Chuck Milner

Roger Mills County, Oklahoma

Chuck Milner is a singer/songwriter from Oklahoma who has been singing and playing cowboy music for 20 years. He has been a featured performer at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Washington D.C., the Smithsonian Institution Folklife Festival, cowboy poetry gatherings in Elko, Nev., and Alpine, the Lowell Folk Music Festival in Lowell, Mass., the NCHA Futurity Finals, Fort Worth, WRCA Ranch Rodeo Finals, Amarillo, and the Rafter S Roping, Cyril, Okla.

For the last 16 years, he has been a featured performer at the Chuck Wagon Gathering, Cowboy Hall and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City. He is a former artist-in-residence for the Oklahoma State Arts Council, and has also worked with the Mid-America Arts Council and the National Council for Traditional Arts.

He and his wife, Beth, are raising their two children, Hallie and Cody, on their Rush Creek Ranch in Far Western Oklahoma. They have a cow/calf operation and also raise a few horses. Hallie, 13, and Cody, 10, often help their dad with the music. Hallie plays the fiddle and Cody plays the mandolin. They are known as the Rush Creek Wranglers.

In 2001, the Milners received a Centennial Ranch Award for their Smoot-Hood Ranch in Greer County, as it has been owned and operated by Beth and her family since 2001. In 2005, Chuck was honored with the Heritage Award by the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering.