Raymond & Betty Landon
Family: Son, Jeremy Landon, of Morrilton, Ark.; daughter, Shanna Faulkner, of Noel, Mo.; and five grandchildren.
Hometown: “Raymond has lived all his life in the Noel, Mo., area. I was a city girl from Bentonville, Ark. All 36 years of our married life has been on the same farm north of Noel on DD Highway,” Betty said. “The home is one of the original homes in McDonald County, Mo., built in 1888. Noel became a community in 1887.”
In Town: “Raymond did warranty work on mobile homes and was always on the road,” Betty said. “When we found out we would be grandparents for the first time, 23 years ago, Raymond decided it was time to stay close to home and purchased an old building on Main Street in Noel to open a feed store. The business outgrew that building so we bought this one, which was built in 1909.
“About 10 years ago the only hardware store in town closed, so Raymond decided to carry some of the basic hardware items folks might need in a hurry. So now we sell about everything from livestock supplies, hardware to firewood and round bales of hay.”
In the Country: “I grew up here in Noel, around cattle all my life and I was in FFA when I was in high school. I also had two chicken houses out at the farm,” Raymond said.
Betty took care of the chicken houses until 2006, which is when she began working at the store.
“Right now we have about 250 Angus-Simmental cross cows and calves,” Raymond said. “I also put up a lot of big bales, this year I put up 1,900 round bales and could have put up more but I had surgery on my hand. We farm about 600 acres and that keeps me pretty busy but some of the grandkids come out and help during hay season or to work cattle.”
