Trapshooting champ Childers dies at 61

Thursday, June 10, 2004 | 11:37 a.m.

Bobbie Jo Childers, a leading Nevada women's trapshooter who won the 1985 Nevada State Ladies All-Around championship and manager of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas copy center, died Saturday of cancer. She was 61.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 15 years will be private. Desert Memorial Cremation and Burial Society handled the arrangements.

"Bobbie Jo was a pioneer in ladies trapshooting in Nevada," said Linda Hand, Nevada state delegate to the Amateur Trapshooting Association and a longtime friend who said Childers was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago.

"She was always trying to introduce new women to the sport and she donated shooting apparel to kids who got involved in trapshooting," Hand said. "Bobbie Jo also was a very outspoken person and member of several gun clubs."

Childers, who was past president of the Pacific International Trapshooting Association, was enshrined in the Nevada Trapshooting Hall of Fame in Carson City in 2002.

The winner of several Nevada State Ladies Singles 16-yard-line titles, Childers said she accomplished all she did with little practice.

"I can't practice because there's nothing in it for me," Childers told the Sun in 2002. "Now, if somebody comes out, and says, 'I'll shoot for a beer,' that's fine. But I won't stand out there and practice. You have to make it worth my while."

Born Bobbie Jo Bartlett on June 14, 1942, in Arkansas, she was the youngest of three children of John Bartlett, a federal worker, and the former Louise Snowden. The family moved to Nevada when Bobbie Jo was a toddler, and she graduated from Sparks High.

Childers came to Las Vegas in 1989 and was hired by UNLV, where she worked her way up from press operator to reproduction manager in her 15 years with the school.

Childers started shooting in 1981 while attending a trapshooting event with a friend. She said she decided to enter the event after getting "tired of standing around." She hit 75 out of 100 targets that day.

In a 1986 competition, Childers shot a perfect score -- 100 out of 100 targets from 25-yard line.

"It was so hot, I had a nosebleed," Childers told the Sun, recalling the flawless round. "But that day I shot 100 they could've set off a stack of dynamite behind me, and I don't think I would've heard it."

In addition to competing in Las Vegas, Childers traveled the West, winning several titles in other states and at the Golden West Grand at the old Harolds Club in Reno.

Childers quit shooting last June following the state championship to undergo cancer treatments.

A moment of remembrance for Childers is scheduled for Friday night at the Nevada Trapshooting Hall of Fame dinner following the Nevada State Trapshooting Championships in Reno.

Childers is survived by her husband, Gary Childers of Las Vegas; two sons, Frank Zubieta and Steve Zubieta, both of Reno; a brother, Sherman Bartlett of Idaho; and a sister, Fran Fair, of Victorville, Calif.