MCDERMITT - It may possibly be that no other McDermitt Combined School alumni has attended as many schools as Honey Jo (Cisco) Jensen did. She was born in Gooding, Idaho, before going to live at the UC Ranch just eight miles south of McDermitt, Nev. Her parents, Lawrence and Sandy Cisco, had two other children, Key (Cisco) Stephens (MHS 1992) of Kimberly, Idaho, and James Cisco of Orofino, Idaho. Her dad "Cisco," a seasoned cowboy, had worked at the UC Ranch for several years before Honey Jo joined the family, but she was only three years old when her parents separated. All three children left McDermitt with their dad and were living in Fairfield, Idaho, where Cisco had another ranch job, when Sandy filed for custody of Honey Jo. In the ensuing custody battle, Honey Jo was eventually awarded to her mom and was soon living with Sandy in Winnemucca. Honey Jo started her formal education with kindergarten through second grade in Winnemucca, and she started third grade in Reno after she and Sandy moved there. Before the end of the third grade she was sent to live with her maternal step-grandmother in Hagerman, Idaho. One day, just by chance, her sister Key saw her in the Dairy Queen and later Cisco was able to have the custody decision reversed and Honey Jo was reunited with her dad and siblings. During the next few months she attended school in Gooding and Susanville, Calif., before Cisco went to work at the Oregon Canyon Ranch. Honey Jo started fourth grade in McDermitt and was there until just after she started her freshman year-the longest period in any one place in all of her school years. She says that her favorite teacher in Junior High was Ruth Alcorta, but she also enjoyed having Bob and Mary Kay Pace, and Gary Punchard. She liked sports and, although she didn't get to follow in her sister Key's footsteps and play for the Bulldogs during her high school years, she says, "Out of all the coaches I played for, Coach Sherburn in junior high was always my favorite." Halfway through her freshman year the family moved back to Idaho when Cisco went to work for Idaho Land and Livestock and she finished that year in Hagerman High School. The next year they were living in the company's cow camp so she went to school her sophomore year in Fairfield, then back to Hagerman for her junior year and she was able to play sports those years. Maybe she was discouraged by all the moves over time, or possibly because she was about to become a mom, she decided to drop out of school with just one year to go to graduate. A year later when Cisco and her stepmom Ann, (whom Honey Jo said was always good to her) moved back to Oregon Canyon Ranch, Honey Jo and her infant son, Colt Cisco, made the move as well and she again enrolled in school at McDermitt for her senior year - graduating in 1997, amazingly only one year later than the students she started school with! When added up she had made 10 transfers in eight schools. That summer she worked at the Snack Stop in McDermitt and in the fall she enrolled at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Ore., only to find that even with a job at a pizza place it was hard to make ends meet. She came to McDermitt on her days off of school and worked at the McDermitt Motel. In 1999 she moved to Idaho due to the asthma that plagued her son. They had made several ambulance runs to Winnemucca when Colt could not breathe and she felt she needed to be closer to a hospital for the well being of her son. - See ALUMNI, Page 17 - Back in Gooding again, she was able to get a job at the cheese factory. Most everyone has a certain amount of cheese in their diets, but it seems that Idaho may have a corner on the market! In 1907 Nelson Ricks Creamery opened a cheese plant in Richfield, Idaho, that was later owned by Ward's Cheese. In 1990 it was bought by Avonmore Cheese who left the whey processing at the plant in Richfield, where it is still processed today, and moved the cheese production to a new plant in Gooding in 1991. They later added the Twin Falls cheese factory and in 2000 changed their name to Glambia Foods. ('Glambia' is an Irish word meaning 'pure food.') In a joint venture with Dairy Farmers of America and Select Milk Producers they broke ground on a new facility in Clovis, N.M. called Southwest Cheese LLC in 2006 (one of the largest in the world), and the Gooding plant was expanded in 1997 to include a whey producing facility. Expanded again in 2007 the Gooding plant alone is the largest barrel cheese producing plant in the world - capable of processing over 9 million pounds of milk every day into 500 pound barrels of American style cheese. Honey Jo began work at the Gooding plant in April of 1999 and on June 9, 2001, she married fellow operator, DeVerl "Shane" Jensen, originally from Bliss, Idaho. Three years ago he received a promotion that made him her "boss" and she says that, while he is now her boss at work, she doesn't "think" he is at home! She believes growing up on ranches was great and that it taught good work ethics. Where else would a girl learn how to handle 500-pound barrels of cheese?! She works nights, getting home at 6 in the morning. When people ask her how she works such long hours she says that they make cheese 24/7 because the cows never stop making milk. One of the perks of the job is that they can have all of the cheese that they can eat. It is interesting that when going to work they have to go through a security check when entering the facility, with a badge similar to airport security. Honey Jo enjoys working at the factory and she likes not having her kids moved from school to school. She has helped raise two stepchildren, Brock and Kaetlyn, and her son Colt is now 16 years old and his little brother Dyllan is 10. They go to school in Gooding where both are doing well, and Colt will graduate next year. She wishes that they lived a little farther out of town and at one point she and Shane did consider transferring to the new plant in Clovis but finally decided to stay where they were and where she has now been for 14 years. A ranching advocate, Honey Jo doesn't want to see the cultures and traditions of family ranching die. She still has fond memories of buckarooing in Nevada and Oregon and keeps her horses to go on trail rides; ride just for fun (she just finished a dressage class); and she loves to help out over at Lee Presley's ranch (a cousin to John Falen) when he needs extra help. One day she was helping Lee gather his calves when her stirrup broke and she rode sideways for quite awhile before hitting the ground. Lee still teases her about wanting to be a trick rider! Besides Key and James, Honey Jo also has two older half siblings, Earl Cisco and Brenda (Cisco) Sliman; however, she grew up not knowing too many of her extended family members. She recently has enjoyed getting acquainted with some of them through Facebook and says that one of her dad's cousins is 75 years old and still rides horses and drives race cars! Honey Jo never gave up on her education and worked hard to get her high school degree. She would tell the kids in McDermitt to "Listen to your teachers. Education is so very important and they know what it is that you need to learn!"[[In-content Ad]]
