Veteran Rancher Thelma Sue Henley Reclaims her Birthright
The proud descendant of settlers, Thelma Sue Henley discusses her passion for cattle ranching


NOCONA, TX, March 8, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Much has been made about the ties that bind land and identity, and in no other people are these ties more evident than those who work the land themselves. A rancher for most of her life, Thelma Sue Henley is inextricably associated with Henley Ranches, the property established in the 1800's by her grandaunt and uncle, two of Nocona's original settlers. Literally born into the business, she learned the ropes from an early age, thanks to her father, a rancher and WWII hero known for his kindness and commitment to quality. "The majority of people here would say that nobody knew cattle better than Bill Henley," she beamed with pride during an interview with Cambridge Who's Who. A chip off the old block, Henley inherited her father's passion for horses, too. "I was told that I was riding a horse before I could walk," she said, adding with a laugh, "I don't even remember the first one I was on - I just always remember being on a horse!"

With the blood of frontiersmen running through her veins, Henley had always been a woman apart. Breaking and training racehorses even before she reached her teens, she took particular delight in making naysayers eat their words. She recalled: "I used to love it when people would say, 'Oh, that scrawny little girl, she couldn't ride that horse!' Then I'd go and ride, [even] when it was tough for other people to ride." Some of the horses she rode later won Quarter Horse World Championships - all ridden by male jockeys, as women were prohibited from competing in the 1960's. In fact, a female racehorse trainer was also considered such a rarity in those days that she was featured on Good Morning America at the age of 16 and, one year later, in Wichita Falls Record News.

Henley was no less a pioneer in the glittery confines of a Las Vegas casino; regarded as one of the city's first female card dealers, she enjoyed two decades with The Desert Inn until a promise she made years ago called her back to Nocona for the biggest gamble of her life. Making good on her word to her Grandaunt Thelma to help her ailing father run the ranch, she took her life's savings and put it toward rebuilding the one place she loved most in the world. Finding a property fallen into disrepair, she started her rehabilitative work by clearing the brush, doing paintwork, putting up new fences, and replenishing the herd. "It may not happen in my lifetime, but I am working on fixing the place up the way it used to be," Henley explained. "I want the world to see the ranch the way I see it."

Since permanently returning to Nocona, Henley has been rewarded with more than glimpses of her childhood home. "Just driving down a road, even coming home, I can tell [the ranch] is already looking a lot like it used to," she smiled. With her revamping efforts definitely paying off, she has now begun to outline plans for expansion, and no drought, tornado, flood or near-paralyzing back problems (and two resulting surgeries) will deter her.

More than anything, Henley is resolved to keep her family's hard-earned, long-standing reputation for quality cattle alive. She concedes that staying ahead of the competition will require determination and a will of steel - two qualities she already has in spades, complemented by one priceless intangible. "The cattle business is not an easy life... Of my father's family, I am the only one who loves the 'ranching' part, not just owning cattle and having someone else do all the work," she averred. "It's a way of life; you either have it in your blood or you don't."

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