Tes Jolly, co-owner of Jolly’s Outdoor Visions near Tuskegee, Ala., has received the 2024 Wade Bourne Lifetime Achievement Award in Outdoor Communications and Media. Official recognition will take place Aug. 17 during the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame Banquet in Springfield, Mo.
“This is an award that goes to outdoor writers and photographers who have helped spread the word across America about the value of hunting and fishing,” said Garry Mason, director of the hall of fame. “She’s very deserving of that honor. She’s been working almost her whole life in the outdoor industry.”
“It’s just such an honor,” Jolly said. “I never expected to receive something like this.”
Jolly is a freelance writer and photographer on all subjects found in the southeastern outdoors, but her particular specialty is the wild turkey. She credits her Native American heritage and God-given gifts of patience and passion for her ability to record wild turkey behavior and creatively capture the essence of the birds’ beauty at close range.
For more than two decades her work has appeared in a variety of media including national, regional hunting and conservation-based publications— Turkey Call, Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, Realtree.com, Mossy Oak’s Gamekeepers, QDMA’s QualityWhitetails, Turkey and Turkey Hunting, Deer and Deer Hunting, books, calendars, advertising, packaging and art reference.
A self described tomboy as a child, Jolly credits her parents, who were avid hunters, with sparking a deep passion and respect for the natural world that eventually evolved into a career in outdoor communication. At nine years old, her enthusiastic desire to hunt was dampened by an unfortunate “men only” hunting club rule but her parents devised a plan. Disguised in baggy Army surplus clothes, a floppy hat and obeying instructions to avoid conversation and limit her wide dimpled smiles, a girl named Harvey embarked on a childhood adventure with her brothers, acquiring hunting skills and a lifelong love and respect for wildlife and the outdoors.
In 1994 Jolly entered the outdoor and hunting industry as one of the country’s few female turkey hunting guides at famed White Oak Plantation located in Alabama’s Black Belt Region. Over the next several spring seasons she guided and met many outdoor professionals—editors, writers, photographers, call makers and manufacturing representatives. In 1996 she met and married noted outdoor videographer and writer, Ron Jolly. Friendships from guiding developed into invaluable mentoring and industry contacts that helped Jolly transition to a full time career in freelance outdoor photography and writing.
A longtime member of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association, Jolly also taught archery for more than 20 years in the Alabama Becoming an Outdoors Woman program introducing hundreds of women to archery and hunting with an “If I can do it, you can do it” approach.
“Her respect and regard for the wild turkey is unparalleled,” Ron Jolly, her husband and business partner, said. “She loves them — loves to shoot them and loves to photograph them as well. I don’t believe there’s a living human being who has spent more time with undisturbed wild turkeys than she has. Countless days I’ve seen her leave home in the dark and get back in the dark. If the turkeys were there, she was dedicated to not disturbing them.
“She has the patience of Job. If she thinks the turkeys are coming, she’ll be there when they do. Her respect for the birds and her curiosity to learn why they do what they do makes her who she is.”
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