|
Seminole County, Oklahoma
Biographies
| George Birdwell was a partner and friend of
Oklahoma
outlaw
Pretty
Boy
Floyd.
He and
Floyd
robbed the
banks
in Earlsboro,
Konawa, Maud,
Morris,
Shamrock,
Tahlequah, and
on
December 12, 1931,
two banks in one
day at Castle and Paden,
Oklahoma. The bank
insurance rates doubled
in
one year in Oklahoma.
Against
advice
Birdwell
attempted
to
hold
up
the
bank
in
the
African-American
community
of
Boley,
Oklahoma.
On
November
23, 1932,
three
desperadoes rode
quietly
into
the
all
Black
town of
Boley,
Oklahoma,
with
the
intent
to
rob
the Farmers and
Merchants Bank.
The
group was led by
George
Birdwell,
chief
lieutenant
to the
infamous
bank
robber,
Pretty
Boy
Floyd.
On this
day
these
men would
encounter much
more
than
they
could
possibly
handle.
Birdwell and his partners,
Charles "Pete
Glass, and
C. C.
Patterson,
entered the
bank
and herded
assistant
cashier
H.C. McCormick
into the vault and
order
him to stay out of
the
main
bank
area.
The
three men now
approached the
bank
counter,
where they
confronted
the
bank's
president,
D.J.
Turner. After
staring
down
the
men,
Turner
calmly
reached
over the
counter
and
pressed the
alarm
to
alert the
townspeople.
Birdwell became enraged, and
leveved
his pistol at
Turner.
From inside the
vault,
H.C. McCormick
grabbed a gun and
fired
at the would
be
thief,
and
his
aim
was
deadly.
Birdwell fell
dead,
but not
before he
could
manage
to pump
four
bullets
into
Turner.
Turner
died
before he
could
reach the
local
hospital. He
was
shot
from
within
the
vault
by
a
citizen.
He
was
born Feb.
19,
1894. He
is
buried
in the Maple
Grove
Cemetery in
Seminole,
Seminole
County,
Oklahoma. |
 |
| Kenneth Lee Brown was born December 6, 1936
in
Seminole,
Oklahoma
at
109
North
University
to Roy
Lee
Brown who was
born
September
13, 1912
in
Hartford,
Arkansas and
died
April 1986 in
Van
Nuys,
California
and
Juanita
Martin born
May
17, 1913 in
Lebanon,
Missouri.
He
graduated
from
Pomona
College
(B.A. 1959)
Yale
University
(M.A.,
1960),
and New
York
University
(M.A.,
1975).
He
married Claudia Lee
McCue on September 14,
1957. Their
children are Kai Brown
born
March 8, 1961,
Craig
forn
on June
30,
1963
and
Kevin born
May 16,
1975. Ken
and
Cludia
divorced on
July
25,
1980. He
then
married
Bonnie H.
Lea
on
September
12,
1981.
His
last child
is
Charity
born
Octobber
24,
1978
(adopted in
1988).
His
wife
Bonnie
is
an
Attorney. He
served in
the US
Army
Reserve
(1960-61).
On
June
4,
1992
President
Bush
announced
his
intention
to
nominate
Kenneth L.
Brown,
of
California,
a
career
member of the
Senior
Foreign Service,
class of
Minister-Counselor,
to
be Ambassador of the
United States of America
to the Republic of
Ghana. He would succeed
Raymond Charles Ewing.
Currently Mr.
Brown serves as
Ambassador to
Cote
d'Ivoire
in
Abidjan,
Cote
d'Ivoire.
From
1987 to
1989, he
served as
Deputy
Assistant
Secretary of
State. Mr.
Brown
has
served as
consul
general
in
Johannesburg,
South
Africa, 1984
-
87, and
as
Ambassador
to the
Congo, 1981
- 84.
In
addition,
Mr.
Brown has
served in
several
positions at
the
State
Department,
including
Director,
Central
African
Affairs, 1980 -
81;
Deputy Director,
United
Nations
Political
Affairs, 1979
-
80; and
Deputy Director of the Press
Office,
1977 - 79.
Kenneth L.
Brown has
been
President
of the
Association for
Diplomatic
Studies
and
Training
since May
2001. As a
career
Foreign
Service
Officer
from
1961 to
1995,
he
served at the
American Embassy in
Brussels and six posts
in Africa. The latter
included tenure as
the
United States
ambassador to
Congo-Brazzaville, Cote
d'Ivoire, and Ghana. At
the Department of
State he held a
series
of
positions, including
Director of Central
African Affairs and
Deputy
Assistant
Secretary of State for
Africa.
After
leaving
the
Foreign Service,
Ambassador Brown
was
Director
of
the Dean
Rusk Program in
International
Studies
at
Davidson
College
from
1995 to 2001. |
 |
| Lee P. Brown was born in Wewoka, Oklahoma
on October 3, 1937 to
Andrew and Zelma Brown
. His family,
including six brothers,
moved
to California
in
the
second wave
of
the
Great
Migrationand
his
parents
continued as
farmers.
