Voices of Oklahoma

Robert Henry is a former United States circuit judge and was the 17th president of Oklahoma City University. He formerly served as the attorney general of Oklahoma from 1986 to 1991, before resigning early in his second term to become the dean of the Oklahoma City University School of Law, where he remained until 1994. President Bill Clinton appointed Henry as a United States circuit judge of the...

As the Church Studios in Tulsa get ready to open after a major refurbishment, we share the stories of Steve Ripley, who owned the historic studio for many years. Steve knew Leon Russell well, and worked hard to preserve thousands of recordings and the equipment to play them. You can hear Steve's entire interview on Voices of Oklahoma: https://www.voicesofoklahoma.com/interview/ripley-steve/

Upon graduation from Oklahoma State University, Bill Atherton worked with Core Laboratories, Inc. in the Texas Gulf Coast and South America, and served as an officer in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. After his time with Core, he operated his own petroleum reservoir engineering company in Trinidad, West Indies, from 1960 to 1964. But Bill’s career took a turn when his friend, Pat Murphy, talked h...

Clarence G. Oliver, Jr., Ed. D., Emeritus Professor and former Dean of the College of Education at Oral Roberts University and retired Superintendent of Schools for Broken Arrow Public Schools, has enjoyed success in three distinct career fields—Journalism, Military, and Education. He has been a teacher, journalist, Army officer, school administrator, newspaper editor and publisher, author, commun...

Philip Jay O’Meilia was born in 1927 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Between military stints during WWII and Korea (serving as a Navy artist), he attended the Art Students League in New York and the Chicago Academy of Fine Art. O’Meilia’s work has been displayed in galleries and museums across America, including the Smithsonian Institution, the National Academy of Design in New York, and the National Cowboy &...

Randy A. Foutch fits the bill as an entrepreneurial oilman. Born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Geology at the University of Texas and a Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Houston. His success as an oil and gas executive began with forming privately held companies. Foutch founded Lariat Petroleum, Inc. in 1996 and served as Presiden...

Clifton Taulbert was born in 1945 in Glen Allan, Mississippi, a small town in the Mississippi Delta. He graduated valedictorian from O’Bannon High School in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1963. He received his Bachelor of Arts in History and Sociology from Oral Roberts University and graduated from the Southwest Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University. He later obtained an associa...

David Easton was one of the world’s most sought-after interior designers and architects. He was noted in the ’80s for his English-style houses, catering to a clientele with a taste for grandeur. David was named to the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 1992. David was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1937 and was smitten by design from an early age, visiting Marshall Field’s department store in Chica...

A longtime Tulsan, Jeannie McDaniel has worked to better her city for more than twenty-five years. She worked at the Citizens Crime Commission from 1981 to 1991—serving as director from 1986 through 1991—coordinating programs like Alert Neighbors and Crime Stoppers with the Tulsa Police Department. In 1991, McDaniel created the full-time position of Mayor’s Office for Neighborhood, registering hun...

Maxine and her family are known for their active and generous commitment to the Jewish community, mental health, homelessness, and social services. Maxine’s husband, Jack Zarrow, joined his father and brother Henry in the family business, Sooner Pipe and Supply. The iconic Tulsa firm enabled a great deal of the family’s philanthropy and employed, among other friends and family, the Zarrow’s son Sc...

Over the past twelve years, Voices of Oklahoma has been collecting stories of the 1921 Race Massacre. As we observe the centennial of the event, we are presenting the oral histories of eleven people who shared their memories and their reflections on May 31st & June 1st, 1921. During this podcast you will hear Opal Moss, Wess Young, Wavel Ashbaugh, Otis Clark, Joe Moore, Bruce Fisher, Jenkin Jones...

Voices of Sports Legends is a collection of events and interviews which sports historian Wayne McCombs has collected and recorded. He has donated this material to the oral history website VoicesofOklahoma.com. You will hear former Tulsa World sportswriter Bill Connors, Jerry Webber sports and news anchor for channel 2 KJRH, A. Ray Smith former owner of the then Tulsa Oilers baseball team, Oklahoma...

Voices of Sports Legends is a collection of events and interviews which sports historian Wayne McCombs has collected and recorded. He has donated this material to the oral history website VoicesofOklahoma.com. You will hear former Tulsa World sportswriter Bill Connors, Jerry Webber sports and news anchor for channel 2 KJRH, A. Ray Smith former owner of the then Tulsa Oilers baseball team, Oklahoma...

