Daughter of Lawyers Wed Rancher, New Way of Life

Annie Debevoise, a granddaughter, daughter and sister of lawyers, thought she would take some time off to work out West before returning to law school in Vermont.

In 1987, she hired on as a $9,000-a-year organizer with the Northern Plains Resource Council, a rural advocacy group based in Billings, Mont.

As a single woman of 26, she took a lot of kidding from the cattlemen and their wives, who were always trying to fix her up. One day a bunch of cowboys standing around at the local grain elevator dared her to drive the 16 miles over back roads to Andy Ostby’s house and introduce herself.

She did. Now, at 28, she is Annie Ostby, ranch wife.

Instead of torts and statutes, she has learned how to brand a calf, play midwife to a cow and load up a pack horse.

There is no vacation in the winter because the cattle have to be fed. In the spring the calves are being born, and there is no time off in the summer, either, because the crops have to be harvested.

“Andy’s told me we might squeeze in a week in November,” she said.

While hundreds of Montana women are seeking employment off the land because they need earn extra money, Ostby says she feels lucky to be able to stay home and learn about her new life style.

“I take it one day at a time,” she said, sitting on the porch of her 37-year-old husband’s family home. The house is surrounded by rolling green fields of wheat and grass. The nearest neighbors are out of sight, over the next rise.

“I want to learn everything I can, I want to be Andy’s partner, I want to help make this the best ranch it can be.”