Neighbors

"I’ll never forget it,” said Ron O’Neal. “My grandpa and I were sitting on the tailgate of a truck, I was eating an apple, and he said to me, ‘This would be a great place to build a house.’ And years later, that’s just what I did.”

Paul Wimsatt grew up on a dairy farm southwest of Monett, Mo. He went to Monett High School and was involved in the FFA. Janet Wimsatt grew up in Purdy, nearby. “I was a city girl, I guess you could say,” she said with a smile. The two met in Monett in 1988, and were married early in 1990.

Dwight Hoyle is what you might call a jack-of-all-trades kind of man.  He and his wife, Robin, started out in Zwolle, La., with a forestry business, along with a saw shop.

Spend a few minutes with Sharon Baggett, and it’s easy to see why her enthusiasm for the Missouri Fox Trotter and the Northwest Arkansas Fox Trotting Horse Breed Association is infectious.

Four generations of Rick Haegele’s family have lived near Prairie Grove, Ark., with the first generation of seven families moving by covered wagon to Arkansas from Tennessee. Rick is surrounded by family. His parents bought the turkey farm in 1976. They have been raising turkeys and cattle ever since. Rick’s parents live just a stone's throw away. “We have six turkey houses and 27,000 turkeys,” Rick said. Rick and his wife, Paula, just moved their turkeys from the brood houses to the range houses. In just a matter of weeks, they will have another 27,000 chicks to start the 14-week process of raising turkeys. “It is a rotation with 27,000 (maturing turkeys) with 27,000 babies behind them,” Rick said. “You’re never out of turkey,” Paula said.

Toua Yang knew long before most American citizens about the United States' "Secret War" in Laos. He lived through it.

Quarter horses, some Appaloosas, Long Horn cows, polled Charolais bulls, chickens, dogs and grandkids: You’ll find them all on Leroy and Sharon Uber’s farm in Stone County. They were honored in August at the Missouri State Fair as the 2009 Stone County Farm Family.

Most people are a little wary when approaching a large group of cattle, as  they should be. But that fear is unwarranted at the Crockett Rose Branch Farm near Lamar, Mo. The Crocketts fullblood Limousin cattle make people feel like part of the herd. It is no surprise that docility is one of the traits that Danny and Connie Crockett select for.

An old Chinese proverb admonishes that a gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a person perfected without trials. Ramona Grigg Rathjen of Huntsville, Ark., is a walking, horseback riding and sometimes cane using testament to those words. Diagnosed three years ago with Multiple Sclerosis, Ramona's attitude shines through in even the simplest communication. "Every e-mail she sends has a tag line that says “MS doesn't define who I am.” Her quick wit and sense of humor are still intact, as she jokes about a shirt she'd love to have that says, “I'm not drunk, I just have MS.” Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic, often disabling disease that effects the central nervous system. Symptoms may be mild, such as numbness in the limbs, or severe, such as paralysis or loss of vision. The progress, severity and symptoms of MS are unpredictable and vary from one person to another.