As the result of a serious illness Dr. James Robert (Jim Bob) Long, DVM, joined his heavenly family July 27, 2019. The son of Jim and Elizabeth Long, he was born in St. Joseph, MO, on February 12, 1945. He was a 1963 graduate of Gower High School.
Jim Bob attended the University of Missouri, Columbia, where he received a BS Degree in Agriculture in 1968. He received the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Degree from the University of Missouri in 1972.
After graduation from MU, Jim Bob worked for an animal clinic in Drexel, MO. In 1974 he built and operated Long Veterinary Clinic in Kearney, MO, for bovine, equine and a mixed practice for small animals.
In 1986 he built, operated and managed Long Equine Center in Kearney, where he stood outside stallions and bred approximately 80 mares a year at the Equine Center. He was highly skilled in the use of ultra-sound equipment and maintained an active ambulatory equine practice and small animal clinical practice.
Special thanks to Libby Brown and Linda Chandler for their continuing help and support during his years in practice.
Jim Bob was a member of the Northern Hills Baptist Church and was on the Board of Directors and Loan Committee of the Kearney Commercial Bank for 43 years. He was a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, American Association of Equine Practitioners, and the Missouri Veterinary Association.
He held the offices of President and Vice President of the Missouri Quarter Horse Association and was chairman of the MQHA Stallion Service Auction. He did extensive traveling as an exhibitor at the American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio, AQHA World Shows, Palomino World, Buckskin World and numerous quarter horse shows.
He exhibited 5 World Champion Buckskin Horses, raised and exhibited a Reserve World Champion Paint Weanling filly, raised and exhibited a World Champion Palomino Weanling Filly and a World Champion Palomino 2-year-old stallion. Two special horses that he stood were Winchester, one of the first syndicated horses that produced many World Champion and Futurity winners and The Wild Wild West that produced multiple Futurity and World Champions.
Jim Bob gave many talks and demonstrations to equine interest groups and was a presenter at local school career days.
He sold his veterinary practice in 2004 and has since concentrated with his wife Vicky on raising and exhibiting quarter horses.
Jim Bob was preceded in death by his parents and his father-in-law Hugh Thompson. He is survived by his wife Vicky Thompson Long whom he married June 6, 2003, his sister Barbara Jean Shaver and husband Wayne of Plattsburg, MO, niece, and nephew Michelle Lynne Davis and James Landon Shaver and great-niece and nephew Dylan and Darcy Davis. Many cousins and many many friends will much miss Jim Bob. Also three special friends with a loud purr, Joey, Tiger, and Stormy.
Visitation will be held beginning at 6 p.m., Wednesday evening, July 31, 2019, at Hidden Valley Funeral Homes, Kearney, MO. A celebration of Jim Bob’s life will be held, Thursday, August 1, 2019, at 10 am, at First United Methodist Church, Kearney, MO. Burial will be in the Grayson, MO cemetery. The family would appreciate your remembrances to the American Heart Association or the PHBA (Palomino Horse Breeder’s Association of America).
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