D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1

The 2011 Oklahoma Hall of FameThe 1964 Sonic Boom Tests:

When Oklahoma City Became an International Test LaboratoryOklahomas Original First Gentleman

Afro-Americana: Contemporary Black Artists in OklahomaHall of Fame Spotlight: Wilma Pearl Mankiller

Fleeing SaigonOHAs Story Through Its People

Magazine of the Oklahoma Heritage AssociationMagazine of the Oklahoma Heritage Association

You know Loves from our stores, but do you know Loves as a company? Tom and Judy Love founded what is now Loves Travel Stops & Country Stores in 1964. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, today Loves is still 100 percent family owned and operated. With a national footprint of more than 265 locations in over 35 states, Loves current growth rate is approximately 15 stores per year. We are currently ranked No. 18 on the Forbes annual list of Americas largest private companies. But, were not a stereotypical nameless, faceless corporation. The Love family and the company is very active in the Oklahoma City community, donating momore than 2 percent of the companys net proots each year to non-proots here in our home city and across the nation where we operate stores. And, Love family members personally visit each and every store across the country several times a year. From the orst olling station in Watonga, Okla., the Loves committment has remained the same: Clean Places, Friendly Faces. So next time you stop at Loves, youll know more about the Loves dierence.

www.loves.com 1-800-OKLOVES facebook.com/lovestravelstops twitter.com/lovestravelstop

From the President Shannon L. Rich

2 From the Chairman Calvin Anthony

3 The 2011 Oklahoma Hall of Fame Gini Moore Campbell

14 The 1964 Sonic Boom Tests: When Oklahoma City Became an International Test Laboratory Bill Moore

21 Oklahomas Original First Gentleman Bob Burke

28 Afro Americana: Contemporary Black Artists in Oklahoma Corie Baker

30 Hall of Fame Spotlight: Wilma Pearl Mankiller Millie J. Craddick

35 Fleeing Saigon Nicole Harvey

44 OHAs Story Through Its People

47 Book Reviews

LIBrAry DISTrIBuTIOn MADe POSSIBLe THrOuGH THe GenerOSITy OF

MAGAZIne SPOnSOrS STATeWIDe.

DECEMBER 2011VOLUME 16 NUMBER 3

Magazine of the Oklahoma Heritage Association

M E

M B

E R

S H

I P

S Student ..................................... $15

Subscription ............................ $35Individualism .......................... $50 Perseverance ........................ $100Pioneer Spirit ......................... $250Optimism ................................ $500Generosity ........................... $1,000Legacy Circle ...................... $2,000Honor Circle ....................... $2,500 Executive Circle ................. $3,500Presidents Circle ............... $5,000Chairmans Circle ............. $10,000

For additional information contact the Oklahoma Heritage Association

1400 Classen DriveOklahoma City, Oklahoma 73106

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Visit the Associations website atwww.oklahomaheritage.com

Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by return postage.

PRESIDENT Shannon L. Rich

DIRECTOR, PUBLICATIONS AND EDUCATION

Gini Moore Campbell

CHAIRMAN, PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

Bob Burke

DESIGN Kris Vculek

kV GRAPHIC DESIGN WAUKOMIS, OK

MISSION PARTNERSAmerican Fidelity Foundation

Chickasaw NationChoctaw Nation of Oklahoma

ConocoPhillipsMr. and Mrs. Duke R. Ligon

Oklahoma Publishing CompanySimmons Foundation

Magazine of the Oklahoma Heritage Association

CHAIRMAN

Calvin Anthony Stillwater

CHAIRMAN ELECT

Kathy Taylor Tulsa

CHAIRMAN EMERITUS

Tom J. McDaniel Oklahoma City

VICE CHAIRMEN

Bill Anoatubby Ada

Bill Burgess Lawton

Stan Clark Stillwater

Marlin Ike Glass, Jr. Newkirk

Fred Harlan Okmulgee

Jane Jayroe Gamble Oklahoma City

David Kyle Tulsa

John Massey Durant

AT LARgE ExECUTIVE CoMMITTEE MEMbERS

Clayton I. Bennett Oklahoma City

Bond Payne Oklahoma City

Glen D. Johnson Oklahoma City

CoRPoRATE SECRETARY

Mark A. Stansberry Edmond

TREASURER

Nevyle R. Cable Okmulgee

PRESIDENT

Shannon L. Rich Oklahoma City

CHAIRMENS CIRCLEPat Henry LawtonRoxana Lorton TulsaJ.W. McLean Dallas, TXLee Allan Smith Oklahoma CityG. Lee Stidham ChecotahDIRECToRS

Alison Anthony Tulsa

Howard G. Barnett, Jr. TulsaBarbara Braught DuncanJoe Cappy TulsaMichael A. Cawley ArdmorePaul Cornell Bristow

Carol Crawford Frederick

Rebecca Dixon TulsaFord Drummond BartlesvillePatti Evans Ponca CityChristy Everest Oklahoma CityVaughndean Fuller TulsaGilbert C. Gibson Lawton

Dan Gilliam Bartlesville

Joe D. Hall Elk CityJim Halsey Tulsa

Jean Harbison LawtonV. Burns Hargis Stillwater

Robert Henry Oklahoma CityDuke R. Ligon Oklahoma City

Vicki Miles-LaGrange Oklahoma City

Joe Moran TulsaMelvin Moran Seminole

Fred Morgan Oklahoma CityC.D. Northcutt Ponca CityGary D. Parker MuskogeeGregory E. Pyle DurantCarl Renfro Ponca City

Frank C. Robson Claremore

Richard N. Ryerson Alva

Sharon Shoulders HenryettaMichael E. Smith Oklahoma City Stan Stamper HugoClayton C. Taylor Oklahoma City

Steve W. Taylor McAlester

Chuck Thompson NormanSteve Turnbo TulsaTy Tyler Oklahoma CityHardy Watkins Oklahoma City

Ron H. White Oklahoma City

Last month we inducted seven Oklahomans into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Receiving our states highest honor were Tommy Franks, Harold Hamm, Marques Haynes, Cathy Keating, Steve Malcolm, Elizabeth War-ren, and the late Roger Miller. Their unique talents and contri-butions remind us of the strong diversity we as Oklahomans share. In this magazine you will find a story on this amazing evening of celebration. Our members and donors are another example of the strength that comes from diversity. Our membership is made up of indi-viduals from every corner of the staterural to cityand from every walk of life. Together, we are making a difference in the lives of Oklahomans of all ages. In the coming year it is our goal to retire our capital cam-paign and ensure the continued programming and offerings of

the Oklahoma Heritage Asso- ciation and Gaylord-Pickens Museum by significantly increas-ing our endowment. Within the last 60 days we have received two transformational giftsthe Chickasaw Nation has made a generous contribution towards the capital campaign and chal-lenged others to do the same while T. Boone Pickens, whose initial gift launched the reno-vation phase of the GaylordPickens Museum, has pledged $2-million to our endowment. I want to take this opportunity to thank those who already have made contributions toward this effort. Every donation gets us one step closer. On behalf of the officers, directors, and staff, thank you for your support. Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year.

This past year we have seen thousands of students through our field trip program; awarded our second Hall of Fame scholar-ship; launched the exciting new Versus Series; and hosted our first national exhibit in the Tulsa World Gallery. Marking Time: Voyage to Vietnam will be open to the public through January 6. To complement the exhibit we have focused on the role Oklahomans played in this chapter of our his-tory. Inclusion in Art, a celebra-tion of African American artistry and creativity, will follow and run through April 21. This spring Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher will be featured with the Versus Series. Fisher will be portrayed by Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange and Dr. George Hen-derson will be the modern-day contemporary. Our Teen Board will be hosting a 5K Oklahoma Heritage Land Run as their annual fund raiser to support educational

programming for the Association and Museum. High school students will compete for more than $650,000 in scholar-ships to continue their education and one senior will earn the $10,000 John W. & Mary D. Nichols Scholarship, its eighteenth year to be awarded. The Second Century Board will be hosting events to expand its member-ship and awareness and our publi-cations arm will release a number of new titles celebrating our rich heritage. The Gaylord-Pickens Museum has allowed us to expand our reach and as we begin our fifth year in our new home I want to take this opportunity to thank every member, donor, and volunteer for making our dreams a reality. Peace and joy to you and yours this holiday season.

Shannon L. Rich, President

2

Calvin J. Anthony, Chairman

www.oklahomaheritage.com

FROM THE CHAIRMAN...

BOA

RD

OF

DIR

ECTO

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FROM THE PRESIDENT...

