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30th anniversary

News & Needs Archive

  1. Making the Ranch House Part of His Life — Dr. Timothy Parker’s Story

    By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer

     

    Box fans kept the air moving at the event, one of the earliest fundraisers for Reba’s Ranch House. It was warm under the big tent, but Dr. Timothy Parker didn’t mind.

    He had prime seating at the dinner table — right next to Reba McEntire and her family.

    Dr. Parker with his wife and Reba

     

    Dr. Parker and the Reba’s Ranch House Story

    Practicing medicine in Dallas in the early 1990s, Dr. Parker wanted to make a change for his family. They drove to Denison to check out the hospital there and speak to the hospital administrator. During the conversation, the administrator offered Dr. Parker tickets to an upcoming Reba McEntire concert. 

    Though Dr. Parker couldn’t go that year, it was his introduction to fundraising for Reba’s Ranch House.

    After moving his practice to Denison, Dr. Parker made the fundraisers, and ultimately the ranch house, a part of his life. Besides those early fundraisers, he has served on the Texoma Health Foundation board the past 4 years. To this day, he swings by a local store and picks up items that the ranch house needs, like trash bags and paper towels.

    “Just those little things you can bring are so appreciated by the staff,” Dr. Parker says. “It makes a tremendous difference for them and the people staying there.”

    When he first transferred to the hospital, he saw tiny newborns he’d delivered who needed to remain in the nursery on IVs. Their exhausted parents had nowhere to stay as close as they needed — except Reba’s Ranch House. 

    “They could be at the hospital in a matter of moments if something happened with babies,” Dr. Parker says. “It didn’t cost them anything. What a nice place for them to have a comfortable bed, a place to relax, and if anything happened, they’d be right there.”

    For Dr. Parker, taking care of patients comes first. That’s why he’s continued supporting the ranch house since his first experience of sitting at a fundraising dinner table with Reba. 

    There were a great many more experiences at the fundraisers — meals on the grass lawn of the old hospital…the airport tarmacwhere a jet flew in and then a miniature jet appeared on stage and out came Reba. From parades to golf tournaments, Reba McEntire always brought a celebration to town. And it was all for the best reasons.

    “We’re doing this for patients,” Dr. Parker says. “What a great asset we’ve been blessed with here in Denison. Thank you, thank you to Reba for helping get this started.”

     

    Reba’s Ranch House is now funded by individuals like you through the Texoma Health Foundation. You can become a caregiver of caregivers when you partner with Reba’s Ranch House by contributing — it’s as simple as dropping off a bag of paper goods or making a donation through our page here.

     

  2. A Real Thanksgiving

    By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer

     

    Scrumptious aromas accompanied the spread of food laid out for Sarah Bradford, her family, and other guests at Reba’s Ranch House on Thanksgiving Day 2019. When the staff invited Sarah to sign up for the communal meal, she had no idea it was going to be an actual Thanksgiving dinner in the midst of their family’s health crisis. There was an abundance of turkey, ham, dressing, and all the trimmings.

    Having to spend the holiday away from home in order to be near their loved one at the hospital was strenuous, but it turned out to be a real family and friends Thanksgiving for Sarah, her two teens, and mother-in-law, Shirley.

    When Sarah’s sister-in-law, Kelli, was admitted into a Texas hospital with pneumonia in October, a series of trips began for the family. 77-year-old Shirley started making the eight-hour one-way drive from Arkansas to be with her daughter, Kelli, as much as possible. The family alternated stays in different hotels — some of them dicey. Sarah was constantly concerned about her mother-in-law’s safety, finances, and the lonely drive. Shirley was exhausted and had run out of money for hotels. 

    But in November, their caseworker shared about the option of staying at Reba’s Ranch House. Shirley would have been forced to drive back-and-forth to Arkansas at least four more times had she not stayed at the house.

    “I never knew something like this even existed,” Sarah says. “Every day, someone would bring food and donate it, mostly from churches. When I was not there, I felt so much better knowing Shirley was being taken care of. She literally would not have a dime left if she had to pay for all that. Plus she made friends and they were able to comfort each other. It just made it so much easier on her.”

