Family: Wife, Sandy; two grown children, Carrie and Grant; and four grandchildren
Hometown: Niangua, Mo.
In Town: Gary Don Letterman is the recorder of deeds for Webster County, Mo., and has been for seven and a half years. “We record land transactions; deeds,” he explained. “We issue marriage licenses. We also keep track of military discharge records. The military records are the only records that aren’t public information. It’s only for people who served in the military themselves or their family. It’s just for family or funeral home, if they need to verify someone served in the military.”
He works five days a week, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“I love it,” Gary Don said. “I liked history. It just suited me; all the books. About every name that’s in these books I pretty well know where their place is. That comes in handy because people come from out of state who are three generations back, and I never knew them. I can go to the map when they give me a name and find where their family was. We can go to the books and that cuts down the search time.”
In the Country: Gary Don has a commercial cow/calf beef herd with his son, Grant. Together they have about 100 head.
“Grant takes care of the cattle when I’m not able to be there,” Gary Don said. “I take a vacation day once in a while to help do something. But weekends are mainly my time on the farm, or if we have a holiday.”
Like most producers in the Ozarks, Gary Don is contemplating how to deal with lack of pasture and hay because of the drought. He said they will be culling cattle soon.
Gary Don and Grant, mark the fifth and sixth generations of Lettermans to live on the farm.
Having grown up on a farm, he loves that life, but admits to slowing down. “It’s easier on my body to do the books than to do the hard labor. As you get older your priorities change,” he said.
