As you pull up a chair to the Thanksgiving table, your mouth waters as you look as that golden, scrumptious turkey before you. It’s possible that you owe this serving of protein to the life of a turkey whisperer from Winona County. Leonard Roscoe Sullivan fine-tuned the production and processing of these holiday birds and helped make Minnesota the number-two turkey producer in the United States. Here’s our archivist Walter Bennick to tell you all about it:
Before the Birds
Leonard Roscoe Sullivan was born near Goldswaite, Mills County, Texas to Furdinard and Eva (Crawford) Sullivan on June 10, 1915. Leonard spent his early years in Goldswaite, but during the depression he and his family moved 11 times before he was in the eighth grade. The family had moved to Medford, Minnesota and Leonard was enrolled in the local school and while at a school dance he met his future wife, Ione Clementsen. Leonard completed high school in Long Prairie, Minnesota and attended St. Cloud Teachers College and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis where he earned a degree in vocational education with an emphasis on agriculture. In the meantime, Ione Clementsen was attending nursing school in Minneapolis. The couple were married in Minneapolis on August 10, 1938.
Following his graduation, Leonard obtained employment as an agriculture teacher for the St. Charles, Minnesota public schools. He was with the St. Charles schools through the 1941 school year, at which time he was employed by the Winona Public Schools to develop a new agriculture program along with a Future Farmers of America chapter. Leonard rose to stardom as a teacher and in the community at large. He developed several new programs, both for his students and for adult education.
From Teaching to Turkeys
Leonard resigned his teaching position with the Winona schools and recommended that the district hire two agriculture teachers because of the popularity of the program. He had earlier moved his family to a farm on Pleasant Ridge and began to raise turkeys — about 10,000. He was soon considered one of the foremost turkey farmers in the state. The following year, Leonard went into business with Harry McGrath and started the Sugar Loaf Turkey Processing Company processing broad breasted turkeys and selling the package product. In 1950, Edward Simon of the Rex Turkey Plant in Altura bought Leonard’s company. Simon hired Leonard as the assistant manager in charge of sales and product development, especially with the smaller turkey broiler.
Leonard remained with the Rex Turkey Plant until September of 1956 when he resigned to take a position with the DeWitt Turkey Hatchery in Waxahachie, Texas, a Dallas suburb. There he oversaw turkey breeding, feeding, and processing. He and his family settled into Waxahachie society where he was a popular businessman. He later started a warehouse company in Waxahachie. In 2006, Waxahachie Chamber of Commerce honored him with the Outstanding Citizen award. In their declining years, Leonard and Ione lived in their home with the help of home health aides. He died at the age of 98 years on October 27, 2013 and was interred in the Waxahachie city cemetery. Ione followed him in death about a year later.
Leonard’s work brought new meaning to the saying “gobble ’til you wobble.” Consumers learned to do just that as Leonard whispered “eat more turkey” in their ears. During his career, Leonard popularized a “family-sized” turkey breed in place of the massive Thanksgiving sort. Turkey became a dish any household could handle on a regular basis. This legacy brought variety to the dinner table, but spread bad news for the turkeys. Now there’s more than one day of the year they have to look out for!