    On Thanksgiving weekend, Kelli faced a tracheotomy. Sarah and her 16-year-old daughter Annie and 14-year-old son Asa made the urgent trip from Arkansas to be with Kelli and Shirley. They likely could not have made the trip without the option to stay at Reba’s Ranch House.

    “We had already been down there several times, and spent a lot of money,” Sarah says. 

    The four of them bundled into one of the rooms at Reba’s Ranch House with a queen bed that Shirley and Asa shared. Staff members brought in two cots. The family had fun pushing them together at the end of the large bed for Sarah and Annie.

    Kelli was not doing well that stormy weekend. It was emotionally draining for them all, especially Sarah’s teens as they watched over their aunt. But Kelli took a turn for the better after the visit. She didn’t need the tracheotomy.

    “We stayed with her for four days,” Sarah says. “She couldn’t talk on the phone, so us being there lifted her spirits and helped her get through it. I really, really believe that. She was so sick.”

    The family experienced a real Thanksgiving at Reba’s Ranch House, a place Sarah believes helped save Kelli’s life.

  3. Keeping the House Feeling Like Home and Hope

    By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer

     

    Cameron Bates entered the dining area at Reba’s Ranch House to check on things. As an intern at the house, he was accustomed to making rounds, doing any clean up, and helping guests. But that day was different. A lone woman stood in the kitchen, crying.

    Having worked at the ranch house since 2019, Cameron had seen people come in from all walks of life. One thing he learned from his parents: You never know what someone is going through, but you can always pray with them.

    Cameron asked the woman if he could help and she told him she was having to let go of her son that day. They talked and prayed, then she gave Cameron a big hug. 

    “She said, ‘You don’t know how much that helped me,’” Cameron recalls, then added, “When people come here, they have a lot on their shoulders. But at the ranch house, we can stop whatever we’re doing and sit and pray with guests. Prayer is very powerful.”

    Joining up with Reba’s Ranch House was a natural fit for Cameron’s life as a college student, despite the two-hour round trip drive he makes to the house from his family’s cattle ranch. Growing up on the ranch, Cameron became a lifelong fan of Reba McEntire. When he received the call that they had accepted him for the intern position at Reba’s Ranch House, he was over the moon.

    His official internship ended after graduation, but he just couldn’t leave. Though he had started his own business, Cameron chose to remain with the ranch house part-time.

    “When you walk through the door, it feels like home,” he says. “I knew it was a special place from that first time.”

    Cameron has a hand in nearly every aspect of the house to keep it feeling like a home — and like hope.

    “When the guests come back and forth from the hospital, we know it’s hard for them,” he says. “Anything I can do to make their stay more comfortable, I’ll do it.”

    One question he often hears when checking people in at the front desk is, How long do I have?

    “Reba McEntire wanted the ranch house set up to allow them to stay as long as their loved one is in the hospital,” he says. “That’s the most beautiful thing. People are travelling from out of state and may have to be here for weeks. I’ve heard of people staying in their cars or sleeping on a park bench. For someone to come here and not have to pay anything, that shocks many people. Reba has put her heart and soul into this place, and being able to work here is a dream come true.”

     

    Reba’s Ranch House is owned and operated by the Texoma Health Foundation. If you would like to become a caregiver of caregivers like Cameron, you can contribute to the house today through donating or volunteering.

     

  4. The Heart Mender

    By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer

     

    Philip McKinzie opened his eyes…and had no idea where he was. There he lay in a hospital bed, trying to get oriented. But his two daughters were there as Phil gradually learned he was coming out of a chemically-induced coma after 8 days.

    What started as an annual check up for Phil’s heart stents turned into emergency open heart surgery. His daughters rushed in from Colorado and Frisco, Texas, and were the very first guests at Reba’s Ranch House’s new facility.

    “My daughters told me they had stayed in the ranch house,” Phil recalls. “They told me what a delightful experience it was, and how grateful they were to be that close to the hospital. The people there are so gracious, and the community supports it so much with bringing in food.”

    This wasn’t how Phil first learned about the ranch house, though. He was on the TMC Foundation board in the 1980s when the dream for the ranch house was born and was one of the founding board members of the Texoma Health Foundation when it was created in 2007.

