PATRICIA JODER COX. Born 1933
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PATRICIA JODER COX. Born 1933. TRANSCRIPT of OH 1389V A-B. This interview was recorded on September 29, 2005, for the Maria Rogers Oral History Program. The interviewer is Joyce Gordon. The interview also is available in video format, filmed by Joyce Gordon. The interview was transcribed by Carol Jordan. NOTE: The interviewer’s questions and comments appear in parentheses. Added material appears in brackets. ABSTRACT: The story of Joder Arabian Ranch and its founder, Anna Best Joder, as told by her daughter, Pat Joder Cox. Pat shares highlights of Anna Best Joder’s life from the early days in Kansas, to Nebraska, Wyoming, and ultimately Boulder County, and Anna’s involvement with Arabian horses and her pioneering role in the success of the Arabian Horse breed in the Rocky Mountain region and beyond. The interview includes a tour of the main house on the ranch, showing some of the artwork and antiques that Anna Best Joder collected. [A]. 00:00 (My name is Joyce Gordon and I’m a volunteer with the Maria Rogers Oral History Program of the Carnegie Branch Library for Local History. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Joder Arabian Ranch by Anna Best Joder. Today, September 29, 2005, I’m talking with Anna’s daughter, Pat Joder Cox, who has lived on the ranch since 1990 and will talk with us about her mother and the history of the ranch.) (Good morning, Pat.) Good morning. (I’d like to begin by asking you where and when you were born.) March 20th, 1933, and Flint, Michigan. I lived there only a couple of months as a baby, so I don’t know Flint, because my father was finishing his internship and was going to become the doctor in the town we moved to, Peru, Nebraska. (And can you tell us a little bit about your mother’s background prior to getting her first horse.) She really had a background. She was an outstanding person from the beginning of her life—first child in the family, of the Best family. Her father was a newspaper man, and he was the editor of the newspaper throughout his whole life—Clifton, Clyde, and Clay Center, Kansas. She was born in Clifton—very early—Then he went on to become— Manhattan, Kansas—the editor, of the Manhattan News there, but to begin with—is that all you need to know? To begin with, she was brought right into his business. He needed help. Even as a grade school child, she would be there, helping him set type. Things like that. She wrote articles for him at a very young age. At age 11, she told me the story of going out to meet an actress that was coming on the—see at that day and age, the big trip from east to west was the train, and it came through Concordia, which is not far from where they are. She was to meet the actress and get an interview, and so she met the actress and told her what she was there for, and the actress said “Not to the likes of you.” That only spirited her on. That didn’t stop her. So, that’s the beginning of her life was there, and then as they moved around, they ended up in Manhattan, and that’s where she got her degree in Home Economics. She was early getting out of high school, she was early getting out of college—in three years—and went on to teach a little bit, and I believe that was just in the high school, made herself some money, went on to Wisconsin to get a degree in something she just loved, and that was theatre and drama, and from that she started teaching at the school—Colorado school, here in Colorado—I can’t say the name—but it’ll come. But she went from that to teaching, then back at Peru State Teacher’s College which was down in Peru, Nebraska. That’s where she met my father, because he was getting his beginning hours towards a medical degree and then went on to Omaha to get his final medical degree. That’s what put us in Flint, Michigan, when I was born, because he was finishing his internship. Through all that, she was taking care of my two older brothers and had me, but she was editing the Player’s Magazine which was designed for the collegiate drama, theatre, and also she was doing her own writing of plays which got published. 04:23 (Here we see the Player’s Magazine and three of her plays. By the way, Pat, when was your mother born?) She was born 1901, July 29th. She was born in Clifton, Kansas. Which in later years, she gave that—her home was still there—in the family name, she gave the home as a library, so it started to become a library. She would send boxes of books to her library. This shows you what we were talking about, the Player’s Magazine. This is just the set- up of many of the magazines, that she would put them in a—bind them up, so—there’s just a lot to write about. It went around to the universities, and people in that category. These are some of her plays that she wrote. They were always one-act plays. This was the one that I know the most about—The Perfect Gentleman—which in later years, she started children’s theatre in Cheyenne, Wyoming, which we can get to. Well, let’s see. From then on—see if I’ve missed anything—her first job which I spoke about was as a professor, was in Gunnison, Colorado, Western State College. (Do you know what brought her to Colorado?) I don’t know. Maybe it’s just the opportunity. It was in her field and they needed somebody. She met some very dear friends there that were her friends for life, Mr. and Mrs. King [?], Ma Wonder King [?] was her name. She became kind of like a grandmother to all of us, and she was the head of Home Economics, that lady. And her husband was head of the—running the university himself. She went from there to Peru. That’s where she met my father. It goes on about the Player’s Magazine.[?] It was very, very—Colorado comes into this because when we moved after my father finished his work in becoming a doctor, we moved to Peru. It was a very beautiful place, huge trees everywhere, and gorgeous black-brown soil out there that the farmers used. So it was a real productive little place, but very hot, and my mother couldn’t take the heat that much, so in the summer we came to the mountains, which was Peaceful Valley, and that was our savior, going to Peaceful Valley; we’d spend several weeks there. In fact, several of our friends and families from Peru would come out and spend some time there too, while we were there, just to get away from that heat of Nebraska, because back then you didn’t have the air conditioners. You had a great big home, three stories high, but that still didn’t help keep things cool. It was always a drawing card, get to Colorado. In 1941, my father had the opportunity to move because they were really kind of in demand. My mother was moving this way, getting out of the heat, and plus they had lost the life of my oldest brother, Howard. I think that might have upset them enough that they wanted to leave that area. And as he was coming this way to look for where he could set up his practice, he stopped in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and that’s where he met with one of his doctor friends that was being called into service. 1941, quite a few were being called into service, and he took over his practice. Dr. Wallen[?] was his name. But that was all set up, he just moved in to it. We moved to Cheyenne. My mother designed the home that we were building there, out on the outskirts of Cheyenne. Started with a ten- acre tract of land. Our big promise as children was that we would have ponies when we got there. I would have been 8, my other brother—my next brother, older—would have been 9 plus; Bob would only have been 4. When we got there, we had our ponies. They were on the land too, even though the house wasn’t finished being built. It did get finished that year. It was a lovely big home, designed by my mother. Part of the things she learned to love was knotty pine, and this home I’m in now is all knotty pine. Home was too—well, she changed one of the rooms, the dining room, and had it remodeled into knotty pine. She found out how much she loved that. Came to Cheyenne, and that’s where she was still editing the Player’s Magazine. 10:11 Cheyenne though started developing her other interests—with the horses, the ponies, that led to a couple of other horses. Buddy Peavine Peter McCue [?] he was named, was a famous horse in his day [shows photograph of the Lone Ranger on Buddy] because the Lone Ranger came to Cheyenne, and the committee had to look around for a very, very calm horse and a big horse, that the Lone Ranger could ride, because he was the Lone Ranger who was on the radio.