Winners give ‘Warrior’ for Ruth’s birthday

Upon learning that Brenda Bober had won the custom-built “Warrior” motorcycle, a passing Crazy Horse Memorial visitor said he would give her $5 to buy his next lottery ticket.

Laughing, she told him, “I haven’t won anything since.”

Not monetarily, perhaps, but Brenda and her husband, Andy Bober, of Tucson, Ariz., won the heart of Memorial president and chief executive Ruth Ziolkowski.

In honor of her 84th birthday on June 26, they gave the one-of-a-kind bike to the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation.

“It was something we had been thinking about doing and her birthday seemed like the perfect time to do it,” Andy Bober said. “It belongs here.”

The gift keeps the bike where it has been since shortly after the Aug. 12, 2006, drawing – outside the original log home-studio of sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski. Several of the bike’s hand-painted images are of Korczak, and the display invariably stops picture-takers as they enter or leave the home.

Created by Elite Custom Motorcycles of Prescott Valley, Arizona, the bike is such a work of art that it somewhat intimidated Brenda Bober. She said she did not want to ride it for fear a bouncing highway rock would mar the painting.

So other than sitting on it to pose before the carving model and mountain for pictures, and kick-starting it to hear the throaty rumble, the Bobers never rode their prize. Not once. Not even on the Avenue of the Chiefs or around the Memorial’s parking lot.

They did get the pleasure of paying Uncle Sam additional tax because the government considered the $26,755 bike as extra income. Signing over ownership might gain them an annual deduction over the next four years.

Now retired from architectural project designing, the former Avon, Colo., couple will always have the memory of Ticket No. 04399, the phone call from Memorial director Sid Goss and Brenda’s delighted squeal, “Did we win the bike?”