    Throughout the years, Phil continued his involvement with the ranch house and area hospitals. He’s held an interest in medicine from boyhood when he longed to follow in the footsteps of his great-grandfather and namesake, Philip Lee Cane. Dr. Cane started practicing medicine during the days of Indian Territory, settling in Albany (Oklahoma) in the 1870s. Dr. Cane retired in the 1940s at 85-years-old.

    “He was the light of my life,” Phil says. “I loved that man, and I wanted to be a doctor.”

    Though Phil ultimately went into banking, his interest in medicine continued. It led him to help recruit physicians for area hospitals, serve on the TMC Foundation board (which morphed into the Texoma Health Foundation), and help with the founding of Reba’s Ranch House.

     Phil moved between Oklahoma and Texas throughout his life, and is now settled in the Celebration Senior Living of Denison, a stone’s throw from the ranch house.

    “I told them if they cut a furrow through the woods and build a bridge over the creek, I could walk over there, because we’re that close,” he says. 

    Grounds of Reba’s Ranch House

    Phil didn’t know that when the second facility was built in 2010, his two daughters would be its first guests as he recovered from open heart surgery in a nearby hospital.

    After his recovery, Phil became a volunteer “heart mender” for six years, sitting with families whose loved one was undergoing open heart surgery. He would stay with them for hours, bringing coffee and giving the family updates on what was happening. 

    And he let them know it was okay to take a rest at their room in Reba’s Ranch House. 

    “We could call them if they were needed and they’d be right there,” he says. “It’s amazing what the Texoma Health Foundation has accomplished [with Reba’s Ranch House]. It’s indescribable.”

    Reba’s Ranch House

  5. The Joys and Health of a Volunteer

    “Giving of both money and time generally boosts wellbeing

    more than people expect. Volunteers tend to weigh less,

    to feel healthier, to have a lower chance of suffering a heart attack,

    and to score higher in every happiness domain.”

    Blue Zones Newsletter

     

    The purple stems above are enchanting if you glance their way. But if you Focus, you realize the stem is filled with tiny individual purple blossoms that fill a cone shape at the end of the stem.  When you look at the flowers in your yard, what do you see? Do you see unknown faces “whispering” your name?

     

    Stop! Join the sweet call of service and lower your blood pressure.

     

    When volunteering for a non-profit, you realize how important it is to instill the feeling of hope in those you serve. Focus!

    Who are you passionate about? Do you have 2-4 hours of precious time to donate to a special soul who may be 5 or 95, but desperately needs to know someone out there still loves them? Seems like such a small thing, but it is a mountain to climb for those who need you.

    Everyone welcomes a smile, a bag filled with a coloring book and crayons, or a new book to read or to have read to them. Open your heart as you would open each little flower in your garden and Focus on the scent, the delicate texture and how they react not being a part of their mother plant core. You will learn how most of those who need your service feel everyday as they haven’t been given the core to hold on to. Serve by taking food, serve by bringing stamps, serve by talking and praying with those who need it.

    You are special to so many more people than you can ever imagine. Focus on Volunteering!

     

    Always wishing you hope and warmth in your home,

    Marilyn

    Reba’s Ranch House Director

     

    Discover how you can help at Reba’s Ranch House by clicking on our volunteer page here.

  6. One of God’s gifts — Susan Hooper’s Story

    By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer

     

    Susan presenting at the Volunteer Luncheon

    In the serene setting of the library room at Reba’s Ranch House, Susan Hooper settled in with Phil Roether and his sister. They were there to discuss a topic Susan knew well — Phil’s sister was preparing to face her battle with breast cancer. 

    “I told my sister, ‘Why don’t you come talk to Susan?’” Phil recalled. He is an original board member of the Texoma Health Foundation. “‘Susan has been down this road.’”

    A fixture at Reba’s Ranch House, Susan had battled breast cancer and was always ready to come alongside anyone making their own journey. But she did more than equip people—she was ready to enter the battle with them.

    “You knew you had a warrior on your side,” said Dr. Darius Maggi. He is also an original board member of the Texoma Health Foundation, which manages Reba’s Ranch House. “Her attitude was, ‘I’m with you. I’ll hold your hand. We’ll go into battle together,’” he continued. “The Good Lord put her on the earth for that reason. We need people that love people and take care of people like Jesus did. If anyone exemplifies that, Susan does.”

