Earl and Bruce DeVore Family

Devore grew up on 80-acre farm between Des Arc and Hazen; many of their family members still live in the area. Fifty-four acres of the farm’s property was planted in row crops and another 19 acres was in timber. Devore’s great-grandfather Jacob Devore purchased the farm, which was recently designated an Arkansas Century Farm by the state Department of Agriculture, in 1900. The elder Devore sold the farm to his son John Jacob Devore in 1924; in turn, Earl Devore bought the acreage from his father in 1937. Bruce Devore bought the farmstead in 1998.
Devore said he spent his early years helping out on the farm. He said he did his fair share of chopping weeds and shoveling rice levees, taking on more responsibility as he got older. “I’d go to school every morning and come home at noon,” Devore said. “I’d drive a tractor from noon until midnight, go get in the bed, get up in the morning and do it all over again.” Devore graduated from high school in 1964. After his mandatory service in the National Guard ended in 1971, instead of coming home to work on the farm, Devore headed south, where he spent his career in transportation, performing body work in Pulaski County. He also put in an additional 15 years in the National Guard and 14 years in the Army Reserve.