3The Oklahoma Hall of Fame Class of 2011, left to right, Steve Malcolm, Harold Hamm, Cathy Keating, Tommy Franks, Marques Haynes, and Elizabeth Warren.

bY gINI MooRE CAMPbELL

4 Cox Convention Center in beautiful downtown oklahoma City was the venue for the 2011 oklahoma Hall of Fame banquet and Induction Ceremony. on the evening of November 17 people from throughout oklahoma and beyond gathered to celebrate the bestowment of our states highest honor on seven outstanding oklahomans. The evening began with Chickasaw Elder Pauline brown providing the invocation. The Fires Center of Excellence & Fort Sill Color guard posted the colors and Lisa Reagan Love performed The National Anthem with the oklahoma Hall of Fame orchestra. oklahoma Heritage Association President Shannon L. Rich and Chairman Calvin J. Anthony welcomed those in attendance to the 84th annual oklahoma Hall of Fame and updated the crowd on the accomplishments and the year ahead for the Association and the gaylord-Pickens Museum. They also presented the second annual oklahoma Hall of Fame Scholarship in the amount of $5,000 to Mary Dwayna Temple-Lee, a senior at Pauls Valley High School.

5 Following the introduction of members of the oklahoma Hall of Fame in attendance and a tribute to those who had passed since last years ceremony, V. Burns Hargis and Michael C. Turpen were welcomed to the stage to serve as masters of ceremonies for their ninth year. After brief introductions, they welcomed the first presenter to the stage and the 2011 oklahoma Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony was underway. Following the induc-tion of Steve Malcolm, Cathy Keating, and Harold Hamm, recording artist Dean Miller performed King of the Road as a tribute to his father and his posthumous induction. Rounding out the 2011 Hall of Fame Class were Tommy Franks, Elizabeth Warren, and Marques Haynes. governor Mary Fallin congratulated the Honorees on their induction before being joined on stage by Hargis, Turpen, and Miller to close the show with oklahoma! Follow-ing the ceremony, guests had the opportunity to congratulate the Honorees on their induc-tion during a reception. The 2011 oklahoma Hall of Fame was aired on oETA, The okla-homa Network, on Saturday, November 19 to oklahoma and the surrounding states.

The Fires Center of Excellence & Fort Sill Color Guard posted the colors during the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

The Oklahoma Hall of Fame Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Kent Kidwell.

6Left to right, Lisa Reagan Love performed The National Anthem, Dean Miller entertained the crowd with his fathers hit King of the Road, and Mary Dwayna Temple-Lee received the Oklahoma Hall of Fame Scholarship during the 2011 Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

Oklahoma Heritage Association President Shannon L. Rich and Chairman Calvin J. Anthony welcomed guests to the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

For their ninth year together, V. Burns Hargis, left, and Michael C. Turpen have served as masters of ceremonies.

Elected as the first female governor of Oklahoma,

Governor Mary Fallin con-gratulated the Class of 2011

on their induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

7 ommy Franks was born in Wynnewood and grew up in Midland, Texas. After two years at the University of Texas, he joined the United States Army. He would later graduate from the University of Texas at Arlington with a degree in business administration and earn a masters of science degree in public administration from the Shippensburg Uni-versity of Pennsylvania. Before his 2003 retirement from the Army as a general, he served as Commander-in-Chief of the United States Central Command, over-seeing American military operations in a 25-country region, including the Middle East. Franks was the United States general leading the attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon in 2001. He also led the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Franks was commissioned as a second lieutenant as a distin-guished graduate of the Artillery Officer Candidate School in Fort Sill in 1967. In Vietnam, Franks earned six awards for Valor and three Purple Hearts. He has served in West Germany; Korea; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Monroe, Virginia; Atlanta, Georgia; and The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. His many honors include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, five Distinguished Service Medals, four Legions of Merit, Air Medal with Valor and an Army Commendation Medal with Valor, in addition to a number of foreign awards. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by order of Her Maj-esty Queen Elizabeth II and President George W. Bush awarded him the nations highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Franks serves on the boards of the University of Texas, Arlington and William Penn University. He is co-chair of the Flight 93 Memo-rial Foundation and serves as an advisor to the Military Child Educa-tion Coalition, Operation Homefront Oklahoma, and the Southeastern Guide Dog Organization. He and his wife, Cathryn, have one daughter and three grandchil-dren and live on their ranch near Roosevelt, Oklahoma.

Clayton I. Bennett, left, presented Gen. (Ret.) Tommy Franks for induc-tion. A class of 2007 Oklahoma Hall of Fame Honoree, Clayton I. Bennett is president of Dorchester Capital, a diversified private investment company, and chairman of the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association. His community service currently includes chairman of the Oklahoma State Fair, director of the National Football Foundation, and as regent for the University of Oklahoma. He has been honored with the Dean A. McGee Award, the Economic Development Citizen Leadership Award, and was named Oklahoman of the Year.

ToMMY FRANKS Wynnewood, OK

8 arold Hamm was born in Oklahoma in 1945, the young-est of 13 children, to share crop farmers. After graduating from Enid High School, he worked for an oilfield service contractor and Champlin Petroleum Company before starting a one-truck oilfield service business in Ringwood. In 1967, Hamm incorporated Shelly Dean Oil Company, which later became Continental Resources. Today, Continen-tal is a successful independent oil and natural gas explora-tion and production company that operates in 20 states and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Hamm serves as chairman and chief executive officer. Hamm is chairman of the board of Hiland Partners GP Holdings and is a member of the board of Complete Produc-tion Services. He is past chairman of the Oklahoma Indepen-dent Petroleum Association and served as a founding board member of the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board. He has served as president of the National Stripper Well Association and founder and chairman of Save Domestic Oil, Inc. He co-founded the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance to preserve the domestic oil and gas markets.

HARoLD HAMM Enid, OK

Hamm has received the National Ernst and Young Award in the energy, chemicals and mining category for his accomplishments in the oil industry over the past 40 years. A leading advocate of education in Oklahoma, Hamm has received numerous awards and recognition for his contributions including Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Oklahoma and the first masters degree ever given by Northwestern Oklahoma State University, the Masters of Letters of Law. Among his many gifts, The Harold and Sue Ann Hamm Foundation donated $30 million for the Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center located on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. He has established three chairs at the University of Oklahoma College of Medi-cine and annually funds five, four-year scholarships to Ringwood, Oklahoma students. He has made generous contributions to the Institute for Economic Empower-ment of Women, Allied Arts, the Central Oklahoma Humane Society, and the Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod, among others.

University of Oklahoma President David L., Boren, left, presented Harold Hamm for induction. A 1988 Hall of Fame in-ductee, Boren is the longest serving university president in the big 12 conference, in his 18th year. He was elected as our 21st governor and instituted the first state funded classes for gifted and talented students. He served as a United States Senator and was chairman of the United States Senate Intelligence Com-mittee. He currently serves as co-chairman of the Presidents Intelligence Advisory Board under President Barack Obama.

9 native of Sand Springs, Haynes began his basket- ball career at Booker T. Washington High School, where he led the school to a high school national cham- pionship in 1941. He starred collegiately at Langston University from 1942 to 1946, where he led in scoring for four years and led the university to a 112-3 record, a mark that included a 59-game winning streak. Haynes dribbling and ball handling caught the attention of the Harlem Globetrotters during an exhibition game against Langston. After earning his degree in industrial education from Langston he began his career with the Globetrotters, playing from 1947 to 1953. In 1953, he founded his own team, the Harlem Magi-cians, but later rejoined the Harlem Globetrotters as a player and coach. He played with both the Bucketeers and the Harlem Wizards before playing his last nine years of profes-sional basketball with his recreated Magicians. In a four-decade career, Haynes played in more than 12,000 games, traveled more than four-million miles, and entertained fans in nearly 100 countries. Contrastingly, Haynes and his teammates suffered discrimination at home and had difficulty locating hotels and restaurants that would serve an African American troupe. Haynes talents were not limited to the hardwood. In 1972, he entered the world of womens fashion, opening Seventh Avenues first major Black owned-and operated fashion house. At the time, the $9 billion fashion indus-try was floundering. Within three months the Biella line,

Marques Haynes, right, was presented for induction by Bill Russell. Russell is a five-time winner of the NBA Most Valuable Player Award and a 12-time All-Star. He was the foundation for the Boston Celtics 11 NBA championships and captain of the Gold Medal U. S. National Team at the Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the NBA has named their MVP Trophy in his honor. He earned his first MVP Award in Oklahoma City as a member of the University of San Francisco team during the 1955 All-College Tournament. Most recently, President Barack Obama presented him with the Medal of Freedom, our nations highest honor.

MARQUES HAYNES Sand Springs, OK

meaning beautiful, was being carried in more than 500 upper-end stores and boutiques from coast to coast. During the daylight hours, Marques spent his time selling his line of high-end Italian knits. He also owned a Tulsa-based insur-ance company and an ice cream parlor in his hometown. Regarded as one of the greatest dribblers to ever play the game, Haynes retired in 1992. He earned the distinc-tion of being the first Harlem Globetrotter player glorified in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He has also been enshrined in the Langston Hall of Fame, Ethnic American Sports Hall of Fame, National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame, New York All Sports Hall of Fame, NAIA Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, among others. He is one of only five Globetrotters to have his jersey number retired.

