A Girl and Her Cowboy Boots

Story by Deb Peterson | Photographed by John Blair. M! Aug/Sep 2011.

Debbie Love’s mother always said, “You don’t have to have a lot of money to look smart. When I go down, I’m going to look damn good.”

“And she did,” Debbie says.

Take one look at Debbie, and you know she inherited her mother’s passion for style.

She’s got her mother’s budget sense, too.

“We were always frugal because we didn’t have any money,” Debbie says of growing up. “My mom taught me to look at sales racks.”

Today, Debbie’s closet is stuffed (and meticulously organized) with colorful treasures—embroidered shirts, studded jackets, sequined bags, jewelry.

“I love Betsey Johnson,” she says, “and Mary Francis beaded bags. And Manouk! Down here is my rack of bracelets.”

But most of all, she loves her cowboy boots—all 30 pairs of them.

She has red boots, pink boots, turquoise boots, chili pepper boots, lucky playing card boots, boots with hearts, and boots made especially to fit every possible measurement of her feet.

And she didn’t pay full price for anything in her closet.

“Ever,” she says. “I barter a lot, and a lot of this stuff comes from resale shops.”

Her boot collection ranges in value from $15 to several thousands of dollars. She has even offered to pay more when she finds a pair of boots marked far below their value.

Among her prized possessions are Rocketbuster boots, to which she was introduced by Virginia Dandy-Brinkerhoff, owner of Just Dandy in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

“I met Virginia, and I so admired her tenacity and gutsiness and boldness that I went to work for her,” Debbie says. “She took me to market and oh my, I was speechless when I first saw Rocketbuster boots. That was the beginning. To me, they’re works of art.”

She has been a major fan of western wear ever since.

“I absolutely fell in love with Manuel,” she says of the famous costumer/artist who dressed the likes of Johnny Cash, Elvis, Bob Dylan, and Hank Williams. “There is so much expression in his clothing. It’s colorful, lively, and comfortable.”

Debbie Love has even partied with Manuel, who also designed the insignias used by The Rolling Stones and The Grateful Dead.

“I was living in Nashville and went looking for the house that was his shop,” she says. “I opened the door and there he was.”

Manuel gave her a tour of his shop and invited her to a party.

But her life wasn’t always so lucky.

She was missing 30-40 percent of the bones in both of her feet when she was born.

“My feet turned inward, and they told my mother they had to do something or I would end up in a wheelchair,” Debbie says.

Doctors took bone from Debbie’s shin, attached it to the sides of her feet, and hoped it would grow.

It did.

But that wasn’t the end of her trouble.

In her teen years, one leg grew faster than the other, and she had more surgeries involving moving bones from one leg to the other.

The scars haven’t slowed her down a bit. She’s as full of passion and fun as her closet. Her home reflects that passion, too, adorned with giant floral displays.

“My mom gave me a love of silk flowers and big, flamboyant flower arrangements,” she says.

With a master’s degree in Education, Debbie has been a teacher, shopkeeper, and casino manager among other jobs that have taken her around the world.

When she moved to London, England, a mover asked, “Ma’am, are you related to that lady with all the shoes?”

Debbie laughed.

“I’m the Imelda Marcos of the West,” she says.

Today, she’s a health educator at Dr. Michael Hagaman’s Physician’s Health and Fitness in Mountain Home, where her clients come to class excited to see which pair of boots she’s wearing.

Whichever pair strikes her fancy.

M!

Don’t miss the Debbie Love gallery!