In the late 1960s Pat and Pennee moved with Brent, Julie and Patrick to Maricopa. Pat's brother-in-law, Rex
Neely, had been killed in an automobile accident. Pat's sister asked pat to run the farm in Maricopa.
The Neely family had built a house on the farm but never ended up moving in. In the meantime, one of their
employees moved into the house along with his wife, a couple of German shepherds and a monkey.
When Pat and Pennee decided to move into the house they discovered that the dogs were housed in one
room of the house and the monkey in another. Animal filth in the house was so bad that nothing Pennee
did could get rid of the smell or the grunge. In the end, she grabbed a garden hose and sprayed out the
inside of the house.
In 1969, Curt arrived and the family was complete. The house soon became a center for everything
including 4-H activities, choir practice, cousins working for the summer and much, much more. The family
lived in the house until 1979, ending more than a decade of Murphree habitation.
Today, the house site is in the middle of the entrance lake for the Lakes at Rancho El Dorado. Opening
pictures in the video, which were taken in 2005 reveal the rapid encroachment of Maricopa's development.