On July 31, 2007 Larry Don Womack was presented the "Man of the Year in Texas Agriculture" Award at the Texas County Agriculture Agents Association meeting held in The Woodlands, Texas.

Larry is the third generation Womack to own, operate and manage Womack Nursery in the same location in DeLeon.

Womack Nursery is a mail order nursery specializing in more than 120 varieties of fruit and nut trees. They are known throughout the southwest for their work in peach and pecan varieties. Duties include oversight of propagation and management of growing nursery stock, customer sales and customer care including being a regional horticulture specialist to many clientele, and shipping all over the United States.

The "Man of the Year in Texas Agriculture" Awards program has been sponsored by the Texas County Agriculture Agents Association (TCAAA) for the past forty-five years. The members, directors, and officers of the TCAAA are privileged to bestow this award to individuals in recognition of their outstanding leadership in agriculture, agribusiness, and their support of the educational program efforts of the County Extension Agents of Texas. Their unselfish service has contributed to improving the economic well-being and quality of life in their communities, our state and our nation.

Womack Nursery has a history of working with Extension going back three generations. Larry Jim Womack is still listed as a founding member of the Extension Pecan Committee in Comanche County from the sixties. The family has been instrumental in developing peach, blackberry, grape and pecan varieties for the last half century and just about every fruit or nut variety tested in Texas has been tested with the Womack family.

For years the Womacks have worked closely with Extension Agents on demonstrations and test plots. They have worked with Extension and Research Horticulturist such as Tom Denman, Jody Worthington, Benton Storey, George Ray McEachern, Larry Stein, Bluefford Hancock and many others. Plant pathologist and entomologist both from research and extension beat a path to their business to ask for help to try something or to get their perspective on what they see concerning an insect pest or disease on horticulture crops.

Larry is a driving force for horticulture in the State of Texas mainly because he sells what Texans plant like no one else does or can. He has influence on almost all decisions made for orchard planting in Texas and yet he humbly asks for Extension "advice" all the time. Larry is constantly doing Master Gardener trainings throughout the year in counties from Tarrant to Wichita to San Angelo. The past 10 years Larry has hosted with Extension a budding and grafting clinic at his business. He advertises this in the 15,000 catalogs he sends out and participants come from all over Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Everyone comes to the Womacks for their tremendous experience and they willingly help all who come.

Larry has been a tremendous asset to the county extension program serving both on the Commercial Horticulture Committee and the Field Crops Committee as well as the Executive Board. He has willingly hosted numerous peanut tours, fruit tours and pecan tours. Womack Nursery has a tremendous reputation in the horticulture industry and Larry is a big part of that reputation. He is one of the real leaders of horticulture today and he will tell you Extension is a big part of his business and his life and because of that, he willingly does all he can to support Extension in his community, county and state. Congratulations to Larry and the Womack family for all their dedication to the horticulture industry and Texas Cooperative Extension.