Voices of the BIG
BEND
Jim Glendinning The Galloping Scot, Author, World Traveler and sometime tour operator.
Story and photographs by Jim Glendinning
TERRY BISHOP
“Have you got 15 minutes?” Terry
Bishop asked me as we drank coffee in
the Enlightened Bean in Presidio.
“There’s something I’d like to show
you.” Since I’d come especially to talk
with Bishop, I easily agreed to the
short diversion.
We drove east on Hwy 170, just
past Fort Leaton. There, adjacent to
the Rio Grande, was a brand new
wetlands project, in which Bishop
plays a key part. It comprises 12 acres
of pond and marsh, landscaped with
400 trees and plantings of milkweed
to attract monarch butterflies, named
the B.J. Bishop Wetlands Project after
Bishop’s father.
The project is a collaboration
between David M. Crum of Marfa,
who had the idea, Bishop who donat-
ed the land, the Trans Pecos Water
and Land Trust which secured a
$74,000 grant, and the City of
Presidio that provided the grey water.
La Junta Heritage Center will man-
age the project. Work started in 2011,
and now it is ready for a grand open-
ing. It promises to attract birders from
afar. It combined two major elements
in Bishop’s life: land use and environ-
mental concern.
Terry Bishop was born on May 20,
1954 in Carrizo Springs, Texas, the
eldest child of Billy Joe Bishop, a
farmer and a USDA employee, and
Marion Catherine Bobo. He was fol-
lowed by his sister, Tammy Ruth
Bishop, who lives today in Presidio.
In 1958, the family moved to West
Texas, where Bishop started school in
Marfa in 1960 and where his father
grew cotton in Presidio. He acknowl-
edges he was a rebellious student, but
after graduating from high school in
1971 he persevered and went on to
earn a B.A. in Accounting at the
University of Texas Pan American in
Edinburg, TX.
8
Cenizo
TERRY BISHOP
Presidio
At college Bishop met Joella
Wayland of Mission, Texas, whom he
married in 1977. Their son, Jesse
Bishop, today is a successful registered
nurse in Austin. Bishop subsequently
married Juanita Urias, Justice of the
Peace in Presidio, by whom he has
two boys, Asa (17) and Mason (11),
currently going through school in
Presidio.
In 1976, following graduation,
Bishop joined his father in the farm-
ing business, which has occupied him
ever since. His father had earlier
given up his government job as a soil
inspector and jumped into the farm-
ing business in Presidio, growing cot-
ton. But there was no money in cot-
ton, so they switched to growing
onions, honeydew melons and can-
taloupes. At one stage there were 600
acres of onions being cultivated in the
rich riparian soil.
But it was a risky business. Finding
farm hands at harvest time became
Fourth Quarter 2015
LIZ SIBLEY
Alpine
increasingly difficult. Then there was
a virus, from 1999-2001. In 2001 the
business closed down and Bishop was
left with major debts.
Determined to pay off those debts,
Bishop embarked on an experimental
plan to raise cash: selling local surface
water, which he owned, to a down-
stream buyer. From 2001-2009
lawyers debated, and finally the court
decided in Bishop’s favor, the first
time ever this issue has been
approved.
Since 1968, Bishop had been best
friends with Kelly Pruitt, a local artist
and sculptor who lived in Presidio and
Taos. Pruitt, a dyslexic and self-
taught artist, lived outdoors when he
could and had a different lifestyle to
most people: seeing no doctor, pulling
his own teeth and calling his dogs “his
family.” His fame spread far beyond
West Texas through the power of his
cowboy and western oil paintings
and, at his death (aged 85), he was a
Texas icon. He shared with Bishop an
extraordinary connection with the
land.
Before his death in 2009, Pruitt
called a meeting. He wished to estab-
lish a non-profit organization to pro-
mote sustainable agriculture, building
restoration, art and history on the site,
also education of kids about the land.
The La Junta Heritage Center is the
result of that vision. An experimental
pomegranate crop has been planted,
with almonds to follow. Nature trails
have been laid out; plans are under-
way to restore the buildings. Bishop,
having promised Pruitt, spearheads
the operation. More information can
be found at www.lajuntaheritage.org
Pruitt’s other requests to Bishop
was that he bury him, take care of his
dogs and take responsibility for his art
work. Kelly Pruitt died at 5:15 am on
February 15, 2009; by noon he was in
the ground, in a grave he had dug
himself, wrapped in a bedroll and
wearing his cowboy hat. The marked
grave is close to some unmarked
graves on Bishop’s land at La Junta,
two miles east of Presidio, where
Pruitt had lived on and off for years.
LIZ SIBLEY
Elizabeth Fahey was born in March,
1958 in Sioux City, the third of four
children to USAF Captain Joseph
Michael and British mum, neé Anne
Singleton. Her father died in February
1962, one of the earliest fatalities in the
Vietnam War, and the family relocated
to England.
Of the four children (Annemarie,
Vicky, Elizabeth and Tim), the girls
were schooled at convent boarding
schools in England and South Africa.
The most memorable school was
Harry Potter-like Grenville College, in
Clare, Suffolk, England, where horse-
manship was on the curriculum.
In 1971, the family moved from