    Susan first entered Texoma Health Foundation (THF) almost 15 years ago when she was battling cancer for the first time. Like so many she has helped since, Susan had been sent home with stage IV cancer. A business owner facing the high cost of health insurance, Susan had no options for treatment or surgery available to her. She called her dear friend and THF Foundation Board Member, Judge Horace Groff who connected her to the foundation’s Cancer Fund. The fund was able to provide dollars to open the door to life saving treatment.

    So thankful for what the foundation had done, she joined all volunteer activities for the patient assistance fund and Texoma Health Foundation.

    “She walked into my office one day and said, ‘I want to give back,’” said Michelle Lemming, THF CEO. “Fifteen years later, she has been a tireless advocate to the community, a fundraiser, and a loving friend to countless residents facing a cancer diagnosis.”

    She eventually joined the Reba’s Ranch House staff in Guest Relations before the Room for Hope was founded in March 20, 2012. There, Susan had the opportunity to fulfill her passion for supporting and assisting those who were beginning their battle with cancer. Today the room assists men and women in their fight, both financially and with needed personal items for the battle.

    “Most people came in with a relative or friend,” Susan said. “They usually felt bad and thought they looked bad. After trying on wigs and playing for a time, everyone was in a better mood. We prayed and talked and ended up being one big family.” 

    Susan in the Room for Hope

    It wasn’t only Susan’s dedicated work that made the Room for Hope thrive; it was the heart, positive attitude, and hugs she had for anyone who crossed her path.

    Betty, Phil’s wife and a volunteer for the ranch house, said, “Susan’s attitude is an example of how important being positive is to your health.”

    Susan, second from left.

    Susan’s declining health ushered her into retirement, but not the end of her legacy at Reba’s Ranch House. A new fund is being created in her honor: The Susan Hooper Cancer Care Fund. 

    One goal of the fund is to assist people who face the same struggles Susan did, helping those who have no insurance or are underinsured receive the treatment they need.

    “The fund in my honor means the world because a fund will continue helping people long after I can, personally,” Susan said. “What a great feeling for anyone!”

    Through the fund, Susan will continue as a warrior alongside patients and guests at Reba’s Ranch House.

    “When you come into the ranch house, you are uncertain of your life at the moment,” Susan said. “To help someone clear their mind is a tremendous gift. Just talking and praying accomplished this with people.”

    Phil added, “My sister still remembers how calming it was to talk to Susan, to understand someone else who had been through the battle, what to expect; and that it can be okay.”

     

    If you would like to contribute to Susan’s fund and be a warrior for men and women fighting cancer, please donate here.

    (Click on the dropdown arrow next to the “Area of Interest” title and select “Susan Hooper Cancer Care Fund”)

    Christmas floral design by Susan

  7. Third Graders, Bible Pages, and Loads of Grocery Sacks

    By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer

    Reba’s Heroes:

    A Series Highlighting Our Wonderful Volunteers

    From the early days of Reba’s Ranch House, the heart of volunteers beat throughout the space to bring peace and comfort to all the guests who walk through the door.

    This series is our chance to publicly thank our precious volunteers who consistently show up and provide for the many needs we have. The ranch house operates like any home — laundry, meals, cleaning, bedding, prayers. 

    We couldn’t exist without our dedicated volunteers. Thank you!

     

     

    Sweet Innocence

    “I wonder if they liked my picture, or if my verse helped them?”

    These are sweetly innocent questions third graders at the Texoma Christian Schools ask as they color pumpkins, flowers, and chapels on their cursive pages’ borders. 

    Their teachers, Kathy Lindsey and Twila Thomas, explain to the children that they will never see the person who receives their Bible verse page. But they can pray for them and know the people will be touched by the pages sitting on nightstands in the guest rooms at Reba’s Ranch House.

    “We tell them, ‘Before you start coloring and writing your verse down, we want you to pray about that paper you’re decorating, and pray for the person who’s going to receive it, even though you don’t know who they are,” Kathy says. “And they do; they say a prayer for the person that’s going to read their Bible verse and see their coloring.”

