Austin Brown II

    Austin Brown II

By

   Mike Capron

Austin Brown II has gone to be with some good hands in Heaven. I know if God has  have any cattle to work in heaven that Austin will be on the crew.

I met Austin in the 70’s when he came to the Six Bar Ranch with the owner Tony Kunitz. I am not sure but I think some real-estate was involved. Tony was anxious to show him the Six Bar and we did some traveling. We did lots of story swapping while we bumped over those ranch roads.We had lots of common friends in South Texas as he was from Beeville and I had worked in South Texas close to Beeville. I loved working in South Texas, but I didn’t want a steady diet of it, I would get home sick for some rocks and hills.  I would run into Austin many different places and we would pick up right where we left off the last time we had seen each other.  

Austin loved people, horses, cows, ranches, and flying. Not to mention a good story.   Our legacy can be many things, but I feel our stories are among most shared and appreciated pieces of Art.    Along with our children keep us alive forever ………..!!!!!!!!

Austin’s stories told in his book are to be enjoyed for sure, by anyone wishing to hear some tales of our times.   Anyone wishing to get one of his books please contact me and I will make sure you get one. 

Another one of our great friends that has passed fairly recently is Jerry JK “Gut” Taylor and my greatest respect goes out to this man’s legacy also ………He was a great friend of Austin’s and I can’t wait to hear the story of how they met and how their children became so close and married……….!!!!!!!!!!!

Jerry JK was a lot like Austin, in that he never missed a moment of sharing time together telling stories.   I met Jerry Jk one night at a ranch we had leased and were trying to find someone with cattle to pasture on this ranch. We were desperate and were not picky and wanted to not make any mistakes with our new business acquaintance. We were going to show him the ranch and feed him supper. There was only two of us there and not many groceries. I asked my partner Sam Dove what we were going to cook for supper as all we had were some beans, and we could make some good bread, but all the meat we had was liver from a fresh butchered beef. I told him I didn’t want to ruin a cow deal feeding our new business associate fried liver and we didn’t even have any onions to go with it. Sam said, “Don’t worry I can fix that liver to where he will think it is steak fingers…….!!!!”   

Jerry JK showed up and we toured the ranch and came back to camp and started supper. We never mentioned the menu, just kept telling stories. Things were going real good so far, but we hadn’t served supper and the liver yet.   The stories were still flowing ………   We ate supper and the liver was never mentioned either by us or Jerry…….We were hungry by the time we got it all ready and we ate all the liver and trimmings we had.  Sam did a marvelous job of cooking that liver.  After supper we added some more wood to the fire and sit back to some serious story telling.  We talked until 3 am and I was most concerned how we were going to bed Jerry down. We were in a limited camp and had just the chuck wagon and no beds. I asked him if he brought his bedroll, and he said, “No I plan to go back to my motel room in Van Horn.”   He finally left for Van Horn and sent us 1000 cows to pasture, they were in a drought in South Texas on the HP El Sauz Ranch near Raymondville.   We worked together for several years until we lost our lease because our ranch sold and we lost the lease.   But the times we spent working Jerry’s cattle would fill a book with stories.  I don’t know when or how Jerry and Austin met, but I wish Austin could have been involved with all our cow work, camping, and story telling on the Fig. 2 ranch.  

Austin brought lots of people into my world thru his book, stories and illustrations I did for him. I will be indebted forever to all he did for me.    He was my space age Cowboy Friend……..!!!!!