Bloomfield, MO - The Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce held their annual 2020 Awards Banquet on Thursday, March 12th at the Assembly of God Church.

Huel Benton Jr. was born in Romance, Arkansas and moved with his family to Missouri when he was 3 years old.  In 1950 he married Maudie House.  This December they will have been married 70 years.

Huel grew up helping on family farms and in 1952 he and Maudie made their first crop.  In December of 1954 they moved to Stoddard County to rent a larger farm and in 1958 they bought their first farm.  By then, they had also added two daughters and a son.

In 1965, they bought a cattle farm outside of Bloomfield.  Huel always liked cattle and that farm gave him something to do in the winter.

Maudie helped on the farm and continued some farm work even after going to work full-time at Federal Mogul in Malden.

In 1995 Huel retired from row crop farming.  They made their home at the edge of Bloomfield so that he could continue to work the cattle at his farm and watch their row crop farm acreage that is now rented to other farmers, including the daughter of one of his original renters.

In a few weeks, all three of Huel and Maudie's children will be retired.  In addition to them, they have five grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

Huel says that cold weather is hard on his bones so he tires to spend time in warmer places.  His love of working cattle may soon be replaced by spending more cold weather days where it is much warmer.

Pictured from left to right: Karen Griffin, Bloomfield Chamber Board Member/Secretary/Treasurer, Huel Benton, Jr., Herman Morse, 151st State Representative (MO), Amy Haas, Chamber President.