Ron Williamson - minor league baseball player who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in 1988 in Ada for rape and murder, and eventually freed. Focus of The Innocent Man by John Grisham.
Robert S. Kerr – Former Oklahoma Governor and long-time US Senator; born in Ada.
Jane Lawton – Delegate, Maryland General Assembly.
Jody Newberry - Professional bull rider on the Built Ford Tough series.
Louise S. Robbins – Wisconsin Librarian of the Year (2001); named one of Oklahoma's 100 Library Legends; director of School of Library and Information Studies at University of Wisconsin–Madison; author of two award-winning books. Longtime resident of Ada and first woman city council member and mayor.
Oral Roberts – Evangelist; born in Ada.
Blake Shelton – country music singer
Mike McClure - Red Dirt rock/country singer, songwriter, producer
Jeremy Shockey – National Football League tight end for the New Orleans Saints; born in Ada.
Leon Polk Smith – Abstract artist known for his work with geometric painting; graduate of East Central University.
Derick Bowers- NFL Official, Head Linesman, worked Super Bowl 43
Ron Stone – newsman
Jet McCoy - Professional cowboy and The Amazing Race 16 contestant.
Pops
Arcadia
Pops in Arcadia, Oklahoma is a modern roadside attraction on Route 66. Using a theme of soda pop, it is marked by a giant neon sign in the shape of a soda pop bottle. The glass walls of the restaurant are decorated with shelves of soda pop bottles, arranged by beverage color. These bottles are for sale as-is, or may be purchased cold from the huge refrigerator at the western end.
Opened in 2007, the restaurant's structure incorporates a cantilevered truss extending 100 feet over the gas pumps and parking area in the forecourt.
Route 66 Round Barn
The Arcadia Round Barn is a landmark and tourist attraction on historic U.S. Route 66 in Arcadia, Oklahoma, United States. It was built by local farmer William Harrison Odor in 1898 using native bur oak boards soaked while green and forced into the curves needed for the walls and roof rafters. A second level was incorporated for use as a community gathering place. The town of Arcadia developed and prospered with the arrival of the railroad and in the 1920s the newly commissioned Route 66 was aligned through the town, passing next to the Round Barn.
With the reduction of traffic along Route 66 following the arrival of the Interstate, Arcadia and the barn likewise declined. In 1988 the 60 foot diameter roof collapsed. A team of volunteers led by Luther Robison worked to rebuild the structure, and restoration work was completed in 1992. Today the old barn is a tourist attraction and visitors admire the architectural and engineering details of America's only truly round (as opposed to hexagonal or octagonal) barn.
Ardmore
On April 22, 1966 Ardmore was the site of the worst plane crash in Oklahoma history, which killed 83 people
Ardmore became nationally famous in 2003 when 52 Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives, known as the Killer Ds, left Texas for Ardmore to deny the Republican-controlled House a quorum when Republicans attempted to pass a redistricting plan for U.S. Congressional Districts
Notable People
Samuel Lloyd Noble (1896–1950), oilman and philanthropist, founder of Noble Corporation
Rue McClanahan, Emmy award-winning actress best known for her role of Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls
Mark Gastineau, former All-Pro NFL defensive star for the New York Jets, was born in Ardmore in 1956..
John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot former President Ronald Reagan in a failed assassination attempt in 1981, whose father worked for a local oil company.
Rex Ryan, NFL Head Coach for the New York Jets, was born in Ardmore in 1962; his twin brother is Rob Ryan, c NFL Defensive Coordinator for the Cleveland Browns.
Eric Fields, (born June 14, 1982) an American professional boxer.
The Biggest Loser: Contestants Cheryl and Daris George of the 9th season of the show are residents of Ardmore.
Jermaine Gresham current NFL tight end for the Cincinnati Bengals. (born 1988) Justin Blackmon, wide receiver for the Oklahoma State Cowboys. (born 1990)
Asher
Notable People
Ron Williamson. Williamson is the primary character in John Grisham's first work of non-fiction, "The Innocent Man". He graduated from Asher High School in 1971 and played baseball for the Indians. Williamson went on to play minor-league ball for the Fort Lauderdale Yankees before beginning a downspiral that ended with him being arrested and sent to death row for a crime he was eventually cleared of.[30] Williamson died December 4, 2004 due to cirrhosis of the liver.
Will Hunt. During his high school years at Asher, he won multiple state titles and was named the 1989 Oklahoma Player of the Year. In college, he won national honors at Seminole Junior College (now Seminole State College) and Louisiana State University (LSU). Later he was drafted into Minor League Baseball by the Detroit Tigers and also played with the independent Northern League. Hunt briefly coached the Indians in baseball and basketball following the retirement of Coach Bowen.
