course and then spent 10 years as a court
reporter. She hated the demanding and stress-
ful job, and at the same time “flew through two
marriages.”
She compensated for the job by boarding a
horse. She had owned a horse since age eight,
and raised and trained a colt a year. In 1995,
after reporting a particularly horrendous death
case at the same time Hurricane Andrew
arrived, she had had enough, and quit the job
and Dallas.
In 1995, she sold her Range Rover, bought
a diesel truck and a 16-foot trailer to house her
horse, and moved to Terlingua, which she
already knew from a family visit. “I had come
home,” she says of the move.
In Terlingua she made friends with, among
other talented and unusual people, Gabriel
Acosta and Brian Bourbon. She worked at
Lajitas Stables, gaining experience in horse
trails, including trips into Mexico. She briefly
married again, to Boots Southerland, who
works in movies in New Mexico. She home-
schooled their son, Case (now 15 years old),
who plays guitar, mandolin and harmonica
and who lives with her today. “He is a gift,”
says Missy.
By 2006, she moved to Fort Davis and start-
ed Texas Horseback Adventures, using a pres-
tigious local ranch, which she describes as a
natural fit between outfitter and landowner.
She runs multi-day, high-quality trips with low
impact on the environment. Her groups tra-
verse the most beautiful rangeland, and she
gives them an experience of riding through a
herd of cows. She attracts clients of all ages,
including some from overseas. With her trim,
jeans-clad figure and a working cowboy hat,
she looks and is the genuine article.
When not guiding horse trails, she cooks for
hunters. She loves cooking, so preparing meals
of beef tenderloin or salmon enchiladas for
hungry hunters paying top dollar is a good fit.
Missy lost her dad in 1996 and her business
is not without stress, but horses carry her
through any emotional turmoil. “It’s a dream,”
she says, and no one, hearing the determina-
tion in her voice, is likely to challenge the
thought.
JOHN ALExANDER, P.A.
A large man sitting in a small office in
Lajitas, John Alexander, known to old-timers
locally as John A, explains how he came to be
the sole medical care provider in South
Brewster County for 25 years. In the old days,
if you fell ill in South Brewster County, you
might get a ride to Alpine in a friend’s pickup.
With John A’s arrival, emergency medical serv-
ice became available locally.
He was born in Denver, CO in the early
fifties to Mary Ann and Martin Alexander, an
Internist. His sister Lannie completed the fam-
ily. School at East High School was difficult
because of a learning disability, and he finished
without a high school diploma.
At age 16, driving around one day in his
dad’s car, he witnessed a man die in a car acci-
dent. The vivid visual led him to sign up for
a First Aid class and he later became an
ambulance attendant. He took the pilot Senior
Seminar (an alternative education program),
which led to a job in the Outward Bound
program.
In 1971, he became the assistant program
director and medical officer at Outward Bound
in Big Bend National Park. However, the
program ceased in 1975 after a fatal drowning.
But he was hooked on Big Bend, and would
return, with the ambition to provide emer-
gency medical service to the area.
Later in the 1970s Alexander gained invalu-
able practical experience at Parkland Hospital
ER in Dallas. In 1977, he took a two-year para-
medic program in Denver, while also driving a
city ambulance. He stayed on one more year as
a paramedic in Denver, and with his earnings
bought a used Suburban that would later
become South Brewster County’s first
registered ambulance.
In 1980, he returned to South Brewster
County, and Terlingua Medics Inc. was born.
For the first time, emergency medical services
were available. Gradually he earned recogni-
tion, particularly after he gained the Texas
EMT of the Year award in 1982.
In 1989 Alexander married Emily Heidt
and became dad to twin boys. In 1992, he was
accepted into the University of Utah’s
Physician Assistant program. Upon comple-
tion, he came back to Alpine, working at the
hospital and other locations in Texas. In 1999
he got divorced.
From his earliest days in South Brewster
County, Alexander had a connection with Far
Flung Adventures as a shuttle driver, and he
regards them as truly the first organized EMS
in the area. More recently he has had a fluctu-
ating relationship with Lajitas Resort.
Today Alexander occupies space in Lajitas
thanks to the graciousness of Lajitas Resort,
and acts as community Physician Assistant. He
does not bill insurance companies, and charges
a fee of $30 or nothing for appointments. He is
the sole medical practitioner for about 1,100
square miles, and the day I visited, had just put
10 stitches in the leg of a Terlingua Ghostown
resident. In an area known for free spirits and
community participation, John A. fits right in,
doing what he loves for little or no money.
Cenizo
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Open weekends noon to 5 pm
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or visit www.aynfoundation.com
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