HOME OF: Mike & Mary Grady

MEEKER | Mike and Mary Grady of Meeker are this week’s “home of” honorees. Mike came here in 1964 to work for Alice and Henry Jacobs. “I was a friend of their son in college who was killed his junior year. I knew they might need summer help and wrote them to find out. I had never been to the ranch before then. Henry offered me a chance to buy into the ranch and keep working for him, but I wanted to finish my degree first and then came back,” Mike explained.
Mary is from Wisconsin and Mike is from Oklahoma. They met at Colorado State University and were married Sept. 8, 1965. Mary and Mike have been ranchers their entire married life. Mary was a 4-H leader, served on the Meeker Library Board and has been a school volunteer for over 20 years. Mike has served on the Habitat Partnership Program committee, the ASCS board and the Meeker school board.
Mike and Mary have four children: daughter Katie Day, husband Travis and sons Charlie and Josh of Meeker; daughter Jana Dawson and husband Ted of Evanston, Ill.; son Will, wife Cindy and sons Cooper and Calvin of Gallatin, Mo.; and daughter Ann Franklin, husband Bailey, their daughter Hadley and son Montey of Meeker. Ann and Bailey are expecting baby number three at the end of September.
“We like to do things with our kids and grandkids and we also like to travel. In the winter we’re snowbirds. Last winter we were volunteers for the Ocala National Forest in Florida. We’ve been to Mexico and New Zealand several times and volunteered in Texas once. We have met a lot of interesting people in our travels and struck up new friendships,” Mike said.
“I like everything about Meeker. It has been wonderful. I’ve always felt so lucky to live here. I was raised in a small town of 3000 and never wanted to go to a city and ended up here. It’s been a great place to raise our family,” Mike added.