Ms. Karen Graham
How did a small town southern girl who wanted to teach French to high school students become an International Supermodel and a longtime member of the Tryon Hounds?
Karen grew up in a middle class family in Gulfport, MS. Her grandparents lived upstate and had farms with cows and a few farm horses and chickens. Whenever they visited, Karen would hop on their Tennessee Walking horses. Karen loved going out with her dad in his bass boat and she taught herself how to fly fish for bass and blue gills in the bayous of southern Mississippi. She was also captivated by the French influence of New Orleans which often bled across state lines and began studying French in high school. When she started college at Ole Miss she asked her advisor about majoring in Education. He noticed she had the most credits in French so why not major in both. Excellente idée!
After graduation her parents gave she gave her a gift of $2000. They said it was hers to do whatever she wanted with it; however they did recommend she could open a little shop. “If I can really do what I want with it”, she told her parents, “I’d like to live in Paris and go to graduate school there.”
Karen bought a plane ticket to Paris and a little book titled “Europe on $5 a Day”. Thanks to her book, she found a small hotel room and went unannounced to the renowned Sorbonne front office. She had a lovely conversation with an interviewer who said she would need to schedule a written and oral test. Karen replied, “I’m ready. Go ahead and test me now.” She was accepted to their graduate program with a scholarship – merci beaucoup. Karen met two fellow students from Mexico City who were living with a French family. They invited her to come over and meet the them. “They warmly welcome me into their home and we conversed over a lovely authentic Parisian dinner,” Karen said. “They told me they had a relative they wanted me to meet.” Karen arrived at a stunning apartment overlooking the Seine. The family’s two daughters were off at college so they had plenty of room. “They offered me my own bedroom and bath with a balcony that looked over the Pont Mirabeau in the 16th arrondissement. It was like a dream,” Karen said. “I asked them why they were being so generous. They replied they felt so grateful for America’s help after WWII. I felt so honored.”
After a year at the Sorbonne, and with a degree in Education from the University of Mississippi, Karen wasn’t ready to go back to Gulfport. She decided to take the ocean liner “The France” to New York and quickly fell in love with Manhattan. While searching for a position teaching French to high school students, she found work as a bookkeeper for a law firm in order to pay rent on a small apartment. One day during her lunch break she was strolling through Bonwit Teller gazing at all the beautiful clothes she could never afford when a lady stopped and asked her if she was a model. Karen almost laughed – no she wasn’t, she’d never thought about. The woman smiled warmly and told her she would make a good one. She handed Karen her card and told her to call her.
Karen returned to work and asked if anybody knew a lady named Eileen Ford. Everyone’s jaws dropped: “You met her?” “She said to call her but I’ve never heard of this lady.” “Karen, she owns the most famous modeling agency in the world. You have to call her!” Karen, ever practical, balked. “I can’t afford to try modeling. How will I pay for my rent?” They assured her she could continue doing bookkeeping for them whenever she had free time. The rest was history. She became an International Supermodel with 100's of magazine covers including 20 VOGUE covers. She was also the exclusive model/spokesperson for Estee Lauder for 15 years. She worked nonstop before retiring in 1985 at the age of 40. “I knew my career had a limited time frame, “she explained. “It’s like a professional athlete: a Quarterback’s arm isn’t going to last forever. I wanted to go out on top.”
Karen didn’t choose modeling, it chose her. As a serious-minded person she saw this wonderful, glamourous opportunity as a means to finally have the time pursue her other interests which she was not able to pursue earlier in life. She bought a 300 year old stone house in the Hudson Valley and spent all of her time on the rivers, now fly fishing for trout instead of bass, and along with friends, started a fly fishing school in upstate New York. One day she got a call from ESPN inviting her to host a fly fishing show that would film shows all over the world, famous trout streams from Antarctica, New Zealand, Iceland, and, of course in our Rocky Mountains. While filming these shows she moved out to Saratoga, Wyoming for a few years, living on a ranch with several horses. She asked if she was allowed them and soon she picked her favorite ride, a horse named Spur who was owned by and elk hunting guide who took clients hunting on horseback up to Medicine Bow Peak at an elevations of 10,000 feet.
Having bonded with Spur she brought him with her when she decided to move to Tyron in 2006 to be near her brother and his family. She purchased a horse farm on a private 124 mile equestrian trail network. She rode many miles with a new friend she met on the trail, Cindy Stafford. One day Cindy rushed over to Karen’s and told her she had found our new sport, foxhunting, and they simply had to start hunting together! “I don’t even have an English saddle! “ Karen’s friend, Madeline Clas had an old English saddle she loaned me. Spur took to the saddle and they rode 3rd flight with The Tryon Hounds.