    For the past twelve years, Texoma Christian School’s Third-Grade classes have adopted Reba’s Ranch House for their annual Care-A-Thon project. Kathy puts out large paper grocery sacks in the fall with a list of things stapled to the sacks that the pantry at the Ranch House needs — from cake mixes to spaghetti sauce — and the children take the empty sacks home to fill them. Once full, they return them, and many ask if they can do another one, excited as they watch the sacks fill the back of the classroom. They’re reaching the goal: filling up the pantry at Reba’s Ranch House! One hundred children have walked through the door at the house for the project over the years.

    “I tell them there’s a loved one at the hospital, and they’re tired,” Kathy says. “They need a place to shower and get some rest rather than sitting in a chair all the time.”

    The class, with moms and grandmothers along to help, arrive at Reba’s Ranch House, they are welcomed in.

    “Marilyn will give them a tour, and they see Reba’s guitars and that the house even has a place for little ones,” Kathy says. “And if we’re really, really quiet and there is an empty room, Marilyn will show them the quilts and the beds where the guests stay. At the end, the moms have pizza delivered, and we sit in the kitchen there with our very good manners.”

    When parents and grandparents experience the work that goes on in Reba’s Ranch House, some decide to come back and volunteer.

    The children also visit the kitchen pantry where the staples they collected are stored. They present their Bible pages to Marilyn, knowing the pages will go on nightstands of guests staying at the ranch house.

    “They get it, that people are tired and need a good place to sleep,” Kathy says. “The children pour their little hearts out for them.”

  8. A Medical Legacy from Indian Territory to Denison, Texas

    Article by Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer

     

    Dr. Benjamin Denison was practicing medicine in Indian Territory when his wife passed. He married again, this time to full-blood Choctaw Susan Oaks. Their two sons, Harry and Hilliard, were both members of the Choctaw Nation. Hilliard, born with a cleft palate, worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Harry started his own family. His son, little Harry, was only two years old when his father tragically drowned.

    Susan Oaks and her husband, Charles Denison with their sons
    Harry (“Doc”) and Hilliard Denison (Girl’s name unknown.)

    Little Harry, born in Idabel, Oklahoma in 1932, grew up with support and encouragement from his widowed mother. Determined to break out of poverty, he took his first job at Humpy and Amy’s Cafe when he was eight years old. He worked on asphalt roads, and followed the wheat harvest to Canada and back. He was one of those laborers known as “wheaties.” 

    Harry achieved his goal of going to college, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Benjamin by becoming a doctor upon graduating from Baylor College of Medicine. Harry went on to the University of Oklahoma for his residency in urology.

    In high school, Harry had met Phyllis Jane Hardin. They married in his college years, and chose the small town of Denison to settle in, where Dr. Harry L. Denison was the only urologist between Oklahoma City and Dallas. He worked at Madonna hospital, the Katy (MKT railroad) hospital, and TMC (Texoma Medical Center), and also practiced medicine in Durant, Oklahoma for many years.

    “He was always very proud of his Choctaw heritage,” says his daughter, Lea Denison Freemyer. “His uncle Hilliard, who worked for the Bureau of Indian affairs, helped my dad get us CDIB cards. Later in life, my dad did a Choctaw language class online. It was a very important part of who he was.”

    Lea worked at his Denison office while in high school and summers in college. She witnessed how hardships in his childhood developed the work ethic he continued to show throughout his practice and his lifetime.

    In the 1980s, when Reba McEntire came to Denison to raise money for Reba’s Ranch House, Lea’s parents looked forward to the event every year with dinner under the tent. 

    Dr. Harry Denison passed unexpectedly in Lea’s home, five years after his wife Phyllis’s passing. Lea and her brothers wanted to honor their memory and contacted Reba’s Ranch House about instituting the Granny and Doc Playground, as the couple was fondly called by their grandchildren. In 2017, Lea and her brothers contributed the initial funds for the playground.

    “A playground on site allows a guest and their children to be outside in a protected area to work out some of their stress through play,” says Marilyn Bice, director of Reba’s Ranch House. “It is a small way for us to protect our children’s future mental health.” 

    From a medical practice in Indian Territory during the 19th century, through the 20th century in the states of Texas and the newly formed Oklahoma, to the 21st century with Lea’s son, Dr. Benjamin Denison Freemyer, this family works hard for the health of people in their communities. The Granny and Doc Playground continues that legacy. 

    Enjoy this special video of the new playground!

