Iola is sunny for this Cloud

Jeanne Cloud is not a native Iolan, but she calls Iola home. “I’ve lived here longer than I’ve lived anywhere else in my life,” she said.
Though she hasn’t move far, she moved often.
“Both my husband and I grew up in Overland Park,” Cloud said. “We were both in college in Pittsburg when we married. Then we moved to Mansfield, Missouri” where Cloud’s parents had a chicken farm.
“My husband and I went in partnership with my parents raising 60,000 pullets,” Cloud said. Plus, she started her dog business.
The Clouds raised and showed St. Bernards. They owned four of them.
“One day, I realized the dogs were eating and we weren’t,” she said. “Raising pullets didn’t pay that much” and show dogs are an expensive hobby, so Cloud branched into grooming.
“The nearest groomer was 65 miles away, in Springfield,” she said. “People had been begging me to do grooming, so I go a pair of clippers and a book and I learned.”
“I found I had a real aptitude for it.” Cloud gave up the show dogs.
Then her husband was offered a job at Klein Tools.
“I moved to Iola in 1980, my husband and two little children and I.” She settled in “until I got divorced in 1988. I got stupid and thought I should just leave all the memories behind.”
So Cloud moved to Tulsa, where she had friends and her teenaged daughter could enroll in an accelerated learning program. “I knew after being there one year it was a mistake,” she said.
“I wasn’t a groomer there,” she said. “I had a corporate job with a bullet. I was climbing the ladder very quickly, but I missed my dog babies.” And she missed the friendliness of a small town. “I found out they would kill their mother,” she said of the cut-throat business world.
Still, she stayed six years, until her daughter completed high school. “She graduated May 24 of 1994; I moved back June 3.”
“I couldn’t wait to get back,” Cloud said. “My idea of a traffic jam is three cars.”
With her was her son, James. He was four months old when the family first came to Iola, eight years old when they moved to Tulsa, and 14 when he and Cloud returned.
“He’s 29 now,” Cloud said, and is married with two children. “He works for a company out of Kansas City. He goes back and forth everyday. We’d love to find him work here, but with the economy...” Coud trailed off.
But James and his family won’t move. They prefer life in Iola, and his wife Katy has parents in Humboldt that she is very close to, said Cloud. It’s one of those benefits of small town living — keepng your family close.
Having lived elsewhere, Cloud finds aspects of life in Iola amusing. “People consider me way out in the country,” she said of her business location near Gates Manufacturing. “I live in north Iola,” she said. “It’s exactly two miles from my driveway to here. It takes me five minutes to get to work.”
To Cloud, that proximity represents a lifestyle.
“It means a much less hectic way of life,” she said. “It means actually having the time to get to know people. It means having a grocery store half a mile from my house.” It’s the lifestyle that hooked Cloud, and keeps her — and her son, and his family — in Iola.
And it’s Iola’s sense of community, Cloud said. “If you’re having a problem, people will jump in and help you.” And she likes the Bowlus. “It pulls a lot of people in.”
But, Cloud said, “It seems the powers that be are all in the Good Ol’ Boys Club. A lot of times, they’re not open to new ideas.
We need to move into the 21st century. We need a recreation center. We need a bigger city commission.
If the people have the vision to do what is necessary to attract people, Iola will prosper. If they do not, we will disappear.”
“As the president said, we all need to buckle down and jump in. The question has to be asked, what do we have to offer people coming into this community? If it’s not enough , people won’t settle here.”
As for her favorite part of Iola, Cloud said “There’s so many, I have to sort through.”
“I love my handbell choir,” she said. “I love my bridge group. I love my church. And I love working on the board of the Allen County Animal Rescue Facility. My favorite activity is running the concessions stand for ACARF.”
“We currently have just about $100,000,” she said. “We need about $150,000 more to get finished. We now have a donor who will match donations up to $10,000, so if people give $1 we get $2.”
“I’m a shameless promoter of ACARF,” she laughed.
Even with all those things to keep her busy, her favorite activity is still the one she does everyday.
“I love, love, love my job,” she said. “God put me on earth to work with animals. I’m lucky enough to have found my vocation.” And a place to call home.