Patricia "Tish" (James) Lewis

Tish Lewis was born Patricia James on March 10, 1932, to David and Julia (Bannister) James in Croydon, England, 20 miles south of London. She died April 6, 2024 near the Owyhee Mountains in her Murphy, Idaho, home.

Her death saddens many hundreds of her treasured friends - people whose lives she enriched - throughout the United States, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico and several European countries. 

The Owyhee’s were her favorite place in all the world - the perfect place where she and her husband, Gene Lewis, had finally, in 1996, settled on their little ranch on Briar Creek near Murphy. She had traveled - usually with horses - to many countries. She left England for Canada in 1960 and did not ever return to stay. However, she often visited family and forever retained her English citizenship and charming accent.

In 2016, she completed a meticulously hand lettered autobiography titled:

“From the U.K. to the Owyhees Via The World Thanks to the Horse.

As she finished it in 2015, she wrote, “I am proud of my British heritage and fiercely loyal to the Royal Family. Whatever the future may hold, I have had a wonderful life. It has been a great ride.”

She used the words “great ride” accurately because horses were her life. 

As a seven-year-old child, while German bombs were falling on London, she was sent to live with relatives on a farm away from the city and attended a disciplined “country school.” 

There she developed her love of animals and early on decided on a career as a professional groom for world class competition horses. That job required her to live closely to with equine athletes, to load and travel with them on trucks, trailers, airplanes and even ocean-going vessels; to understand and provide their nutritional requirements and health. She would keep them well-groomed at all times and to be able to ride and gallop such high-powered horses to keep them in shape to perform. She explained in her book,” their care was my main interest.”

After the War, she attended agricultural schools in England, passed exams, worked and practiced. She learned about farming, animal nutrition and how to take care of cattle, sheep, hogs, dogs and horses, and she learned to ride. She always loved animals and people and the countryside. Later she loved her gifted and famous horseman husband, the late Gene Lewis for whom she worked as a groom for years before they married.

In 1960, she sailed to Canada for her first trip to see the world. The job she took was milking cows, but by 1964, she was grooming cutting horses for a group who took six horses to England to introduce their sport to the country and to the Royal family. There, she had a personal conversation with the Queen, a horseman herself, about quarter horses! 

Tish traveled to Australia and New Zealand and many European countries with employers who were competing with their world class horses. She fox hunted and worked on farms with racehorses as well.

In 1961 she found herself in California working for the same owner for whom Gene rode. He had grown up as a cowboy in southern Idaho, and after the War made an international reputation for training, showing and selling world class Olympic caliber jumpers. As his groom, she kept his horses healthy and happy and beautifully turned out as they competed and won in and out of the United States. 

As time went on, Gene’s business became teaching people as well as horses. He traveled much of America and Canada teaching people how to ride and think about animals’ ways of thinking.  An innovative and gentle teacher, he earned many awards including the United States Equestrian Equestrian Federation’s Pegasus Medal of Honor for his contributions to the sport.

Gene passed in April of 2007 at the age of 82, but until her own death, Tish loved and remembered him every moment of her life.

She said he had helped her train her driving horses: Pebble Bay and Little Owl. In just a few years, she won driving championships in California, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New York and finally in England itself.

While they lived on their Briar Creek Ranch near Murphy, Tish began to teach and give clinics with her working Border Collies. She said Gene helped her and her dogs excel. A willing learner and teacher herself, she competed in sheepdog trials and conducted demonstrations at Murphy’s annual Outpost Days celebration. For many years she was an important part of Idaho’s Trailing of the Sheep Festival in Hailey. It now includes a sheepdog trial with many handlers and their dogs trying to win the Tish Lewis Trophy.

In her retirement years, she became the retirement home for working Border Collies, taking them one at a time until its passing. “Spot” was the last animal to enjoy her love and ability, but she left a lifetime of both wherever she went.

Gene’s daughter, Kathy, said, “When Tish was ready to move from her ranch, she found the perfect home in Murphy just a short walk to the Owyhee County Historical Museum where she spent these last years learning and contributing to the history of the area and of the Lewis family…. I loved to learn of my dad’s ancestry, and I loved riding in the golf cart with Tish in the hills with her dog running along with us.”

Blair, a longtime friend and horseman, was also a frequent visitor. She remembers many happy occasions with Tish - especially baking hundreds of Christmas sourdough cookies. It was always a loving and welcoming home, she said. 

Martina, who came from Germany to ride with Gene stayed on to live nearby for 25 years. She was with Tish to the very end.

Tish was preceded in death by her husband, her parents and her brother Patrick. She is survived by her niece Ludovica with daughter Allegra and husband Alessandro Antichita - James who live in Italy as well as cousin Christopher with wife Jeanie Bannister, Malcolm and wife Sue Bannister from Great Britain and Gerald Hankins from Canada. 

The Celebration of Life for Tish will be at 3 p.m. June 5, 2024, at the Museum in Murphy, where she contributed so much.

In lieu of flowers contributions can be made to the Owyhee Historical Museum. 

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