by Gay Kempf Davidson

She’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes. Yeeha! The family sing-a-longs went on and on as the wheels of our station wagon turned. Traveling across southern highways, from Northeast Texas to Southern California, Joanne Francis Kempf, our mom, lead her troop in verse after verse of old favorites. She was an evangelist for keeping spirits high with old folk tunes -- and keeping young minds alert with sign games and license plate riddles.

The spirit and love that she lavished on her family inspired the many fortunate acquaintances who crossed her path throughout her 70 some odd years.

Did I mention dancing?

Joanne was born March 29, 1934, in Southgate, California, to Isabella Much and Francis Bussert. Joanne led a curious and different childhood, parented by a father with a physicist’s and a mathematician’s knowledge of machinery, a mother led by a love for the free spirit, a discipline planted by Seventh Day Adventism, and the scent of the Pacific Ocean.

She married the love of her life, Marine Corps Sergeant Kenneth Edwin “Zero” Kempf, of Spring Hill, Texas, on December 11, 1954.

And we’ll all go out to greet her when she comes. Hi There! Joanne and Zero, along with their three children, Joe Dan, Gay, and Vicki, moved to the newly created Terlingua Ranch in September 1972. With an old jukebox in tow, the family arrived at the infamous “Sin City,” the workers’ living area for the Terramar Corporation, which was initially responsible for the Terlingua Ranch development. The children all thought they were on permanent vacation: mountains to climb, dirt roads to tear up, weekend barbeques, dancing to the Cotton-Eyed Joe, and more characters than any comic book.

The Terlingua experience began for most of the settlers of the ‘70s as a hunting trip: for mule deer, cheap land, freedom, for open spaces. Most families found what they were hunting for. Joanne, then running a café, devised the Terlingua Burger, a cheeseburger with a jalapeño-filled scrambled egg topping, while Zero, working as the surveyor of the new road system, found a countryside filled with fossils and artifacts while.

She’ll be driving six white horses when she comes! Whoa-there! Joanne, ever enthralled with the great pioneering theme, always found life to be more of an engineering task than a simple day-to-day experience. Sunday afternoon drives normally involved no fewer than three outrageous stretches of back country roads, occasional pavement sightings, a few road building tasks, two spare tires, a truly mysterious destination with a touch of mystery, and of course, lots of singing. No road trip was complete without fundamental eats, extra water, and a hot cervesa under the seat “to put out fires.”

Did I mention dancing?

We’ll have Chicken & Dumplings when she comes! Yum! Yum! Talking about cooking up something new, entrepreneurship was in Joanne’s blood. In her world, no one was incapable of learning to direct their own future, whether they liked the idea or not. Unfortunately, not all of us were as resourceful as Joanne when it came to the biz-of-the-month club. JoMama, as she later came to be known, headed our parents’ carpet installation business for 15 years.

After the move to Terlingua, my parents were always working on some venture: the Study Butte Motel & Café, being initial project managers at Lajitas for Walter and Mary Mischer, running the Villa de la Mina for Glenn Pepper. She inspired more new businesses among her family and friends than one could ever count. Her drive was very much what the rebirth of Terlingua, deserted since the closing of the mines in the 1940s, was built on.

My folks were the inspiration behind the famed “longest school bus ride” when no high school education was available closer than Alpine, 80 miles away, one way.

They met and inspired the first medic in the area, an ambitious adventurer and trained practitioner from Denver – John Alexander, who currently practices at the Lajitas Infirmary. Joanne once served breakfast to Tull Newton, said to have participated in the last great train robbery. Joanne and Zero led me to my first voting booth when electing Daisy Adams as Postmaster was of utmost importance. Her time here was sprinkled with the many firsts, lots of effort, and plenty of singing and dancing.  

We already miss her, now she’s gone! SLEEP WELL! I am amazed and especially proud of how much sincerity, bravery, and true grit my mother possessed and how she proved that we could not only survive, but also find intrigue, purpose, and, particularly, humor in everyday life. Those principles made life and the move to Terlingua the most wonderful things that she and our dad could have ever done for their children.

And we thought we were simply fortunate enough to get to ride along.

And to dance!

Many settlers, families, and drifters have participated in the developing saga of Terlingua and the surrounding area. But I can boast, thanks to Joanne, that few other families had as much fun or had as many crazy times as the Kempfs and our friends.

Joanne will rest upon the smiles (and smirks) in our hearts forever. February 27, 2006...may she dance in peace!