CELEBRATING MOTHERS: Mom’s support leads to daughter’s success

Kim Ensminger said it is her mother’s moral support that has contributed to her own success as principal of Marmaton Valley High School. 
Ensminger’s mother, Beverly Welborn, 81, has a tendency to put others ahead of herself. She is caring, thoughtful and a hard worker, Ensminger said. It is those traits that have been passed down and serve her daughter well.
“She’s been an excellent model as far as how to put forth time, how to earn respect from other people and how to serve others,” Ensminger said.
Welborn was born in Peculiar, Mo., during the latter part of the Depression. She grew up on a farm close to the Richards/Gebaur Air Force Base.
“Her earliest childhood memories of are War World II,” said Ensminger. “She remembers planes flying over it at night.”
Ensminger said her mom enjoys sharing childhood stories that unfolded in a close-knit community.
“Lots of ‘choring’ stories about milking the cows together,” she said. “It was a poor childhood but they did not feel poor.”
Ensminger also has fond childhood memories. Her parents had a huge garden and they would pull  tomatoes, even the rotten ones, and toss them to her and her brother, Tim, she said.
“That’s how I learned to catch with soft hands,” Ensminger said smiling.
Another fond memory is of her mother pitching softballs to her out on the front lawn. Ensminger later played softball in college.
Welborn graduated from high school and then worked for two years for the Bendix Corporation in order to save up money to further her education. She then attended Southwest Baptist College for two years, and later graduated from the University of Central Missouri with a degree in physical education and biology.
She met her husband, Bud, on a blind date. He was a veterinarian in Rich Hill, Mo., and she was a teacher. They got married in 1964 when Welborn was 28. She dedicated most of the rest of her life to assisting her husband in various business endeavors, including two laundromats and an equipment rental company. When Ensminger was in 5th grade her parents built a steak house, and her mother managed it. The couple sold it in 1985. Welborn, who never gave up teaching, taught Sunday school for years.
To this day, Welborn works in the family’s veterinary clinic in Butler, Mo., assisting her husband with the animals. She loves to be outside and enjoys mowing the lawn.
“She is probably a typical wife of that era where she worked very diligently to help my dad be successful and in turn I think they have both been successful,” Ensminger said.
Ensminger visits her mother no less than once a month and calls her at least every Sunday.
“ I love my mom,” she said. “She is a Proverbs 31 woman. That entire chapter is a good definition of her.”