alafarmnews

FIELD OF MEMORIES
FRANK OSCAR BRYAN’S
LOVE OF FARMING LIVES ON

by Jaine Treadwell

On Frank Oscar Bryan’s birthday in October 2003, Hudson Transportation gave him a $100 gift certificate to the Pike Farmers Co-op in Troy. Bryan had retired from Hudson two years earlier, after driving for the company for nearly 20 years, but the friendships he cultivated there were still strong.

The employees of Hudson Transportation knew that Bryan was a farmer – heart and soul – so there was nothing he would appreciate more than an opportunity to go shopping at the Co-op.

“Frank Oscar was so proud of the gift certificate and he put it in a drawer and said we would buy sunflower seeds with it,” said Bryan’s wife Jean.

Frank Oscar Bryan’s little church friends visited the sunflower field planted in his memory. They brought along a John Deere to plant like “Mr. Frank” did. Bryan was a member of Collegedale Church of Christ and he loved all the children of the church. Twins, Brady and Bethany Balkcom, were among Mr. Frank’s little friends.

Frank Oscar Bryan first started a farmer’s market at the Pike County Fairgrounds in 1981 and then moved the market to town where it remained until the Pioneer Farmers Market opened at the Pioneer Museum of Alabama three years ago. Bryan was the market manager there until his death in February 2004. Bryan was a longtime Pike County farmer, but, for him, farming was never about the money. It was about the love of the land and the time farming allowed him to spend with his sons.

Locals and tourists alike would stop to admire the beautiful field of towering sunflowers. Bryan spent a lot of time there because he enjoyed talking with those who stopped. Many of them took photographs and he often obliged them by taking photographs for them.

Sometimes Bryan was asked to be photographed in the field with members of the families – most often with the children.

“There was nothing that made him happier than seeing people enjoy the sunflowers,” Jean said. “He would never let anyone leave without giving them what he called ‘a mess of sunflowers’. He encouraged them to take the flowers home and feed the seeds to the birds.”

Bryan was enjoying life, every day and every minute. He had survived his battle with cancer and was looking forward to campaigning for the District 3 seat on the Pike County Commission.

“He was looking forward to planting the sunflower field for the third year,” Jean said. “He was also planning to plant an adjoining seven acres of watermelons, ornamental gourds, pumpkins and popcorn so school children could visit the fields and see how those things

On Monday, Feb. 9, 2004, Bryan burned off the sunflower field in preparation for planting in a couple of months. The next morning, he went to the Pike County Courthouse and picked up a map showing the county’s district lines in order to plan his campaign strategy.

“Frank Oscar had bought his campaign cards and was going to buy signs to post along the roadways,” she said. “He was very excited about running for the county commission. He thought he could make a difference.”

When Jean got home from work that afternoon, her husband was sitting in his chair with a pencil in his hand. She called to him but he never answered.

Frank Oscar Bryan’s death left a void that will never be filled in the lives of all who knew him. He was a wonderful family man, a man of faith, a great friend, a public servant and farmer whose life was deeply rooted in the land.

Jean Bryan of Troy planted a field of sunflowers in memory of her husband, Frank Oscar Bryan, who died in February. For two years, he had planted a seven-acre field in giant sunflowers for others, like Cassidy Balkcom, to enjoy and pick and not pay. Bryan plans to keep the tradition alive as a living memorial to the man who was a farmer, heart and soul.

“I grew up on a farm in Springhill and my mother always told me not to marry a farmer,” Jean said, with a smile. “She said life on the farm was a good, but it was a hard life and that farmers weren’t ever going to make a lot of money – that it would be a struggle. But I didn’t listen.”

Jean and Frank Oscar married for love, not money. They started life together on the farm in the early 1960s and grew peanuts, cotton and corn.

“We did alright farming until 1976 when army worms destroyed the corn crop,” Jean said. “Then, in 1980, there was a terrible drought that just about wiped us out. The drought was so bad that Frank decided that he was going to have to do something to supplement our farm income.”

Frank and Jean Bryan had raised two sons on the farm and they had learned the value of hard work, the importance of teamwork and developed strong family values and an appreciation of and respect for each other.

“When you farm, you just naturally become close because you work so closely together and have to depend on each other so much,” Jean said. “One thing that was so important to Frank was that he could set his own hours, so that he could spend time with the boys. He and the boys would work in the field in the morning and go play ball in the afternoon. Frank coached city recreation baseball for 15 years. He loved being with his boys.”

When Bryan decided to drive a big rig, his son, Bart, had started college at Auburn with plans to be a veterinarian and his son, Brad, was in high school.

So, he limited his farming operation primarily to a u-pick truck farm.

“Frank Oscar was on the road a lot and Brad pretty much managed the truck farm,” Jean said. “But Frank Oscar still planted about 100 acres of row crops. He just couldn’t get from behind the plow.”

Bryan and son were in truck farming for about 10 years. Then, in 1996, he was diagnosed with cancer and had to limit even his truck farming operation.

“At one time, Frank Oscar was considering putting in some chicken houses, but I told him that I wasn’t going to quit my job to tend chicken houses,” Jean said, and added laughing, “He said that he didn’t intend for me to quit my job. He thought I could tend the chicken houses when I got home in the afternoon. I was glad when he decided against that. But if he hadn’t, I would have pitched right in and done what I needed to do. That’s the way it is on a farm. You work together. Frank Oscar loved farming and the land better than anyone I’ve every seen. That’s just the kind of man he was.”

Because he was that kind of man, Jean did not want to see her husband’s dreams die along with him.

“He wanted that sunflower field planted for others to enjoy and I decided that’s what I was going to do,” she said. “I knew I could get the advice and help I needed from the Pike Farmers Co-op. Frank Oscar always bought what we needed on the farm from them. When he decided to plant the first sunflower field three years ago, the Co-op got him the seeds he wanted and then planted them for him. He had a lot of friends at the Co-op.”

When Jean got ready to sow the seeds, she went to the Co-op and got the advice she needed, bought the seeds and enlisted the help of a friend in plowing the field and planting the seeds.

“We put down 300 pounds of 13-13-13 fertilizer to the acre and planted 200 pounds of sunflower seeds,” she said. “I didn’t plant the big sunflower seeds like Frank Oscar did. I’m just learning, but the field was real pretty and we had lot of people stop. We told everybody to just pick what they wanted.”

For Jean Bryan, walking among the sunflowers is like spending quiet moments with her husband.

“It’s almost as if Frank Oscar is here,” she said, as she looked over the bright yellow field. “I see him everywhere I look. This was his place. Now, it’s a place of wonderful memories and every sunflower reminds me of him.”

Jaine Treadwell is a freelance writer from Brundidge.