After more than fifty years in the trade, the old master finally semi-retired in 1972.  His longtime employee, Bud Phillips, ran the shop for him.  Bohlin later suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed until his death on 28 May 1980.  His estate, valued by the California inheritance tax referee at just under five hundred thousand dollars, was confirmed and passed in total to his widow, Lillian H. Bohlin.  Eddie and Lillian had married on 24 April 1937, and she helped manage his business since then.  Although they had no children, Bohlin had a daughter from a previous marriage, Lillian E. Pinkerton.  She and her two adult children, Elaine M. Renberg and Craig Pinkerton, all resided in the State of Washington at the time of Bohlin’s death.

 Bohlin’s estate records listed a check from Gene Autry, dated 1 March 1980 (#25392) for twenty thousand dollars, which demonstrates that Eddie ended up the way he began nearly sixty years earlier, doing business with the most famous cowboy movie actors of his time.  How can you do better than start creating for Tom Mix when you are only twenty-seven and end up doing business with Gene Autry at age eighty-five?

 After the death of Ed Bohlin, the company was purchased by a succession of owners, who moved its operations to Montana and later to Texas.  There has been considerable downsizing, relative to the glory days when Ed Bohlin was distributing two and three hundred page catalogs depicting his extensive line of quality silver decorated merchandise.  But thanks to Ed Bohlin and his unique career, the Bohlin name remains a byword for quality and luxury in Western goods.

Written by George Pitman who resides in Southern California and is a collector of Bohlin silver-mounted saddles and related artifacts for his museum. 

WANTED

We are always looking to purchase 1st quality Sterling  Silver Parade Saddles for our Private Museum Collection.

We can afford to pay top dollar for your saddle, rather than low dealer prices.

Just email or mail us an image of your saddle!