Lecile Harris' career as a rodeo clown has lasted more than 60 years. Dalton was one of the rodeos where he got his start and he's back in Dalton this week for the Dalton Pro Rodeo. 

DALTON, Ga. — It’s a career that has ranged from the humble beginnings of a backyard rodeo to the spotlight of national television.

It has taken him all over the country and around the globe.

And it all started in Dalton.

This weekend, Lecile Harris, known as one of pro rodeo’s master comedians, is back where it all began when he performs at the Dalton Pro Rodeo tonight and Saturday at the North Georgia Fairgrounds.

“I worked Dalton in the late ‘50s, early ‘60s,” Harris said. “When I first started getting out of my area, Dalton was one of the rodeos I did when I was working for Preston Poag out of Franklin, Tenn. Since then I worked all over most of Canada, Costa Rica, South Africa, toured Europe. I don’t think there’s a state now, maybe Hawaii is the only place I haven’t done a rodeo in.”

Harris’ career as a rodeo clown spans six decades. He began as a bullfighter, a clown that keeps the bulls away from the cowboys, and has transitioned into a full-time comedy performer.

“This is my 61st year in the business,” Harris said. “I started in 1955. I’ll be 80 in November, fought bulls for 36 years, and did comedy at the same time. When I got to the point where I needed to retire from fighting bulls, I was 52 years old, that’s a long career for a bullfighter. Most are 30s, early 40s at the most.

“When I retired, there’s so much demand for comedy, I took my comedy and have done it ever since. I started to slow up, work fewer rodeos. I used to work 150 performances a year. Since I’ve been about 65 or 70, I’ve been trying to get it down to 100 a year and haven’t made it yet. I still enjoy it and as long as I enjoy it I’ll keep doing it. If it’s not exciting for me anymore and it becomes a job, I’ll just hang my hat up and walk off. I’ve had a great career.”

Harris is a native of Collierville, Tenn. His experience with rodeos started as a local spectator and quickly evolved.

“In Tennessee, there’s not a whole lot of rodeos, especially back then,” Harris began. “I had never seen a rodeo ever. When I was 18 years old, a man that had a little ranch about 20 miles from my hometown, across the river, started a little backyard rodeo, just a small Sunday afternoon thing. I heard about it and I was graduating from high school then. I had a football scholarship to the University of Tennessee-Martin. I was waiting on football fall practice to start, just looking for something to do. My buddy and I went over there, we heard about the girls over there, the wranglers, that’s what we went for mainly.

“I started watching the bull riding and I was raised on the farm, rode bulls and horses and cows all the time in the pasture. I just thought I’d like to try that. That day I actually entered in the bull riding. The guys that were already entered in the bull riding, guys that knew what they were doing, they offered me their ropes and spurs, since they knew they were going to get my money.

“I got on a bull in the second session. I didn’t even make it to the end of the gate. He threw me off, pulled my shirt off and made me mad. Next Sunday I went back, and kept going back every Sunday.”

Soon a door opened up for Harris to try bullfighting as well.

“One Sunday, the bullfighter’s car broke down. They couldn’t have bull riding if they didn’t have a bullfighter,” he said. “I saw the moves they did, they were impressive, kind of like football moves, stiff-arming and stuff. I was in good shape so I volunteered for it. Your job as a bullfighter, you just have to make yourself a more desirable target than the cowboys on the ground. I was obviously a real good target. I enjoyed it and the guy who ran it kind of liked me. He said, ‘I’ll give you your entry fees in both sessions if you come and fight bulls next week.’ I did that all summer.

“That same summer, he told me this other clown had some comedy acts and told me I’d need some comedy acts if I was going to keep doing it.”

After graduating college, Harris started working for Poag’s rodeo and stopped bull riding to concentrate on becoming a full-time bullfighter.

“My second year working for him he told me I’d have to quit riding bulls, couldn’t take the chance of me getting hurt doing that,” Harris said. “The clowning end I got a check for sure, I didn’t have to beat anybody, and I wasn’t beating them very often anyway. I worked for Preston until the late ‘60s, then I went to work for Loretta Lynn’s rodeo company for 20 years. When she sold her company, I went into the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) where I am now. That’s like the NFL, it’s the biggest rodeo association there is.”

Over the years, Harris also got a steady gig working on the TV show “Hee Haw.” He received great acclaim for his work, being named PRCA Clown of the Year four times in the 1990s, was comedy act of the year four times and was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2007.

This weekend he’ll perform two acts, one he calls “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” a baseball comedy act, and also a magic act.

“You can imagine if it’s magic and it’s comedy, it’s not going to work right,” Harris said.

After such an extensive career, Harris says he still gets a thrill performing for a crowd.

“For a long time, while I was fighting bulls, nothing would ever take the place of the feeling you get when you fight bulls,” he said. “It’s a feeling of satisfaction, to be able to outmaneuver a bull. There’s nothing that will take that place. But comedy … the response you get from comedy, the laughs, when you can make them laugh, your whole audience just explodes with laughter, that’s the second most enjoyable feeling next to fighting bulls.”