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athy Keating is a fourth-generation Oklahoman who was born and raised in Tulsa. She has focused much of her life on community service, most prominently while she was First Lady of Oklahoma from 1995 to 2003. During this time she visited all 77 Oklahoma counties and more than 500 schools to read, motivate, and inspire young people to work hard to make their dreams come true. After the Oklahoma City bombing, Keating organized and implemented the interna-tional prayer service. Her book, In Their Name, The Okla-homa City Bombing, was on the New York Times best seller list, with all proceeds going to project recovery. Also while First Lady, Keating founded Friends of the Oklahoma Governors Mansion, a non-profit organization dedicated to the mansions restoration and preservation. She renovated and permanently furnished the Governors Man-sion and the Phillips Pavilion and authored the books Our Governors Mansions and Ooh La La: Cuisine Presented in a Stately Manner, with all proceeds benefitting the cause. Keating has served on the boards for the Habitat for Hu-

Cathy Keating was presented for induction by Sam Donaldson. Donaldson has been a Washington political reporter for more than 50 years, the last 44 as a

correspondent and anchor with ABC News. With one exception he has covered every major partys national political convention since 1964 and served as White

House correspondent during the administrations of Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Today he oversees the management of the

family farming and ranching business founded by his father in the New Mexico territory in 1910.

CATHY KEATINg Tulsa, OK

manities National Trust, Oklahoma City National Memorial, Jasmine Moran Childrens Museum, Oklahoma School for Science and Mathematics, and Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. She is co-chair of the Washington, D.C. Ameri-can Red Cross capital campaign and the Oklahoma City Salvation Army capital campaign. She serves on the boards of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, where she founded and chairs the Annie Oakley Society, a womens leadership organization, and Express Services, Inc., where she chairs the companys international philanthropy. Keating is the recipient of the Thoroughbred Award for the David and Sybil Yurman Foundation, the William Booth Award, the National Champion for Children Award, Ameri-can Red Cross Women of Spirit Award, the Hope Builders Award from the Ronald McDonald House, the Mona Lam-bird Service Award to Children, and was named Outstanding Southerner in Southern Living Magazine. She and her husband, Frank, have three children and nine grandchildren.

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alcolm is the recently retired chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Tulsa-based Williams Company. He holds a bachelors degree in civil engineer-ing from the University of Missouri-Rolla and has attained advanced management training from Northwestern Univer-sity in Evanston, Illinois. In 2002, when Malcolm was named chief executive officer of Williams, it was facing financial crisis due to the collapse of the energy trading and telecommunications industries. As the new CEO, Malcolm immediately began to set both long- and short-term strategies to get Williams back on track. He successfully led the company into a new era of growth and expansion from 2004 until he retired in 2010. His retirement marked the end of a 26-year career at Williams, during which he held leadership positions throughout the company. At the time of his retirement, Wil-liams had become the tenth-largest producer of natural gas in the United States, was one of North Americas largest providers of midstream gathering and processing services, and its interstate gas pipelines delivered approximately 12% of the natural gas consumed in America each day. The companys market value had grown to more than $14 billion. Malcolm has served as chairman of the Tulsa Future Oversight Committee and vice chair of the Tulsa Stadium Trust. He has served on the boards of the YMCA of Greater Tulsa, YMCA of the USA, St. John Medical Center, the University of Tulsa Board of Trustees, Tulsa Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Tulsa Community Foundation, Metropolitan Tulsa Urban League Advisory Board, Okla-homa Center for Community and Justice, Tulsa Educare, the Tulsa Area United Way and is a trustee for Missouri University of Science and Technology. He also has served as vice chair of the American Exploration & Production Council and is a member of Americas Natural Gas Alliance, the American Petroleum Institute, The Business Roundtable, the National Associa-tion of Corporate Directors, and the National Petroleum Council.

STEVE MALCoLM Tulsa, OK

Alison Anthony presented Steve Malcolm for induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. From Enid and an Oklahoma State University graduate, Anthony is

director of diversity and community relations at The Williams Companies and president of The Williams Foundation. She has been honored by the Mayors

Commission on the Status of Women with the Pinnacle Award, received the Huntingtons Disease Society of Americas Excellence in Community Relations Award, and was named by The Journal Record as one of 50 Women Making a

Difference in Oklahoma.

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graduate of the University of Houston and Rutgers Law School, Professor Elizabeth Warren is the Leo Gottlieb Pro-fessor of Law at Harvard University. Warren was the chief adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission and was appointed by Chief Justice William Rehnquist as the first academic member of the Federal Judicial Education Com-mittee. She has served as a member of the Commission on Eco-nomic Inclusion established by the FDIC, as vice president of the American Law Institute, and been elected to member-ship in the American Academic of Arts and Sciences. Warren has written nine books and more than one-hundred scholarly articles dealing with credit and economic stress. Her latest two popular books, The Two-Income Trap and All Your Worth, were both on national best seller lists. Warren has been principal investigator on empirical studies funded by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foun-dation, and more than a dozen other foundations. She has testified several times before House and Senate committees on financial issues. Time Magazine has twice named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, The Boston Globe named her Bostonian of the Year, and the National Law Journal named her one of the Most Influential Lawyers of the Decade. She has been recognized for her work by several other publications and professional groups, including Smart Money, Forbes Magazines Seven Most Powerful People in Their Field, and GQ Magazines 50 Most Powerful People in D.C. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Warren served as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Her independent and tireless efforts to protect taxpayers and to ensure tough oversight of both the Bush and Obama administrations won praise from both sides of the aisle.

ELIZAbETH WARREN Oklahoma City, OK

T. Boone Pickens presented Elizabeth Warren for induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. A Holdenville native, Pickens is founder and chairman of BP Capital Management, managing one of the nations most successful energy-oriented investment funds. Through the Pickens Plan, he is on a mission to enhance U. S. energy policies to lessen the nations dependence on Opec Oil. A generous philanthropist, he has given away nearly $1 billion. Through the Pickens Foundation, his focus on improving lives includes supporting educa-tional programs, medical research, at-risk youth, the entrepreneurial process, and conservation and wildlife initiatives. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2003.

Most recently, she served as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She is married to Professor Bruce Mann and is the mother of twoAmelia Warren Tyagi and Alex Warren.

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t was during long days in the cotton fields and on his three-mile walks to school in Erick, Oklahoma, that Roger Miller began writing songs. Entertainer Sheb Wooley, mar-ried to Millers cousin, taught Miller his first chords on guitar and bought him his first fiddle. Following discharge from the U.S. Army, Miller headed to Nashville. He auditioned for Chet Atkins, who had to loan him a guitar, and was told to work on his songs and voice before coming back. While in Nashville, he played fiddle in Minnie Pearls band and met George Jones, with whom he collaborated on a few songs. After getting married and having a child, Miller moved his family to Amarillo, Texas, joined the fire department, and played honky tonks at night. There he met Ray Price and was asked to join the Cherokee Cowboys. With his family in tow, he returned to Nashville and signed a songwriting deal. Within two years, he cut a duet with Donny Little and then launched his solo career. Among his hit records were You Dont Want My Love, King of the Road, Engine #9 and

RogER MILLER Erick, OK

Dean Miller, recording artist and son of the late Roger Miller, performed

King of the Road as a tribute to his father to

celebrate his induction into the Oklahoma Hall

of Fame.

The Last Word in Lonesome is Me. In 1964 Dang Me earned Miller Grammy Awards for Best Country and Western Single, Vocal Male, Song, and Album, as well as earning the title of Best New Country and Western Artist. In addition to earning five more Grammys the following year he earned his first award from the Acad-emy of Country Music. Though he reached the peak of his career in the 1960s, Miller continued to tour and record until the early 1990s, charting his final top 20 country hit Old Friends with Willie Nelson in 1982. In 1985, Miller produced the score for and acted in Big River, a Broadway stage adaption of Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn, earning him a Tony Award. During Millers career he earned 11 Grammys, 22 Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) citations, and a BMI 3-Million Performance Award for King of the Road. He had one platinum single, six gold singles, and five gold albums. Miller passed away in 1992 and was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1995.

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n the morning of February 3, 1964, the first of what would be-

come regular daily booms pierced the homes and bodies of Oklahoma

City citizens for a period of six months. It was a study to determine the

publics reaction to the booms created by aircraft going supersonic, or

faster than the speed of sound referred to as a sonic boom.

In a speech to the United States Air Force Academy on June 5,

1963, President John F. Kennedy made public his desire to compete

with the world for a Supersonic Transport, or SST. Just two months af-

ter his assassination, preliminary design work was submitted by manu-

facturers to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for an American

SST in January 1964. Europe already had started work, with France

beginning the Concorde SST with strong support from Prime Minister

Charles de Gaulle. Not wanting to be left behind, President Lyndon

Johnson pushed ahead on Americas own SST. Boeing, Lockheed, and

North American were working hard to establish their own SST versions.