  9. Expanding Love and Service at Reba’s Ranch House

    A decade ago, Reba’s Ranch House was bursting at the seams with housing hundreds of vulnerable guests annually. Each individual needed a safe place to stay while their loved one was hospitalized. Thus began our partnership with international design firm HKS as they designed the new Reba’s Ranch House in 2010, the one we currently use to host 850 guests each year.

    Running such an operation of love requires regular board meetings and also offices for the Texoma Health Foundation (THF) which owns and operates Reba’s Ranch House. THF cares for several nonprofits doing good work in our community, and for individuals who find themselves in difficult circumstances at local healthcare facilities in Grayson and Fannin counties in North Texas and Bryan and Marshall counties in Southern Oklahoma. 

    When THF needed more space to operate, Reba’s Ranch House once again turned to HKS.

     

    Citizen HKS — A Public Interest Design Initiative 

     

    Reba’s Ranch House and THF partnered with HKS once again, this time through the firm’s public interest design initiative, Citizen HKS Project. This opened the way for a new 1,700 square feet space that not only benefits Reba’s Ranch House but numerous non-profits in our community. The meeting room Citizen HKS designed has become a community space for nonprofits throughout the area.

    “We had identified this as an important community need,” says Marilyn Bice, director at Reba’s Ranch House. “And within two and a half months, it was full. We have meetings in the mornings, at noon, at night. And we have all of our THF and Reba’s Ranch House board meetings there, too.”

    On the porch

    Read the Design Story

     

    What a privilege it has been to work with HKS through the years and on this functional, beautiful new space! Please enjoy a special post about the expansion written by Candace Goodman, a senior designer at HKS Dallas. Discover the lessons she learned and the love she shared during the project: Click here to read the full story.

  10. The Comfort of a Country Quilt

    By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer

    Reba’s Heroes:

    A Series Highlighting Our Wonderful Volunteers

    From the early days of Reba’s Ranch House, the heart of volunteers beat throughout the space to bring peace and comfort to all the guests who walk through the door.

    This series is our chance to publicly thank our precious volunteers who consistently show up and provide for the many needs we have. The ranch house operates like any home — laundry, meals, cleaning, bedding, prayers. 

    We couldn’t exist without our dedicated volunteers. Thank you!

     

     

    Handmade Comfort

    When guests come to Reba’s Ranch House, it’s because they are experiencing a crippling crisis, something that pulls them almost to the floor.

    But instead, they have a place to rest. Opportunities to talk with someone and pray. Handmade quilts to draw over them like a grandmother’s hug.

    In 1990, before Reba’s Ranch House officially opened, local ladies worked through the Grayson County Extension Office to take on a tremendous project — crafting twenty handmade quilts for the bedrooms where guests at the house stay.

    It started when Jerri Lane, Grayson County Extension Agent, was asked to gather a small troop of ladies to dedicate two years to design and make the quilts. Jerri was an agent at the extension office for over thirty years.

    With several ladies on the project, they started at a quilt shop in Denton to choose colors and decide on patterns. On that first trip, they bought $1,000 worth of fabric. The volunteers consisted of Anne Gary, Jeanie Graber, Jerri Lane, Jana Caroyl, and co-chairman Gerry Dougherty.

    Gerry fondly recalls the adventure. “We had a plan, a full committee, designs for each quilt, and a start. Two of the ladies taught us the new name for a certain red — the Reba Red. It was more of a barn red, but that and the blues we used throughout our project took on a whole new meaning!”

    They worked out of the extension office at the Grayson County Courthouse, tables spilling over with fabric, supplies, and always a quilt in the frame. The ladies kept busy for a year and a half and were ready to present the quilts at a special tea attended by Reba McEntire’s mom and dad. The quilts were added to the guest rooms at the original Reba’s Ranch House and later transferred to the new building.

    “We also did thirty-one shams for the pillows on the beds — eight bedrooms full,” Gerry says. “We were delighted to be involved in such a worthy project. Ann Arnold, who worked at Reba’s Ranch House for a long time, took good care of the quilts. When she washed them, she would dry them over the rails of the porch. What a pretty sight they were!”

    And what a sight they are for everyone who walks into a guest room at Reba’s Ranch House, greeted with the comfort of a handmade quilt.