A high
school
athlete, Brown
earned a
football
scholarship to
Fresno
State
University,
where
he
earned a B.S.. in criminology in 1960. That year he
started as a police officer in San Jose,
California. Brown
went on to earn a
master's degree
in sociology from
San
Jose
State
University in
1964, and became an
assistant professor
there
in
1968. At the
University
of
California,
Berkeley,
he
earned a
second
master's in
criminology
in
1968, and
became
chairman
and
professor
of
the
Department of
Administration of
Justice at Portland
State
Universityin
the
same
year. He
earned a
doctorate
in criminology
from
Berkeley in
1970.
His
wife's
name is
Frances (Young)
Brown. Brown
was
the first African
American to
be
appointed
Police
Chief
to the
City of
Houston,
and
served from
1982-1990.
He was
first
appointed by Mayor
Kathy
Whitmire.
There he
implemented
methods
of
Community
Policing.
Brown
next took
his
leadership
to New York
City
as
Police Commissioner
where he
implemented
community
policing
citywide.
After
one
year,
crime
went
down in
every
category.
That was
the
start
of
the
most
drastic
reduction
of
crime
in
the history of
that
City.
Brown
presided
over what
many
say was
the
most
prosperous
six-year period in
the
history of
Houston.
Under his leadership,
the city invested in
extensive
infrastructure: it
started its first
light-rail system
and
obtained voter
approval
for
its
extension, along
with increases in
bus
service, park
and
ride,
and HOV
lanes;
opened
three new
state-of-the-art
professional sports
facilities; revitalized
the
downtown area;
constructed
the
City's
first
convention
center
hotel,
and
doubled
the
size of
the
convention
center;
and
constructed
the
Hobby
Center of the
Performing Arts.
In
addition, it built
and
renovated new
libraries,
police
and
fire
stations;
undertook a
$2.9
billion development
program at the
City's
airport system that
consisted of new
terminals and runways; a
consolidated car
rental
facility;
in
addition
to
renovating
other terminals and
runways;
and
built
a new water
treatment
plant.
Brown
also
advanced the
City's
affirmative
action
program;
installed
programs in City libraries
to
provide access to the
Internet;
built
the
state-of-the-art
Houston
Emergency
Communications
Center; implemented
e-government,
and
opened
new parks.
Many
of the projects
were
planned
or
started
by
previous
mayor Bob
Lanier, who
served until
term
limits. Brown
led
trade
missions for the
business community
to
other countries
and
promoted
international
trade. He
increased the
number of
foreign
consulates. Brown
is
known
through the law
enforcement community as
the Father of
Community
Policing.From
January,
1993 – December
12, 1995 he
served
under
President
Bill
Clinton
as the 3rd
Director of
National
Drug
Control
Policy.
|
Lee P. Brown shown
above |
| Bob Buford, a self-made
man, is the financier behind the development
of this outstanding
product (The
Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota)
. He
is
owner of
Zenith
Drilling
Corporation in
Wichita,
Kansas.
He
and
his
wife, Martha, of
nearly
50
years.
Bob was born in Bowlegs,
Oklahoma, growing up
in
oilfield camps in
Oklahoma and
Texas. He
graduated from
Oklahoma
State
University
and
served
seven
years in the Army
Reserve. In
the
late
50’s, his
mentor,
Bill Murfin, gave him
the
opportunity to
join
Murfin
Drilling Company
as
Manager of
Drilling
operations.
In
1966, Bob formed
Zenith
Drilling
Corporation and
is
today
one
of the largest
in
the
Midwest.
Throughout the
years he
has been
involved in
other
business ventures
including cattle,
land,
and real
estate
development. |
|
Florence E. Cobb was born September 28,
1878 at Bridgeport,
Connecticut to V. B. and
Emma Augusta
Ruthridge. Her
childhood
was spent near
Boston,
and
upon
graduating from Everett High school
on
June 23, 1897
she
attended Washington
College of Law.
She
received her
Bachelor of
Laws on May
26, 1911. She
continued
her
education
and
received hter
Master's
Degree on
May 27,
1912. She
was
admitted
to practice law
before
the
Suppreme
Court of
the
United
States on the
29th day
of January
1915.
While
living
in Washington she
was
employed in
the
Census
Department,
Department
of
Commerce,
Division
of
Education
for a
period of
twelve
years
and
for five
years
she
worked in
the
office
of
Indian
Affairs.
In
1914
and
1915 she
was listed
in
Who's
Who. She
came to
Oklahoma
in 1918
and
became the
US
Probate
Attorney at
Vinita
where
she
servered
for
two
years.
She
lated
came
to
Seminole County
where she served
for one
year.
She
was
admitted
to
practive
law
before the
Oklahoma
Supreme Court on June
3rd, 1918. Soon
after coming to Wewoka
in 1920 she married T.
S. Cobb, who was
a
member
of
this
bar and
former
county judge of
Seminole
County.
He
passed away on
May
10, 1929. She
was
a writer of
unusual
ability
and many
of her
poems
and articles
were
published.
She
served
as a
Librarian
in
Charge of
the
City
Library,
as
a
Justice of
the Peace
and
in 1933
as
a
Municipal Judge
of the
City of
Wewoka.
During her
term
she
prepared the
manuscript for
printing the Charter and
Ordinances of the
City
of
Wewoka which were
published in
1935.
She received
no
compensation
other
than
her regular
law for
this
long
and
difficult
task.
She
died
in
1946.
Source:
Excerpts from H. W.