Cody Whitney. A 1999 Asher graduate, Whitney was an actor when he was young, in the television shows Young Riders and Webster and the TV movie Red River. Whitney is now a PBR (Professional Bull Riders, Inc.) bullrider.
Jerry Adams. Graduated Class of 1989. Established himself as a professional musician and music teacher. Jerry toured the United States as well as Europe with several stars of note, and performed several times on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. As well as his own success, he continues to inspire students at a "School of Rock" style of Music School: Pellegrino's School of Music in Springfield, Missouri. Jerry and his family reside in Nixa, Missouri and he performs at the Baldknobbers Country Music Theatre in Branson, Missouri.
Atoka
Battle of Middle Boggy Depot
A small Civil War confrontation occurred on February 13, 1864 north of Atoka. Early in 1864, Colonel William A. Philips set out with some 1500 Union troops from Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, to cut a swath through Confederate Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Their purpose was to break Confederate control over Indian Territory and gain the support and possibly recruits from the Native Americans. "I take you with me to clean out the Indian Nation south of the river and drive away and destroy rebels. Let me say a few words to you that you are not to forget .... Those who are still in arms are rebels, who ought to die. Do not kill a prisoner after he has surrendered. But I do not ask you to take prisoners. I ask you to make your footsteps severe and terrible. Muskogees! (Creeks) the time has now come when you are to remember the authors of all your sufferings; those who started a needless and wicked war .... Stand by me faithfully and we will soon have peace ...." -- Colonel William A. Philips, to his men before beginning the campaign Along the way, Colonel Phillips sent out an advance of about 350 men toward Boggy Depot, a large Confederate supply base located on the Texas Road with the intention of capturing the outpost. While enroute, his command encountered a small Confederate camp on the banks of the Middle Boggy River, made up of around 90 Confederate soldiers. In the ensuing skirmish 47 Confederate soldiers were killed. Among the dead were those wounded who had been left behind when their comrades retreated. They were found on the battlefield with their throats slashed. There were no Union deaths as a result of the battle.
Notable People
Reba McEntire - American country music artist.
Crystal Robinson - WNBA player for the Washington Mystics and New York Liberty.
U. L. Washington - former MLB player for the Kansas City Royals, Montreal Expos, and Pittsburgh Pirates.
Matthew Mungle - winner of an Academy Award for Makeup and four-time winner of an Emmy Award.
Todd Downing - author of The Mexican Earth,a cultural history of Old Mexico, and also several mystery novels published in the 1930s and early 40s, including The Cat Screams. In his later years, the 1970s, he taught the Choctaw language at Southeastern Oklahoma State University (Durant).
Jim Barnes - Oklahoma Poet Laureate for 2009 and 2010 and author of nine books of poetry, including On a Wing of the Sun, The Sawdust War, Paris, The American Book of the Dead, and Visiting Picasso. He is also the author of On Native Ground (University of Oklahoma Press, 1997; 2nd ed. 2009), an autobiography which won an American Book Award in 1998.
Cecil B. "Bud" Greathouse - the second most decorated American soldier of World War II.
The actress Vera Miles was born in Boise City in 1929.
Boise City was the only city in the continental United States to be bombed during World War II. The bombing occurred on July 5, 1943, at approximately 12:30 a.m. by a B-17 Flying Fortress Bomber.[6] This occurred because pilots performing target practice became disoriented and mistook the lights around the town square as their target. No one was killed in the attack (only practice bombs were used and the square was deserted at the time), but the pilots were embarrassed. For the 50th anniversary of the attack, the crew of the bomber was invited back to Boise City, but all members declined. The former radio operator did, however, send an audio tape that was played at the celebration
Bristow
Notable People
Gene Autry was a telegrapher in the 1920s at the Frisco Depot, which now houses the Bristow Chamber of Commerce.
Tom Paxton, influential American folk singer, moved to Bristow with his parents in 1948 and graduated from Bristow High.
Broken Bow
The city was the location of the wounding and capture of murderer Richard Wayne Snell in 1984, following his shootout with local police.[5] Snell had shot and killed two men in Arkansas, a pawn shop owner and Arkansas State Trooper Louis P. Bryant
Popular Media
In "Broken Bow", the 2001 pilot episode of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise, Broken Bow was the site of Human-Klingon first contact in 2151. A messenger named Klaang was shot down by the Suliban over a corn field. Shortly after dispatching his enemies, Klaang was shot by a farmer named Moore. Although severely injured, Klaang survived. It is worth noting that the area depicted in this episode is flat farmland, whereas the area around Broken Bow in the present day is hilly and forested. Because of this anomalous depiction, it was speculated that the locale in the Star Trek episode may have referred to Broken Bow, Oklahoma's namesake Broken Bow, Nebraska. However, dialog in the Enterprise episode "Detained", Captain Archer is asked what he might know about a place called Broken Bow in Oklahoma - seeming to settle which Broken Bow was referred to in the pilot episode.
