ADGA Has A Little Less Glitter, Glitz, Glamour

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ADGA Has A Little Less
Glitter, Glitz, Glamour and
Joy as One of Our Long Time Leaders Dies. Dear
ADGA Directors, Members and Friends, It is with
deep regret and profound sadness that I inform
you of the passing of Director Emerita, Lelia
Berry, in Portland, Oregon on November 12, 2008.
According to her family, Lelia suffered a
cerebral hemorrhage in Grants Pass, Oregon on
November 10, from which she never
recovered.   Lelia was an active Life member who
served ADGA in a variety of capacities during her
38 years of membership, including President,
Director, Committee Chair, Linear Appraiser, and
Judge. She was honored as an ADGA Dairy Goat
Pioneer in 2007. She will be greatly missed by
her friends in this Association.   Lelia was
proud to be an organ donor. Arrangements for a
Celebration of Life service are incomplete at
this time. Further details will be posted at
www.ADGA.org as they become available.   Shirley
McKenzieAssociation Manager, ADGA
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Lelia Berrys ADGA and Dairy Goat Story as told
in her words.
This presentation was given at the 2007 ADGA
Annual Meeting as Lelia was recognized as an ADGA
Pioneer in the Meet the Pioneers Program. This
slide show can be viewed by clicking your mouse
so the animation works. You can read Lelias
story in her own words.
Lelia
Walker Berry June 30,
1938 to November 12, 2008
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Lelia BerryManna Dairy Goats Leadership
10. ADGA Linear Appraiser for 5 Years. 9. ADGA
Licensed Judge for 28 Years 8. Judges Training
Committee- Member, Manager of TCs, clerk
and Panel Member 7. National Sales Committee
Chairman 6. Chairman of Classification and
Linear Appraisal Committees 5.
Registration Committee Chairman Two different
times bringing two new breeds into ADGA
Sables Nigerians 4. ADGA Director for Five
Terms 15 years 3. Executive Committee Member
for Nine Years 2. ADGA President First woman
President of ADGA in 35 Years 1.
Director Emeritus American Dairy Goat Association
Central Point, OR ADGA Life Member 6/29/1970
37 Yrs
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Lelia Berry Central Point, Oregon
Primary Occupation Mental Health
Specialist/Social Worker Family Members My
daughter Mary Boettcher and her partner Debra
Weldon are teachers in Vancouver, WA. Lucky are
the young people who learn from these talented
women. Mary teaches English and Literature. Deb
teaches Music. My daughter Suzanne Pike and her
husband Tim Pike and my two grand daughters,
Kylee and Katie, live in Medford, OR. Sue and Tim
both are in Law Enforcement, working for the
Jackson County Sheriffs Department. Kylee is a
glamour girls like her Grandma. Katie is a Soccer
player par excellence. My son Nathan Ramey lives
with me and together we own Pollyanna Mining and
Lapidary, Inc. Nate is a gold miner and self
taught geology buff. He sells rocks on E-bay and
we have three gold claims right now in Southern
Oregon. Now those of you who have been around for
a while may recall that I have had three husbands
while being an ADGA Member so my name has been
changed from time to time. When I first joined
ADGA, I was Lelia Ramey and married to Gary
Ramey, also an ADGA member. In 1985 I married
Michael Filiatrault and was Lelia Filiatrult for
a few years. Later I married Chester Berry and
while I didnt keep Chester, I kept his name. It
is the easiest to spell.
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Lelia and Children Christmas 2006
Suzanne Pike, Marianne
Boettcher, Nathan Ramey
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Other Family Involvement in Dairy Goats I come
from a long line of farmers. My fathers family
came to the Napa Valley in the 1840s. My
mothers family came to the Napa Valley in the
1880s. My parents Dean and Martha Walker, had
Willowbrook Farm when I was really young and we
moved a mile up the road to Rancho De Los Olivos
when I was seven. They were organic farmers and
raised most of the food we ate. During WWII, all
of the men, my father, brother, uncles, cousins
were gone to various parts of the world to fight
the war. My mother and my older sister, Suzanne,
took care of the farm and my sister Marianne and
I. Suzanne milked the goat and cow every morning
before walking to school eight miles away.