By BILL MOOrE

Tinker Air Force Base in 1964 was the location from which the jets would take off to go supersonic and fly the sonic boom tests. The street seen cutting across the bottom of the photo is Southeast 29th Street. (Photo courtesy Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society.)

AUThOrS NOTE: As a seven-year old boy growing up in Oklahoma City, I remember the constant sonic booms rattling my familys home located on an acreage west of Tinker Air Force Bases main runway. We were accustomed to the jet and prop engine noise coming from Tinker Field, as Dad referred to it. But those booms were loud and seemingly came from nowhere. The house would shake and dust would settle from the ceiling and walls. I have always thought that was normal military aviation activity in those days that eventually changed and went away. I did not know Oklahoma City was part of an intense government test program until I started researching this article.

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Little was known about how people would react to the sonic booms created by these future planes. There was concern by the FAA as to what the effects would be on Americans with numerous daily SST flights across the country as they envisioned in a supersonic future. A test was needed to find out about those effects. According to Gordon Bain, Chief of the FAA Supersonic Transport Program, Oklahoma City was cho-sen because of the facilities available the FAA Aeronautical Center and Tinker Air Force Base. he noted back in 1964 that Oklahoma City did not volunteer for the tests. Najeeb halaby, the FAA Administrator in Washington, D.C. at that time said, Oklahoma City was cho-sen because of its air-minded pioneering of the air age. he also claimed that city fathers were consulted along with 100 or so of the communitys most thoughtful and advanced thinking citizens. yet, none ever stepped forward to be recognized as a part of that discussion. So, for the first time in American history an entire city became part of an experiment without a choice or a say in the matter. The FAA rented four homes in the Oklahoma City area to be used as test homes. Two were in the flight path, one was five miles away, and the last was ten miles away.

Oklahoma City was chosen because of its air-minded pioneering of the air age.

This map, from an FAA report on the Oklahoma City Sonic Boom tests in 1964, shows the flight path of the jet over Oklahoma City. It accelerates near Minco and decelerates near Arcadia eight times a day for six months.

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The sonic booms occurred as an F-104 jet, that was used in most of the test flights, flew over Oklahoma City from southwest to northeast at supersonic speeds. A mini-mum of six booms and usually eight booms were heard and felt at 7 a.m., 7:20 a.m., 9 a.m., 9:20 a.m., 11 a.m., 11:20 a.m., 1 p.m., and 1:20 p.m. The Daily Oklahoman reported reactions to the noise from the citizens, some were even humorous. One woman claimed she was able to receive Channel 5 on her televi-sion after the booms and hadnt been able to see it before. Another woman said that her bra had snapped eight times in one day! A general store owner in Seward, Oklahoma claimed that a family of skunks living under the store retali-ated each time a sonic boom happened. One man called to tell authorities that Oklahoma City wont need urban renewal because the booms will flatten the city.

Susan Carter was a seven-year old living on Southeast 44th near Sunnylane road in 1964. She remembers today, while thinking back on those times, how very loud the booms were. She also remembers that her mother was afraid the walls were going to crack and fall down around them. When a decorative plate fell during a sonic boom, her mother took anything remotely delicate off the wall as well as the shelves in the house. her father worked at Tinker and like most people in Del City, their family relied on Tinker for a living. Lawsuits were filed to stop the tests. The first one was by an Okla-homa City plumber named Woodrow Bussey. he asked the court to stop the FAA from further using himself and his daughter as unwilling guinea pigs. A lawsuit filed in state court in May actually brought the tests to a halt for a day until a federal court overruled it.

Oklahoma City in 1964 suffered damage downtown as well as the suburbs during the sonic boom tests. The taller buildings had windows broken at street level but not higher up. Note the tall brown building in the far right center of the photo. This was the Biltmore Hotel later demolished to make room for the Myriad Gardens which stands there today. (Photo courtesy Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society.)

Seven-year old Susan Green Carter stands in front of her home on Southeast 44th near Sunnylane lo-cated just one mile west of Tinker Air Force Base. The Green home, like many oth-ers, absorbed many of the booms. (Photo courtesy Susan Carter.)

Seven-year old Susan Green Carter stands with her parents in front of their home on Southeast 44th near Sunnylane located just one mile west of Tinker Air Force Base. Items were jarred from the walls and shelves of the Green home during the Sonic Boom tests of 1964. (Photo courtesy Susan Carter.)

In 1964, Oklahoma Governor Henry Bellmon felt that Okla-homa City could put up with the sonic booms and that it was a small price to pay for what the aviation industry brought to the city. (Photo courtesy Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society.)

United States Senator Mike Monroney, known as Mr. Aviation and whom the

Aeronautical Center was named for years later, tried to support the tests as long as he could. But constituent complaints in letters and calls to his

office finally ended that support. (Photo courtesy Research Division, Oklahoma

Historical Society.)

In May, two months before the sched-uled end of the sonic boom tests, United

States Senator J. Howard Edmondson sent a letter to the Administrator of the FAA requesting that the tests be

stopped. They continued until the end of July. (Photo courtesy Research Divi-

sion, Oklahoma Historical Society.)

The Federal Aviation Administration in 1964 conducted the sonic boom tests and had an office established at the Aeronautical Center in oklahoma City to oversee the tests. The small, darker building in the center of the photo is the headquarters building. (Photo courtesy Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society.)

Gordon Bain from FAA once again weighed in on the situ-ation saying, The true judge of the acceptability of sonic boom operations is the people who live below the flight paths. It seems unwise to proceed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars both by government and industry (on the SST) without finding out if it is acceptable. Ward 1 City Councilman William Kessler added that he felt the peoples basic human rights are being ignored and violated. Were being used as human guinea pigs. The city council voted to demand that FAA suspend the tests. Then the very next day they withdrew that request based on two citizen groups that came forward asking for the council to reconsider based on the possibility that Oklahoma City might become the SST center of mid-America, as well as they felt it was the patriotic thing to do. Governor henry Bellmon felt it was a small annoyance to put up with the booms and it was a small price to pay for the great benefits Oklahoma City receives from the aviation industry. As for damage in the city, most was limited to cracked walls, ceilings, and broken glass. In the test homes, wall mirrors were also cracked. In May, the booms were increased in frequency from 1.5 pounds per square foot in overpressure to the 2 pound level. Oklahoma U.S. Senator J. howard Edmondson sent a letter to the FAA Administrator in May that suggested Oklahoma City citizens had seen enough of the tests and that patient though they have been, they must not be subjected to unnecessary continuation of the annoyance. Oklahomas other Senator, Mike Monroney, known as Mr. Aviation for his legislative work in that area, opted

for a more restrained comment calling for the National Academy of Sciences to step in and review the process. The booms continued for two more months until on July 29, 1964, they ceased. For six months they had pounded the citizens of central Oklahoma, stopping only for Easter Sunday and the one day court ordered injunction in May. Stories were printed and aired around the world about the tests. All three major television networks had sent crews to cover it. Magazines carried detailed stories about the tests. Publications around the world today still refer to the Oklahoma City tests when discussing sonic booms and their effects.

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It seems a little humorous now, but the FAAs code name for the operation was Bongo. A lot was learned from these tests, however. Lockheed and Boeing went back to the drawing board because of what was learned here. In an FAA report, 73 percent of the citizens of Oklahoma City felt they could live with the booms. however, 40 percent believed that it caused structural damage. There had been a total of 1,253 sonic booms during that six-month period. The FAA received 13,329 calls with 9,168 claiming damage. Of those, only 3,004 were officially filed. And only 229 damage claims were paid as of April 1965 for a total of $12,845.

BELOW: The U.S. Air Force Office of Information dis-tributed this small eight-page brochure asking citizens to be understanding of the need for sonic booms in working on the nations defense. (Photos from the Carl Albert Center Congressional Archives, Uni-versity of Oklahoma)

The true judge of the acceptability of sonic boom operations is the people who live below the flight paths.

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The Boeing design for the SST was chosen on December 31, 1966. Because of the Oklahoma City test and a few others conducted later, SSTs would not be allowed to fly supersonic over the U.S. continent. After hundreds of constituent letters of complaint, Senator Monroneys support was finally gone for the program. In March, 1971, the U.S. Senate rejected further funding for the SST and on May 20, 1971, the U.S. house of representatives also voted to end funding, thereby killing the SST. Oklahoma City has played a huge part in aviation through its people and industry since the early days of flight. This test of sonic booms in the mid-1960s adds to that long list of aviation contri-butions through the sacrifice of its citizens during six months of tests. One final unique connection to todays Oklahoma City and those tests from the 1960s is its National Basketball Association team. In 1968, Seattle, Washington, in support of the Boeing Company located there, named their new basketball team the Supersonics because of the new SST contract Boeing had received. That team eventually moved to Oklahoma City and is now known as the Oklahoma City Thunder and thats the noise sonic booms make!

