David Mallory
In Town: “I am the agent for the Farm Bureau Insurance office in Westville, Okla. I’ve been doing this for almost 20 years. I liked the simplicity of the business in the beginning, but as times change so do businesses, and ours has become far more complex. Nonetheless, I love working with and providing services to people I have known all my life. Town life also is home base for one of my hobbies, competitive horseshoes. I am the current Oklahoma State Men’s Division Champion, and I travel all over the country to compete in competitions. I also am the adult Sunday school teacher at our church in Westville. My town life helps provide the money needed to help support both my country life and competitive horseshoes.”
In the Country: “I have two places, one where I live and another where I want to live. Where my wife Carole and I live is a 30-acre spread where I run five horses. The other place has 436 acres with 150 acres in pasture. It also has springs and a creek running through so that I had grass even during the drought. Several years ago I bought a set of cows that were good animals and good mommas but wilder than I wanted, so after three years I decided to sell them off. I didn’t decide to go back into cattle for about a year so I missed one year of the drought. Then I bought 28 mommas and a bull. They are black and easy to handle.”
Future plans: “I’d like to clean up more of the 436-acre place for pasture and run about 100 head of cows as a retirement income. Another possibility is selling the smaller acreage someday and building a house on the larger one. Though the grandkids love the creek and catching crawdads now, if we moved into a new house on the 436 acres, we would have a better place for family to gather and enjoy.”
Story and Photo by Terry Ropp