Suzanne tells me we had a Nubian named Brock but
the first goat I remember was a Saanen with a
rather saggy udder. Suzanne Murray, my sister,
has had a life long involvement with dairy goats
and Arabian horses. Her herd of Manzanita and
Sarco Creek Nubians has been well known and has
influenced the genetics of the breed. During the
1950s my mother had a radio show The Martha
Walker Show and wrote a garden column for the
Napa Register, Lets Go Into the Garden. One of
her listeners and readers was a lady named Marion
Mendelson. She and my mother became friends and
her daughters attended high school with me.
Marion had a small goat dairy in Napa and when
her husband became ill, she leased the dairy to a
family with many children named Bice. The Bice
family stayed awhile and then moved to a dairy in
Sebastopol and began the Redwood Hills Goat
Dairy. Marion later joined the Peace Corp and
went to South America to teach about dairy goats
and the many other things she knew.
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1942 Marianne Walker and Lelia Walker
sending a letter to Father on Navy duty in the
South Pacific.
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Christmas 1950
Martha
Suzanne
Lelia
Dean
Marianne
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4-H Involvement My own daughters had 4-H Dairy
Goat projects in the 1970s. Mary had Nubians and
her first doe was purchased as a dry yearling
from Cathie Hardy. That doe, Ono Gwendyllins Joy,
was the dam of a number of fine Nubians including
GCH B Manna Dick Skinner. He was a well proven
sire and has many descendents. Mary took Joys
milking yearling daughter, Manna Candy, to the
Santa Clara County Fair in 1969. A little old red
headed lady was peering into our pens and said to
Mary, well I wish you hadnt brought that goat.
Mary was crushed and though the lady meant that
her goat was no good. The lady quickly told her,
no you are going to beat me with that goat.
This was how we met Alice Tracy, Hurricane Acres
Nubians, and became friends with her. Suzy had
Alpines. Her first doe was named Manna Fairybelle
and she was a lovely doe. Sue kept her many
descendents until she joined the US Army years
later. I was in 4-H myself from age 10 to 18 but
my only livestock project was chickens. My other
projects were Foods and Photography.
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Marianne Manna Cookie
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GCHB Manna Dick Skinner and Lelia Ramey
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Manna Fairy Belle
Daughter Sues Alpine with 2 Champion legs
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The Manna Herd
How we choose our herd name When I met Gary
Ramey in 1963, I was Lelia Boettcher. I had
graduated from San Jose State University with a
BA degree in Drama in 1960. My first husband,
Allen Boettcher and I had two little girls,
Marianne and Suzanne. I met Gary Ramey while
hanging around at a Folk music venue in San Jose.
We got married and moved to the Santa Cruz
Mountains, two miles up a dirt road to a tiny
house with no electricityback to the land with
the rest of the Hippies. Gary was a farm boy from
Kansas who at attended Kansas State College in
Manhattan, KS and studied Apiculture. He was very
interested in the genetics of bees, pigeons and
dairy animals. We had both bees and pigeons and
decided to add dairy goats. In thinking about
what our Herd name should be, we decided that
squabs, honey and goat milk just might have been
the Manna God gave the Jews in the desert.
Clearly, neither of us were Biblical Scholars.
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Browsing Lelia a Visitor from Canada
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The Manna Herd consisted of Alpines and Nubians,
and the herd varied from thirty to eight at its
peak. We started raising goats in 1968 and I sold
the last of the herd in 1983. During that time,
we showed at local shows and a few farther away.
We had some finished Champions and more with two
legs. We showed at Nationals when they were close
enough to get to in California. I did attend the
Nationals in Salem with a few goats. We never
personally owned a National Champion but I was
with my sister Suzanne Murray in 1976 when her
lovely Nubian doe Manzanita Houbigant was the
National Champion. She was out of Manzanita Mardi
Gras who was the first born daughter of Manna
Dick Skinner bred to Laurelwood Acres Cassandra
so we felt pretty elated ourselves. One of my
favorite show stories was when Sheila Nixon and I
loaded two bucks, Nixons Tom Boy and Manna Dick
Skinner into my little blue Datsun pickup, loaded
my daughter Sue into the front with us and drove
to Reno for the buck show. It was 4th of July
1976, the USs Bicentennial and they were handing
out little American Flags in downtown Reno.
