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Luwanna "Wanna" Woodruff and Druzilla "Boozie" Glenn |
The adventures of
Wanna and Boozie
True ladies of the forest don't let their love of turkey hunting end with the onset of rheumatism and wrinkles. Sisters Lauwanna "Wanna" Woodruff and Druzilla "Boozie" Glenn took up hunting with a passion, and today, at ages 90 and 82, they're still showing dedicated sportsmen how it should be done.
Wanna and Boozie both tagged gobblers and bucks last season and will be out again in April, hunting their favorite spots around northeast Arkansas.
"I started in 1952 when we moved to Elaine, Ark., where there was wild game of all kinds," Wanna said. "We had bear, panther, deer, turkey and rattlesnake."
Her husband, John, spent his days on a D-8 Caterpillar, clearing trees, and their two sons were in school. When everybody was gone, Wanna would get her .410 shotgun and hunt squirrels.
At night she was anxious for the next day to dawn so she could go again. She dreamed about hunting and stayed awake planning better ways to sneak up on bushytails. She became a stealthy hunter and a crack shot.
In 1959, she and John bought a new place in Mississippi. Sister Boozie and her family were regular visitors. Boozie went out hunting with the guys, and she encouraged Wanna.
"It was time for me to start going in the turkey woods," Wanna said. "I tagged along with John, not even carrying a gun."
John missed a gobbler that morning and Wanna, who knew she could do better, started carrying her own 12-gauge.
After a few years of learning about turkeys but not killing one, Wanna was accepted by the menfolk. She hunted on her own, but didn't consider herself a real turkey hunter. She called in birds, but "gobbler fever" kept her from hitting the mark.
"One afternoon, we went back into the woods to try and roost a gobbler, but I didn't want to wait until the next morning," Wanna said. "I got close enough for my 12-gauge No. 4s to score. A real turkey hunter wouldn't own up to getting his turkey on a sneak, but it sure was a big thrill to me."
After that, bagging turkeys got easier. Now she has more than 60 beards framed at her house, and she's shot dozens more that didn't make the cut.
Boozie gives her best
Boozie is even more famous than her sister for working to get her birds.
"It was Sunday, and Wanna decided to stay home and get ready for church," Boozie said. "But I knew there was a gobbler out there waiting for me. I went, but promised to be home in time for Sunday school."
About a mile from their camp, Boozie spotted four gobblers in a tree. Three flew in the same direction, and she circled ahead and set up on a hill. Boozie called, one worked in close, she shot, and the bird fell over and lay still.
"I sat still and waited, since the other gobblers were close," Boozie said. "A second turkey came up and my dead turkey started flopping. The new gobbler ran over and jumped on him. Finally he stretched that old neck up, and I shot him too."
She tucked one gobbler in her coat and put the other one over her shoulder and started for home with two big turkeys.
"By the time I got down that hill I was dragging the second turkey," Boozie said. "I'd walk some, rest and drag him some more. When I finally got to camp it was too late for Sunday school, but we made it to church on time. When we got home we weighed the birds, one weighed 24½ pounds and the other was 24¼ pounds even without some of his feathers."
Wanna's husband, John, died six years ago, and Boozie now fills in as her sister's regular hunting partner. Until last year, the ladies camped out in the Mark Twain National Forest, south of Gladden, Mo. — not something most ladies of mature years would do. But the sisters weren't worried.
"Who is going to mess with two crazy women with shotguns?" Boozie pointed out. "It's great being out there with my big sis. We enjoy watching the sun come up and the animals wake and then putting a big turkey or a deer in our sights." — Jill J. Easton