Retired teacher Judy Rickett of Anderson keeps busy with several organizations she is a part of as well as a couple of hobbies.
Rickett taught 23 years in McDonald County.
"I come from a long line of teachers," she said, noting both of her parents taught in McDonald County. Her mother is Jo Pearcy, who is known for saving the old courthouse.
"She was one of those master teachers who could teach anything," Rickett said of her mother.
Rickett graduated from McDonald County High School and went to Missouri Southern State College and the University of Missouri in Columbia. She said she wanted to do something with art, and it was easy to get a degree in teaching. She got her degree in art education K-12. She taught art from kindergarten through high school and taught multimedia the last six of her 23 years, she said.
She lives on a century farm that was in her husband's family since the 1850s. Her house was built in 1900. Her husband, Dan, died from cancer in 2005, but together they started a hobby she continues today. In 2003 they built a small building on the farm she calls the general store where she collects old things. She and Dan used to go to a lot of auctions and get things that would go in a general store, she said.
"It looks old but it was built in 2003," she said. "We have a grocery section, a drug store section, a post office and a hardware section."
It is a small building with a potbelly stove and a checkerboard, she said.
She loves living on the farm. Some people tried to get her to sell it so they could build a racetrack, but she refused to sell it, she said.
"We used to run cattle, but we don't anymore. We just do hay. My son does all the work," she said. Her son is Jack Rickett, who works for the McDonald County Telephone Company. She also has two daughters, Rebecca Bender of Joplin and Julie Burroughs of Philadelphia.
Rickett enjoys quilting and is a member of the Bunker Hill Quilt Club. She is also treasurer of the group.
She is a member of Epsilon Sigma Alpha, an international women's philanthropic group. She was a founding member of the McDonald County chapter, she said. The main thing the group supports is St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. They also support women's shelters and do local projects. They award three scholarships at McDonald County High School, she said.
Rickett said she goes to auctions a lot because she has booths at the Rags to Riches flea market in Anderson. Her son and daughter-in-law own it.
She is treasurer of the historical society board and assistant treasurer at Grace Life Church in Anderson. She is on the display team for the courthouse museum and the education committee with the historical society.
General News on 02/07/2019