“Third flight was such a hoot!” Karen laughed. “There was so much excitement watching the hounds work and sing!” But true to form Karen delved in 150% and was soon taking jumping lessons. Spur was getting older so she knew it was time to find a hunt horse. She found a 5 year old grey Thoroughbred named Indigo. They both learn how to jump together. One of her friends told her afterwards, “Didn’t you know that green and green make black and blue?!”
But Indigo quickly became her trusted hunt partner. After her self-description of having become an “adequate jumper” she told Jordan Hicks, the huntsman at the time, that she was going to ride in 1st flight. “Hopefully today you can find a coop or two so we can jump, “she said. We were riding in Caroland Farms and Jordan took us over 12 coops!" Ooops ---be careful what you wish for.
Years later her heart horse Indigo was in the pasture and was gored by a buck deer and had to be put down at 18. Karen was heartbroken. She didn’t know if she could face looking for a new partner. She did have a little quarter horse named JoJo she had bought for her grandson. She looked JoJo in the eyes and asked him, ‘‘ ‘How would you like to hunt?’ and he looked back and said ‘I can do it! I can do it!’ So we did!” They were enjoying the hunt but every time they came to a coop, JoJo would like to go around it at the last minute. “We started working with a trainer and he said this horse use to be a barrel racer and he thinks he’s supposed to fly around that corner!” JoJo turned into a good hunt partner. Recently while riding 2nd flight they were flying through the woods with the hounds singling when they suddenly came upon a downed pine tree across the trail. They didn’t have time to think and they sailed over it. “JoJo turned and looked at me," Karen said. “He was so proud. ‘I told you I could do it!’ He just loves to show you.”
Karen often rides 3rd flight with Jeanne Ahrenholz as the Field Master. “More stuff happens in third flight and Jeanne has such a great wit. We were hacking along the woods line. I was about midway back. We were in a controlled trot when a giant buck jumped out and split our group in half. The front half was still following the hounds while our half had the daylights spooked out of them! Bodies were on the ground, loose horses were running off and JoJo was the only one who stayed – right by me. I was on the ground, unhurt, but at least he stayed by me. Jeanne came rushing back to find out where everybody was. Jeanne, who is married to a doctor looked around and said, “Carnage. Total carnage.” Somebody brushing off their britches said, “No need to set up a triage just a search party to find our horses.”
Another time 1st and 2nd Flight was galloping over a territory that was fairly new. The Field Master decided 3rd flight should pull over near some woods since they were probably after a coyote meaning they probably couldn’t keep up. “We all kind of huddled around. I looked around and there standing in the center of our huddle was a coyote! He had doubled back and hid out in out in the middle of our pack!” You don’t call them “Wiley” for nothing.
Her favorite thing about the Tryon Hounds is riding with other people I enjoy. “We just enjoy being together in the woods and meadows… watching those beautiful hounds. They sing their passion and we love that song.” J’adore tout!
Tot Goodwin was Huntsman at the time and Pat Hale, who was a Master of the Green Creek Hounds, encouraged her to join them. Though she knew absolutely nothing about foxhunting, she started behind friends in 2nd flight on what turned out to be a particularly fast run and was totally hooked on the adrenalin rush by the end of that morning. She fell immediately in love with foxhunting, she had never previously heard hounds in full cry, and she loved the camaraderie and everything about it. There was an excitement about foxhunting she had never experienced, before. During this period of time, Debra was also serving on a Board of Directors to acquire several thousand acres adjacent to her farm for conservation along the Broad River, which was to become what is now known as the Broad River Greenway. In that process, she had the opportunity to meet several times with Anne Springs Close, who was instrumental in establishing Greenways, including her own Anne Spring Close Greenway in Fort Mill, SC. As the Broad River Greenway became a reality, Debra was able to get permission for Green Creek Hounds to hunt the Greenway as well as her own property, giving Green Creek Hounds a new hunt fixture of several thousand acres in Cleveland County.
That date led to subsequent dates and when he came to Debra’s loft in Greenville for the first time, he noticed her hunt saddle in her living room. She had never given it up and had made it an accessory in her living room each time she moved somewhere. “I can’t believe you have a saddle in your living room! That’s great!” As he checked it out, he noticed it hadn’t been oiled in a while. Before he left, he asked if he could take the saddle and clean it up for her? She agreed, but after he walked out her door that evening with her saddle, she asked herself, “what just happened? I laughed and thought, again, that was brilliant! He knows I’ll have to see him again if I want my saddle back. Very clever.” Debra never got her saddle back. Nelson oiled it up and replaced the leathers, put her back on a horse and got her back in the hunt field. Their early first dates became Friday nights in the barn, cranking up music, sipping wine and bathing and grooming Ziggy for Saturday hunts. Debra’s saddle never did come home; instead, Debra came home to her saddle when she married Nelson a year later