Carver,
Seminole
County Bar
Association
(1947)
Printed in The
Chronicles
of
Oklahoma,
Volume 25
#1, pages 72 pic page 73 |
 |
|
Kelly Haney is an internationally recognized artist
who
exhibits
throughout the United States, England, Austria, and
Asia.
His
art
has
received
many
awards
and
recognition.
He
has
received the
title
of
Master
Artist of the
Five
Civilized
Tribes.
In
addition
to
decades of
success
as
a
painter,
Kelly
became
the
highly
esteemed
creator of the
22-foot,
bronze
sculpture
entitled,
The
Guardian
that
was
chosen to
top the
Oklahoma
State
Capitol
Dome.
Also,
in
addition to
The
Guardian
sculpture
atop the
Capitol
dome,
Kelly
has
seven,
seven-foot
replicas of
The
Guardian
at
various
businesses
and
college
campuses
throughout the
State of
Oklahoma.
He was also
commissioned
to
create
the
Chickasaw
Warrior at
the
Chickasaw
Nation
Headquarters
in
Ada,
Oklahoma
and the
Standing
His
Ground
sculpture
in the Enoch
Kelly Haney
Center foyer
at
Seminole
State
College
in
Seminole,
Oklahoma.
Kelly
has also
created
roundels
for the
Chickasaw
Nation
Cultural Center
and the
State
House of
Representatives
and
State
Senate
Chambers at
the
Oklahoma
State
Capitol.
These
pieces form
an
extraordinary
repertoire
of
sculptures from
an
artist
who
was
never
formally
trained
in
sculpting
and
started
at
age
six
using
the
red
clay from
his
front yard
to create
Abraham
Lincoln’s
head.
Though
professionally
trained
in
painting, by
Dr.
Dick
West
at Bacone
College in
Muskogee,
Oklahoma, the
recipient
of a
Rockefeller
Scholarship
to the
University
of Arizona in
Tucson,Arizona,
and a
graduate of
Oklahoma
City
University in
Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma
with
a degree in
Fine
Arts,
Kelly’s
artist
ability
is
God-given.
When
Kelly
was merely
two years
old, his
mother
noticed
Kelly
recreating
with
crayons
what he
saw. After
decades
of
paintings
and
his
most
recently
commissioned
sculptures,
Kelly
has an
impressive
art
career
spanning
over 40
years.
In
addition
to Kelly’s
remarkable
artwork, he
has
also
been a
successful
politician.
Kelly
had
an humble
beginning in
rural
Seminole
County,
and his modest
life has
guided his
perspective
of
honesty,
integrity, and
fairness which has made the way for his
esteemed
accomplishments
in
politics.
Kelly
was a
State
Senator in
the
Oklahoma
Legislature
from
1986 to
2002 and
was a State
Representative
from 1980
to
1986.
Kelly was
the
first
full
blood
American
Indian to
serve in
the
Oklahoma
Legislature.
He
also became
the Vice
Chair of
Appropriations
his
second
term
in the
House
before
ultimately
becoming
the
Chairman
of
the
Appropriations
Committee
in
the
Oklahoma
State
Senate.
In
addition to
this
significant
accomplishment, he
was
also the
chief
architect of
legislation
designed to
develop and
implement
education programs
for
at-risk
students
(Alternative
Education)
and
provided
legislative
leadership
for the
development of
the
$140
million American
Indian
Cultural
Center
in
Oklahoma
City.
Kelly
was
also one of 20
legislators chosen
to
serve
on the
Executive
Committee of
the Nation
Conference of
State
Legislators.
In
2005, after two
decades
of
accomplishments
in
the State
Legislature,
Kelly
Haney
was sworn
into the
office of
Principal
Chief of
the
Seminole
Nation of
Oklahoma.
This was
not
Kelly’s
first
involvement with
the
Nation,
as he also
served
as
a Councilman,
Band
Chief,
Business
Consultant, and
Planner in the
1970’s.
Kelly has
been
involved
in
tribal
and state
leadership
and
politics
a
majority
of
his
life.
According to
Kelly,
though,
“We
get
to where
we
are by
standing on
the
shoulders of
those
who
came before
us.”
Since
before
statehood,
the
Haney
family
has
been
involved
in
tribal and
state
politics.
In
1903,
Samuel
Haney,
Kelly’s
Great
Uncle, was
Vice
Chief
of the
Seminole
Nation,
Grandfather
Willie
Haney
was
Chief in
the
1940’s
and
provided
leadership
to
the
Democratic
Party of
Seminole
County
in
the
1930’s,
and
Uncle
Jerry
Haney
was
Principal
Chief in the
1990’s.
Therefore,
we can
probably look
forward to
seeing
Haney
leadership
in the
future.
Source:
http://www.kellyhaney.com/about.html |
"The Guardian"
is the work of Enoch
Kelly Haney on top of
the
Oklahoma State
Capital
Dome.
Shawnee
News-Star |
|
Mayor Tammie Hill was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Her
parents were the late Mr. and Mrs. Horace
Scott, Jr. She is
the youngest of five
children. She attended
Capital Hill High
School
and graduated in 1979.
She
married her
husband
Marcous Hill
and moved
to Lima,
Oklahoma
in 1985.
They have
three
children
two
sons,
and one daughter.