This desk and floor in an Okla-homa City home were covered

with cracked plaster having fallen from the ceiling because of a

sonic boom. The photo was taken at the residence on May 16, 1964.

(Photo from the Carl Albert Center Congressional Archives,

University of Oklahoma)

Publications around the world today still refer to the Oklahoma City tests when dis-cussing sonic booms and their effects.

The hole in the ceiling was left by cracked and falling plas-ter after this Oklahoma City home was pounded with sonic booms. Aside from broken windows, this was the most common complaint heard by the government. (Photo from the Carl Albert Center Congressional Archives, University of Oklahoma)

Sonic booms took a toll on this closet in an Oklahoma City home during the tests in 1964. Plaster walls and

ceilings gave way to cracks caused by the booms.

(Photo from the Carl Albert Center Congressional

Archives, University of Oklahoma)

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or more than a century, the spouse of the governor of Oklahoma was known as the official

First Lady of oklahoma. That changed in January, 2011, when Mary Fallin was inaugurated as the states first woman governor

and the title of First gentleman of oklahoma was born. Governor Fallins husband,

Wade Christensen, is a fourth-generation oklahoman with deep roots in the pioneer agricultural heritage of Custer County. His great grandparents came from Denmark and Tennessee in the late 1800s and began farming near Thomas long before the great Depression and dust storms drove many western oklahoma farmers from the land.

bY bob bURKE

Wade Christensen and Mary Fallin were married in Oklahoma City on November 21, 2009.

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With hard work and sacrifice, the succeeding genera-tions of Christensens stayed with the land and accumulated sizable tracts of farmland in Custer and Blaine counties. Wades parents, Jim and Jo Christensen, farmed the land

together with Jims brother, in the same manner that Wades

grandfather and his brothers did. The family always has been closeknit and worked toward the common goal of rais-ing quality cattle and a variety of field crops that included

wheat, alfalfa, milo, oats, barley, mung beans, cotton, and even black-eyed peas. Wade and his siblings still farm together as his family has done for generations. Wades father, Jim, earned a bachelors and masters

degree from Oklahoma State University. Just a step away from his doctoral degree, he was a teacher and principal in the El Reno school system when Wade was born in 1954. Wades mother, likewise, held a masters degree in education

from Oklahoma State University and in music from Okla-homa City University. She was an exceptional teacher and gifted pianist. On weekends, Jim worked on the family farm near Thomas. By the time Wade completed the first grade, Jim

decided to return full time to farming and the family moved to a house one mile south of Thomasacross the section from Jims parents.

Jim and Jo added three more children to their family. Drew, who obtained an accounting degree, still farms and lives in the house where Wade grew up. Clay is an attorney in Oklahoma City. The only daughter, Jane VanFossen, is an elementary school teacher in the Tulsa Union system. Life was busy on the Christensen farm. During the harvest season, days began early and ended late. Jim and his sons were active farmers and Jo and Jane always had the table set with bountiful meals to keep the Christensen men working in the fields.

Young Wade drove a tractor and combine long before he had a license to drive a car. While in grade school, Wades mother also taught him to play the piano. From

his first memories, he developed a lasting appreciation of

nature and the rural way of life. He knows well the differ-ent smells after wheat and alfalfa have been cut and is still in awe of the serene beauty of a western Oklahoma sunrise hidden in the mist that hovers over recently-broken ground. Wade is a farmer at heart. He was an active member of the 4-H Club and Future Farmers of America (FFA). He showed cattle, hogs, and horses at livestock shows and expositions. Some of his first trips outside Custer County

Wade makes his first call. He was the first of four children born to Jim and Jo Christensen.

By the time Wade was in the seventh grade, he was an experienced farmhand. He loved living on the farm, but sometimes wished he lived in the town of Thomas where it was easier to ride his bicycle on the paved streets.

ABOVE: As a member of the Thomas 4-H Club, Wade

showed off his favorite horse.

RIGHT: Wade took serious his responsibility of raising and

showing a steer as a member of the Thomas High School

Chapter of the Future Farmers of America.

Tall for his age, Wade was a

good running back for the

Thomas High School Terriers.

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were to 4-H Roundups in Stillwater and to the State FFA Convention in Okla-homa City. He was a member of the National FFA Band and played the trom-bone. In 1973, he was named Oklahomas Star Farmer at the FFA Convention

and later was named the First Star Agri Businessman of the Western Region of the United States. After graduating from Thomas High School, Wade enrolled at Oklahoma State University where he earned a business degree in 1977. He declined a football scholarship from Southwestern Oklahoma State University, opting in-stead to accept a Presidents Leadership Scholarship at OSU. He was involved

in intramural sports, various collegiate social and political student organiza-tions, and was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity.

The Christensen family when Wade was a senior at Thomas High School. Left to ride, Wade, Clay, Jane, Drew, Jo and Jim.

Governor David Hall awards Wade a trophy as the Future Farmers of America Star Farmer of Oklahoma in 1973.

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The only part of his life that stayed constant for Wade in his college years was his drive from Stillwater to Thomas on the weekends to help on the fam-ily farm. After graduation, he returned to Thomas and farmed for three years before enrolling in law school at the University of Tulsa. He was awarded his Juris Doctorate in 1983. During law school, he worked part time at a Tulsa law firm and spent many weekends and summers on the family farm. Over the years

Wade has built a successful law practice representing employers and insurance companies in claims before the Oklahoma Workers Compensation Court.

Even though Wade is a practicing attorney in downtown Oklahoma City, he moved his children to the country where they would have some room to roam as they grew up. Wade also managed to take his children back to his home town of Thomas during wheat harvest and other times during the year, so they could learn some of his appreciation for rural Oklahoma farming and ranching. Wade has four children, each one having excelled in their own way. Blake, 30, a graduate of Oklahoma State College of Osteopathic Medicine, is a sec-ond-year resident in anesthesiology at OU Medical Center. Adam, 27, gradu-ated from the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma City University with a Ju-ris Doctorate and Masters in Business (JD/MBA) and practices with his uncle, Clay, and the Christensen Law Group. Brittiany, 21, manages a clothing store in Edmond. Wades youngest child, Alex, 18, is a freshman at OU with his eye

set on a degree in medicine. One of Wades finest attributes is his love for his

family and the attention he gives them as they grow up.

Wades father, Jim, wishes him good luck at his wedding in 2009. Jim still farms and manages an implement dealership in Thomas.

Wade with his children and his father. Left to right, Brittiany, Blake, Wade, Jim, Adam and Alex.

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Wade first met Mary Fallin during their college days

but it was a casual acquaintance at best. They met again after Fallin was elected Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor and later Congresswoman. Occasionally, Wade and his law partner, Bruce Day, would meet with Fallin for lunch to talk about business and legislative affairs. At one particular luncheon in 2009, Day left early and Wade and Congress-woman Fallin were left alone to talk for a few minutes. A few minutes turned into a few months and two rings. They found they had a lot in commonespecially total involve-ment in the lives of their children as single parents. Wade spent a lot of time perfecting his plan to ask for Marys hand in marriage at the Lincoln Memorial in Wash-ington, D.C. Wade chose the Memorial of the 16th Presi-dent of the United States, rather than some fancy restaurant, because he believed his future wife and President Abraham Lincoln had similar values of inspiration, hope, and love for country. Wade solicited the assistance of Marys close

friend, Margaret Ann, to assist in his plan. Margaret Anns

role was to ask Mary to meet her and several friends at the Memorial to take a photograph. Margaret Ann was actually at home in Oklahoma City as she texted Mary, setting up a specific time for the photograph.

Meanwhile, Wade arrived in the nations capitol in a

driving rainstorm and traveled by taxi to the Lincoln Me-morial and his unanticipated four-hour wait. When security officers wondered why a man in a nice suit kept pacing in

front of the huge statute of President Lincoln, Wade had to tell them his plan. Some of the officers were so excited

they stayed past the end of their shift to watch the proposal. Marys day in Congress grew busy, and her time to

meet Margaret Ann at the Lincoln Memorial was pushed back. Meanwhile, Wade continued to pacehe was deter-mined to make the moment one neither of them would ever forget. Finally, around 7:00 p.m., in near darkness, Mary left the Capitol. As she neared the Lincoln Memorial, her driver mistakenly passed the turn and she was forced to walk through the rain and over a soaked lawn to get to the Memorial. For hours Wade had watched other women walk up the long steps to the Lincoln statueonly to see that it was not Mary. Finally, Mary arrived, climbed the steps, and was shocked to see Wade. She exclaimed, Wade! Is that you? She thought he was in Oklahoma City. Not to lose his intended element of surprise, at the foot of President Lincoln, Wade dropped to one knee, pulled a

Wades life on the farm has now become part of the gov-ernors life. They pose on a combine on the Christensen farm near Thomas.

