<p>Mike Currin won all-around cowboy honors at the Pendleton Round-Up in 1988.</p>

Currin and Davis were cousins who grew up on neighboring ranches in Heppners Little Butter Creek area. They helped with their familys wheat and cattle operations from the time they were small, rode horses together and shared a love of rodeo. Currin wrestled steers and roped calves. Davis competed in barrel racing.

Both died in plane crashes. Both left behind rich legacies. 

Currin collected some impressive hardware. In 1984, he clinched steer wrestling champion honors at the CNFR as a freshman. In 1988, he notched all-around honors at the Pendleton Round-Up and was Columbia River Circuit steer wrestling champion.

Davis distinguished herself in high school as the 1978 Oregon High School All-Around Cowgirl. In college, she won the Northwest Regional Barrel Racing Championship and placed third at the CNFR. She served as Pendleton Round-Up princess in 1979, queen in 1980 and Miss Rodeo Oregon in 1981.

Currins life ended in 1990 when the plane carrying him and three other cowboys slammed into Mt. Rainier. Davis died this summer in a small plane crash near Ukiah on her way to the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyo. 

Davis, 51, and her friend Ned Kayser, 53, were on their way to the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR), where they planned to watch Davis nieces and Kaysers daughter compete.

The plane, which had taken off from The Dalles Municipal Airport in Dallesport, Wash., went down about midnight on June 11.

Five search planes combed the Blue Mountains. Spotters finally located the wreckage of the single-engine plane in a mountainous area about 60 miles south of Pendleton. Davis, Kayser and pilot Gerald Hunter had perished.

Currin, 25, and the other cowboys had been competing at a rodeo in St. Paul, Ore., when they got word they had made the finals at a rodeo in Canada. The men quickly chartered a flight with Pendleton pilot Bob Card, who met them in Portland. Dave Smith, 31, of College Place and two Texas cowboys, David Bowen and Randy Dierlam, were also on board.

As the Cessna neared Mt. Rainier, thick clouds obscured Cards view and he flew dangerously close to the mountain. An air traffic controller advised the pilot to take evasive action. Moments later, the plane slammed nose-first into Rainier and disappeared from the radar screen. No one survived.