After twenty
two years
of
marriage, her husband
passed away
in
2004. Tammie
became Mayor
of Lima,
Oklahoma in
1994 and is
currently
Mayor. As a result
of her
efforts, April 8, 1995 was
proclaimed
“Lima,
Oklahoma Day” by
the House of
Representatives of the
1st session of the 45th
Oklahoma
Legislature.
This
Limafest Day
is a
day
of
fun and
recreation
with
games,
fashion
shows, commercial
vendors selling their
products, and
basketball
tournaments. Through
her
efforts in
1999,
the
town has
erected a sign
saying, “Welcome to
the
Town of
Lima,
Oklahoma.
Now
visitors
can see
where they are
when
entering
Lima. In
addition, many roads
have been resurfaced and
the
sewer system has
been upgraded. One of
Mayor
Hill’s
pending
projects
is to
see that
the
historical Rosenwald
Hall school building that
was built in
1921
be restored. Through
the efforts of
Julius
Rosenwald
who
worked
closely
with
Booker T.
Washington, the school
was
built.
The
building is now on
the
National
Register of
Historic
places. In
2003, Mayor Hill
completed a video on
the
History
Channel
concerning the
restoration of
the
Rosenwald
Hall
building. In
October
2003, she
visited the
great
grandson
of
Booker-T.
Washington.
Washington’s
descendants
have
endorsed
the restoration
of
this
historic
landmark for
Lima,
Oklahoma. Each
September since 2004, the
Patriotic Ball is
held
so that town people can
dress up and fellowship
together. This
event and the
Limafest
Day are
just a
few
activities that not only
bring the people
together but
contribute
to the Town
of Lima
being
recognized in the
State
as an historic
community
that was
incorporated on April 8,
1913. Mayor Hill’s desire is to see
that
the
town of
Lima,
Oklahoma
establishes a park, a fire
department, a
shopping
mall, a
technology
center for seniors and
youths to become
computer literate, a
crisis center for youth
and
adults to
receive
counseling
and
to become
more
productive
in
society. The
Mayor
has
been
celebrated for
her many
achievements.
In
2001, she received a
plaque from the Oklahoma
Black Farmer
Association
for being
one of the black elected
officials
in the
State
of
Oklahoma. In
2002,
Tammie
wrote
an article
entitled, “A
Vision
from
God.” The
article
was about the new
construction
of
Mt. Zion
AME Zion
Church in
Lima,
Oklahoma.
The
article appeared in
the South Carolina
Challenger
Newspaper. Mayor
Hill attends Christ Is
The Answer Church in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
where she is part of the
music
ministry.
She
enjoys
interior
decorating and
making various
craft items.
She
is in the process of
writing a book about her
life as Mayor of
Lima,
Oklahoma. |
 |
|
Tuesday,
March 1, 1927, Miss Sadie Franklin and I
(James T.
Jackson) gave
birth
to the
bellering
brat
in a
concrete
block
building on
East
Oak
Street.
Its
birth was
painful
and
plagued with
trouble and
uncertainty.
Certainly nobody,
least of all
Sadie and
I, expected the wobbly
little critter to
survive. We have
discussed
the
question
of making
it a
weekly,
semi-weekly or daily.
Sadie made the decision
when she said, “Let’s
make it a daily; we’ll
go broke and get out of
here quicker that
way.”
The merchant who
bought the largest ad in the first issue
said
he wanted to help
us, but a daily couldn’t possibly succeed in
Seminole.
Seminole had a daily
newspaper.
As a
weekly,
semi-weekly and
lastly
as a daily,
it
had survived only
four
months.
Tuesday, March 1,
1927, was dark,
damp,
and dismal. On the
morning of that first
publication day the
Producer didn’t have a subscriber and not
an inch of advertising had been sold.
Midmorning L. W. Kitchens,
superintendent of
schools, came to
the
office and paid for
a
year’s
subscription, and
the
Producer went to press that day with a
circulation of exactly one.
One printer was on
hand. By wire and mail we had hired another
printer, an editor, an
advertising man, and a
linotype operator. The
operator arrived at
midnight Monday. The
editor, bogged down in
the mud between Ardmore
and Seminole, arrived
after the first issue
had gone to press. The
other two didn’t
reach
Seminole
until
later in
the
week.
It was not by our
choosing that Sadie and I had come to
Seminole. We had sold
the printing plant in
Kansas to an adventurer
who had more courage
than judgment. He had
moved it to the wild and
wooly oil boom
town.
There was not a foot
of paving
in the
county.
There were
few
sidewalks
in
Seminole.
The
streets
were a sea
of mud. There
was
little
law and no
order.
The city water
supply
from two
shallow wells
was
utterly inadequate.
Electric
and
gas
service
faltered
and
often
failed;
telephone
service was
almost
non-existent.
Thousands of boomers
milled
about
the streets and
the town’s
most
prosperous business
establishments, the two
“49er” dance halls. We
stood in long lines
to
get into the post
office, the banks, the
freight and express
offices and the
cafes.
Cot houses
flourished
as oil
workers slept in
shifts.
February 11 the
adventurer who had
established the Seminole
Morning Tribune
gave
up the
struggle
as
hopeless and
turned
the
plant back to
me,
and
the Tribune
became nothing more
than a memory.
I made numerous
efforts to
sell
the
plant,
nothing
down
and
liberal terms.
It
was mortgaged for
more
than its worth, and
I
found no
buyer.
