Lillian Jenkinson Holder did something no man has ever or will ever do. In 1927 she was recognized as the first woman ever issued a jockey’s license.
To do that, she had to be tough as nails and determined above all else to carve a path that other women could follow. She did not have it easy. Persistence was a quality not lost on Lillian.
Jockey Queen
Author Roger Peach has penned a book about Lillian and all of the obstacles she faced throughout her career. He said he wrote Jockey Queen: Lillian Jenkinson Holder, Horse Racing’s Fearless Lady because, “I suspected Lillian was overlooked as a competitor of the highest order. If someone did not step in and tell her story, there was a danger she would continue to be all but ignored and ultimately forgotten. I didn’t want to see that happen. She was a magnificent competitor.”
A different time
Lillian lived in a time when women weren’t allowed to ride at recognized racetracks. Her biography relates the story of a young woman who fought her way through five decades to defy the “sport of kings” unwritten rule that females could not be jockeys. She fought for her place in the saddle against her male competitors but was never allowed to compete at recognized, parimutuel racetracks in spite of superb professional skills that could rival those of any male jockey.
Early adopter
Two years after Lillian retired with an estimated 10,000-plus races and more than 3,000 wins to her credit, jockey Robyn Smith was recognized as the first female jockey to win a major thoroughbred race in 1973.
Peach, 73, said he first saw Lillian in 1966 when he was 16. “I was showing Jersey dairy cattle at Southern Illinois county fairs those days and my boss was friendly with Lillian. Lillian and her sister Babe would occasionally buy a bale of hay or straw off of us until their regular source came through. I never had a conversation with her that I can recall. Still, I never forgot her, like many folks who saw her race.”
Competition
From seeing her at the Perry County Fair in Pinckneyville, Illinois, “I just remember seeing this one particular jockey fighting off competitors on the straightaway, whips out as they charged for the wire,” he said.
“This jockey’s face was so contorted in rage, it was almost scary. Out the back of the jockey’s headgear, there was all this long hair spewing out, blowing in the speed-generated wind. I asked my companion who the jockey was and my jaw must have dropped when he said, ‘Oh, that’s just Lillian Holder.’ That certainly explained the long hair. I never forgot her and all summer long I had many chances to see her race. She was magnificent.”
Author’s North Star
When it came time to write the book, Peach said that Lillian’s niece, Jan Yarberry, “was my North Star” for finding his way through a labyrinth to write Jockey Queen.
“A couple of retired jockeys who had ridden with and against Lillian mentioned Jan and advised me to get in touch with her. Jan confirmed my research and directed me to events I would have never found on my own.”
He said Jan, who lives in Shelby County, was especially key to descriptions of family dynamics otherwise inaccessible. “Jan is the last surviving member of the Jenkinson family that was known by locals as the ‘horse Jenkinsons of Platte County, Nebraska,’ ” Peach said.
Family
Lillian was the oldest of five daughters born to Elizabeth and William James Jenkinson. Together they operated Loup View Stock Farm, located a mile north of Monroe, Nebraska in Platte County. Peach said their dairy became one of the state’s premier Holstein herds, featuring record-setting cows with state and nationally recognized milk and butterfat production records in the opening decades of the 1900s.
Nebraska
Horses were a “big thing” in Nebraska during Lillian’s childhood. She and her four sisters were rewarded with a few ponies for their enjoyment. “It’s no wonder she fell in love with horses, considering all the hard work she had to put in with the dairy cows,” Peach said.
Her father dabbled with common running horses and recognized his oldest daughter’s developing horsemanship skills before she reached her teens.
Thoroughbreds
As a result, he acquired a few thoroughbreds for her to ride at local county fairs and rodeos where women were allowed to ride against the boys and men. “It planted the seed that would grow and blossom into a 47-year racing career.”
Conditioning
At age 10, Lillian was milking cows by hand and carrying milk 30 yards from the stanchion barn to a cream separator, Peach said. “Her twice daily labors were instrumental in developing extraordinary strength and stamina for a future racetrack warrior who stood 4’10” tall and weighed 110 pounds at maturity. Her physique was often described as that of bodybuilder, but miniaturized with otherwise normal proportions. She had the perfect body type for a professional jockey.”
Don’t give up
There is a lot to the story of Lillian Holder. Yarberry hopes people will read Jockey Queen and remember how “important family is. If you have a dream, don’t give it up. Live your dream regardless of what others say.”
“Jockey Queen would not have been written without persistence,” Peach said. The breakthrough came when he made contact with Jan’s son, Michael. “I explained to him that I wanted to learn more about Lillian, and he went to his mother and convinced her to at least talk to me about my preliminary questions.”
Wary
Yarberry had a right to be critical of getting involved because “she had seen far too many stories printed about her aunt that were inaccurate in their depictions — or putting the wrong spin on the story. To break the ice, we just started with irregular phone conversations for the better part of two years. I’d do some research and afterwards I’d ask Jan to verify what I found. It was back and forth. From these conversations research was conducted and the book was formed.”
Lillian was no “country bumpkin.” Her parents wanted their daughter to go to college because “she was an excellent student.”
Yarberry’s son convinced her to speak with Peach when he said, “you are the last one to tell her story. You owe it to Lillian to do that.”
Telling the story
Yarberry liked Roger’s way of telling her aunt’s story from a family point-of-view and expressing how the family worked together at things. Lillian needed and had “the farm behind her to flourish. There was a moral aspect, not just financial support.”
Yarberry called her aunt a “trailblazer” in a time when men “didn’t want women to ride.” She went on to say Lillian was “very hard working and quiet, but not bashful. She didn’t talk unless she had something to say. She was a very matter-of-fact person.”
Lillian “loved to ride. There’s no picture of her where there are not ponies or animals in it.” She even rode the Pony Express in Wyoming.
And she could “literally do anything. Men would try to compete, but couldn’t. She could handle a horse better. She was a very accomplished equestrian. When they couldn’t outride her, they put her in a bad light.”
Following her dream
Through it all, Lillian persevered and followed her dream. “It was her passion, and she was lucky enough to know what her passion was,” Yarberry said.
Jockey Queen is available through all popular retail booksellers. Peach appeared at Coffee with the Authors on April 13 at the Carnegie Center at the Shelby County Public Library.
About the author
Roger Peach has had a career as a newspaper reporter/feature writer, magazine editor/publisher and public relations account executive. After retiring, he wrote a coming-of-age self-published book, Swamper Tales, about his eight seasons spent showing cattle at Southern Illinois county fairs as well as state and national expositions such as the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE) in Louisville.
