December Field Trial Obituaries

December 7, 2022

Joe Barksdale Has Died
Submitted for posting on 12/7/22
Joseph Allen Barksdale, long associated with bird dogs and field trials, died November 16 at age 95. Joe Barksdale was born in Anniston, Ala. He and his wife Virginia, "Ginny," later moved to Ohio where he was a salesman for Alsco of Iowa, an aluminum, window, door and siding manufacturer, then to Iowa in 1958 where he assumed a management position with the firm. Joe's efforts on behalf of the company over some 33 years produced annual sales of over $100 million. Joe became involved with field trials in the 1960s, and began attending the annual trials of the Northern States Amateur Field Trial Association in Solon Springs, Wis., whose program began with open stakes mid-week, then paused for the amateur stakes on the weekend, resuming on Monday with the balance of the open stakes. He was involved with the local Iowa Sporting Dogs Inc. club and the Midwest Field Trial Association. His early field trial competitor was Whitey Pale Face, latter The Enchantress and Winning Colors, among others. Joe expanded his field trial activity when he enlisted the services of erstwhile handler Roy Jines to campaign his dogs on the open all-age circuit. Those efforts earned accolades when Joe's pointer female enjoyed a successful career which culminated in her election to the Field Trial Hall of Fame in 1989. Alabama hander Roy Jines followed her into the Hall in 1994. Each fall, for many seasons, Joe and Ginny traveled to Harpster, Ohio for the annual pheasant trials, the American Field Pheasant Futurity and the International Pheasant Championship. Handler Roy Jines was a frequent competitor at both. Joe's wife Ginny, a nurse, would take time off during the summer to be home with their children, and come August attend the Iowa State Fair. In 1976 the Barksdales' daughter Kathy decided to start a food stand on the fair grounds. Her mother and father helped and the family became barbecue roast beef and ribs concessionaires. When Joe retired from the door a window business in 1985 he took over the barbecue stand and ran it with the same determination he had shown at Alsco. In 1993, he sold his cookies for the first time, making it the fair's iconic treat where the cookies were available at the main stand and eventually three "cookie trailers" on the fair grounds. In 2019 Joe decided to give the business to the fair. A spacious building was built on the fairgrounds adorned with his name. In announcing his death, the Des Moines Register's headline termed Joe "The Iconic State Fair Cookie Man." Joe's longtime friend, Gary Cowell, field trialer and co-owner with him on several bird dogs, gave the eulogy at Joe's memorial on November 28. Joe was preceded in death by his wife Ginny in May, 2022, and a son Bruce in 2004. He is survived by his daughter Kathy Cornwell who informed of her father's death.