After sixteen years as a casting agent and photographer working in New York City, Iowa native Jean Laughton moved to the South Dakota Badlands town of Interior. She planned on spending just a few years taking pictures of the people she met, but a decade later she’s still there. Her decision to stay came after visiting the Quarter Circle XL Ranch in southwestern South Dakota and meeting rancher Lyle O’Bryan, who Laughton describes as a “real old-time cowboy.”
He taught her the ranching life, including how to rope calves and drive cattle. Today she’s Lyle O’Bryan’s ranching partner. During the StoryCorps mobile booth’s recent stop in Rapid City, Jean Laughton talked with Lyle O’Bryan about his life as a cowboy and their time together at the ranch. When they were done, O’Bryan played a few songs on his harmonica.
Jean Laughton also joined Dakota Midday on October 15th and discussed her "My Ranching Life" project, which features one of her photographs on a billboard along I-90 near New Underwood, South Dakota. You can hear that interview here.
