Curtis Talley loved peaches.
He loved them so much he raised them, ate them, made wine out of them and taught people how to grow them.
Talley, a longtime Palisade farmer and teacher, died Nov. 20 in Delta. He was 85.
Talley had a 40-acre farm near Palisade and tended it after his teaching duties each day at Palisade High School. His wife and four kids all had jobs in the business: picking, sorting, de-fuzzing, boxing and canning of peaches, said his daughter Donna Deleff of Delta.
The kids started helping at age 5 and continued through high school. Deleff said she can remember her first salary being 5 cents an hour.
The family canned about 50 quarts of peaches a year, Deleff said.
Talley was named Peach Grower of the Year in 1971.
He also was the Future Farmers of America adviser and organized and taught fruit-growing classes at night. He taught agriculture, farm mechanics, welding and woodworking in his 32 years at Palisade High School, retiring in 1983.
Talley was one of the first farmers to plant wine grapes in the Grand Valley in the late 1960s.
He made peach wine in the basement, but usually didn’t drink it. “He was a beer person,” Deleff said.
Talley was a stickler when it came to students’ work. Don Young, a former student, recalls getting a C grade on a bedroom set he’d made. He took it home and redid the finish, brought it back and Talley gave him an A. “He knew I could do better,” said Young, of Littleton.
Talley didn’t have trouble with students, said former student Gordon Stewart of Palisade. “In those days you knew to keep your mouth shut,” said Young, who later became a farmer and Talley’s barber.
In agriculture classes, Talley’s field trips included taking students to watch ranchers castrate and dehorn animals, experiences Young said he won’t forget.
Curtis H. Talley Sr. was born in Red Rock, Texas, on Sept. 9, 1923, and graduated from Claunch, N.M., high school. There were two graduates that year and Talley always told people he was salutatorian. “The other kid was valedictorian,” he’d say.
He served in the Army infantry in France, Italy, Austria and Germany during World War II.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in science and education from New Mexico State University and a master’s degree in education from Colorado State University.
He married Margaret Hanlon in 1951. They later divorced.
In addition to his daughter, he is survived by another daughter, Rhonda Moore of Grand Junction; and two sons, Curtis Talley Jr. of Montague, Mich., and Dick Talley of Grand Junction; 10 grandchildren and six great- grandchildren; and two brothers, David Talley of Española, N.M., and Vallon Talley of Palisade.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