The Christensens at the family farm. Left to right, Clay, Wade, Drew and Jane. Their father, Jim, is in front.

26

ring from his pocket, and asked Mary to be his wife. Excited, surprised, and covered in rain, she said, Yes! Wade and Mary were married on November 21, 2009. Less than one year later, Mary was elected as the first

woman governor of the State of Okla-homa. As with much of Wades life,

the more things change, the more they stay the same. Although Wade still works long hours, he is now not alone in the house. Most nights working right next to him, sits one of the most recognizable names in Oklahoma and the first female Governor of Oklahoma.

After Mary was inaugurated as Oklahomas 27th Governor on Janu-ary 10, 2011, Wade assumed his new role as First Gentleman of Oklahoma. He and his youngest son, Alex, still a student at Deer Creek High School, moved into the governors mansion.

Later, Wades son, Adam, also moved

into one of the bedrooms in the historic home. With Marys children and my

children frequenting the mansion, there is always something different happen-ing, which is fun. Wade said.

Everyone who knows Wade recog-nizes that he is his own man. He is in no way intimidated by the fact that his wife is the chief executive of the state. He is very proud of his wife and is honored to provide support in any way he can. His best friends of many years have seen no change in him, although he arrives at court each day in a black security vehicle operated by one of the state troopers assigned to provide security for the Governor and his or, in this case, her spouse. A trooper dressed in civilian clothing is always close by as Wade tries workers compensation

cases, appears at prehearings before judges, and takes depositions, as he has for nearly 30 years. A conscientious man by nature, shortly before Mary was sworn in as governor, Wade resigned from his law firm of more than 20 years and with-drew from his representation of certain clients such as CompSource Oklahoma and the University of Oklahoma in order to avoid any possible ethical con-flict or the appearance of impropriety.

However, just recently, the Oklahoma Attorney General issued an opinion that stated there was no conflict and

he could represent the clients that he had represented for many years. As it turned out, Wade followed the same ad-vice he has given his kids for decades, You have only one reputationdont

ruin it.

Wade is a private person who enjoys his family, his faith, and his profession. Occasionally he will be a featured speaker, as he was recently at a Salvation Army Auxiliary luncheon, which was a gathering of several hundred women. His common man qualities were evident when he met me for breakfast at the Classen Grill wearing blue jeans. True to his love for Oklahoma farming, he ordered the farmers omelet.

When asked if he has a cause as First Gentleman, Wade said, My only cause is to promote Oklahoma. I love the land. I love being a farmerthe pride of ownership of land and the feel-ing of accomplishment when harvest comes. We are blessed to be in Okla-homa because here, we can do anything and do it better than in most other areas of the country. A special gleam appears in Wades

eyes when he talks about getting up early, watching the sun rise, and walk-ing through rich soil recently broken by a disc pulled by one of the familys

tractors. To Wade, There is noth-ing like the smell of fresh-tilled soil, especially after a summer shower has cooled the day and the steam rises from the ground. Wade Christensen, Oklahomas

First Gentleman, is a splendid example of the great character traits of hard work, resilience, and honesty wrought from tilling the Oklahoma soil. His love for the land will no doubt be passed on to future Christensen generations.

While his wife is running the state as Governor, Wade is a full-time lawyer representing employers and insurance companies in workers compensation claims.

Oklahomas First Gentleman is com-fortable with himself, whether in blue jeans or in the finest tuxedo.

B E ST W I S H E Sf o r a s u c c e s s f u l 2 0 1 1

from Mekusukey Oil Company, LLC

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A celebration of African American artistry and creativity, Afro-Americana celebrates the contributions of Oklahomas Black artists and artisans. These artists for many years remained relatively unknown in Oklahomas visual arts community with little connection to art-based organizations and galleries. With works exhibited primarily in lesser-known venues, many created pieces simply to satisfy their own desire. Dedicated efforts have resulted in greater visibility and subsequent demand for the works of African American artists while the quality of their work has grown with mentoring and workshops. More and more galleries have become receptive to showing the work of these artists and they have been featured in a number of high profile exhibitions. The art work of Afro-Americana includes mediums of painting, sculpture, and high craft, ranging from realism and impressionism to the abstract. Just as African American culture is diverse, the art illustrates the richness and artistic diversity. The artists are from a wide range of creative backgrounds and various levels of education. Some have received professional instruction while others are self-taught. Regardless, it is their common need to create that unites these artists. Afro-Americana was created to embrace and endear these artists to Oklahomas art community. These artists will launch the 2012 schedule of exhibits with Inclusion of Art in the Tulsa World Gallery at the Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum. The exhibit will open on January 12, 2012 and run through April 21.

Joyce M. CarleyJoyce Carley is primarily a figurative painter. Her work embodies the African American experience on many levels. Carleys paintings capture the simplicities of family life and her strong sense of faith. Joyce M. Carley also captures the complexities of the culture through subtle gestures. Her painting Contemplation shows a young African American man with an intense look on his face. His solemn look initially denotes menace but upon closer observation, one can see uncertainty and perhaps even loss. On the opposite side of this darkly contemplative work is her painting Jesus Loves the Little Children. Family ties are extremely close knit in African American culture and this painting captures the joy and innocence of being young. It is in complete contrast to the world weary eyes of her painting Contemplation. Joyce M. Carley manages to capture the human-ity and vulnerability of her subjects.

Robert HillRobert Hill is a multimedia artist whose works are collected internationally. His art is an amalgam of cultures but his strong connection to African culture is visually predominating. Robert Hill has travelled several countries and his work shows the influences of other cultures. Hills multilayered collages contain references to European and Asian cultures. He is fluent in Dutch and many of his paintings have Dutch writings in them. Also Robert Hill journeyed through Asia nearly homeless but nonetheless inspired as an artist. Hills work is in many significant public and private collections including the personal collection of the Kaisers, perennial supporters of the visual arts.

Betty RefourBetty Refour is a contemporary artist and caregiver for her sister who has autism. Together they use art to advocate for causes that are important to them including breast cancer, myeloma, autism, and many others. Betty is an exceptional figurative and abstract painter whose work is portrayed in bold, striking color.

Afro-Americana: Contemporary Black Artists in Oklahoma

29

Andrew AkufoAndrew Akufo is a young visual artist that excels in figurative painting and landscapes. He owns his own company called Andrew Akufo Art Enterprise. Akufo works small and large and has done many murals and commissions over the course of his visual arts career. His portraits and landscapes are rendered brightly and are majestic in their presentation. His subject matter is varied and includes everything from imagery of the Oklahoma football team, to rural locations in Oklahoma. His portraits capture the emo-tions and uniqueness of his subjects.

BY CORIE BAKER

Lola JenkinsLola Jenkins is a self-taught folk artist known for her intricate quilts. Jenkins is more than a quilt artist however, she is a visual archivist. Her subject matter is so diverse; anything can be a topic for her work. A simple still life becomes an intricate piece of fiber art. In her quilt Back in the Days, Jenkins captures festive West African life in a colorful and joyful way. Back in the Days celebrates African culture before slavery. Her work My Grand Babies is a portrait of her beloved grandchildren. Jenkins was a highlight at this past Junes Africa West festival.

Nathan LeeNathan Lee is a self-taught mixed media artist. His ceramic sculptures are rotund beings that seem to be quite content in their opulence. Lee uses acrylic stains as opposed to glazes to achieve a metallic luster to his work. His series of sculptures Martyrs explores self-sacrifice for a greater cause. Lee is a regular artist at Istvan Gallery.

Marcus EakersMarcus Eakers is a surrealist painter/illustrator whose work evokes other worldly dreams. His char-acters are long and rhythmic. At times they seem to move as if governed by some kind of unseen kinetic force. Eakers work also seems to be influenced by anime, cartoons, and even fairy tales. The paintings are multilayered dreams with hidden meanings and abstract ideas. Also, some of his figures transcend race and are neither black nor white; some are red or even orange creating a sense of race just being treated as just an incidental. That part of his art is what makes his work flexible and universally appealing.

Afro-Americana: Contemporary Black Artists in Oklahoma

30

BY MILLIE J. CRADDICK

ankiller was born in Tahlequah, the sixth of

eleven children to Charley Mankiller and Clara Irene Sitton.

Mankillers father was a full-blood Cherokee Native American

and her mother was a Caucasian woman of Dutch and Irish

descent who acculturated herself to Cherokee life.

Mankillers great-grandfather was one of more than 16,000 Cherokees, Choctaws,

Creeks, Chickasaws, Seminoles, and African slaves who were ordered by President An-

drew Jackson, in the 1830s, to walk from their former homes in the southeast United

States to the new Indian Territory, which later became Oklahoma. The harsh weather,

hunger, disease, and abuse from United States soldiers that the tribes experienced on

what came to be called the Trail of Tears led to the deaths of at least four thousand

people. Many more died afterward as they struggled to build new lives in the rugged

terrain with meager supplies, surrounded by hostile western Indians.

