COW CREEK PHOTO GALLERY
Jo Ann Raulerson, born July 22, 1930, was the heir to Cow Creek Ranch after her father died in a boating accident in 1938. She was raised grandparents, Frank and Annie Louise Raulerson, at their home in Fort Pierce and Cow Creek on the St. Lucie/Okeechobee line. She married Tommy Sloan in 1952, and inherited Cow Creek after her grandfather’s death in 1954. They had two daughters, Kathy and Debra, and raised them at her grandparents’ home on Orange Avenue, which they later turned into a one-block complex of homes for relatives and luxuries such as a tennis court and swimming pool. The couple bought a farm in North Carolina in 1970, and began living separate lives, with Jo Ann eventually raising four of her granddaughters in North Carolina. Money problems prompted them to sell most of Cow Creek in 1976. They lost their Fort Pierce complex to foreclosure in 1991 and the North Carolina farm was eventually sold off. With her daughter Debra at her side, Jo Ann Raulerson Sloan died in a nursing home in Franklin, North Carolina, on Dec. 22, 2020.
Jo Ann Raulerson, about age 3, with her father Alfred Keightley Raulerson. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Jo Ann Raulerson's childhood was largely spent with older adults. From left, seated, are Jo Ann and her grandmother, Annie Louise, grandfather Frank Raulerson. Her father, Alfred, and mother, Mae, are right of Frank. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Jo Ann Raulerson, about the age of six, poses in the opulent parlor of the Raulerson home at the peak of the Depression.
Friends help Jo Ann Raulerson celebrate one of her birthdays in elementary school. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Frank Raulerson shaped his only heir, Jo Ann, into a cattlewoman after the death of her father in 1938. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Jo Ann Raulerson with grandparents Frank and Annie Louise, in white hat. Family members said Jo Ann received a license at 12 and would do the driving to their favorite vacation spot, Hot Springs, Arkansas. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Jo Ann Raulerson Sloan learned the fundamentals of working cattle while a child. Here she cracks a cow whip at about the age of 13. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
The Miami News featured Jo Ann Raulerson's 16th birthday on its pages.
Jo Ann Raulerson's photo and bio as it appeared in her senior yearbook in 1948. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Jo Ann dated Joe Bagget her senior year of high school but the couple broke up while going away to separate colleges. Baggett became a decorated Korean war pilot who was shot down and killed on a mission in Vietnam in 1965.
Jo Ann Raulerson, 20, helps Grandad Frank and grandmother Mother Lou at Mother Lou celebrate their 50th anniversary in March 1951. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Jo Ann Raulerson attended Rollins College in Winter Haven. Her grandparents hoped she would meet a boy who could help her run Cow Creek Ranch.
Jo Ann and her Mae Pearce Raulerson Floyd in the early 1950s. Mae relinquished custody of Jo Ann when the girl was 8 after the death of Jo Ann's father and Mae's husband, Alfred, in 1938.
With her husband Tommy, Jo Ann Sloan often led the Cow Creek unit in cattlemen parades.
Jo Ann Sloan stands near her ancestral home in 1965 when she was 30. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Tommy and Jo Ann Sloan in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
Jo Ann Sloan, with friend Sally Wright, drives through the Cow Creek crossing in a custom buggy.
Debra Sloan with dad T.L. and mom Jo Ann at her graduation from Western North Carolina in 1977. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVES]
Debra Sloan helped oversee her mother Jo Ann's affairs the last two decades of her life.
Jo Ann Sloan died Dec. 22, 2020.
Jo Ann Raulerson, about age 3, with her father Alfred Keightley Raulerson. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Jo Ann Raulerson's childhood was largely spent with older adults. From left, seated, are Jo Ann and her grandmother, Annie Louise, grandfather Frank Raulerson. Her father, Alfred, and mother, Mae, are right of Frank. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Jo Ann Raulerson, about the age of six, poses in the opulent parlor of the Raulerson home at the peak of the Depression.
Friends help Jo Ann Raulerson celebrate one of her birthdays in elementary school. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Frank Raulerson shaped his only heir, Jo Ann, into a cattlewoman after the death of her father in 1938. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Jo Ann Raulerson with grandparents Frank and Annie Louise, in white hat. Family members said Jo Ann received a license at 12 and would do the driving to their favorite vacation spot, Hot Springs, Arkansas. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Jo Ann Raulerson Sloan learned the fundamentals of working cattle while a child. Here she cracks a cow whip at about the age of 13. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
The Miami News featured Jo Ann Raulerson's 16th birthday on its pages.
Jo Ann Raulerson's photo and bio as it appeared in her senior yearbook in 1948. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Jo Ann dated Joe Bagget her senior year of high school but the couple broke up while going away to separate colleges. Baggett became a decorated Korean war pilot who was shot down and killed on a mission in Vietnam in 1965.
Jo Ann Raulerson, 20, helps Grandad Frank and grandmother Mother Lou at Mother Lou celebrate their 50th anniversary in March 1951. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Jo Ann Raulerson attended Rollins College in Winter Haven. Her grandparents hoped she would meet a boy who could help her run Cow Creek Ranch.
Jo Ann and her Mae Pearce Raulerson Floyd in the early 1950s. Mae relinquished custody of Jo Ann when the girl was 8 after the death of Jo Ann's father and Mae's husband, Alfred, in 1938.
With her husband Tommy, Jo Ann Sloan often led the Cow Creek unit in cattlemen parades.
Jo Ann Sloan stands near her ancestral home in 1965 when she was 30. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVE]
Tommy and Jo Ann Sloan in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
Jo Ann Sloan, with friend Sally Wright, drives through the Cow Creek crossing in a custom buggy.
Debra Sloan with dad T.L. and mom Jo Ann at her graduation from Western North Carolina in 1977. [SLOAN FAMILY ARCHIVES]
Debra Sloan helped oversee her mother Jo Ann's affairs the last two decades of her life.
Jo Ann Sloan died Dec. 22, 2020.