Pat
Stewart,
the
printer
retained
when the Tribune
folded, and I were
doing some job printing
for cash so we could
continue to eat at the
Chinese
restaurant
next
door.
After a few days I
became somewhat
acclimated, and
decided
it might not be
too
bad
after all.
After hours
of
waiting
my turn
at
the
telephone
office,
I
reached Sadie by
telephone in
Chicago and
asked her to
come
to
Seminole.
I
met
her
at
the Rock
Island
station
with a
pair of
rubber
boots
in my
hand.
She
wore them for
three
months.
Perhaps the fact
that we wanted to “go broke and get out of
there” accounted in part
for the Producer’s
success. Anyhow,
the
Producer was soon
swinging with both fists.
Its first big
victory came early in
1928 at the end of a
crusade to clean up the
county’s law
enforcement
agencies.
Eleven
deputy
sheriffs
were
dismissed and
three
constables
were
asked to
resign. Two
resigned,
the third was
ousted after giving us
our first
libel
suit.
Rather rapidly we
acquired several such suits for a total of
some $265,000. But the
Producer was winning most
of
its battles,
was growing in prestige,
in
circulation and in
advertising. The job
printing department,
which brought in more
dollars than the
newspaper in those early
months, became a
sideline.
The town was moving
forward too.
In
mid-March 1927, Governor Henry
S. Johnston
appointed an
entire
new
city
administration
and
school board.
Under
the
new
leadership
of
Mayor J. N.
Harber
and
School Board
President
George
Killingsworth, a
new day
came
to
Seminole.
Over the years, I
have formed one very definite conclusion.
There are four things
that a community must
have if it is to grow
and prosper. If it has
these four, all the
other necessary adjuncts
to community
life
will
follow. It if
doesn’t
have all four,
it
withers and
dies.
On the spiritual and
cultural
sides, it
must
have
churches
in
numbers,
and
it
must
have good
schools.
On
the business
side,
it
must have banks
with
a
deep-rooted
interest in
the
community. To
inform and
enlighten
the
people
on
matters of
public
interest, it
must
have
at least one
aggressive
and
fearless
newspaper.
Sadie and I
gave Seminole the
newspaper. James T. and
Sadie Jackson owned and operated the Seminole
Producer from 1927
until
1946.
|
James T. Jackson is the top picture.
James and Sadi are pictured immediately
following. |
| Wanda Jackson was born Oct 20, 1937 in Maud,
Oklahoma. Wanda Jackson was only halfway
through high school
when, in 1954, country
singer Hank Thompson heard her on an Oklahoma City
radio show and asked
her to
record
with
his
band, the
Brazos Valley
Boys. By
the end of
the
decade,
Jackson had
become one
of America's
first major female
country and rockabilly
singers. Jackson
was
born in Oklahoma,
but
her father Tom
--
himself a country
singer who
quit because of
the
Depression -- moved
the
family to
California
in
1941. He
bought
Wanda
her first
guitar two years later,
gave her
lessons, and
encouraged
her to play
piano as
well. In addition, he
took her to see such
acts as Tex Williams, Spade Cooley, and Bob Wills, which left a lasting impression
on her young mind. Tom moved the family back
to Oklahoma City when
his daughter was 12
years old. In 1952, she
won a local talent
contest and was given
a
15-minute daily show
on KLPR. The program,
soon upped to 30
minutes, lasted
throughout Jackson's
high
school
years. It's
here
that Thompson heard her sing. Jackson recorded
several songs with the Brazos Valley Boys,
including "You Can't Have
My Love," a duet
with Thompson's
bandleader, Billy Gray. The song, on the Decca label,
became a national hit, and Jackson's career
was off and running. She
had wanted to sign
with
Capitol, Thompson's label, but was turned down, so
she signed with Decca instead. Jackson
insisted on finishing
high school before
hitting the road. When
she did, her father
came
with her. Her mother made and helped
design
Wanda's stage
outfits.
"I was the
first one to
put
some glamour in the
country music --
fringe dresses,
high
heels, long earrings,"
Jackson said of these
outfits. When Jackson
first toured in 1955 and
1956, she was placed
on a bill with none
other than Elvis Presley. The two hit it off almost
immediately. Jackson said it was Presley, along with her father, who
encouraged her to sing rockabilly. In
1956, Jackson finally
signed with Capitol, a
relationship that lasted
until the early
'70s.
Her recording
career
bounced back and
forth between country
and rockabilly;
she did
this by often
putting
one song in each style
on either side of a
single. Jackson cut the
rockabilly hit
"Fujiyama
Mama" in 1958, which became a major
success in
Japan. Her
version of
"Let's Have a
Party,"
which
Elvis had cut earlier, was a U.S. Top 40
pop hit for her in 1960, after which she began
calling her band the
Party Timers. A year
later, she was back in
the country Top Ten
with
"Right or Wrong" and "In the Middle of a
Heartache." In 1965, she
topped the German
charts
with "Santa Domingo," sung in
German. In
1966,
she hit the U.S.
Top 20
with "The Box It
Came
In" and "Tears
Will Be
the Chaser for
Your
Wine." Jackson's
popularity continued
through the end of
the
decade.
