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Maine-Anjou Voice ::
Kyla
Nesheim / Jeana Sankey ::
204 Marshall Road :: PO Box
1100 :: Platte City MO 64079-1100
Phone - 816.858.9954 :: Fax - 816.858.9953 ::
E-mail:
voiceeditor@kc.rr.com |
 Archie
Franklin Rooney
SATANTA - Archie Franklin Rooney, 72,
died Sat., July 7, 2007, at the Satanta
District Hospital.
He was born Oct. 5, 1934, to Harry Patrick and Marguerite Alice
Rooney at Garden City. He married Judith
Rouse on March 30, 1956, at Norton. She
survives.
A lifetime resident of the area, he was a farmer and rancher. He
loved his family, enjoyed being with
them and enjoyed attending his
grandchildren’s many activities. His
greatest joys came from watching his
grandchildren show cattle. He also
enjoyed hunting, fishing and visiting
with his many friends at the cafe and
never met a stranger. He was always
ready to lend a helping hand to those in
need.
He was a member of the United Methodist Church in Satanta; the
Satanta Chamber of Commerce; and the
Satanta Booster Club. He was a past
Satanta school board member; a past
director of the State Bank of Satanta;
and a director of Commerce Bank, Garden
City. He was also a member of the Kansas
Livestock Association, the American
Maine-Anjou Association, the National
Cattlemen Beef Association, a past board
member of Southwest Kansas Irrigators
and a past board member of the Southwest
Kansas Royalty Association. He was well
loved as the community Santa Claus for
many years.
Other survivors include one son, W. Patrick Rooney and wife,
Jeanette, Satanta; two daughters, Ardith
Dunn and husband, Kent, Satanta, and
RoxAnn Rooney Miller and husband,
Robert, Wellington; seven grandchildren;
two step-grandchildren; and one
great-grandson. He was preceded in death
by his parents. |
Rooney’s grandchildren, Brett and
Tera Rooney are heavily involved in
Maine-Anjou open and junior
activities. Tera has served as
National Maine- Anjou Queen and
currently serves on the American
Junior Maine-Anjou Association Board
of Directors.
The following is an essay that was read by Archie’s granddaughter
Tera Rooney at his service.
His voice is deep and coarse. You can almost hear the dust, inhaled
during countless hours spent in the
fields plowing; settle in his lungs
after he clears his throat
mid-sentence. His skin is dark and
weathered like a cowboy’s favorite
pair of boots. Nevertheless, he is a
stately man, tinged with the rough
edges from the hard times in his
life. Archie Rooney surpassed great
adversity to own a farming operation
that encompasses over 20,000 acres
in Southwest Kansas.
The beginning of Rooney’s life as a farmer, however, was not a
smoothly paved road. It might be
better described as baptism by fire
rather than holy water. “I was 19
when my dad passed away. He left
behind 2,000 acres and a young kid
to run the place. I had always
helped him out on the farm, but
never made any real decisions,”
Rooney said. Rooney’s father, Harry,
suffered a severe cerebral
hemorrhage while changing a flat
tire. The hemorrhage led to his
eventual death. Fear is the only
feeling Rooney could recall upon the
death of his father. As a college
student, he was left with the
responsibility of a 2,000-acre
farming operation and a herd of
about 100 head of commercial cows.
Equipped with only the knowledge
from his high school years, he had
to make the farm work. A neighbor
convinced Rooney’s mother to send
him back to finish the semester. A
few months from the end of the term,
Rooney spent every weekend at home,
working in the fields around the
clock in order to get the spring
planting finished for the farm.
“It was hard, and it was all I could do to keep up with the farm
and school. Mom would sometimes have
to put on her jeans and hop in the
tractor like a man to help out. She
hadn’t always. You see in those days
women took care of the home; they
didn’t work in the fields like the
men,” Rooney said.
Over 50 years later, the kid who took the reigns of the family farm
has become the retired man who
enjoys watching
his children and grandchildren carry
out the daily tasks of farming
through the kitchen window as he
sips his coffee and reads the
newspaper. He watched the farm
switch from ditch to pipe and now to
pivot irrigation. He witnessed the
fluctuation of the cattle market and
met the demands of both the
commercial and purebred industries.
He drove open-cab tractors over his
family’s land and watched a new
tractor equipped with Global
Positioning Satellites practically
drive itself over the same fields.
Rooney has witnessed so much change,
not only in the farming business,
but in himself as well. “Dad’s death
ended up being a good experience for
me. I just never realized it until
the farm became successful. Things
got better, after I learned how to
make it work,” Rooney said.
Later Rooney would experience a tragedy not completely unlike the
one that befell his father. In his
70s, he was diagnosed and treated
for lung cancer. For a time, he
wondered if his success was coming
to an end, but Rooney, unlike his
father, had the chance to look out
his kitchen window to see his son
plant the same acres of wheat he had
planted for his father 50 years
before.
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