What the “Quiet Cowboy” Taught Me About Silent Service
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, J.D. Wininger, owner of the Cross-Dubya Ranch in Northeast Texas and a listener of Our American Stories, shares the story of a quiet man named John who mostly kept to himself. Sitting alone in the back of church and speaking only when spoken to, he wasn’t someone who drew attention. But when J.D. reached out, a friendship began to grow. That connection eventually brought Mr. John to the ranch, and as J.D. soon discovered, the help he offered was returned in ways he never expected.
J.D. reflects on the lessons he learned from the man he came to know as the “Quiet Cowboy,” and how sometimes the people who say the least can teach us the most.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:14.6 | This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, |
| 0:18.6 | the show where America is the star and the American people. |
| 0:22.4 | And we love hearing from you, our listeners. |
| 0:25.2 | Send your stories to Our American Stories.com. |
| 0:28.6 | They're some of our favorites. |
| 0:30.4 | Today we're going to hear from author J.D. Winninger. |
| 0:33.6 | He'll be sharing part of a story he wrote called The Quiet Cowboy. |
| 0:43.6 | I met Mr. John at our church. |
| 0:46.7 | Quiet, fellow, he'd sit by himself near the back. |
| 0:50.8 | He would only speak when spoken to, and I made it a point to seek him out each Sunday morning for about a month and spent a couple of minutes sharing with him. |
| 1:02.9 | One morning, noticing the brand on the vest, he quizzically looked at me. |
| 1:08.4 | You got a ranch? |
| 1:10.5 | When I affirmed I indeed had a small ranch. |
| 1:13.6 | His eyes lit up. |
| 1:15.3 | I grew up and picked him over Bacomo. |
| 1:18.1 | Smiling, I replied, I didn't know that. |
| 1:21.1 | That's great cattle country over there. |
| 1:23.4 | And good hay, too. |
| 1:25.3 | With a broad smile, he looked up. |
| 1:27.3 | My daddy, brothers, me, worked in them hay fields 14 hours. and good hay too. With a broad smile, he looked up. |
... |
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