THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410150101
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 186 lines
WHEN BILLY AND JANICE WORRELL married in 1960, no one expected the young nurse - a ``city girl'' from Williamston, N.C. - to survive on the farm in the Holland area of what was then Nansemond County.
``She moved out to the sticks,'' Billy Worrell said. ``They said she would never last six months.''
But she adjusted better than expected, playing a supporting role on the farm and helping raise the couple's three children in the brick ranch house Worrell had built on Lummis Road.
The partnership has paid off.
THE WILLIAM C. WORRELL family has been named the 1995 Outstanding Farm Family of the Year by the Suffolk division of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
The award, given each year to a family that demonstrates leadership in the farming community, recognizes the importance of agriculture in the area.
``Agriculture is big business in this community,'' said T. Douglas Casey, chairman of the Suffolk chamber. ``It's indigenous to the Suffolk community.''
The selection by the chamber's agri-business committee is based in part on the family's success in farming and on their participation in agricultural and community organizations, said Randy Davis, executive director of the local chamber.
The family has a track record of longevity in an occupation that many see threatened because of the changing economics of agriculture.
BILLY WORRELL, 55, started farming with his father, the late C.C. Worrell. He joined in the full-time operation just after graduating from the former Holland High School in 1956.
Today, he and Kenneth - his son and partner - still farm much of the same land Billy Worrell cultivated with his father. Like most farmers, they lease various tracts as well as work their own land.
``We've got about 15 or 16 different landlords,'' said the elder Worrell. ``A lot of the farms, my father rented.''
Most of the time, the father-son duo handles most of the operation with the help of several hired hands. They raise peanuts, corn, soybeans and wheat on about 1,000 acres, including about 200 they own.
The farms - within a seven-mile radius of their homes, within sight of each other - stretch from Holland to Whaleyville.
During the busy season, there's a call for all available helpers. And even the family members who work elsewhere help out by operating peanut combines and other farm machinery or fixing meals for the field workers.
``This time of year, peanuts come before everything,'' said Janice Worrell, who works four days a week as a nurse in a Suffolk doctor's office.
All the children - Debbie Bunch and her husband, Bobby; Laura Barker and her husband, Larry; and Kenneth's wife, Pamela - pitch in whenever they can during harvest season.
``What means so much to us is they all have full-time jobs,'' Janice Worrell said.
BOTH BILLY AND KENNETH Worrell agree that farming is in their blood, and that it's hard to imagine doing anything else.
``I just always wanted to do it,'' Billy Worrell said.
Kenneth Worrell, 30, also never considered another occupation. He enjoys being out-of-doors.
``Some of the stuff you do over and over again,'' he said, ``but it's like doing something different every day.''
The repetition and hard work, however, eventually pay off, Kenneth said.
``It's kind of fun to me when I'm getting stuff in, knowing that I'm going to get a little bit of money somewhere.''
He can't remember when he started farming, probably as a young teenager, working by the hour for his father. His grandfather, who died in 1979, was still farming when the youngster started driving tractors.
``I didn't have my license yet, so he took me from field to field and would come pick me up for lunch,'' Kenneth said.
A farmer's success, he knows, can be capricious, depending on the weather, among other things.
``It's whatever the one above gives us,'' Kenneth Worrell said. ``It's a big gamble. It kind of surprises you sometimes. It can be better than you think, or it can end up disappointing, like last year.''
Last summer was very dry, ``one of our worst years,'' he said.
Several years ago, the farmers experienced a very wet year.
``We were steady getting stuck in the field. We were dragging chains to pull the tractors out,'' Kenneth Worrell said.
This year, however, is completely different.
``We're steady-going to pick peanuts,'' he said. ``Usually we get a break, but we haven't had one this year. Everything is getting filled up - all the peanut places - because everybody's been picking.''
BILLY WORRELL ALSO KNOWS about gambling.
As a young farmer, he accepted a blind date with the nursing student who would become his wife. His sister - now Alice Griffin - arranged the date between her brother and her classmate.
And while they were engaged, he persuaded the late J.D. Rawles - president of what was then Farmers Bank of Holland - to gamble and lend him money to build a house, despite the fact that he was several months shy of 21.
