The rodeo show lasted about 50 minutes. "There were eight to 10 cowboys for each event. The show was short, just to give him a taste of each event. A full show would last three to four hours. It was strictly a show for him," she said.

"He was having a good time. He and his wife truly enjoyed themselves from what I could see," she added.

The Van Dries family still has a needlepoint work of the Great Wall of China that was presented to them by the Chinese as a gift.

Van Dries and her family were also invited to visit China. "But I never took it up. I wish I had," she said.

Stagecoach ride

Jack Herndon, 80, who still works on a ranch, was her father's right-hand man and best friend, Van Dries said. He was highly involved in the visit by the Chinese, including helping Deng and his wife into and out of the stagecoach.

Herndon said: "It was great for me because I had never been around officials that big. I just made sure I took good care of them, helped them into the stagecoach, and when they returned, helped them get down. It was a great experience."

He was also impressed by the overwhelming media presence. "The other side of the arena was nothing but press. The telephone lines were everywhere," he said.

Orville Schell was one of the 200-plus media representatives covering the visit for The New Yorker magazine. For him, the moment Deng donned the Stetson was when Sino-US relations were finally normalized.

Schell, now Arthur Ross Director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York, later wrote several books about China. In one-Watch Out for the Foreign Guests!: China Encounters the West-he described the moment Deng wore the hat.

"The whistling, cheering crowd watches with delight as Deng theatrically dons his new hat. And in one simple gesture, Deng seems to not only end 30 years of acrimony between China and America, but to give his own people permission to join him in imbibing American life and culture," Schell wrote.

Charles Foster, who was chairman of the Asia Society Texas Center for almost 20 years and is now chairman of US China Partnerships, is proud to have witnessed the moment.

Speaking in his Houston office he said: "I knew it was a historic moment, because it sort of symbolized the new China to the West. Many Chinese officials seemed dull and distant then. Yet here he (Deng) was, with a very big grin, big smile, giving a very open appearance."