Tabors raise beef and veterinarians

Article featured in January 2009 issue of All Around Kentucky
By Lindsey Coblentz

As Marlene and John Tabor Sr. raised their children on a 1,200- acre beef cattle operation in Logan County, they were not surprised when their oldest son, John Jr., decided to become a veterinarian.

John Jr. said he had wanted to care for animals since he was very young; he even dressed up as a vet for Halloween one year. “We had sheep, horses and cattle. … As I grew up into that, I just knew that that’s what I wanted to do.”

While his career choice was expected, his parents were amazed when each of their other three children – Joe, Joanna and Jonetta – decided to follow suit.

All helped on the farm throughout their childhood. “They drove tractors when they could hardly reach the steering wheel,” their father said.

John Jr. and Joe worked with veterinarians during their senior year of high school before pursuing animal science majors at Murray State University and eventually enrolling in Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

Their sisters, also Murray graduates, followed close behind, deciding to become vets in high school, or so John Sr. thought. Looking at an old videotape, he discovered that his daughters may have set their sights on veterinarian medicine at a much younger age.

When Joanna was 6 or 7 years old, the family hosted a seminary student who videotaped some of his time at their home and sent it to the family years later. When the Tabors watched the tape, they saw a grinning Joanna tell their visitor that “I want to be a veterinarian,” when he asked her about what she hoped to be as a grown-up.

“It almost brought tears to my eyes,” John Sr. said.

Today, John Jr. and Joe are practicing veterinarians, while Joanna, a senior, and Jonetta, a junior, continue their education at Auburn.

Auburn has students and graduates who are the siblings or children of veterinarians, but the school has no records of any other four siblings associated with the program.

John Jr. added another vet to the family when he married his wife, Elizabeth, whom he met at Auburn. They began practicing out of their Western Kentucky home in October 2006, before opening their new office, Cornerstone Veterinary Services, last year in Russellville. After adding baby John William “Will” to the mix, Elizabeth works mainly from home or the office, while John makes house calls.

Joe and wife Madeline, who also met in vet school, live in Horse Cave and began working at a Dover, Tenn., practice in November. With so many vets in the family, Joe wonders if his infant son, Joseph Anthony, might become one himself someday. “He’ll get to experience some of the same things I experienced. Maybe some day he’ll want to follow in (our) footsteps.”

Joanna is in her final year at Auburn and has set caring for large and small animals at a Kentucky practice as her career goal. She is planning a May wedding following her graduation, but she isn’t bringing another vet into the family. Fiancé Nick Stallings, who she met while they were students at Murray, is an engineer.

While only a college junior, Jonetta already has hands-on experience in the field. She was selected to participate in the Smith-Kilborne Animal Disease Program at the federal agriculture research lab in Plum Island, N. Y., this past summer, where she studied various animal diseases.

While they all love what they do, all the siblings agree that making it through vet school is no picnic.

For John Jr., being accepted at Auburn – which has an agreement with the state of Kentucky to accept a number of Kentucky college graduates into its program every year – was the hardest part. “The biggest thing was getting through the three years at Murray and keeping my grades up and getting through the interview (for Auburn),” he said.

“You have a lot of years of schooling. You have to set your mind to it. … It takes some willpower,” Joe added.

Their parents helped them cope with the difficulties of school by teaching the value of hard work and ethics and by providing plenty of encouragement, the siblings said. One by one, their children give almost the same comment about their parents’ commitment to their family: “They’ve always been there …”

John Sr. said he and his wife are impressed with their children’s accomplishments. “Being a vet is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, profession out there to get through,” he said. “I’m proud of them all.”

In the future, John Jr. hopes to expand his practice, and said working with his brother and sisters is not out of the question. “I’m taking it a step at a time.”

For now, the Tabor children are working hard at their practices and at school. However, they still find time to spend time with loved ones and work on the family farm that started it all as their proud father pointed out when he said, “When they’re not busy, they’re still helping out.”