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Dan True, True Construction
I never really thought much about leaving a legacy. I just tried to do what was right.
When Joan and I moved to Lebanon in 1971, it was a small town with a lot of gravel streets and a lot of heart. I came down here with the Missouri Highway Department as a resident engineer. Highway 5 was still a narrow little two-lane road back then. We worked on building it, one piece at a time. I didn’t come here with a grand plan. I just wanted to work hard, raise my family, and be part of something good.
I grew up in Montgomery County, Missouri. One-room schoolhouse, small town life. Joan grew up around Columbia. We met by pure chance, after what you could call the worst blind date that turned into the best night of my life. I ran into her mother first, believe it or not, at a dance floor in Fulton. She gave me Joan’s phone number, and the next day I called. Three months later, we were married. We had a big family, three boys and one girl at home and then later, our youngest, Danny.
When we came to Lebanon, we didn’t know a soul. But over time, we built a life here. I worked for MoDOT for a while, but I always had a pull toward running my own business. I had good friends who encouraged me, like Bill Willard and George Curry, and eventually I left the highway department and opened True Construction. Later, we got into the ready-mix concrete business too. It wasn’t easy starting out, but people believed in us. They gave us chances. They trusted us to get the job done right.
Joan was right there with me through all of it, working in a little office, helping run the books for True Construction and Lebanon Ready Mix. She was raising kids, balancing bills, managing life. We weren’t born into money. We worked for every inch we got. There were times we pushed carts through the grocery store full of food and prayed the check would clear. But we made it.
Over the years, I’m told we had a hand in more than 40 buildings downtown. I still smile when I drive through town and see pieces of our work standing strong. Danny says our company built over a million square feet in Lebanon. It feels good to know we helped shape something that lasted.
But it wasn’t just about building buildings. It was about building community. Serving on city council, being part of the Chamber, working Hillbilly Days and Christmas parades, taking Meals on Wheels to folks who needed a friendly face, donating 18 months to turn Kmart into a library. It’s just what you do when you love a place. You show up. You pitch in.
Joan and I never did any of it for attention. We never wanted our names in the paper or a pat on the back. In fact, when they named a room at the library after us, I made sure her name came first. She deserved that. She still does.
Family has always been at the center of everything for us. We raised kids, grandkids, helped foster kids along the way, opened our doors when somebody needed a place to land. We didn’t have everything, but we had enough, and that was plenty to share. We worked hard, stayed close, leaned on our faith, and loved each other through it all.
Lebanon has changed a lot since we first pulled into town, but it’s still home. It’s the kind of place where, if you put your heart into it, it gives it back to you. We were blessed to find good people here, friends who became family, opportunities that became a legacy we never set out to build but are proud to leave behind.
We didn’t get rich. We didn’t get famous. We got something better. We got a life full of love, hard work, and purpose. And I’d do it all over again, right here in Lebanon.
Dan True, True Construction
