When 20-year-old Branden White passed away unexpectedly at his Choctaw home Aug. 26, he left behind a bullriding legacy.

This Friday, Oct. 12, what would have been his 21st birthday, White’s family and friends will honor that legacy by holding a Branden White Memorial Bullriding event starting at 7 p.m. at the Choctaw Round Up Club Arena.

White was born and raised in Oklahoma to parents Eugene White and Geri Cramer. He graduated from Carl Albert High School and then attending Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Altus on a full-ride bullriding scholarship. He started riding bulls locally at age 13 and quickly started making a name for himself in the dangerous sport.

White rode all over the surrounding area and even traveled with the Pro Bull Riding Association he was a member of.

Before his untimely death, White was working as a plumber with his father and had started raising bucking bulls and had plans for a promising future in the bucking bull industry, his family said.

White’s aunt, Wendy White, said her nephew was nursing a shoulder injury and had taken a break from bullriding several months before he died.

Her twin sons, Cody and Dalton, are a year older than White, and "pretty much hung out together since they were born" and rode bulls together, their mom said.

She added that White was actually considering going back to school to study criminal justice in hopes to work with the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office.

The Oct. 12 benefit is being held to help the family defer the costs associated with his funeral and burial, Whtie said. The family is still awaiting word from the medical examiner’s office about White’s cause of death, Wendy White said.

All donations are tax deductible and a silent auction will also be held. Following the benefit, an after-party will be held at Charlie’s in Choctaw where the restaurant will donate 10 percent of their proceeds to White’s family.

For more information about the benefit, contact Cody White at 371-8981 or Wendy White at 659-2169.