``He let me have the money,'' Billy Worrell said.
Soon afterward, his parents built beside them. Today, his mother, Virginia Worrell, still lives next door. Kenneth and Pamela, who were married in July, live in the white farm house where his father was born, just around the curve from his parents.
The men enjoy the proximity, which also helps with their work.
``He and his daddy have always been sort of close,'' said Janice Worrell.
The Worrell's older daughter, Debbie Bunch, also lives nearby with her husband and their two children - Brent, 6, and Brooke, 3.
Only the Worrells' younger daughter, Laura Barker, and her husband live out of the area, in North Carolina. They were married in September, arranging the date just before the peanut harvesting.
IN FARMING FAMILIES, timing is essential. In January, Billy Worrell had surgery to remove two vertebrae. He spent about three months recovering.
Bobby Bunch, who works at Thomas J. Lipton Inc. in Suffolk, leaves his ``day job'' in the fall and helps with the peanut harvest.
Debbie Bunch, who teaches eighth-grade math and algebra at John Yeates Middle School in Driver, said growing up on the farm always provided opportunities for work.
``During the summers we would chop peanuts. And one summer we cleared a wooded area. My brother, sister and I would follow the tractors and pick up pieces of wood and roots. It was definitely manual labor.''
When she returned to college in the fall, her classmates always envied her tan, thinking she had been on vacation all summer, she said.
Now her son, who is in kindergarten, says he is going to be a farmer like Pop-Pop, his grandfather.
``He has his collection of tractors,'' Debbie said. ``Whatever Daddy is doing in the field, he's doing in the house.''
Because of the uncertainty of the economy, she has told her son to farm ``on the side'' like his father.
``But he's very adamant about the fact that he's going to be a farmer,'' she said. ``It's almost in his blood.''
HAVING FAMILY NEARBY is rewarding, said Janice Worrell, who takes drinks and snacks to the men in the field on her days off.
``My children are my pride and joy. And my grandchildren, too. There's nothing like it.''
The children have always been important to her husband, too, she said, and he has been a good role model.
``We worked hard and tried to give them a good education,'' she said.
Her husband, who has served as a deacon at the Holland Baptist Church, was named Father of the Year by the congregation in 1976.
Billy Worrell has served on the board of directors of the Virginia Farm Bureau and on the local committee of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, which administers federal farm programs.
Father and son share a love of deer hunting, about the only hobby they find time to enjoy.
Billy Worrell - whose citizens-band radio handle is ``Red Bird'' - got his nickname in his early hunting days.
``I had a red truck at one time and a red dog box. Everybody's passed it on down the line.''
And his son, appropriately, is ``Little Red Bird.''
Janice Worrell, who feels uncomfortable using the CB, uses it reluctantly to contact the men in the fields. She prefers to stay in the background, cooking for the men and tending to the financial side of the farming operation.
``She's my nurse, bookkeeper and cook,'' Billy Worrell said.
The family's togetherness is part of their success story.
``They're a hard-working family,'' said John H. ``Tom'' West, chairman of the Suffolk chamber's agri-business committee.
The family will be recognized, West said, at a luncheon next month. MEMO: The luncheon honoring the William C. Worrell family will be Nov. 9 at
noon at Bethlehem Christian Church. J. Carlton Courter III, commissioner
of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, will be the
keynote speaker. Tickets at $15 are available by calling the chamber at
539-2111 by Nov. 7.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos and cover photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
[Color on the cover]
Kenneth Worrell picks peanuts in his tractor, background, while a
helper, at right, hooks up a hopper. Several hired hands help with
the farming of peanuts, corn, soybeans and wheat.
Janice Worrell, who works part time as a nurse, uses the CB to
contact the men in the fields. She prefers to stay in the
background, cooking for the men and tending to the financial side of
the farming operation for her husband, William C. ``Billy'' Worrell,
at right. ``She's my nurse, bookkeeper and cook,'' he said.
Kenneth Worrell, below, who admits to having farming in his blood,
is his father's partner in the business that covers 1,000 acres of
land.
by CNB