Jackson
toured
regularly, was
twice nominated for a
Grammy, and was a big
attraction in Las Vegas
from the
mid-'50s
into
the '70s. She
married
IBM programmer Wendell
Goodman in 1961, and
instead of quitting the
business -- as many
women singers had
done
at the time --
Goodman
gave up his job in
order
to manage his
wife's
career. He also packaged
Jackson's
syndicated
TV
show,
Music Village. In 1971, Jackson and her
husband
became
Christians, which she says
saved their
marriage.
She released
one gospel album on
Capitol in 1972, Praise
the Lord, before
shifting to the
Myrrh
label for three more
gospel albums. In 1977,
she switched again,
this
time to Word
Records, and released another
two. In
the early
'80s,
Jackson was invited to
Europe to play
rockabilly and country
festivals and to record.
She's since been
back
numerous times.
More
recently, American
country artists Pam Tillis, Jann Browne, and Rosie Flores have acknowledged Jackson as a
major influence. In
1995, Flores released a rockabilly album, Rockabilly Filly, and invited Jackson, her
longtime idol, to sing two duets on it with
her. Jackson embarked on
a major U.S. tour
with
Flores later
that year. It was her first
secular tour in
this
country since the '70s,
not to mention
her
first time back in a
nightclub atmosphere. ~ Kurt Wolff, All
Music
Guide |
|
|
W. M. JARVIS is prominently
known throughout the southwest as an
agriculturist and stock raiser
and as the
proprietor of
The Heliker & Jarvis Seminole
Company, one of the
largest ranches in
Seminole county, Oklahoma.
This valuable tract
contains ten thousand
acres, eight thousand
acres of which are
under
cultivation, and the
land is very rich and
especially well adapted
to the raising of
cotton, corn and alfalfa.
Seventy-four
tenant
houses have been built on
this farm, as well
as
a blacksmith shop and a
good store. On the Indian lease land there
is
also a school house
with an attendance of eighty-four pupils,
superintended by a
capable and efficient
teacher, and church
services are held in
this
school house once a month and
Sunday-school
every
Sunday. The farm is under the management of
Heliker &
Jarvis, and these
gentlemen are just and
liberal in their
dealings with their
tenants and are numbered
among
the most prominent business men in this
part
of the state.
W.
M. Jarviscame to the
Indian Territory in
1880, and in 1890 to
Pottawatomie
county,
Oklahoma, first locating
near McLoud, from
whence
in 1900 he came to
his present large estate.
He has thus been
a
resident of what is
now
the state of Oklahoma for twenty-eight
years, one of its
earliest pioneers and now
one of its leading
business men. He was
born
in Shelbyville, Shelby county, Illinois,
August 12, 1863, and is
a representative of an
old Virginian family.
His father, Samuel
Jarvis, was a Civil
war soldier and died
in Pottawatomie
county,
Oklahoma, when
sixty-six years of age, a
life-long farmer and
a
member of the Christian church. His mother,
Sarah Foltz, was
born in Pennsylvania
and
is of Pennsylvania
Dutch descent. She is
now living in this
county, the mother of six
children.
Their son W. M.
Jarvis was fourteen
years of age when he
went to Iowa and from
there he came to the
Indian Territory
and
rode the range for
years. In Coles
county, Illinois, he was
united in marriage to Nettie
Horsley,
who was the
first white child born in the Osage Nation
of
Indian Territory. The
Indian chief of the
nation some time later
wished to adopt her,
and
being refused the
parents were notified to
leave that country. Her
father, Theodore
Horsley, died in
Logan county, Oklahoma,
a
well known cattleman. Mrs. Jarvis
was
educated in the
Osage Mission school, and her marriage has
been blessed by the
birth of seven children:
Ethel, Pearl,
Floyd,
Lois, Henry,
Gladys
and
Elaine. Mr. Jarvis is an
active Republican
worker, and has served as a
delegate to the
state
conventions. He is
a
member of the Masonic
fraternity and a charter
member of
McLoud Lodge No. 157, which was
organized at
Dale. He is a
man of excellent
business qualifications,
fair and honorable in
his
dealings, and he is one of the best known
men
of Pottawatomie
county. Mrs.
Jarvis is
a member of the Christian
church. |
|
|
Sammy Masters, a Korean War veteran, was born Samuel Lawmaster in
Saskawa,
Oklahoma on
July
18,
1930
and,
from
1959 to 1972,
was a
regular on TV's
Cal's
Corral. In terms of hit
records, he recorded
for several labels,
including Cormac,
Four-Star, and Lode, but
had
just the one
lonely hit
in
early 1960
when his
rockabilly version of
the old tune Red
Wing
reached # 60 on the
Billboard Pop Hot 100 b/w
Lonely Weekend, on
the
Lode label. |
|
| Al McAffrey was sworn into
the Oklahoma House of Representatives on the
State’s Centennial
birthday, November
16th, 2006. A
life-long Democrat,
he
campaigned on issues
that touch the lives
of
his highly diverse
inner-city district in
metropolitan Oklahoma
City where he has
lived,
worked,
and
raised
children
for
many
years.
Al
pledged to
work
for
better
access to
affordable
health
care,
improvements
for
education in our
public
schools,
and a
more
compassionate
state
approach to
care
for
senior
citizens.
He also
expressed
a keen
interest in
supporting
and
protecting his
district’s public
safety,
economic
development,
public
transportation,
and its
thriving
arts community.
Above all,
he
promised
honesty,
fairness, and hard work.
