Jean Abernethy

Nov 15, 2024 | l8r.it | Samantha Johnson |Heidi Melocco |Jean Abernethy

Mason City, Iowa, is situated in the heart of Iowa, and it’s probably best known as the birthplace of composer Meredith Willson of The Music Man fame. But the city is also famous for another reason: it’s the birthplace of a beloved American pony breed, the Pony of the Americas. In the mid-1950s, at about the time Meredith Willson was busily composing the songs for The Music Man, another Mason City man—a lawyer named Les Boomhower—was raising Shetland Ponies.