Posted on March 22, 2019 at 8:09 AM by Bill Sowers
The October 1958 issue of "The Kansas Future Farmer" featured the American Star Farmer of 1958, Jimmie John Jarnigan of Jetmore, Kansas. Elected at the 1958 Future Farmers of America Convention in Kansas City, Jarnigan, 21, is described in the issue as "a wheat and cattle farmer from the dry-land farming section of south-western Kansas where agriculture is largely influenced by the whims of nature, and prosperity depends upon the farmer's fortitude to stick when times are hard, and management foresight to strike for big stakes when the rains come." It's a good read giving a down-to-earth look at agriculture in the 1950s in Kansas.
Jarnigan isn't the only young farmer promoted in the October 1958 issue. Regional winners from Kansas have short articles in the issue as well with information on their accomplishments:
Donald D. Alexander, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Alexander, Coldwater, Kansas, and member of the Coldwater FFA Chapter; Larry Dutton Gilmore, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Gilmore, Highland, Kansas, and member of the Highland FF A Chapter; Darrell Goss, 20, son of Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Goss, Garden City, Kansas, and member of the Garden City FF A Chapter; Calvin L. Massey, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Massey, Eureka, Kansas, and member of the Eureka FFA Chapter; Norman LeRoy Nelson, 20, son of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Nelson of Long Island, Kansas, and a member of the Almena FFA Chapter; and Charles Freeman Sander, 19, son of Mr. Charles W. Sander, Stockton, Kansas, and a member of the Stockton FFA Chapter.
Within the issue are also articles on the 1958 Star Farmer of Kansas, Eldon Eastman of the Arkansas City FFA Chapter, a short history of the Kansas Future Farmers of America and an article on Ira Plank of Winfield, "Superior [Vocational Agriculture] Teacher and Honorary American Farmer."
The "Kansas Future Farmer" was published by the Kansas State Board for Vocational Education and printed in the State Printing Plant in Topeka.
You can see this issue online in the State Library of Kansas' KGI Online Library: