Identical twin sisters Juanita Herff Chipman and Carolyn Herff Kennon say that, after a century of sisterhood, they “never fought,” or, “if we did, we don’t remember.”
Juanita and Carolyn were born on April 17, 1922, or “Easter Monday” at Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio to descendants of Dr. Ferdinand Herff, who acquired many acres of land in the Boerne area during its founding. They were henceforth raised by their grandparents, Florence and John Herff, on the expansive Boerne ranch – which came to be the biggest gift to generations to come, according to Juanita’s daughter, Carolyn Chipman Evans.
This year, the sisters celebrated their 100th birthday together at the Herff Farm, which was owned by their grandfather. (See separate story.)
Juanita and Carolyn were raised nearby in a summer home the family named “Suitsus” (like “suits us”). Juanita wrote about her childhood home in her biography, “The Passing of Gifts,” saying that she and Carolyn “became a part of Suitsus, and Suitsus became a part of us.”
“The Cibolo was our playground,” Carolyn said.
Looking over photographs from their childhood, the twins remembered being posed with dolls for pictures despite never really enjoying playing with toys, being much more inclined to the expansive oak trees, which Juanita called “perfect for climbing,” and the creek where the girls would swim and ride horses together.
The Hill Country land continues to be an integral part of the family.
“This, the Herff Ranch, is what they worked so hard to keep together,” Chipman Evans said.
The twins have lived reunited there after adulthoods apart since 2005. They said they enjoy the ranch now surrounded by eighth-generation grandchildren who are blessed to experience the beauty of the property preserved by the Herff family.
The centurions recounted many more memories of growing up on the family ranch.
“Sometimes, we would ride the range in a 4-wheeled cart, painted black and red, pulled by a spotted Shetland pony named Jerry,” Juanita said.
The twins referred to this mode of transportation as the “Jerry Cart,” and it was central to many of their adventures on the farm. Their grandmother really gave them a “run of the ranch,” Chipman Evans said.
“Our grandmother never worried about us,” the twins said. “We could tell what time it was because the train came by the Herff Ranch at 10 a.m. every morning and at 3 p.m. every afternoon. We could hear the Boerne noon whistle and we could tell time by the sun and when we got hungry.”
In their adult life, Juanita and Carolyn both expressed the independence breathed into them by the Cibolo in their accomplishments and impact. Juanita wrote in her biography that growing up, “Women were not prepared to have a career as it has been in more recent times. Little opportunity was given to women, other than the role of wife and mother.”
However, on the ranch, the twins exclaimed they “could outswim, outrun and outride practically any boy.”
In 1957, at age 35, Juanita enrolled in college at Incarnate Word. Later, she earned her real estate license. According to nephew Bill Kennon, she was a successful artist and was involved with shows from the United States to Ukraine and painting on commission into her 90s.
And “at 72,” Kennon said, “she accomplished her longterm goal of graduating from UIW.”
Carolyn, according to son Bill Kennon, takes lifelong pride in her German settler heritage and was an active member of the Colonial Dames and involved in charity work with the Junior League in Nashville. Carolyn was also an avid tennis player who played in the Minnie Pearl tournaments. Her son recounts that she is a wonderful watercolor artist and once won first prize at the Tennessee State Fair.
After spending their entire early lives together, the ladies did separate to start their own families. Of her mom, Kennon said “she met dad when he was sent to Kelly Field to be a flight surgeon, and she was a volunteer driver for the Army.” Their first date was to the
Their first date was to the ranch for an evening picnic at the canyon, and they married the day before her 21st birthday in 1943, just before he was sent overseas.
“Nothing else could’ve taken me away from my twin except for him,” she said.
Carolyn moved to Nashville, her husband’s home, and her connection with Juanita became reliant on visits and letters for a time.
Juanita married James Lukin Drought in 1943 and had five children, then remarried after his death in 1960 to Guy Chipman Jr., with whom she had one son. In her book, Juanita writes about her husband: “I cannot think of it as an accidental meeting, but of something pertaining to God.”
Interestingly, because Juanita and Carolyn are identical twins, their children, though having different mothers and fathers, are genetically half-siblings as well as cousins.
The sisters often used their striking similarities in mischief. As children in school, Carolyn recounted often switching places with her twin to confuse their teachers. And even as adults, Carolyn’s son, Bill Kennon, said that, “As a boy, I would go crying, running to my mom, and Aunt Juanita would go ‘Oh, come here, Billy,’ and it took me a while to find out that she wasn’t my mother! That just made me cry more.”
Family attributes the sisters’ long, vibrant lives to decades worth of summers spent on the family farm with fresh air and cousins to play with.
“I think that the most amazing thing,” Chipman Evans said, “is that these girls got to enjoy this life on the ranch. And that they’ve been able to preserve the ranch so that their great-grandchildren can enjoy it, too.”
The Herff family has long been strong supporters of Boerne. They donated the land for the Kendall County Fairgrounds in 1913, and the sisters donated the land where Boerne High School was built.
Today, Juanita’s daughter and son-in-law, Carolyn and Brent Evans, work to preserve the Cibolo Center for Conservation, where Chipman Evans is CEO. The property once belonged to the Herff Ranch as a nature preserve and “paradise” for local families.
Currently, every evening at 5 o’clock is “happy hour” at the twins house. Kennon said, “We have a little cocktail, and we look at the birds, we look at the deer and we talk about old times. Various relatives and friends always drop by.”
It’s something the twins say they “look forward to every day.” Juanita and Carolyn both retain witty spirits and humor in conversation, and are a delight to guests.
“I will never regret one minute of my childhood,” Juanita wrote in 1980, “and having a twin sister to share it with, and to be able to sit back and talk with her today. She will remember things that I have forgotten, and I will remember things she has forgotten. Her heart is here, just like mine.”
This is still true today as the sisters relax on their porch overlooking the same hills of their beautiful childhood and reminisce on a century of sisterhood. Their 100 years have been a blessing to their family and to the Boerne community.
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