With an assignment of equities to the local school district, this independent cooperative is gone but not forgotten.

Fred Zell called the Today's Farmer office with a story to tell. As president of the board for the Billings Farmer Sales Association, an independent cooperative at Billings, Mo., he and the co-op's board took charge of its dispersal. Chartered in 1920, the Billings cooperative served the surrounding farm community and became affiliated with MFA through a license agreement.

"The Billings Farmer Sales Association roared in the 1920s, then hit the depression and slowed down," said Zell. "I guess the heyday was from the '40s to the '60s. But our community made a transition from a farming town to the suburbia of Springfield and that changed the dynamics of everything. As a cooperative, we became outdated."

The story Zell wanted to relay was that once the association's leadership recognized the need for action, they managed to keep out of debt and offer something to the community.

Since closing its doors in 1994, the association, under Zell's leadership, has kept a functioning board. In December 2003, after wrangling with all the necessary paperwork, the board dispersed some $30,000 of equity back to the association's membership. The board also decided that equity owed to the association from MFA would be directed to the Billings R-4 school district.

"The agreement we set up directs the money to go to bricks and mortar," said Zell. "We were fortunate to have the store for about 85 years; now maybe it can be remembered through an improved school."

Zell said that by and large, the co-op's former customers go to the Town and Country MFA at Republic. "It's a nice store and people in the community appreciate having it."