Broken Bow and the surrounding area also served as the location for the episode "19:19" of the television series Millennium, in which Frank Black led a search for a group of children who had been abducted on their way to school. The abductor, a crazed visionary who believed he was the one destined to carry out the Book of Revelation's instructions, entombed the children in an abandoned quarry. This ultimately saved them from a deadly tornado that destroyed the schoolhouse where they otherwise would have been
Cache
It is the location of Star House, the home of the Comanche chief Quanah Parker, the major leader of the Quahadi Comanche in the years of Indian Wars and transition to reservation life.
The Blue Whale of Catoosa is a famous Route 66 landmark located just east of the downtown area.
Catoosa is an Inland seaport. The Port of Catoosa is the farthest inland seaport in the United States[3], linking Tulsa to the Arkansas River and eventually to the Gulf of Mexico
Miami
Notable People
Steve Owens (football) - The 1969 Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Oklahoma who went on to become a successful businessman and philanthropist.
George Coleman - Successful businessman in mining and oil businesses and was an avid sportsman, who was a close friend of Ben Hogan and Bing Crosby. His directorships included the Detroit Baseball Company, Chris Craft Industries, The Ben Hogan Company and the Pennzoil Company for thirty-three years.
Charles Banks Wilson - Internationally famous Native American artist whose works are display in the State Capitol in Oklahoma City and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Keith Anderson - Successful country music singer, named one of People magazine’s 50 hottest bachelors of 2005 and was named Men’s Fitness Magazine’s “Ultimate Country Star 2006."
Carol Littleton - Acclaimed film editor whose credits include, "French Postcards" (1979), "Body Heat" (1981) and, the next year, to an Academy Award nomination for editing Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster "E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), "The Big Chill" (1983), "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1986) and "Wyatt Earp" (1994).
Steve Gaines - An American musician. He is most well-known as a guitarist and songwriter for Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. Steve was in other bands most notably Crawdad. He joined Lynyrd Skynyrd after an audition arranged by his sister Cassie Gaines. Steve wrote some of the songs on Lynyrd Skynyrd's last studio album involving the pre-crash lineup. He also shared some singing duties with Ronnie Van Zant on the Street Survivors album and on the subsequent tour. Steve, Cassie, Van Zant, Assistant Road Manager Dean Kilpatrick, and both of the plane's crewmen died in an October 1977 plane crash.
Cassie Gaines - An American singer. She is best known as one the Original Honkettes the back up singers for rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd. Cassie was responsible for getting her brother an audition with the band. Both Steve and Cassie died in the 1977 plane crash that killed lead singer and founder Ronnie Van Zant, Assistant Road Manager Dean Kilpatrick, and both of the plane's crewmen.
Moriss Taylor - Radio and TV personality and internationally-renowned country/western singer was born here in 1924.
Joseph E. Fields - Conductor, Composer and Pianist. a former music director and principal conductor of the Dance Theatre of Harlem (1998 to 2004) Orchestra director and administrator of the music school at Marywood University in Scranton New Jersey. Died July 4, 2008.
David Froman - Actor who played Lieutenant Bob Brooks on Matlock and appeared in many productions of the Miami Little Theatre.[11] Died February 8, 2010.
David Osborne - Pianist Known as Pianist to the Presidents, Osborne has performed for the last six Presidents, and has a close friendship with President Carter. The Hollywood Fame Awards will award Osborne a "star" at the Paramount Theater in November 2010.
Mustang
Notable People
Kendall Cross, Olympic Gold Medalist Wrestler.
Shane Hamman , Olympic Gold Medalist Powerlifter.
Dennis Byrd , New York Jets Defensive Lineman
Noble
Noble is considered the "Rose Rock Capital of the World", as the concentration of barium sulfate in the soil is higher there than anywhere else, causing the formation of rose rocks. In honor of this status, Noble sets aside the first Saturday each May to celebrate its annual Rose Rock Festival.
Local geologist Joe Stine and his wife opened the Timberlake Rose Rock Museum in 1986.