Voices of Sports Legends is a collection of events and interviews which sports historian Wayne McCombs has collected and recorded. He has donated this material to the oral history website VoicesofOklahoma.com. You will hear former Tulsa World sportswriter Bill Connors, Jerry Webber sports and news anchor for channel 2 KJRH, A. Ray Smith former owner of the then Tulsa Oilers baseball team, Oklahoma...

Voices of Sports Legends is a collection of events and interviews which sports historian Wayne McCombs has collected and recorded. He has donated this material to the oral history website VoicesofOklahoma.com. You will hear former Tulsa World sportswriter Bill Connors, Jerry Webber sports and news anchor for channel 2 KJRH, A. Ray Smith former owner of the then Tulsa Oilers baseball team, Oklahoma...

Voices of Sports Legends is a collection of events and interviews which sports historian Wayne McCombs has collected and recorded. He has donated this material to the oral history website VoicesofOklahoma.com. You will hear former Tulsa World sportswriter Bill Connors, Jerry Webber sports and news anchor for channel 2 KJRH, A. Ray Smith former owner of the then Tulsa Oilers baseball team, Oklahoma...

With the Golden Eagles basketball team in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA basketball tournaments, we look back to when Oral Roberts University basketball came into its own in the seventies. From an oral history recorded April 7, 2011, Coach Ken Trickey and player Richard Fuqua talk about the days when OU, OSU and TU would not play ORU. Also, how Ken helped design the interior of the Mabee Center. The ful...

As Chief of Police, from 1977 to 1983, five of the officers recognized at the Tulsa Police Officers’ Memorial, fell during Harry Stege’s term as chief. One of the more tragic incidents was the helicopter crash that killed two officers in one instance. During Chief Stege’s term, many new components were added to the Police Department and the Aviation Unit was one of those new components. Also, as a...

Dr. Keith Ballard’s education career started in Coweta, Oklahoma in 1972. Two years later Keith moved to Oologah, Oklahoma where he was a teacher, administrative assistant, assistant high school principal, assistant superintendent, and became superintendent in 1986. He joined Claremore Public Schools as superintendent in 1992 and then became the executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boar...

Every year, March is designated Women’s History Month. It is a time for observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history. As we dig into the stories from our 12-year archive, we can listen to many Oklahoma women who have made this state great! Angie Debo is one of them. She overcame gender discrimination to become our state’s greatest historian of American Indian history....

William E. Lobeck Jr. began his career in the 1960s at Norfolk Pontiac and Chevrolet dealerships, Norfolk, Virginia, cultivating daily rental car companies as his largest customers. He created the very first dealer repurchase program and established a special purpose leasing company out of a need to serve his customers. Eventually, manufacturers took notice of these programs and today repurchase p...

While Black History Month celebrates the accomplishments of African Americans nationwide, we can point to those who deserve recognition in our state of Oklahoma. From the archives of Voices of Oklahoma, we salute Clara Luper, Dr. George Henderson, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, and a great civil rights story from the University of Tulsa. Three of the storytellers are no longer with us but we captured the...

On March 9, 1967, Tulsa, Oklahoma native David Morgan went to the Corvette Assembly Plant in North St. Louis, Missouri to take delivery of a new Corvette. It was a special-order L88 bought by Sunray DX Oil. David drove the car from St. Louis to Yenko Chevrolet in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania for its initial race preparation. Twenty-three days later it was on the grid for its first race, the 1967 12 ho...

Maxine Horner was one of the first two African American women to serve in the Oklahoma Senate. While working for Congressman James R. Jones she became interested in politics, which prompted her to run for an open seat in 1986. She termed out in 2004. Maxine’s focus was on economic development and education. Of the many bills she sponsored, her highlight piece of legislation was the OHLAP bill know...

Our news is filled with protests, some of it is “good trouble”. There was a protest that took place in Oklahoma in the seventies, led by activist Carrie Dickerson, which resulted in the cancellation of the proposed Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant, near Inola, Oklahoma. In our library of oral histories, we have the Carrie Dickerson story as told by her daughter, Patricia Lemon, for VoicesofOklahoma.c...