Duchess of Weaselskin

Bayfield, Colorado - Whoa! Has gas prices really gone below $2 in Oklahoma? Was it just for a day? Roy in Perry, Oklahoma told us that Conoco-Phillips dropped the price of regular to $1.51.9 today (September 12, 2011).

Roy also says, "Perhaps it dropped for just one or two days because our county fair is going on now and ends Friday. Just in time for Oklahoma's oldest celebration since 1894, which is Perry's version of the CHEROKEE STRIP CELEBRATION that commemorates the Cherokee Strip land run of September 16, 1893. This year we celebrate on Saturday, September 17th."

If you like old ragtime songs of the past, be sure to check out the feature below in "NW Okie's Corner" for links to MP3's added to our Prairie Pioneer 78rpm MP3 Jukebox Flash Player. Maybe someone out there can tell us all how to do the "Uptown Lowdown."

Good Night & Good Luck! View/Write Comments (count 3)   |   Receive updates (3 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

This Day In History (September 12)

America - On Sept. 12, 1977, South African black student leader Steven Biko died while in police custody, triggering an international outcry. - Go to article

On Sept. 12, 1913, Jesse Owens, the American black man who caused a sensation at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin by winning four gold medals, was born. Following his death on March 31, 1980, his obituary appeared in The Times. - Go to obituary

• 1609 - English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into the river that now bears his name.
• 1880 - Journalist and critic H.L. Mencken was born in Baltimore.
• 1938 - In a speech in Nuremberg, Adolf Hitler demanded self-determination for the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia.
• 1943 - German paratroopers rescued former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from the hotel where he was being held prisoner by his own government.
• 1944 - U.S. Army troops entered Germany for the first time during World War II, near Trier.
1953 - Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, R.I.
• 1954 - "Lassie" made its TV debut on CBS.
• 1959 - "Bonanza" premiered on NBC.
• 1974 - Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by Ethiopia's military after ruling for 58 years.

NW Okie's Corner

Bayfield, Colorado - As we scour our OkieLegacy stories of 2001 that are not in our database, we found the photo above that a reader sent in to us in 2001 concerning a 1890 McAlester, Indian Territory school photo.

Eric of Charlotte, North Carolina says, "I have an original photo. Maybe you can use it. This circa 1890, McAlester school photo is marked on the back: 'Old School South McAlester I.T.' It would look good in your newsletter and maybe one of your readers knows about when it was taken. Maybe even who some of the people were. I purchased this photo as a collector of Oklahoma Indian Territory Photos. I found it being auctioned off on eBay from some guy in your neck of the woods. I just love it and wanted you all to see it. I have a couple of others too that are identified as I.T. but they are portraits."

Besides scouring our archives of the OkieLegacy Ezine, we have added some more MP3 to our Prairie Pioneer Jukebox. One of the MP3 is called "Doin' the Uptown Lowdown. I am asking, "What was the Uptown Lowdown?

78rpm MP3 Oldies
Hoop-Dee-Doo by Perry Como & Andrew Sisters

Alexander's Ragtime Band by Joe Venuti Orchestra

Stormy Weather by Lena Horne

Whiffenpoof Song

St. James Infirmary Blues - Part 1

St. James Infirmary Blues - Part 2

Spaghetti Rag by Jack Fina Orchestra

Tiger Rag

The Three Caballeros By Perry Como & Andrew Sisters

Doin' the Uptown Lowdown by Joe Venuti

Don't Fence Me In by Perry Como & Andrews Sisters


How to Embed MP3 Audio Files In Web Pages

I used the Google Reader MP3 Player - Google Reader has an inbuilt MP3 player that is pretty much the same as Gmail player but it also works on non-Google websites. This player has volume controls, no Google branding and it auto-detects the duration of the music file so your readers know how long the song will last. SEE MORE at this LINK

To use this MP3 player on your website or blog, copy-paste the following code and replace the MP3_FILE_URL with the link to your MP3 file.

Giuseppe "Joe" Venuti (1903-1978)

Joe Venuti was the first great violinist of Jazz. The music he made with Eddie Lang would later be a major influence on Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli in France.

Joe Venuti was born 16 September 1903, aboard a ship as his parents emigrated from Italy, though many believe he was simply born in Philadelphia. Later in life, he said he was born in Italy in 1896 and that he came to the U.S. in 1906. Venuti died 14 August 1978.

