“I was very young in the 1940s when PEC first provided power to us here on the farm, but it was a good treat.”
Pictured above (l-r): Lisa Bryant, Carrel Bryant, Louise Bryant and Randy Bryant of Bryant Pecan Company Powering a Nutty Business by Jennifer Boeck
While 76 year old Carrel Bryant stands next to the original cinder block exterior wall of his childhood home located two miles east of Francis, Oklahoma, he points to the exact spot that PEC electricity entered his family’s residence back in the 1940s. Surrounding the area where the small 30 amp service was installed and where updated wiring powers the modern-day needs of Bryant Pecan Company, tiny, meandering cracks in the worn and weathered concrete magically seem to whisper, “the strength of this family lies in their strong foundation.”
“I
was very young in the 1940s when PEC first provided power to us here on the farm, but it was a good treat,” recalled Mr.
Bryant, who never left the farm and continues to call Bryant Hill, as locals refer to it, home.
“We always had pecans, and one of my jobs as I was growing up was to climb the trees and thrash the pecans out of the trees and pick them up by hand,” stated Mr. Bryant. “We spent many Thanksgivings down in the fields picking up pecans.”
Mr. Bryant and his wife, Louise, of 54 years grew up on farms at opposite ends of Pontotoc County and have each spent their entire lives living in PEC’s service area. 4-H club brought the pair together and upon their marriage in 1960, Carrel moved Louise from her family’s dairy farm to Bryant Hill where they have remained for better and for worse ever since.
“My folks built a home south of Ada in June of 1941, and I was born the following August, so I’ve never known anything other than PEC electricity,” said Mrs. Bryant. When her father was stricken by a stroke, she recalled the addition of electric milking machines to her family’s dairy operation known in those days as Dew’s Dairy. Notably, it was the last dairy to deliver milk locally in the Ada area. “My job was to wash the milk bottles with a brush that had an electric motor attached,” explained Mrs. Bryant. 631650000
Bryant Pecan Company got it’s official start when the family began commercially harvesting pecans in 1984. It was then that Carrel left his teaching job at Byng Public Schools to manage the family farm,
while Louise continued to juggle farm duties with her own teaching duties at Byng until her retirement in 1998.
Side by side, the Bryants have raised their two children, Randy and Lisa, and together, the family has built a modern-day, highly regarded pecan and cattle operation.
A noticeable team spirit is at the forefront of Bryant Pecan Company’s entire operation with Randy leading up the harvesting crew and sophisticated cleaning operation. Lisa, who owns and operates her own marketing and communications business, leads Bryant Pecan Com- pany’s public relations efforts, including social media and online sales, while Louise manages the business operations and staffing of the shop.
Jokingly referred to by his close-nit family as ‘head nut,’ Carrel admits that he should be retired by now, but added, he “just can’t give it up.”
Today, Bryant Pecan Company sells their signature fresh pecans along with many other jellies, candies and uniquely made products from their newly expanded storefront located atop Bryant Hill and from their online storefront at
www.EnjoyPecans.com.
PEC may have provided electric power to the original family homeplace 75 years ago, but the real power and strength that has carried the Bryant family through years of adversity, including battles with cancer, drought and the million pecans that were cleaned during their biggest year, is a deeply rooted love for God, each other, their friends, their customers and the earnest dream and commitment of two 4-H sweethearts to make the best better.
--Carrel Bryant Bryant Pecan Company
www.EnjoyPecans.com
2 | October 2014 People’s Powerline
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