Sheila and I went back to the Fairgrounds and
marched into the show ring (our own little
Bicentennial Parade) without our bucks and with
flags held high. The judge, Ray Vieira was not
amused. We were on official DHIA standard test
off an on for several years and had just one Top
Ten Doe, Manna Dawn, a heavy milking Alpine. Most
of our does made their stars the first year on
test. Our goal with milkers was long, steady
lactations lasting at least ten months.
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1976 National Champion Nubian
Manzanita Houbigant Sister Suzanne Murray
showing
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Our seed stock for Nubians came from Ono,
Hurricane Acres, Albuquerque, Aduar and
Laurelwood Acres. On of our best Nubian brood
does was an old doe that Wes Nordfelt gave us
when she was nine, K-Lou Anita, a daughter of
Naja Anita. Our Alpine breed stock came from
Nixons, Halls Honeycutt and a buck from
Laurelwood Acres, Laurelwood Acres Cassius. We
had our bucks collect as often as we could
arrange it, mostly by the Purcellas. We had the
herd Classified by Sheila Nixon and Harvey
Considine under the old classification program.
Mentors
We saw Sheila Nixon judging Dairy Goats at the
Santa Cruz County Fair in Watsonville, CA in 1968
or there abouts. I was stunned watching her! That
was what I wanted to do, judge Dairy Goats. Gary
and I talked to her after the show and she
invited us over to the familys dairy in Hilmar.
Well, we hotfooted it right over there the next
weekend and while Sheila was off somewhere
judging another thrilling goat show, we made
friends with her mother and father, Ellen and
Amos Nixon. The Nixons were very good to us.
Gary went over to help Amos disbud kids and
stayed for several days. In gratitude, Amos told
Gary he could have an Alpine doe kid. Well,
heck, Gary, you were a big help, pick two. Gary
picked twin Cou Blanc doe kids out of one of the
best does and a buck named Demetrius. They were
named Nixons Eve and Nixons Evie. When Sheila
called home and Amos told her about doing this,
she was not too happy with her dad. She evidently
got over it however, and did agree to teach me to
judge dairy goats.
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1974 San Jose Show
GCH Nixons Eve
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Manna Kaye Lelia Ramey 1976 REDGA Show
Daughter of Nixons Eve by Manna Dick Tiger
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GCH Manna Fatima
5 Year Old Dick Skinner Daughter and my favorite
doe
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Classification Day 1982
Classifier Sheila Nixon
Dick Skinner daughter Sold to Bill Abel when
herd was dispersed
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About this time we heard the Laurelwood Acres, a
large commercial dairy in Ripon, CA was having a
4-H Field Day. They put these on every year and
everyone was invited. Wes Nordfelt took us on the
Grand Tour of the barns and the bucks. Jack Hawes
showed off the milking parlor. Betty Nordfelt
told us how to do the ADGA paperwork. Pinky
Hawes, Bettys daughter, did a showmanship
clinic. Their herdsman Dick Skinner, show us how
to take care of the kid disbudding, tattooing and
castrating. We were WOWED! You also had the
opportunity to get a very good deal on a
Laurelwood Acres kid. They had pens full and we
all took some home. The Nordfelts were very good
to us, also. We decided to breed our does to the
fancy bucks at Laurelwood Acres rather than buy
bucks to start with. We had a pretty Alpine doe,
Love Goat Ranch Serena, that we had purchased
from Betty Hall in Watsonville. We took her over
to Laurelwood Acres and Gary and Dick Skinner put
her in a pen with a nice looking young buck. I
wandered over to the Buck Barn and stopped in my
tracks. Who is this buck? I shouted at the
guys. Dick replied Laurelwood Acres Westward Ho
I noted his stud fee was several times that of
the young buck she was in with. You get that doe
out of the pen now and bring her here. We are
breeding to this buck! And we did get a fine
doe, Manna Circe, a heavy milker whose daughter
Manna Dawn was in the top ten milkers in
1976. Dick Skinner was a mentor and very good to
us, also. We brought Marys Nubian Ono
Gwendyllins Joy over to breed to Rio Linda
Jerico, who at that time was nine years old. Gary
told Dick Skinner that if she had a buck, we
would name it after him. Dick assured us that
ADGA would not register a buck with a persons
name so he wasnt worried. And the rest of the
story is
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Manna Circe 9 Year Old
Laurelwood Acres Westward Ho daughter
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Rio Linda Jerico
Newt Goodrich handler
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GCHB Manna Dick Skinner and Lelia Ramey
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Ray and Mary Ellen Horton were also my Mentors.