Nowata
Nowata filmography Nowata was the setting for the 1998 movie Possums. In the movie a man played by Mac Davis tries to bring back the town's cancelled high school football program. Scenes were filmed in town and guest starred Barry Switzer and many locals.
It is the birthplace of folk music legend Woody Guthrie.
Notable People
Gwen Guthrie - R&B singer
William Reid Pogue - Astronaut
Larry Coker - Football coach
Oologah
Renowned humorist Will Rogers was born on a ranch two miles east of Oologah, though he usually claimed Claremore as his birthplace, "because nobody but an Indian can pronounce 'Oologah"
Pauls Valley
Notable People
T. J. Rushing-National Football League player[10]
Kevin Stark- toy designer (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Pawhuska
Notable People
Ben Johnson - actor
Clarence L. Tinker -Air Force general
Mitch Schauer (creator of The Angry Beavers)
Larry Sellers - actor
Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman, cookbook author and blogger)
Literature
Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County is set on a farm near Pawhuska.
Scouting - The first Boy Scout troop is claimed to have been organized in Pawhuska, in May 1909 by John F. Mitchell, a missionary priest from England sent to St. Thomas Episcopal Church by the Church of England.[6]
On Independence day weekend 2009, the Pawhuska boy scout troop celebrated it's centennial with a mini-jamboree attended by over 300 scouts from across the United States.
Ernest E. Evans, Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy, Medal of Honor recipient for action as commander of Destroyer USS Johnston off Samar Island, Philippines, 1944
Clyde LeForce, selected by the Detroit Lions in the 19th round of the 1945 NFL Draft
Jean Hager, mystery suspense author
Chief Yellow Horse, first full blooded Native American Pro Baseball Player
Perry
Timothy McVeigh was stopped on April 19, 1995, along Interstate 35 just outside of Perry by Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Charles J. Hanger. Hanger had passed McVeigh's yellow 1977 Mercury Marquis and noticed it had no license plate. He arrested McVeigh for carrying a loaded firearm. Three days later, while still in jail, McVeigh was identified as the subject of the nationwide manhunt
Perry is home to the Perry High School wrestling team, the most successful high school wrestling program in the country. As of 2010, The Perry Maroon wrestling team has won 37 state championships, a national record, boasting 156 state champion medals, also a national record. Perry wrestling has the 3rd most NCAA Division 1 All Americans and three 4 time state champions.
Danny Hodge, an OU graduate and Perry native, is generally regarded as one of the greatest (and strongest) collegiate wrestlers of all time and was never taken down by an opponent throughout his college career. He won a silver medal in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic games and was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated: the only amateur wrestler ever bestowed that honor. Later he won the U.S. Golden Gloves boxing heavyweight championship. Hodge is the only man to hold both amateur boxing and amateur wrestling titles.
Notable People
Danny Hodge, NWA wrestler, Olympic wrestler
Buster Keaton - actor
Henry S. Johnston - governor
Sharron Miller - Emmy Award winning television director, writer, producer
Jack Swagger, Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion
Jack van Bebber Olympic wrestler
Picher
Documentary Film
Picher was featured in the PBS Independent Lens film The Creek Runs Red discussing the connection of the people and their desire to leave or stay in the city.[16] Picher was also featured in the Jump the Fence Productions film titled Tar Creek. The film, which was written, directed, and narrated by Matt Myers, features music from Blues legend Watermelon Slim.[17] Picher was featured in an episode of Life After People: The Series on the History Channel.[18] The aforementioned tornado was also featured on an episode of the Weather Channel's Storm Stories.
Notable People
Joe Don Rooney, country pop musician with the band Rascal Flatts
Piedmont
Piedmont High School won the Class C girls basketball State Championship in 1967.
The Pride of Piedmont Marching Band has won Class Championships at the Oklahoma Bandmasters' Association Championships in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. Additionally, the marching band was named the Bands of America St. Louis Super Regional Class A Champion in 2008. The Pride of Piedmont Winter Guard won a MAPAA State Championship during the 2006 season with their show "Scattered". In 2009, they won the WGPO State Championship (MAPAA was disbanded and replaced), performing a program entitled "Time After Time." In 2010, the Pride of Piedmont Middle School Winter Guard won the state championship in their class, performing a show entitled "99 Red Balloons".
The Piedmont Girls' Track Team won the Class 4A State Championship in 2009 and 2010.