Wilma Mankiller reinvigorated the Cherokee Nation through the establishment of tribally-owned

businesses, improving infrastructure, and building a hydroelectric facility,

among other projects.

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Mankiller lived on the land which was allotted

to her paternal grandfather, John Mankiller, just

after Oklahoma became a state in 1907. Surrounded

by the Cherokee Hills and the Cookson Hills, she

lived in a historically-rich area where a persons

worth was not determined by the size of their bank

account. In those days, everyone helped one an-

other, sometimes trading goods eggs for milk or

farm goods for store-bought goods. People were not

as hurried as they are today, and visitors sometimes

stayed well into the night or until the next day.

While the adults played cards or talked, the children

played games such as hide-and-seek, kick the can,

or marbles. Occasionally a contest was held to see

who could ring the most wall nails with the rubber

rings from Mason jars. New games were made up.

The natural world was their playground, and they

used their imaginations to invent interesting things

to do. During the day, very little time was spent in

the small wood frame house built by her father,

most of their work and play was outside. Time was

defined by the natural rhythms of the land. Even

today some Cherokee elders describe events by

the time when certain crops are ripe or foods are

gathered, rather than by a calendar, and they can

tell time by the sun with great accuracy. Her family

name Mankiller, as far as they can determine, is

an old military title that was given to the person in

charge of protecting the village, which is Asgaya-

dihi in Cherokee.

Mankiller wrote in her autobiography, our

childhood was not always an idyllic time of playing

and games. Each morning we walked the three

miles to Rocky Mountain School and then back

again at the end of the day. My family and everyone

else in our community worked very hard. My sister,

Linda, and I sometimes gathered water for drinking

and household use from a freshwater spring about

a quarter mile from our home. My older brothers

and sisters cut wood, hauled water, helped wash

an endless supply of clothing and dishes, and even

contributed to the family income by earning money

picking beans or strawberries or cutting wood

for railroad ties. My oldest brother, Louis Donald,

went with my father to Colorado, along with other

Cherokee men, to cut broomcorn. The money he and

my father earned bought clothes and shoes for my

siblings and me for the winter.

While preparing logs to sell for railroad ties,

Mankillers sister, Frances, severely cut her knee and

had to be taken to Hastings Indian Hospital in Tahle-

quah. Not too long after that her father signed the

family up for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Relocation

Program, which promised a better life for their

family. They had no idea what to expect when they

gathered in the fall of 1957 at the train depot in

Stilwell, to prepare for the journey to San Francisco.

Mankiller wrote, We didnt know how to prepare

for or even think about our new life in San Francisco.

The farthest we had been from home was about

forty miles away to the Muskogee County Fair. It is

a gross understatement to describe our relocation

experience as culture shock.

Although they did not want to move to

California, Charlie Mankiller accepted a government

offer to relocate. However, promises that were made

to the family were not kept money did not arrive,

and there was often no employment available

and their life did not improve after their arrival in

San Francisco. As Mankiller recalled in her autobi-

ography, Mankiller: A Chief and Her People, I experi-

enced my own Trail of Tears when I was a young girl.

No one pointed a gun at me or at members of my

family. No show of force was used. Nevertheless, the

United States government, through the Bureau of

Indian Affairs, was again trying to settle the Indian

problem by removal. I learned through this ordeal

about the fear and anguish that occur when you

give up your home, your community, and everything

you have ever known to move far away to a strange

place. I wept tears. tears from my history, from

Wilma Mankiller admired her grandmother, Anna Truan Dobson. Dobson, upper right, grew up in Tennessee with French-speaking Swiss immigrants and earned two college degrees before the turn of the century. A teacher at the Tahlequah Institute, the female faculty members shown served as her bridesmaids when she married Mankillers grandfather, Frederick Lee Dobson. Revered Hamilton, standing, officiated the ceremony.

LEFT: born in Tahlequah, the sixth of eleven children, Wilma Mankillers father was a full-blood Cherokee and her mother was of Dutch and Irish descent.

Charlie Soap, left, and Wilma Mankiller, right with Muscogee/Seminole metal- smith Kenneth Johnson at Red Earth. Courtesy Kenneth Johnson.

32

my tribes past. They were Cherokee tears.

Not wanting to be an added burden to the

survival of the family, Mankillers brother, Bob, trav-

eled north and was picking apples in Washington

State. In the chill of an early1960 morning, he

mistakenly started a fire with gasoline instead of

kerosene, and his wooden shack exploded into

flames. Bob survived for only six days. He was

Mankillers role model for a care free spirit.

In California, cringing at the snickering that

always followed the school roll call when the

teacher said Mankiller, she nevertheless finished

high school and took a job as a clerk. In 1963, at

the age of seventeen while attending San Francisco

State, she met and married Ecuadorian college

student Hector Hugo Olaya de Bardi. They moved to

Oakland, California, where they had two daughters,

Felicia, who was born in 1964 and Gina in 1966. She

settled into the role of wife and mother. Her hus-

band had definite and fairly narrow ideas about the

role of women. He thought she should be attrac-

tive, an excellent cook, a great household manager,

and devote most of her time to being his wife and

the mother of their children. This is a role that she

could not fill. Mankiller wanted to be engaged in

the world around her, to be involved in politics, civil

rights, and womens rights. San Francisco was an

exciting place to be at that time. She wanted to

learn more about the Cherokee world she had left

behind more than a decade earlier.

This was a time when there were many

political and social movements taking place across

America. In 1969 her life was changed. A San Fran-

cisco State student, Mohawk Richard Oakes, along

with other Native Americans of different tribes,

occupied an abandoned prison on Alcatraz Island in

the San Francisco Bay to call attention to the mis-

treatment of Native Americans by the United States

government. The invasion was seen as a historic

event by many Native American people, Mankiller

included. When Alcatraz occurred, I became

aware of what needed to be done to let the rest of

the world know Indians had rights, too. Alcatraz

expressed my own feelings about being an Indian,

Mankiller stated in her biography. She longed to do

more for her people and began a commitment to

serve the Native American people to the best of her

ability in the area of law and legal defense.

In addition to wanting to help her people,

Mankiller began to want independence, and

she began taking courses at Skyline College, a

community college in San Bruno, California and

later at San Francisco State University. She also

had been very involved in San Franciscos Indian

Center throughout her time in California. In the

late 1960s, she joined the activist movement and

participated in the Occupation of Alcatraz Island.

For five years, she had volunteered for the Pit River

Tribe. This caused a conflict within her marriage.

Once I began to become more independent, more

active with school and in the community, it became

increasingly difficult to keep my marriage together.

Before that, Hugo had viewed me as someone he

had rescued from a very bad life, she noted in her

biography. He had the only car and determined

when and where they would go when they traveled

out of the city. One simple act of independence

changed all that. She secretly withdrew money

from their joint savings account and bought her

own car a new candy-apple red Mazda. She

loved that car. With her two daughters, they visited

many places in California with friends and people

who shared her interest. By 1974 she was divorced

and became a single mother.

In 1971, Mankillers father had died from a

kidney disease in San Francisco, California, which

she said tore through my spirit like a blade of

lightning. The family took Charlie Mankiller home

Wilma Mankiller and her daughters gina Quinton, left, and Felicia olaya. Courtesy the Oklahoma Publish- ing Company.

Wilma Mankiller became chief of

the second-largest Indian tribe in the

country in 1985. The first female to

hold the post.

33

to Oklahoma for burial, and then Mankiller returned

to California. It was not long before she too had kid-

ney problems, inherited from her father. Her early

kidney problems could be treated, though later

she had to have surgery and eventually, in 1990,

she had to have a transplant. Her brother Donald

became her hero for donating one of his kidneys

so that she could live.

Five years after her fathers death Mankiller

returned to Oklahoma for good. She found a job

as a community coordinator in the Cherokee tribal

headquarters and enrolled in graduate courses

at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. This

required her to drive a long distance every day. She

was returning home one morning in 1979 when

a car approached her on a blind curve and, out of

nowhere, another car attempted to pass it. She

swerved to miss the approaching car but failed. The

vehicles collided almost head-on. Mankiller was

seriously injured, and many thought she would

not survive. The driver of the other vehicle did not.

It turned out to be Sherry Morris, Mankillers best

friend. Mankiller had to overcome both her physical

injuries and the guilt she experienced after the acci-

dent. Mankiller said it was during that long process

that she really began reevaluating her life and it

proved to be a time of deep spiritual awakening.

Then in 1980 she came down with myasthe-

nia gravis, a neuromuscular disorder. Neuromus-

cular disorders involve the muscles and the nerves

that control them. Again her life was threatened,

but her will to live and her determination to heal

her body with the power of her mind prevailed.

