Lifetime Member Rayford B. Deavours
Jacqui James, 2018 CEC of Choctaw County and the diligence of the local newspaper editor were responsible for this content.
Mr. Rayford Burr Deavours, known as Ripp, was 96 years young when he passed away on Friday, March 17, 2016. He was born on January 20, 1920 in Fayette County. He is survived by his son, Jeff, and many nieces and nephews. His wife, Edith Eugenia Deavours, his parents and 11 siblings preceded him in death. In Choctaw County, he was known as the Pine Seedling King.
Ripp served Choctaw County as a county extension agent beginning in 1948. In fact, when Ripp Deavours arrived in Butler, AL late on a Sunday night in Sept. 1948, the only light in town that was burning was in front of the Gala Theater. There was mud in the only paved street, which went completely around the courthouse, and he had to call Matthew Sexton on a phone that had to be cranked. Mr. Sexton had secured a room for him at the Adams Hotel. The hotel provided meals for its guests, so Ripp stayed there until renting a place of his own.
Mr. Deavours changed agriculture in Choctaw County in many ways. Ripp tried to improve the dairy herds in Choctaw County by bringing in Jersey calves from Marengo County. Ironically, his method of transportation was somewhat unique, for he first placed the Jersey calves in tow sacks and hauled them in the trunk of his car.
There were 20,000 acres of cotton growing in Choctaw County at the time Rayford Deavours joined the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service. Ripp referred to cotton as “The Savior of the South,” because it was the only cash crop that could be grown quickly on just a few acres. For the most part, cotton was still being picked by hand making it a very labor intensive crop. That labor was not available in 1948 because of an exodus of workers moving to factory jobs during World War II.
On his first day in the county, he went with Miss Olna Pope, the County Home Demonstration Agent, to the school at Needham for a 4-H meeting. 4-H Clubwork would be the avenue through which Ripp worked to bring about progressive changes in agriculture in Choctaw County. 4-H members who chose corn as a project received Dixie-18 from Ripp. This hybrid corn was developed at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute because it grew well in the soil of Alabama, and was also highly resistant to disease. But there was another hybrid that the Institute was working on that would completely change the face of the country.
Ripp learned that the university’s experience with a new hybrid were successful. By grafting scions of pines into standing pines, the university produced a pine that was completely suitable for the pine section, the swath of deep red soil that runs from Georgia to Texas and includes all of Choctaw County. From seedling to harvest, the time that passes is only twelve years.
Ripp reached an agreement with Choctaw County resident John Boney to use his garden as a storage place for the hybrid seedlings that he obtained from the paper companies. He distributed the seedlings in bunches of fifties to 4-H members. By the early 1950’s, cotton was mostly just a memory within the county. Ripp distributed three million pine seedling and changed the face of agriculture in Choctaw County to primarily pine trees and beef cattle.
When Mr. Sexton approached retirement, Ripp went to Mississippi State and completed his studies for a Master’s Degree. He moved up to County Agent when Mr. Sexton retired in 1976 and served in that capacity until his own retirement.
Mr. Rayford Burr Deavours, known as Ripp, was 96 years young when he passed away on Friday, March 17, 2016. He was born on January 20, 1920 in Fayette County. He is survived by his son, Jeff, and many nieces and nephews. His wife, Edith Eugenia Deavours, his parents and 11 siblings preceded him in death. In Choctaw County, he was known as the Pine Seedling King.
Ripp served Choctaw County as a county extension agent beginning in 1948. In fact, when Ripp Deavours arrived in Butler, AL late on a Sunday night in Sept. 1948, the only light in town that was burning was in front of the Gala Theater. There was mud in the only paved street, which went completely around the courthouse, and he had to call Matthew Sexton on a phone that had to be cranked. Mr. Sexton had secured a room for him at the Adams Hotel. The hotel provided meals for its guests, so Ripp stayed there until renting a place of his own.
Mr. Deavours changed agriculture in Choctaw County in many ways. Ripp tried to improve the dairy herds in Choctaw County by bringing in Jersey calves from Marengo County. Ironically, his method of transportation was somewhat unique, for he first placed the Jersey calves in tow sacks and hauled them in the trunk of his car.
There were 20,000 acres of cotton growing in Choctaw County at the time Rayford Deavours joined the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service. Ripp referred to cotton as “The Savior of the South,” because it was the only cash crop that could be grown quickly on just a few acres. For the most part, cotton was still being picked by hand making it a very labor intensive crop. That labor was not available in 1948 because of an exodus of workers moving to factory jobs during World War II.
On his first day in the county, he went with Miss Olna Pope, the County Home Demonstration Agent, to the school at Needham for a 4-H meeting. 4-H Clubwork would be the avenue through which Ripp worked to bring about progressive changes in agriculture in Choctaw County. 4-H members who chose corn as a project received Dixie-18 from Ripp. This hybrid corn was developed at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute because it grew well in the soil of Alabama, and was also highly resistant to disease. But there was another hybrid that the Institute was working on that would completely change the face of the country.
Ripp learned that the university’s experience with a new hybrid were successful. By grafting scions of pines into standing pines, the university produced a pine that was completely suitable for the pine section, the swath of deep red soil that runs from Georgia to Texas and includes all of Choctaw County. From seedling to harvest, the time that passes is only twelve years.
Ripp reached an agreement with Choctaw County resident John Boney to use his garden as a storage place for the hybrid seedlings that he obtained from the paper companies. He distributed the seedlings in bunches of fifties to 4-H members. By the early 1950’s, cotton was mostly just a memory within the county. Ripp distributed three million pine seedling and changed the face of agriculture in Choctaw County to primarily pine trees and beef cattle.
When Mr. Sexton approached retirement, Ripp went to Mississippi State and completed his studies for a Master’s Degree. He moved up to County Agent when Mr. Sexton retired in 1976 and served in that capacity until his own retirement.