LIVING HISTORY
five years Tommy serves as president, the council’s contributions
increase from $6,000 to $50,000 annually.
During the 1960s, Tommy is able to increase his geographic
reach around the state. He gets a pilot’s license and buys a
Cessna airplane and later a Helio Courier, a plane that can
take off and land on a short runway and that can maintain
control at speeds as little as 27 mph without stalling, perfect
for ranching. He’s so smitten with flying that in 1969 he creates
a grass runway behind the main ranch headquarters.
Tommy’s newfound passion of flying also leads him to
another one: owning German shepherd dogs. He meets a dog
trainer at an airport one day who has a shepherd and asks her
whether it’s for sale. She declines to sell it, but tells him about
other dogs she has. The discussion leads to Tommy’s purchase
of Gunnar for Jo Ann, the first of many German shepherd
dogs the family would have over the years. At one time, the
family’s shepherd brood would number as many as five.
JO ANN’S IN THE LIMELIGHT, TOO
While Tommy is gaining local and state prominence in the
1960s, so is Jo Ann. She continues playing the role of Nora
in Ada Coats Williams’ Along These Waters and, along with
Kathy and Debra, also appears in another play, 24 Carat,
produced by the Fort Pierce Woman’s Club. She also plays
Mrs. Clyde Platts in a production of Doctor of the River Ridge,
a pageant at the Fort Pierce Amphitheater that “continues
its historical account of the pioneers who saw the future of
52
a new country and how they met the problems and forged a
thriving area out of wilderness.’’
A talented floral arranger and gardener, Jo Ann becomes
president of the Poinciana Garden Circle and is heavily
involved with the St. Lucie County Fair, where she is chairwoman
of the booth committee.
Playing to her strengths as a cattlewoman, she helps form
the local chapter of the Cowbelles, the auxiliary of the Florida
Cattlemen’s Association, and hosts its meetings at her home.
In 1964, she is elected president of the St. Lucie County Cow-
Belles, a position she holds for three years before becoming
president in 1968 of the statewide organization, now known
as Florida Cattle Women Inc., a group that works with the
Florida Cattlemen’s Association to foster the well-being of
the beef industry through education and promotion.
DISCOVERY ‘68 EXPLORES COW CREEK
The decade of the 1960s reaches a zenith for Tommy and
Jo Ann in 1968, when ABC TV comes calling. Script writer
Joe Hurley, intent on producing a show that emphasizes the
growth of the cattle industry in Florida and dispelling the notion
that all cattle-raising was occurring in the West or Midwest,
picks Cow Creek to feature on the Discovery ‘68 television
show. Hurley says he selected Cow Creek over several
other Florida ranches because of its “progressive program of
cattle production.’’
It probably didn’t hurt either that Tommy was the head
of the Florida Beef Council and the show was done in connection
with cooperation of the council and the Florida
Cattlemen’s Association, of which Tommy would soon
become president.
Hurley spent two weeks at Cow Creek writing the show
before a 13-member crew descended on the ranch in January
1968, filming over three days at the ranch, along with takes at
the Okeechobee Livestock Market.
“I remember they took me out of school to do the filming,’’
says Deroy, who was 10 at the time. Deroy appears in several
key scenes, including one in which he was throwing a lasso
while roping a calf and another one in which he dragged his
saddle into the barn after a long day’s work. Deroy remembers
the film crew would review daily takes in the hay loft
above the horse barn, which was plenty dark to accommodate
the viewing.
“The directors kept telling me to saddle and unsaddle my
horse,’’ Kathy says. “They must have done 16 takes. I wanted
to tell them, ‘I know how to saddle and unsaddle a horse.’ ”
Looking back, Debra says it was a fair depiction of life at
Cow Creek at the time. “Even if I had to saddle and unsaddle
the horse way too many times it was a good documentary,’’
she says.
The show, titled Florida: Cowboys, Coconuts and Cattle, aired
nationally at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, March 10, before 25 million
people. The Sloans hosted a huge party at their house for their
viewing that included friends, the ranchhands and their wives.
All of their regular cowboys were featured in the show,
including Aubrey and Curtis Arnold, Will’um Thomas and
Earl Storey.
In the days before all television shows were in color and some
were still black and white, the show, hosted by Bill Owen and
Virginia Gibson, was presented as an ABC color presentation.
“Cow Creek’s owner thinks of the ranch as a factory and of
himself as a manufacturer,’’ Owen says in the introduction.
“His product is beef. Tom Sloan and his wife, Jo Ann, have
Headlines from local newspapers show Tommy and Jo Ann Sloan’s accomplishments
during the 1960s. >>