Jolene Delgado, Perennial Life of the PBR Party, Has Passed Away

Jolene Delgado often joked that she was getting a tattoo that read, “Jolene Party of 1.”

It would not have been accurate.

The PBR super fan never partied alone. She was the proverbial “life of the party” at PBR events surrounded by laughing friends drawn to a force-field of fun.

“Jolene would make it a party if it wasn’t,” said her good friend Dee Young, who traveled to dozens of events with the person she credits with pulling her from her shell to enjoy every minute of our precious lives. “Jolene never met a stranger. When she loved you, she loved you hard.”

Count bull stock contractor Chad Berger among those who loved Jolene back. As PBR’s elite tour headed into Sacramento in late January, he named one of his young rank bulls “Jolene’s Dream.”

Normally, Jolene would have been at Golden One Center, meeting Berger at the Cooper Tires booth, soaking in every chance to grab a photo and autograph, particularly the Brazilian riders capturing her fancy. In 17 years, Delgado hadn’t missed a chance to drive north from her Southern California hometown of Costa Mesa to the annual Sacramento event.

This time, she was home battling cancer.

She watched as Mason Taylor was the first rider to be matched against Jolene’s Dream. The arena scoreboard showed her photo. On the CBS broadcast, Kate Harrison explained the touching story behind the bull’s name.

Berger’s bull jail-broke from the chute and quickly dispatched Taylor. Then, for good measure, living up to his name, he went after the bull fighters one by one.

Jolene’s Dream was a feisty presence to be noticed, not one to go quietly, just like Jolene Delgado had been all her life.

Jolene passed away in her hometown of Costa Mesa on Thursday. She was 63.

“So many of us are heartbroken,” said Rick Storm, a fan active on social media who met Delgado in 2019 when standing in front of an elevator at the arena in Tacoma.

“The doors opened, and Jolene yelled out, “YOU’RE RICK STORM!’ I was half scared and half curious,” he said.

It wasn’t long before they were laughing until they cried, partying at events in Idaho and Texas, dancing like kids without a worldly care at World Finals in Texas and then Rick’s wedding in Oregon.

“She was my crazy sis who I’ll always love,” he said.

Delgado was chosen as one of “Flint’s Final 7”: The most passionate and loyal fans during his career as official entertainer | PBR

Jerret Strong, traveling the circuit since 2006 as PBR’s head of sponsor fulfillment, has met thousands of fans. No one was more passionate than Jolene, he says.

In his new gig, she was one of the first fans he met, and the two would become close friends.

But it was not a BFF situation from the get go.

Working the 2006 Sacramento PBR, Strong wanted to create a separate party for fans. With a friend who owned The Wrangler, a country bar in Elk Grove, Strong’s hometown just south of Sacramento, he rented a bus to ferry fans from the bar to the bull riding and back. The ticket would include a pre-show behind-the-scenes tour.

Jolene and Dee, who had an innate ability to detect parties along the tour, signed up.

Strong was pleased the group had reached about 40 people. When he pulled out waiver forms for everyone to sign, there was one smart-aleck standout refusing to do so – Jolene Delgado.

Strong recommended she get back on the bus and take a ride back to The Wrangler later that night.

Jolene made an impish joke, reluctantly signed, and bolted to the front of the line for the first elevator to the dirt.

Strong had to make several trips ferrying the rest of the group to begin the tour. Winding around a bend in the hallway, he glanced into Sports Medicine and couldn’t believe his eyes. There was Dr. Tandy Freeman attending to a bull rider…with Jolene alongside as if she were an attending nurse.

Strong informed her this was strike two. She wasn’t to leave his side.

In a sense she didn’t.

Jolene was divorced and single, often working three jobs to make it to PBR events, supplementing her full-time role as a special ed administrator with the Newport Mesa school district with security gigs.

To help her and travel companion Dee Wallace save money, Strong offered one of the queen beds in his hotel room to the ladies. For more than a decade, the trio were bunkmates in cities across the country.

Once, in Sacramento, Jolene latched onto Strong’s mom like she was her own mother. During an event, Strong looked up to the big screen and saw his mother dancing as if she were at Woodstock.

“I’d joke to Jolene that she corrupted my mom,” Strong said.

Delgado had been an avid PBR fan since 2001, so Strong’s mother wasn’t the only one corrupted.

She found bull riding at a PBR in Laughlin, Nevada, invited by her sister who had overseen promotions for the arena.

“She came back and told me ‘Dee, I’ve found the NASCAR for women!’” Wallace said.

Wallace had also lived in Southern California, and Jolene convinced her to go to the PBR World Finals in 2007. After that, Delgado saw every single rider accepting the Gold Buckle as the new champion.

She was especially giddy when a Brazilian rider won. Her favorite, Robson Palermo, is the only athlete to have won the World Finals event three times.

“She’d say Joao (Ricardo Vieira) was her retirement plan when Robson retired, and that John (Crimber) is her retirement plan when Joao retires,” Wallace said.

Joao Ricardo Vieira (L), Jolene Delgado, and John Crimber | PBR

When Delgado got sick, Vieira would send videos to cheer her up.

“On a bad day, she’d watch that,” Wallace said.

Rocky McDonald, one of her favorite riders in the early days, called with good wishes as well.

Last May before World Finals, Jolene was having dental issues related to her sickness. She had three teeth pulled and could barely eat. She still showed up in Texas with a bloody mouth to see Cassio Dias win the title, not missing a single party.

After returning home from World Finals, she was diagnosed with cancer in her jaw.

“You’d think Jolene was a 20-year-old, the way she rolled,” said Lisa Merrick, PBR’s Senior Loyalty Ambassador. “She’d be at the late-night events and the bull housing tour the next morning. She wouldn’t miss a thing.”

As her condition worsened, Jolene was worried about accumulating her daily loyalty program activity points, Merrick said.

“Here she is battling cancer going through extensive treatment, and her concern is her PBR Rewards points,” Merrick said.

And boy, did Jolene treasure those points.

Merrick tells the story of another well-known, beloved fan, Dean Woods, who had an extensive collection of jackets, shirts and other PBR-logoed items and, while at PBR’s 30th Anniversary World Finals started asking a large contingent of the close-knit Fan Loyalty group if they wanted any of his bull riding stuff.

Woods wanted to make sure everyone was taken care of. Of course, nobody wanted to acknowledge the gesture was being made because he may not have been around much longer.

Nobody, that is, except Jolene.

“Jolene immediately piped up: Dean, the only thing I want is your PBR Rewards Points! You can will them to me?” Merrick remembered.

“She came over to me and excitedly said, ‘Did you hear that, Lisa? Dean is going to will me his rewards points!’”

Woods passed in the fall of 2023, and now Jolene is gone.

Friendships shouldn’t be measured in quantity – a list valued by its length.

But the plain fact is, Jolene Delgado had a long list of friends in the bull riding community who are now hurting. Attending PBR events will still be fun. Without Jolene, it just won't be the same.

She never did get that “Party of 1” tattoo.

But her daughter Rayvn Kostenbader was PBR-inked as a gift for her mother – the face of Robson Palermo across her leg.

Mom was the kind of gal who made you happy to take one for the team.

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