.
She also qualified numerous times in the Lone Star Circuit. In 1981, she won the Texas Circuit Final, posting the fastest average time. Sherry served on the Board of Directors for the GRA from 1963 through 1971, eventually serving as First Vice President. Coca-Cola named Sherry the Woman of the Year in 1997. She was inducted in the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City in 2005. In 2010, the Texas Rodeo Hall of Fame in Pecos honored her.
Sherry has come full-circle in life and rodeo. She is back at the family ranch in Oklahoma running a cow calf operation with her daughter Becky Combs Bradley. She is a proud member of H.A.N.D.S., Helping A Needy Diva Survive.
