Farm Family of the Year Puts ‘Family’ First

Farm Family of the Year Puts ‘Family’ First

If the Cupples Family had to be summed up in a single word it would be “family,” and it is evident as Bobby, Marianne, Ashli, and Mallory shared their lives with us.

Bobby and Marianne both grew up in Hughes, Arkansas, and graduated from Hughes High School.

They met while they were in high school and dated for four years before they got married in 1982.

Bobby was born with farming in his blood and has been farming every day since he was 12.

He shared that over the course of his life he has been witness to how technology has drastically changed farming. When he began, while working for N.S. Garrett & Sons, they picked cotton with a two row cotton picker and would put in 100 plus hours a week, but this season he will be picking his crops with a six row picker that does the unbelievable — bales the cotton as it is picked.

At the end of the day, Bobby will be the first to tell you the following: “I’m just a tractor driver at heart and I can’t imagine doing anything else.” While Bobby farms, Marianne can be found doing one of three things: teaching, traveling or spending time with her daughters. She just started her 31st year of teaching. While she now teaches Gifted and Talented for the West Memphis School District, she spent the first 19 1/2 years of her career teaching at Hughes Elementary School. While those first 20 years were spent in a variety of positions, primarily in the classroom, she will tell you now that she loves getting to work in all seven elementary schools in the WMSD doing GT enrichment for every K-2 student in the district. Aside from teaching though, she loves to travel. She and her friends can be found from Florida to New York and anywhere in between during the summer. As a family though, she, Bobby, and the girls can often be found in St. Louis watching the Cardinals play. Speaking of family, Bobby and Marianne shared that they have encouraged their daughters, Ashli and Mallory, to pursue their dreams and after talking with each of them, they have done just that.

Ashli took this encouragement and went to Ole Miss and pursued a degree in Special Education, and she used her degree in a variety of ways in her career. She has taught for the West Memphis School District as a special education teacher, at Steudlein Learning Center as an Early Childhood Interventionist, as a kindergarten teacher overseas and at a charter school in Frayser, and now as a 4th grade teacher at The Bodine School in Germantown, Tennessee.

But in talking to her, it was evident how much her time overseas teaching kindergarten in Afghanistan, and her parents’ support of her time there, have impacted her. There, she taught at a private school that was primarily for Afghan students. That school was funded by tuition, and scholarships that were established through USAID under Laura Bush’s education initiatives. Although that school had to be permanently closed in early 2015, she shared that it’s impact is still being seen, and is certain to be seen for many years to come. This is because many of those former students are actively working to further their education and long to make Afghanistan a better place. While teaching may take up the majority of her time and a large part of her heart, Ashli loves spending her time with her dogs, Bentley, and her new fiancé Chance Byas, even more. She and Chance are looking forward to being married in early December.

In comparison, Mallory has chosen a very different path. From a young age, Mallory was enamored with politics. Rarely would you find her not reading about American history or current events. This passion went with her to Union University, where she received her degree in International and Intercultural Studies. After graduation, she was fortunate enough to be able to intern with Arkansas Congressman, Steve Womack. While interning in Womack’s office in Washington, D.C., she gave tours of the U.S. Capitol Building, processed correspondence, and spoke with constituents that called. When her internship ended, she was offered a position in Arkansas Senator John Boozman’s office. She began as a staff assistant in Senator Boozman’s office, and was responsible for the front office, as well as, processing all tour, photo, and flag requests from Arkansas constituents. After being in that position for a year, she was promoted to the position of Director of Special Projects.

Mallory was directly responsible for directly assisting Senator Boozman with projects to benefit the state. While she loved working with Senator Boozman, in February 2015 she moved to Little Rock after being offered the once in a lifetime chance to work with Sarah Huckabee Sanders on the Huckabee for President Campaign. During her eleven months on the campaign, she worked directly with Sanders and also had the opportunity to move to Iowa for two months to work as a part of the Iowa caucus process. In listening to her talk about the experience, it was evident how strongly she feels about this presidential election and how lucky she feels to have gotten the opportunity to have worked with the former Arkansas governor. When his campaign came to an unfortunate end, Mallory returned to Little Rock and took a position working for Arkansas State Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. She now spends her days working with the Attorney General on projects that deal with a piece of her heart — Eastern Arkansas. Mallory will be quick to tell you she is a daddy’s girl and that farming and Arkansas hold her heart, so she loves nothing more than getting to work in politics and in the part of the country that she loves. When she can get away from Little Rock, you will find her and her Shih Tzu Dixie back in The Delta, and quite possibly on a tractor with her daddy.

As you can see, what started as a farm family in Hughes, Arkansas so many years ago has grown to so much more. Spending time as a family is key to making this farm family a success. Whether they are entertaining at their beautiful home in the country, at a baseball game in St. Louis, riding the cotton picker, or supporting one another in any other way, their love for each other is evident.