Rep.
McAffrey’s
committee
assignments in
the state
legislature
reflect
those campaign
issues
and
concerns. He
was
appointed to the
following
Committees.
Human
Services
Committee,
Transportation
Subcommittee of
the
General
Government
and
Transportation
Committee, Arts and
Culture
Subcommittee of
the
Education
Committee.
As
a
freshman lawmaker in his
first term, Al has
already authored six
bills for consideration
in the 2007 session that
reflect these
issues:
Health
Care,
Economic
Development,
Public
Safety,
Better
pay for
education
support
personnel. Al was
born in
Konawa,
Oklahoma
on June
6,
1948.
Al was
reared in Sulphur,
Oklahoma, the son of a
Baptist
minister.
Public
service
and hard
work
are in
his
blood. He
served
in the
U.S. Navy and
later as an Oklahoma
City police officer. He
owned and
operated
several
successful
small
businesses while also
working as a respected
and compassionate
funeral director. He is
a
past member of
the
vestry
at St.
Paul’s
Episcopal
Cathedral and
is
active in
his Mesta
Park
Neighborhood
Association. He’s a
voting
member of
the
Choctaw
Tribe.
Al is the
father
of
three daughters and
five grandchildren,
yet
he still makes
time to
be
an
active
supporter
of
AIDS
charities
and
numerous
civic,
business, and
cultural
organizations. |
 |
|
Milt Phillips and his brother Tom got an early start
in the newspaper profession. Their uncle
Willard published a Norman,
Oklahoma
newspaper, the
Topic-Democrat, starting in
1899.
There Milt and Tom
learned
the
newspaper
business
from the
bottom
up
starting work
as
"Printer's
Devils".Tom
later worked
for
the
Norman
Transcript,
the
Kingfisher
Free
Press and
Chickasha
Daily
Express
newspapers
as a
reporter
and
sports
editor.
In
1922 while
working
for
Senator
Elmer
Thomas
in
Washington
D.C.,
he
founded the
Oklahoma
Congressional
News
Bureau.In
1925
Tom
purchased the
Holdenville
News
and
converted
it into
the
Holdenville
Daily
News in
1927.Tom
ran
a
feisty
newspaper,
never
one to hold back
the truth. After
one
election
State
Senator Tom
Anglin
pulled a
gun
on
Tom
Phillips.
The
Senator
was
disarmed by
local
businessman
Frank Willis
and Tom escaped
unharmed.Another of Tom
and Milt's brothers,
J.B.,
was later
killed
by a
single
gunshot
while
inside the
Holdenville
Daily News
office. He
was
guarding the
newspaper office
overnight
after
threats
to
burn it
down had been
received from a
local
political
figure.Milt
entered WWI
after
enlisting in
the Army.
After
the
war he
attended the
University
of
Oklahoma.
In 1930
while
working for
the
American
Legion
he
started
editing
the
Legion's
newspaper,
the
Oklahoma
Legionnaire.
Milt
and Tom
purchased
the
Seminole
Producer
in
1946. In
1948 they
combined
it with
the
Seminole
County
News to
form one
daily
paper.In
1950 they
purchased
the Wewoka
Times
and the
Wewoka
Democrat
and
combined them
into
one daily
paper.Their
plan was to
make one
central
printing plant
in Wewoka
for all three
newspapers. Tom
was later diagnosed with
cancer and died in
1956.
Tom's
widow, Aldene,
kept the
Holdenville
paper,
Milt
kept
the
Seminole
paper and
the
Wewoka
paper
was
sold
off.In the late
fifties
Milt
wanted
to insure
that his key
employees
would
remain
in the
business,
so he
sold
minority
interests
to
three
of his
staffers.
Ted
Phillips,
Carroll
Sciance
and Alex
Adwan
became partners in the
Producer. Alex
later
sold back
his
interest
when he
moved to
Houston
to
become
the
U.P.I
bureau
chief.Carroll Sciance
remained a
partner
with
Milt and
then Ted
until
his death
in
1992.
Stu Phillips
acquired
the
stock
that
Carroll
Sciance owned.
Stu
and
Ted were
partners in
the
Seminole
Producer
until
Ted's
death in
2004.In
the
year
2000
Stu
repurchased
the
Wewoka
Times. It
is
currently
a
weekly
paper. |
 |
Jim and Marie
Strickland: Jim was born in Cromwell, Oklahoma, where Jim
Sr. worked for the Sinclair Refinery. Later,
moving to Shawnee, they
became members of the
Immanuel Baptist Church,
where Jim was saved
and baptized in
1932.
Again the
family
moved,
this time
to Colorado
where Jim went to junior
and high school, entering the U.S. Coast
Guard
in
1943.
During
the next
two and a half
years, Jim
received
recognition for
his
participation in eight of
the major battles in
the
Pacific,
qualifying
him for an
early
discharge,
though he
stayed
in until
after the
peace
was won. Marie
Houser
was born in Brush,
Colorado. She was saved
at
13, and she and her
family were all baptized
in the same service.
She and Jim met at
the
First Baptist Church
of
Englewood,
Colorado.
As
Jim's
parents had
become
members of
this
church
during his
absence in the
military,
he joined soon
after
returning
home.
Jim
and
Marie were
part of
the
group of 14
young
people of this church
who
entered Bible
Institute
in September
of 1946.