We met at the Conventions and shows and they were
generous with information and support. My first
official ADGA job was when Ray Horton was
Alpines International President and I was the
Secretary/Treasurer. Later I volunteered to work
as Mary Ellens assistant clerk at Training
Conferences. We traveled to many TCs together
and they taught me how to run the ring and they
were great fun to be with. I cant eat Kentucky
Fried Chicken without thinking of Ray. There were
no fancy lunch choices offered at the Ray Horton
TCs. He ordered as many two piece chicken
dinners as there were people to feed. Gary and I
also started the Santa Clara Valley Dairy Goat
Association. I was the first President. He was
the first Secretary. That club put on many shows
in San Jose, CA and we made many life long
friends. We sponsored the ADGA show at the Fair
and I hired a young lady to judge name Joan Dean.
We were very impressed.
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ADGA INVOLVEMENT
I first joined with a family membership in 1968
and then, having seen Sheila judge, knowing I had
to do that, go my individual membership in 1970.
I was elected a Director in 1976 and served for
fifteen years. I actually cant recall what
offices I held in what years, but I was on the
Executive Committee for nine years and was
elected President of the Association in 1986. I
was the first woman in thirty five years, since
Mary Farley, to be elected President of ADGA. I
served two years as President and my tenure was
not without controversy. I worked to bring the
ADGA Office into a more modern model and started
a process that led to the hiring of Keith Maxey
as our Secretary Treasurer. While the road was
sometimes bumpy, I was proud of the job I did. I
became a Life Member in 1995 and was elected a
Director Emeritus around that time.
My Presidential Portrait 1986 to
1988
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Committees
Registration Committee My first committee
assignment was the Registration Committee and
after being a member for several years, I became
Chairman. I think it was 1981 or thereabout. I
wrote a proposal to preserve the Herd Names of
members who made a significant genetic
contribution over the years. This was the
Historic Herd Name designation and I compiled the
initial list. I rewrote the rules for the
American Herd Book descriptions to require that
each generation met breed standard. Prior to that
time, it had not been the case. National Sales
Committee I also got put on the National Sales
Committee as a member. I became Chairman of the
National Sales Committee in 1983 and loved the
job. I got to use the microphone. I appointed
myself the Color Commentator and Announcer and
with the aid of a pink chicken feather fan and a
steady supply of adult beverages, brought to me
by my friend Al Bitter, we sold the goats. We
were in Reno, NV and on the stage used for the
Elephant Show at the Nugget. It was splendid!
Even after I was no longer Chairman, I was a
committee member and I have lost track of how
many color commentaries I did. It took a lot of
feather fans.