She maintained that it was the realization of how

precious life is that spurred her to begin projects for

her people, such as the Bell Project where members

of the community revitalized a whole community

themselves. It was the success of this project that

thrust Mankiller into national recognition as an

expert in community development.

Three years later, Ross Swimmer, then

Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma,

asked Mankiller to be his Deputy Chief in the elec-

tion. She accepted, and they won the election and

took office on August 14, 1983. On December 5,

1985, Swimmer was nominated to head the Bureau

of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., and Mankiller

was sworn in as Principal Chief.

After many years working together on

Cherokee community development projects,

Mankiller married her longtime friend, Charlie Lee

Soap, a full-blood Cherokee traditionalist and fluent

Wilma Mankillers autobiog-raphy with Michael Wallis, Mankiller: A Chief and Her People, tells her own story while honoring and celebrat-ing the rich history of the Cherokees. A national best-seller, Gloria Steinem said As one womans journey,

Mankiller opens the heart. As the history of a people, it informs the mind. Together, it teaches us that, as long as people like Wilma Mankiller carry the flame within them,

centuries of ignorance and genocide cant extinguish

the human spirit.

Wilma Mankiller enjoyed sharing her story, and that of her people, while signing copies of Mankiller: A Chief and Her People.

34

Cherokee speaker. They lived on her ancestral land

at Mankiller Flats.

Mankiller was freely elected as Principal Chief

in 1987, and re-elected again in 1991 in a landslide

victory, collecting 83% of the vote. In the historic

tribal election of 1987, Mankiller having won the

post outright, brought unprecedented attention to

the tribe as a result. As the leader of the Cherokee

people she represented the second- largest tribe

in the United States. Mankiller was the first female

in modern history to lead a major Native American

tribe. With an enrolled population of over 140,000,

and an annual budget of more than $75 million,

and more than 1,200 employees spread over 7,000

square miles, her task may have been equaled to

that of a chief executive officer of a major corpora-

tion. In 1995, Mankiller chose not to run again for

Chief largely due to health problems and instead

took a teaching position at Dartmouth College.

Initially, Mankillers candidacy was opposed

by those not wishing to be led by a woman. Her

tires were slashed and there were death threats

during her campaign. But as she shared her home

with her husband, Charlie Soap, and Winterhawk,

his son from a previous marriage, things were very

different. She had won the respect of the Cherokee

Nation, and made an impact on the culture as she

focused on her mission to bring self-sufficiency

to her people.

Mankiller overcame many tragedies to

become a guiding power for the Cherokee people of

Oklahoma and a symbol of achievement for women

everywhere. Throughout her life, Mankiller man-

aged not to complain about how bad things were

for herself, for her people, and for Native Americans

in general. She instead worked to help make life

better. Although she declined to seek another term

as principal chief in 1995, she remained in the public

eye, writing and giving lectures across the country.

She has stressed that if all the Native Americans

who were eligible to vote actually did so, officials

elected with those votes would be forced to address

the problems of Native Americans. She also called

for an end to the increasing problem of violence

against women.

Mankiller showed in her typically exuberant

way that not only can Native Americans learn a lot

from whites, but that whites can learn from native

people. Understanding the interconnectedness of all

things, many whites are beginning to understand

the value of native wisdom, culture, and spirituality.

Mankiller died April 6, 2010 at the age of 64 from

pancreatic cancer.

Mankiller won several awards including Ms.

Magazines Woman of the Year, the Presidential

Medal of Freedom, Woman of the Year, the Elizabeth

Blackwell Award, John W. Gardner Leadership

Award, Independent Sector, and induction into the

Oklahoma Womens Hall of Fame, National Womens

Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in

1994.

Mankillers first book, Mankiller: A Chief and

Her People, an autobiography, became a national

bestseller. Gloria Steinem said in a review that, As

one womans journey, Mankiller opens the heart.

As the history of a people, it informs the mind.

Together, it teaches us that, as long as people like

Wilma Mankiller carry the flame within them, cen-

turies of ignorance and genocide cant extinguish

the human spirit. Steinem went on to become one

of Mankillers closest friends. In 2004, Mankiller

co-authored Every Day is A Good Day: Reflections by

Contemporary Indigenous Women.

The Cherokee Nation head-quarters is locat-ed in Tahlequah, oklahoma

35

You or the suitcase? This was the question Yen Tran was faced with on April 29, 1975, one day before the fall of Saigon to the communist North. The choice was an easy one. Her children, evacuated four days prior, were wait-ing for her in guam. If she did not make this heli-copter she might not get out of Vietnam. Traveling via boat for 21 days, exposed to the elements of rain, hot days, and cold nights, Tran finally was reunited with her children in guam. The same evening Yen Tran was fleeing her homeland, San Nguyen was facing a similar dilemma. His wife and children already had left South Vietnam, and on the evening of April 29, he took a helicopter from the roof of the United States Embassy to a U.S. naval ship, eventu-ally finding himself in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.

BY NICOLE HARVEY

ABOVE: April 29th, 1975, U.S. personnel help Vietnamese refugees board a helicopter on the roof of the U.S. embassy one day prior to the North Vietnamese armys arrival in Saigon.

While Tran and Nguyens stories are extraordinary, what is so remarkable about their tales is that they are not all that remarkable. Their stories are very similar to the nearly 4,000 Vietnamese who had settled in Oklahoma City by 1978.

Tran and Nguyen were the lucky ones; they had both worked for the

United States government in Saigon and were not as affected by the war on a day-to-day basis. Because of their connec-tions, they were able to move themselves and their families out of Vietnam before

36

the communists overran Saigon. Tran worked as a personnel officer for the

United States Agency for International Development, while Nguyen worked directly under the head of the U.S. Army Supply. They also knew that because of their affiliations with the United States

government they would be targets of imprisonment, re-education camps, or worse when the North Vietnamese Army arrived in Saigon on April 30, 1975. Although the United States involve-ment in the Vietnam War officially was

over in April, 1975, U.S. officials, and

certain military personnel, remained in South Vietnam. Both Tran and Nguyen remember the chaos of those last few days. They knew the North Vietnamese Army was marching toward Saigon; this

was evident by the streams of refugees crowding the city from northern rural areas, fleeing the invading Army. Ev-eryday Tran and Nguyen went to work, helping to arrange for the closure of the buildings in which they worked.

On the 28th of April, Tran arrived at work to be greeted by U.S. Marines bar-ring her entrance. She feared the worst;

that all of her American co-workers al-ready had fled and that she was now stuck

in Saigon. Later that day, the United States Agency for International Develop-ment was struck by a missile from North Vietnamese forces and caught fire. Tran

and her husband made their way through Saigon to the American compound where her boss lived. With his help, they were taken to the safety of a U.S. helicopter. San Nguyen knew the plight of being a refugee long before 1975. In

RIGHT: A small boat containing 162 Vietnamese refugees arrives in Malaysia in 1978.

Vietnamese refugees watch as a Thai Marine police boat casts them adrift in the Gulf of Siam after being turned away on November 30, 1977. They had escaped earlier in November from Vietnam to what they thought would be freedom, but Thai police refused to allow them to come ashore. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams)

South Vietnamese refugees walk across a U.S. Navy vessel on April 29, 1975.

We left empty handed. but be-cause we learn from the war era, so we become very economic. We work hard. Most of us [Vietnam-ese refugees] are very successful because we know how to deal with the economic situation. - San Nguyen, on leaving Vietnam and starting over

So much experience, you know people cannot know how it feels. It was quite an experience. Every time I think about it I cant believe that I survived it. but we survived. Yen Tran, on her jour-ney out of Saigon to America

37

Mobs of South Vietnamese try to scale the 14-foot wall of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, April 29, 1975, trying to reach the evacua- tion helicopters as the last of the Americans departed from Vietnam. On April 30, 1975, a dispirited South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam, its lifeline of American blood dried up, its supporting U.S. war ma- chine turned off. (AP Photo/Neal Ulevich)

Vietnamese refugees rest as crewmen aboard the guided missile cruiser USS FOX (CG-33) give them something to drink.

1954, Vietnam signed the Geneva Accords which created a split in Vietnam at the 17th parallel until elections could be held to re-unify the country. At this time, northernVietnam was controlled by communist forces led by Ho Chi Mihn. There was a large surge of refugees who fled the north of the country

to relocate in southern Vietnam where the communist did not have a strong hold. Nguyens family took their opportunity to

leave northern Vietnam before it was too late. They resettled in Saigon when Nguyen was around 10 years old. Despite the Ac-cords declaring reunification elections must take place in 1956,

the reunification of Vietnam did not occur with elections, but

with the arrival of North Vietnamese forces in Saigon in 1975. As it became evident that South Vietnam would fall to the North, many South Vietnamese citizens began making plans to leave t