The Business of
Farm Life
Reimagined
The Business of
Building
Shelters
Giving
Back
John Paul Lawson gets out of his
pickup as he feeds the 220 head of
cattle on his Shelby County ranch.
Medicine
Redefined
For Shelby County family,
diversification has been a key
T
he farming life has been a good
life for the John Paul and Dixie
Lawson family of rural Joaquin.
That does not mean it has not been
without the challenges most agricultural
operations face with unpredictable
weather, wildly fluctuating markets and
animals who might need attention at any
hour of the day or night.
Among the benefits they have seen for
their lives in farming and ranching was
raising their two daughters on the farm and
having them involved with the operations
and caring for numerous show heifers.
“As a family, we’ve gone to shows
all over Texas as well as to national
shows in places like Denver, Louisville,
Montana, Illinois, Tennessee, Kansas and
Oklahoma,” Dixie says. “You get to know
people from all over and it’s like a reunion
when we get together.”
Now with their grandchildren involved
in attending shows, they are finding
others who they have known for years,
also attending those events with their own
30 Business MATTERS | 2020 Spring Edition
STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE ELSWICK
grandchildren, she says.
“We can’t think of anything else we’d
rather be doing or anywhere else we’d
rather be than here at the end of the road
in the Lone Cedar community of Shelby
County,” Dixie says. “We realize we were
fortunate enough to be raised on farms and
that is something to be thankful for.”
They have two grown daughters, Casey
Lawson Gamble and Ryan Lawson Taylor,
who always took an active role in the farm.
They were both 4-H and FFA members and
raised numerous show heifers.
Now their grandchildren are doing the
same with their own show heifers.
One of their daughters put themselves
through college with scholarships they won
at livestock shows.
Both grew up in agriculture families on
different sides of Shelby County. Dixie was
raised in Tenaha on a cattle and broiler
farm. She has memories of going to the
livestock sales barn where her father
worked. Back then the sales barn was
located in Center in the vicinity of where
Taco Bell and KFC are now.
John Paul grew up on family land in the
rural Joaquin area where he got his start at
a young age.
“My dad gave me a cow when I was
born,” he said. Both husband and wife were
involved in 4-H and FFA as children.
The couple met on a blind date set up by
a cousin in the fall of 1971 and they were
married in the spring of 1973. For 31 years
John Paul’s “day job” was working for the
Shreveport Fire Department with shifts
that worked out well with his farming and
ranching operations.
“There’s been a Lawson on the fire
department in Shreveport for about 80
years,” he says. “It’s a good occupation to
have if you’re in farming.”
When he was on the job as a fire fighter,
Dixie would handle chores on the farm,
taking care of everything from feeding
livestock and chickens to helping cows
having issues in giving birth.
But even with feeling they have been
blessed, Dixie said there is no such thing as