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Linda Kay James, known to almost everyone in Durango as Kay, the matriarch of the James Ranch, which pioneered sustainable agricultural practices in Southwest Colorado, died Wednesday at the age of 80.

James arrived in Southwest Colorado in 1961 along with her husband, David, 81, and decided to move to the region “to grow cattle and raise children,” said her daughter, Jennifer Wheeling, in a telephone interview.

The location of the ranch in the North Animas Valley was purposeful and came after an extensive study before moving east after college. Kay and David had met at the University of Redlands, in Redlands, California.

Wheeling said her parents studied moving to Montana, Wyoming and the Chama Valley in New Mexico before discovering Durango and the North Animas Valley.

“Someone told them to come to Durango, and as soon as they hit the city and then they drove up the Animas Valley, the deal was done, the decision was made. It was really kind of a little fairy tale. And then for 59 years, they’ve lived here and worked here, and so it makes a whole lot of sense that she’s buried on this ranch, right? This is her happy place.”

Kay James has been laid to rest on the ranch using green burial principles. A celebration of life will be scheduled at a later date, when larger gatherings can be held safely based on the status of COVID-19.

Handling the financial and business aspects of the ranch was James’ focus.

“Dad loves the production of beef and he loves his soil and his grasses, and my mom brought in a real clear business sense – when it was right to borrow money, pricing, she was always very thoughtful about that,” Wheeling said.

The recent opening of the James Ranch market and grill on the ranch was the most recent big project influenced and guided by James.

“It was a hard project. It put strain on our family, but mom was the glue,” Wheeling said. “Whenever there was a harsh word aimlessly cast, she would always say, ‘My, I don’t think you mean that. ... This is all born out of frustration.’”

James helped guide the process of splitting off the southern 120 acres of the ranch in the mid-1970s after a difficult cattle market led the family to subdivide and develop some of the property.

Initially, Kay and David James raised Charolais cattle on the ranch. After the splitting off of the southern end of the ranch to create The Ranch subdivision, the couple began focusing on building the grasses on the ranch and providing an environment where beef lovers could get grass-fed beef.

Wheeling said her father worked to create a diversity of grasses that provide all the nutritional needs for their cattle, which are grass-fed other than occasional grazing allowed on pastures planted in oats.

“When Mom and Dad got back into the grass or the beef business, Dad took a long hard look at his grass, and in some places on the ranch it was not very diversified, so he went in and he planted legumes like Dutch white clover and alfalfa. And so he actually kind of formulated the pastures to have a diversity of forage, so that every time we move our cattle they have fresh feed. They go in, and it’s like a salad bar. There’s just a whole lot of different things to eat,” Wheeling said.

James was a city girl, born in 1940 in Alhambra, California, and self-taught in gardening, canning food, baking, cooking and sewing.

“We have funny stories about getting hand-me-down clothes,” Wheeling said. “My brother remembers getting my snowsuit from the ’70s, with a funny floral pattern. He was embarrassed to wear it.”

In the 1980s, James headed James Ranch Landscaping, which focused on reclamation of roadsides, piggybacking on the ranch’s knowledge of grasses, after major highway projects. She could be seen on construction sites in her pink hard hat.

“When she showed up on the site, all of these crusty road crew people – I mean men, who, you know, the language they use – well, they had to button up. She had a very direct way of communicating with them and didn’t take anything from them,” Wheeling said.

James spent stints leading La Plata County 4-H Youth Development and serving on the Durango School District 9-R Board of Education. She helped found the Durango Education Foundation and Leadership La Plata.

She is survived by her husband, David; children: Jennifer Wheeling, Julie Ott, Cynthia Stewart, Dan James and Justin James; and 10 grandchildren.

parmijo@durangoherald.com