Bio: Cabin Girl and Winter Caretaker, 1967-68. Descriptor: Working at the ranch, my wedding there and having to leave because of Nona.
Judith’s Story: After graduating from high school in 1966, I worked locally for a while to afford train fair from the Chicago suburbs where I lived to a job I had secured in Arizona. Later that year, I moved on to a better position at a ski lodge in Colorado. That is where a fellow workmate of mine suggested I look up White Grass Ranch, when I told him I was heading to Jackson come spring. He said he had worked there at one time, and I found the ranch to be exactly how he described it. His name was Larry Huffard. (sp?) So, in the spring of 1967, I landed at the Jackson airport, took a room at the Wort Motor Lodge, and gave Frank a call. By phone, I was hired as a temporary cabin girl. I soon found out, though, that the town of Jackson lacked public transportation. That meant I had no way to get to my new job. But Frank came to my rescue, offering to pick me up when he finished with his errands. It was Nona that first greeted me, and introduced me to Frank.
Nona was new to the ranch, too. It was very early spring, and they had just come from wintering in Nevis. After proving myself, I was asked to stay through the season. Nona & I got along very well that year.
Larry Wright was a man “on loan” from George Clover’s employ, who was working temporarily for Frank when I arrived. We hit it off, Frank “gave me away” at my wedding that fall, and Nona held the reception in Frank’s living room. As a couple, we then caretook the ranch during the winter months. But the spring of 1968 was a whole different ballgame! For some unknown reason, Nona returned with a vengeance, and seemed determined to make everyone miserable. She bristled at the fact that I was newly pregnant and made it her aim to make White Grass Ranch a very hostile environment for me. Sadly, we had to leave shortly before my son’s birth, in August of 1968.