Excerpt from Defining the Legacy: Oklahoma Farmers Home Administration
As the last Oklahoma State Director of Farmers Home Administration, it has become my lot to attempt to define the legacy of a titan - the Oklahoma Farmers Home Administration. I asked some Program Chiefs of long ago to co-author this definition and they have responded admirably.
The Farmers Home Administration began in August, 1946 with the passage of the Farmers Home Administrative Act. But this entity"s roots reached back much earlier - to April of 1935. with the creation of the Resettlement Administration, later called the Farm Security Administration.
In its day. Farmers Home Administration was the largest lender in Oklahoma, having a loan portfolio of over $1,200,000,000 consisting of 25,000 loans. Any operation this huge was bound to have critics, and there were a few. A friend of mine once called the Farmers Home Administration an "8-foot tall gorilla." Make no mistake, however. Oklahoma Farmers Home Administration was a tremendous force for good in rural Oklahoma.
Many Oklahoma farmers and ranchers started their operations with Farmer Program assistance. Countless rural Oklahomans were able to enjoy the American dream of home ownership due to Farmers Home Administration rural housing programs. The community and business programs truly made rural Oklahoma a better place in which to live. The water and waste disposal program alone has served ? million rural Oklahoma families since the programs inception in the early 1960"s.
The Oklahoma Farmers Home Administration was divided into 3 different program areas: Community and Business Programs. Farmer Programs, and Rural Housing. I asked the former Program Chiefs to give highly personalized accounts of their program areas and recognize those people whom they deemed worthy of recognition. This they have done, sometimes humorously. I have edited very little of their work.
By the nature of this very human effort, countless deserving men and women who spent their adult lives toiling for the Oklahoma Farmers Home Administration will go unrecognized. Personnel records dating back to the early days of the Oklahoma Farmers Home Administration are sketchy, at best. And, with the passage of time, the opportunity to accurately define the legacy gradually decreases.
This effort is not an exhaustive historical review, nor does it profess to be. The co-authors recollections are limited to the years during which they served.
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