When Luke Smith, 23, stepped into the St. Paul Arena Friday night wearing a pair of black Wrangler jeans and a crisp, red cowboy shirt, you couldn't tell this was his first rodeo.

In fact, if you knew anything about the Smith family, you'd assume he'd been born into it.

But Luke – great-grandson of one of the rodeo's founders – is no cowboy. He's an opera singer who's recently discovered his family's rodeo roots.

And he didn't come here to ride. He came to sing.

In 1936, eight men – including three Smith brothers – organized the first St. Paul Rodeo. The event has grown into one of the largest rodeos in the country, the biggest money maker for St. Paul, and a hallowed Smith family tradition.

"It's not a choice in the Smith family," said Bill Smith, grandson of founder Willie Smith, current arena director and former bareback rider. "It's a way of life."

Luke grew up in Salem, but in the ways families sometimes drift apart, he had never met his extended family some 20 miles north in St. Paul. His mother had grown up in California, and his side of the family never reconnected when they moved back to Oregon.

Luke is entering his senior year as a vocal performance student studying opera at Portland State University. The tenor had no idea that his great-grandfather, Carl Smith, was among the original rodeo founders. He's more comfortable on the stage than in the saddle.

But earlier this year, Luke's uncle Scott introduced him to the St. Paul clan during a family birthday breakfast at a Pancake House in Salem. The family had heard Luke could sing and suggested he provide a rendition of "Happy Birthday." Luke had another tune in mind, an old Neapolitan language serenade.

"He stood by his chair in the restaurant and sang 'O Sole Mio' and the tears just started running down the waitress's face," said Claudia Smith, 80, a distant relative to Luke. "My breath was taken away. I was crying. You had chills. This young man has a gift."

Claudia grew up in St. Paul and was born the same year of the inaugural rodeo. She had volunteered as a rodeo usher and ticket seller as a child, and her rodeo future was sealed when she married a Smith. Today she oversees the hospitality booth.

"Oh, it was understood. You went to church and you did rodeo. Those are the rules," she said. "It's a value, and it helps shape you and it develops you and it gives you character."

Which might explain why Claudia was so eager to bring Luke into the rodeo family fold. She and her husband took Luke shopping at Coastal Farm & Ranch for a cowboy hat and a pair of brown Double-H boots for his big performance. They made sure he looked the part when he belted out "The Star-Spangled Banner" for a crowd of thousands.

While Luke had performed in Portland State opera's production of "Gianni Schicchi" and sung the National Anthem at the Oregon Legislature, this was his largest crowd to date.

He had nothing to worry about, nailing the high notes and prompting the announcer to comment on the home-grown Pavarotti in their midst.

If Luke was searching for a connection to his past, it didn't take much visual imagination. Stepping into the St. Paul Arena is like stepping back in time, with the wooden bleachers, hand-painted seat numbers and patriotic bunting hanging from the grandstands. The stadium itself hasn't changed much since it was constructed in the 1940s. Generations of Smiths before him have worked these same grounds.

St. Paul Rodeo

If you go: The St. Paul Rodeo continues daily through July 4, with fireworks every night. Tickets are $26 to $18 and all seats are reserved. Purchase tickets in advance at stpaulrodeo.com.

Fourth of July weekend is known as "Cowboy Christmas." It's the biggest rodeo week of the year, and a successful cowboy can earn tens of thousands of dollars in prize money by hitting as many events as he can.

Nowhere offers a bigger Independence Day purse than tiny St. Paul, Oregon. Over five days, more than 50,000 people will visit the town of 400. At the end of it, the St. Paul Rodeo will award cowboys more than $380,000.

St. Paul benefits, too. The Rodeo Association will donate between $70,000 and $80,000 in proceeds for scholarships, school groups and community organizations. That doesn't include the money raised by the Jaycees, Booster Club and Catholic Church through carnival concessions and parking.

"I don't think the founding brothers would have ever expected for this thing to grow into what it has," Bill Smith said. "Being the third generation, we were handed down something that was really, really strong ... and there's a little bit of pressure because you don't want to mess this up. We were given a gift."

But gifts, whether in the form of a rodeo or a singing talent, take hard work, commitment and sacrifice to maintain.

Those values run deep in the Smith family, with those who harvest hops in St. Paul to those who perform opera in Portland.

-- Samantha Swindler

@editorswindler / 503-294-4031

sswindler@oregonian.com