They became
engaged toward the
end
of the first year,
were
married
during
the
summer,
and
returned
to
school
for the
second
year as Mr. and
Mrs.
Strickland.
In
1948/49 Jim
and Marie
were
home
missionaries
of the
First
Bible
Baptist
Church of Ft.
Collins,
Colorado.
Jim
became
co-organizer
and
Pastor
of the Bible
Baptist
Church
of
Sidney,
Nebraska.
Then,
after
periods as
Associate
Pastor
and Pastor
in
churches
in
Colorado and
Nebraska,
Jim was
ordained in
1953
by the First
Baptist Church of
Englewood,
Colorado,
whose
pastor
was one of
the great
fundamental
preachers of
those
early
days,
Dr. Harvey H. Springer. The Stricklands sailed the same year for
Montevideo, Uruguay, where they began their
missionary ministry. In
1960 they "moved
across
the river"
to
Argentina, where they
continued to serve. Their
missionary ministry spans more than fifty
years. The Lord gave
them six children, all of
whom are now
married.
They have fifteen
grandchildren and
five
great
grandchildren
|
 |
| O.D. Strother was a shoe
salesman from St.
Louis
who traveled the
Indian
Territory
beginning in
1881 spending
considerable time
in
Okmulgee,
McAlester
and
Seminole.
Strother traveled
this
land using a
two-horse
driven
wagon
where
few
roads
and
virtually
no
bridges to cross
rivers
or
streams
existed. He
learned to
survive using
his keen
sense of
direction,
his wit and
excellent
salesmanship.
Crude oil
was
discovered
in the
Indian
Territory
in 1896
and
word
of this
new
source of
wealth
spread
like
wildfire
throughout
the
Territory. Strother
became
enamored
with the
stories
of the
discoveries
and
investigated
the
early
sites of
discoveries.
He
was not
a scientific
man, but
had
boundless
energy
and
enthusiasm
and
began
to
investigate
the
early
Oklahoma
discoveries
with
the aid
of
other
oil men and
geologists.
His
investigations
convinced
him
that a
northeast to
southwest
trend
was
established
in
these
early fields
which
would
run through the
small
farm town of
Seminole,
and he became
interested in
buying
land
in
this area.
Strother
began to
purchase
land
in the
Seminole
area
in
1905, and
by
1917 he had
purchased
approximately
6,500
acres. The
accumulated
taxes
on
these
properties
became
more
than he
could
afford. In
1917,
he
organized The
Home-Stake
Oil & Gas
Company
,
thus
incorporating
his
holdings,
and
raised
$50,000 to
help
pay for
the
property he
had
acquired.
Strother
traveled
the
oil
company
circuit to
Bartlesville,
Tulsa and elsewhere to encourage
the oil
companies to
lease and
drill on his
property
in
Seminole.
He
usually
brought gift
packages
of
pecans,
grown on the
trees of
his lands, to
the oil executives
to
entice them to lease
his
property. The
Wewoka
discovery
in
1923
brought
a
few
oil
companies into
the
Seminole
area
for
exploration --
mostly
shallow wells, a
majority of which
were
dry.
This
discouraged
many of the
oil
companies, but
not
Strother.
He
had
the
courage
of
conviction
not to
give
up on his
faith
that
oil was
in
the
Seminole
area.
Strother
constantly
encouraged
and
prodded
oil
companies to
explore the area. He was a
consummate
salesman
with
undying
faith, unfortunately he
died
March 17,
1926. |
O. D.
Stroter
Strother Chapel
located in Maple Grove Cemetry was named after
O.
D.
Strother.
It
was
almost in ruins
until
the Maple Grove
Cemetery
Association
began
renovations
to
restore
it. A
portion of their
offices
is
located
insdie
it. Most of my
families graves are
located to
the
left side
of this
chapel. |
| Harold Leo Turner was born on May 5, 1898
at Aurora,
Missouri.
He
enlisted into
the
armed
forces at
Seminole,
Oklahoma. He
was a
Congressional
Medal of honor
recipient.
He
was
a Corporal in the
U.S. Army, Company
F, 142d Infantry,
36th
Division. He was awarded
his citation for his
actions while near St.
Etienne, France on
October 8,
1918.
After
his platoon
had
started
the
attack Cpl.
Turner
assisted in
organizing a
platoon
consisting
of the
battalion
scouts,
runners,
and
a
detachment
of
Signal
Corps. As
second
in
command of
this
platoon he
fearlessly
led
them
forward
through
heavy enemy
fire,
continually
encouraging
the
men. Later
he
encountered
deadly
machinegun
fire
which
reduced
the
strength
of
his
command
to but
4
men, and these
were
obliged to take
shelter. The enemy
machinegun emplacement, 25
yards distant, kept
up
a continual fire from 4
machineguns. After the
fire had shifted
momentarily, Cpl.
Turner
rushed
forward
with
fixed
bayonet and
charged the position
alone
capturing the
strong point with a
complement
of 50
Germans
and 1 machineguns.
His
remarkable
display
of
courage and
fearlessness
was
instrumental
in
destroying
the
strong
point,
the
fire
from
which had
blocked
the
advance
of his
company.
He
died
on March
12,
1938
and is
buried
in
the
Little
Cemetery at
Little,
Seminole
County,
Oklahoma. |
 |
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