Pond Creek
Notable People
Judith James, Medical Researcher/1985 Graduate of Pond Creek-Hunter High School
Van Shea Iven, Television Personality/1986 Graduate of Pond Creek-Hunter High School
Denise Moore 2007 Oklahoma Lottery Winner/1974 Pond Creek-Hunter High School
The World's Highest Hill? Cavanal Hill
Poteau
It is the home of the World's Highest Hill, Cavanal Hill
Pryor Creek
Notable People
Joseph "Jocko" Clark - US Navy admiral
"Indian" Bob Johnson - professional baseball player
Cliff Mapes - professional baseball player
Purcell
Often called "Quarterhorse Capital of the World
Pop culture
Tom Lester notable television actor from of 1960's and 70's portrayal of farmhand "Eb Dawson" in Green Acres, an absurdist television comedy program was a school teacher here in the local school district, prior to pursuing his acting career
Sallisaw
Cultural references
The Joad family from the Pulitzer Prize -winning novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck were sharecroppers from Sallisaw.
Pretty Boy Floyd was from Sallisaw.
In the Brad Paisley song, I Wish You'd Stay, Brad mentions Sallisaw.
Sand Springs
Notable People
Charles Page - oilman, founder of Sand Springs
Sam Harris - actor and singer
Marques Haynes - Harlem Globetrotters player
Neal Hallford - game designer, author, and film producer
Mae Young - Professional wrestler
Cindy Pickett - actress
William R. Pogue - Skylab Astronaut, author, and pilot
Glenn Leedy - actor
Sapulpa
Newspaper Controversy
The Sapulpa Daily Herald gained national media attention in early November 2008 for not reporting the election of Barack Obama as President, reporting only that John McCain had won among the voters of Creek County. Critics charged that the omission related to racism, as Obama's victory as the first African American elected president was an historic event. The newspaper maintains that it only covers local news events
Notable People
Max Meyer, an immigrant to the United States and settler in Sapulpa in 1906, was subject of the biography Preposterous Papa (reprint 1992 in paperback) by his son Lewis Meyer, Tulsa author and bookseller. Meyer was a merchant and philanthropist, who built public projects from profits from the more than 50 oil wells he developed.[7]
The musicians known as The Collins Kids, Lorrie and Larry Collins, resided near Sapulpa in the early 1950s.[8]
Major League Baseball player Don Wallace was born in Sapulpa.
Eugene Bavinger (b. 1919, Sapulpa) is an abstract expressionist painter
Sayre
In the 1930’s U.S. Route 66, a dream forwarded by fellow Oklahoman Cyrus Avery, would come to Sayre, cementing the town’s fate to fuel the cars and feed the people exploring the country.
In 1940 film director John Ford would use Sayre’s Beckham County Courthouse in the film The Grapes of Wrath, based on the famous book by writer John Steinbeck
During the 1970s Sayre and the surrounding area would benefit from the natural gas and oil development in the Panhandle-Hugoton field, the largest-volume gas field in the United States, and the world’s largest known source of helium. Between 1973 and 1993 the field produced over 8-trillion cubic feet (230,000,000 m³) of gas.
One famous son of Sayre is balloonist Maxie Anderson. Born in Sayre, during the height of the Great Depression, 10 September 1934, Anderson along with Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman were the first people to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon, the Double Eagle II, in 1978
Stigler
Stigler is home to the Haskell County Courthouse, which has become notable for erecting marble statues of the Ten Commandments and the Mayflower Compact on the front lawn (see Separation of church and state in the United States). In the seventh commandment, the word "adultery" is misspelled.
Kelli Litsch would lead her Thomas High School team to back-to-back six-on-six basketball state championships in 1980 and 1981, and set a new state tournament scoring record of 338 points in nine games over three years, for a 37.6 point-per-game average. She led the Lady Terriers to a 77 wins and only 9 loses over her three seasons, scoring a then-record (boys or girls) 3,364 total points.[3] Then turning down NCAA Division I (Southern California, Louisiana Tech, Texas, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma) scholarship offers to stay close to home, she would go to Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) instead, and became the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics's (NAIA) first four-time All-American (in any sport) and three time NAIA Player of the Year (1983, 1984 and 1985). Litsch would help the Lady Bulldogs to win three national titles (1982, 1983, and 1985), set an NAIA career scoring record with 2,700 points, while leading her team to a 129-5 (34-0, 30-4, 31-1 and 34-0) win-loss record over the four year span, and carry a 3.97 GPA. She would win the District 9 Most Valuable Player award four years in a row, and be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee in 2004
Wetumka
Wetumka was conned by a man named F. Bam Morrison in 1950, and the town laughs about it each year through a celebration called Sucker Day
Wynnewood
Notable People
musician Roy Milton
General Tommy Franks, who commanded the invasion forces of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq
Donna Shirley, who led the Mars Pathfinder project at JPL
