Al Shank Sez…the Elephant in the Room…..

As Al Shank Insurance heads into our 80th Anniversary year we celebrate the “elephant” in the room, er, the picture. One of Liberal’s most entrepreneurial citizens was Jack Randall, who had an amusement park here in Liberal, among many other things. One day, our founder, Al Shank came home and told the family he had written life insurance on an elephant that day. After convincing the family skeptics it was true, he finally got to tell the story. He got a call from Jack asking about insuring the elephant he had purchased for his amusement park. This picture is of Al feeding the elephant not to long after it arrived in town.

Jack and Jean Randall, his wife, were amazing people. From what I knew of them growing up they always were dreamers. Jack was maybe more well known but Jean was pretty special in your own right too. She was a dancer and at one point in time she was in the Guiness Book of World Records for her dancing exploits. What I remember most about her are three things: 1. She drove a little red sports car. Even as she aged, she continued to drive. 2. She spent numerous hours taking care of the flowers around the entrance to Southwest Medical  Center. If you drove by the entrance on 15th Avenue and saw activity in the flowers around the entrance and Jean’s red car…you  knew she was at it. and 3. She was a member for the First United Method Church in Liberal and for awhile any high school senior that graduated from FUMC got a small amount of mutual fund stock from Jean as a graduation present. What a wonderful gift. At least one of my three kids was lucky enough to have been a recipient, and it served as the starting point for other mutual funds for them. What a wonderful way to leave kids a legacy. At the very least they had to learn a little about stocks and in my kid’s case I believe they even went to a stockbroker to learn more. What I remember of the Randalls is entrepreneurship, dreamers and generosity. I count myself lucky to have known Jean and Liberal and the area was lucky to have had citizens like them.  

By the way, thanks to Jill Tanking, Jack’s daughter, for sharing the photo. Remember if you have something to insure….of any size….call us. We can even insure your “elephant in the room.” Al Shank Insurance…Since 1941…Insurance as it should be from people you trust.