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National Spotlight Sale Reno, Nevada
Lelia Ramey
Daniel Considine
Robert Fink - Auctioneer
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Classification/Linear Appraisal Committee In
1986, I took over the Chairmanship of the
Classification Committee from Doug Thompson. I
had also been a member of that committee and had
been participating in the program for several
years. We were getting ready to morph into the
Linear Appraisal Program so it was a very
exciting time. Doug Thompson, Sheila Nixon,
Daniel Considine and I met at Cathy Shorts home
in Fort Collins, Colorado. We also had Maurice
Mix, a Holstein Appraisal Trainer there to give
us advice on our program. It was that weekend
that filled in all the details and prepared us to
go to the Board for the final approval. While I
was President, Cathy Short took over as Chairman
of the Committee. Then she was elected ADGA
President and I returned to Chairmanship of the
new Linear Appraisal Committee. I was Chairman or
Co-chairman for ten of the next eleven years. I
have a major investment in this program and my
goal was to be able to actually become a Linear
Appraiser when I retired and had more time. I was
able to do this and had a wonderful time working
in the field for five years. At that time, I
determined that I really still had to work full
time. I am back, however, to being a committee
member. Judges Training I have been a member of
the Judges Training Committee for a number of
years. I am also a member of the Advanced Judges
Committee. I started out as the Junior Clerk to
Mary Ellen Horton and have worked my way up to
Manager of the Annual Meeting TCs. Along the
way, I have served as a panel member a number of
times and am ready to do what it takes to make a
TC work. I am well aware of how tough the
training is and how stressed out the Candidates
can be. I do what I can to make it a good
experience and even if the person does not get a
license, they will learn a lot about goats.
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Appraiser Refresher Easter Sunday
Clovertop Dairy Manteca, California
Lelia Sheila sharing an Easter Bonnet
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Type Committee I have also been a member of the
ADGA Type Committee for a number of years. I have
enjoyed being part of the team that looks for
ways to teach what the ideal dairy goat is. This
committee has been especially active under the
Chairmanship of Pat Hendrickson and we hope to
have new Type Pictures available to the
membership this year. Registration Committee
Well, it looks like I have come full circle,
doesnt it? I became Chairman of this committee
for the second time about seven years ago. Since
then, I have had the great pleasure of assisting
in the admission of two new Dairy Goat Breeds to
the association. The Nigerians and the Sables
worked hard and long to achieve this status. My
only regret is that Don West, ADGA Director and
the first person to introduce me to the Sables,
did not live long enough to see the Sables get
their herd book. Judging And last but not least,
I have been an ADGA Judge for 28 years. It is my
favorite thing to do and gives me my Goat Fix
every year. I have judged all over the USA and in
almost every state. Big shows! Little shows! Well
run shows, totally disorganized shows. 500 goats
shows and twenty goats shows. I spend almost all
of my vacation time judging Dairy Goat shows and
try to arrange my schedule so that I can accept
enough shows to satisfy myself. When I was
working hard to become a judge, Sheila Nixon
would invite me to shadow her while she judged.
Then we would discuss the placing after she gave
the reasons. How lucky was I? I also got
extremely good lessons from Audrey Evans who was
generous teaching me ring technique. When I got
my first license, Sheila came up to Calistoga,
California to watch me judge that first show.
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Lelia Ramey judging a 4-H
Show
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Local culture while Judging in
Alaska
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ADGA Executive Committee 1991?
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The Military Man, the Dance Hall Girl and the
Silent Tree PersonAll Responsible ADGA Leaders
Dave Daubert, Our original Hoochie
Mamma Lelia Berry and Shari Reyna
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Plans for the Future
My plans for the future are simple. I will
continue to try to contribute in what ever way I
can. I feel that as a Director Emeriti, it is
incumbent upon me to contribute to the
Association. I attend every Board of Directors
meeting and expect to offer comments and
historical perspective to the sitting Directors.
Acting as a teacher and mentor to young or new
judges is something I really enjoy doing.
Committee work is a tough job, but somebody needs
to do it.
Lelia Berry ADGA leadership, Service and
Manna Dairy Goats Dairy Goat Pioneer
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Lelia Berry Class of 2007 ADGA Dairy Goat
Pioneer
Leadership
The Pioneer Program


Recognizing a lifetime of dedication, service and
commitment to dairy goats, the American Dairy
Goat Association and the dairy goat
industry Honoring the development of innovative
programs by ADGA Members for the improvement of
ADGA and dairy goats. Thank you for your service
to ADGA and Dairy Goats. Keep on Dancin Good
Friend