Today's Featured Biography

 
Katherine Keller Bradfield

I had to write this bio for our upcoming trip to Africa so I thought I would just "paste" it here.
Although I didn't always realize it along the way, I have had such a great life and I am very grateful.

I grew up in Austin, just blocks from South Congress Avenue, now called the SoCo District (that's Austin trying to keep up with New York City, I guess.) I went to Catholic School for the first and second grade and was almost expelled for wearing pants to school one very cold day. Don't let that mislead, I was a goody two-shoes. The worst thing I did, besides wearing pants, was skip lunch on the last day of school after the 9th grade. I felt very guilty and worried that they might not let me go on to high school if I got caught and what would my parents think!

I was driving illegally when I was thirteen and got my license the day after I was fourteen, even drove by myself to take the driving test. I love to tell that to my teenage grandchildren who can't wait to drive. Most of the time though I was riding bareback on my horse all over South Austin (SoCo) usually with one of my friends hanging on behind. I loved riding through the creeks, jumping over the seesaw at Stacy Park, and clip clopping across the wooden bridge near Travis Heights Elementary school.

I attended, and graduated, from The University of Texas with a B.S. degree in Elementary Education after trying to please my parents by taking Chemistry, Biology, Physics and all that hard stuff while I majored in Pharmacy and then Medical Technology, with 800 students in my classes. I finally just wanted to get out of school. But, good news, that is where I met Tom Bradfield, in "Children's Literature 101". He will have to tell you why he was taking Children's Literature. That was in the sixties.
I love to tell the children that I saved him from being a hippie, albeit a hippie with a burr haircut, who sat around in parking lots playing a guitar. Oh, but I digress!

We did get married in 1965 on the condition that he would go to veterinary school. He did, graduated on a Saturday in August of 1970 and we opened Westlake Animal Hospital the following Monday in Austin Texas.
We were brave, broke and had two little kids. We had a mortgage on 2½ acres, a house and poodle parlor converted to a veterinary hospital. Some days we were happy to make $25. But, Daddy said, "Build your practice between a grocery store and an elementary school and that we did. So, it was not long before the practice prospered, we hired an associate doctor and built a new building and office complex on our 2½ acres.

Well, I guess that wasn't enough to keep me busy or happy or whatever. I was pregnant with our third child, worried about getting too fat (I have spent my whole life on a diet), and needed some way to entertain the two older children. So I started Westlake Experience School, for ages 2-6, 2 sessions a day with 17 little kids in each session.

I taught the kids how to milk a cow, milk a goat, pick eggs, horseback riding, gardening, to make butter with the milk from the cow, and to make ice cream with the eggs from the chickens. Keep in mind, I am a city girl. It was great fun and greatly exhausting so that only lasted that one summer.

I did the usual volunteering at school, PTA treasurer, fund raising and organization of a Pet Fair that continued for several years.

At one time, I had a small gift shop on our front porch, The Hummingbird's Nest. The fun part was shopping at the Dallas Market Center and selling cute little things I liked. But it soon became too confining, we built a new house and moved away from the house and gift shop next to the clinic.

Then there was Real Estate. In 1979 I took a few courses and got a sales license and eventually a brokers license that I still keep current just in case I want to buy a small farm or ranch somewhere.

Probably, the hardest thing I ever did, but something I am very proud of, was learning to fly an airplane. It wasn't that flying the airplane was so hard, but learning about the weather, understanding what the air traffic controllers were saying, and not scaring the hell out of my passengers made it a challenge. I was proud of myself for getting my private pilot's license and for never crashing. Our little Cessna 172 was a great little airplane.

About 21 years ago, after all of these endeavors, Tom asked me if I wanted to come back to the clinic as the practice manager. Our partner was not happy about having the wife work in the practice. I promised that I would be very good and not step on his toes. I guess he figured I would tire of it soon enough considering my past history of doing one thing and then another.

Well, I guess I finally found who I was and what I could do well. The practice grew, bills were paid as they occurred, we hired more doctors and staff and became one of the largest practices in Austin with a great reputation for excellent, state of the art medicine, compassionate and competent doctors and a support staff who liked their job and felt proud to work for such a great practice. In October of 2008, after more than 38 years, we sold Westlake Animal Hospital.

So, here I am again, searching! But, just looking around really for what to do with the rest of my life. We enjoy our three kids and 10 grandchildren who all live close. We travel a lot, take a few grandchildren with us occasionally, and spend a lot of time planning our next trip.

I have ridden horses in Central Park, Hyde Park, along the England/Scotland border, through forests in Luxemburg, olive fields in Spain, along the beaches of Mexico and Puerto Rico and the rain forest of Costa Rica.

I have sailed the oceans and the Gulf of Mexico and flown my airplane between Heaven and the wonderful state of Texas. And now we are off to Africa in a few weeks and an Amazon River Expedition in a few months. Not too shabby a life for Katherine Keller Bradfield. And, I finally found a diet that really works, Yeh!

P.S. Just last weekend I bought a small herd of miniature Angus cattle to raise on our 20 acres with our horses and chickens. I guess I won't be bored.

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