Venuti trained to be a classical violinist from an early age. Venuti was an Italian-American jazz musician and pioneer jazz violinist. Venuti met Eddie Lang in 1913 while attending school in Philadelphia and started a local group with him three years later. Lang and Venutie would go on to play and record with each other frequently up until Lang's death in 1933.

Venuti played briefly with Red Nichols. He toured with jean Goldkette and played in the orchestra of many Broadway shows. Venuti co-led a band with Eddie Lang off and on through most of the 1920's, that included Jimmy Dorsey, Red Nichols and Frank Signorelli of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.

In 1929, Venuti joined the Paul Whiteman Orchestra but was injured in an auto accident, which he rejoined th the band in 1930. Venuti was able to keep working as a musician the rest of his life and enjoyed a resurgence of interest in the 1970's. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Alexander's Ragtime Band

Alexander's Ragtime Band is the name of a song by Irving Berlin. It was his first major hit, in 1911. There is some evidence, although inconclusive, that Berlin borrowed the melody from a draft composition submitted by Scott Joplin that had been submitted to a publisher.

Alexander's Ragtime Band" is not itself an example of the ragtime musical idiom; apart from some mild syncopation, it has almost none of ragtime's characteristic features. Nonetheless, the lyrics clearly refer to the arrival of African-American musicians on the popular scene with their then-new idea of playing standard songs in a more exciting up-tempo style.



Lyrics: Come on and hear, come on and hear, Alexander's Ragtime Band! Oh ma honey . . . ain't you goin' to the leaderman, the ragged meter man. They can play a bugle call like you never heard before. So natural that you want to go to war. That's just the bestest band what am, honey lamb. If you care to hear the Swanee River played in ragtime. There's a fiddle with notes that screeches like a chicken and the clarinet is a colored pet.

Vaudeville singer Emma Carus, famed for her "female baritone", is said to have been largely responsible for successfully introducing the song in Chicago and helping contribute to its immense popularity. It became identified with her, and soon worked its way back to New York where Al Jolson also began to perform it.

The song has been recorded by many artists, including The Andrews Sisters, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Bee Gees, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, George Formby, Al Jolson, Liberace, Billy Murray, Liza Minnelli, Sid Phillips, Bessie Smith and Julie Andrews.

The song was used in Tennessee politics by Lamar Alexander, a trained pianist, Governor of Tennessee and U.S. Senator, who performed the song for campaign events, including during his 1996 run for the Republican presidential nomination.

The song was in the White Star Line Songbook on board the R.M.S. Titanic was played in the 1st Class Lounge early on in the sinking. This is portrayed in James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster, Titanic. The Georgia Tech Pep Band plays the song before every men's and women's home basketball games. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

PARRIS Family Inquiry

Jimandjo White (Email: jimanjo@hotmail.com) has an inquiry and says, "I am researching the Parris Family. My mother-in-law, Opal Parris White, now deceased was decended from James Parris born 1755. You have an Edward Parris born to Alexander and Elizabeth Smith Parris in 1699 in Kent County, Delaware. I believe that he had a son named Moses who had a son named James who is my James.

"I would like to know how you came by this information. It is very interesting because my husband's grandfather always claimed that the Parris family in Tennessee was decended through Alexander Parris from Parris Island. In my research, I have determined that James is descended through Edward. If your are correct (or as correct as can be), this makes sense to me. I hope you can help me. - Joanne White, Putnam County TN" View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

E. M. Markers 1950 All-Americans

Alva, OK - Remember when Editor Brooks Bicknell and Barker's collaborated on E.M. BArker's All-American football team, which featured Alva Citizens? Jim Barker sent us the following cartoon that appeared in the late 1940's to earlier 1950's of the Alva Review Courier.

Jim says, "I thought you might get a bang out of this. In the late '40s and early '50s, my father and Alva Review Courier editor Brooks Bicknell collaborated on the selection of "E. M. Barker's All-American" football team, featuring Alva citizens in the "All-American" roles. Brooks and E. M. made the selections, my father wrote the story and picture captions, and Brooks (who was a pretty good cartoonist: he also did the logo for my Dad's "Sports Spasms" column) drew the picture.

"Totally a tongue-in-cheek effort, it poked well-received and mildly-contrived fun at the yearly selections. You could get away with that and not make anybody mad back then. This picture is the only one that I was able to save over the years. I'm afraid the rest are lost to antiquity." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Obituary - Dr. John Kenneth Beadles

Steve Nicholson forwarded us the obituary of Kenneth Beadles, who was the biology teacher at Alva High School way back when. Beadles Obituary appeared in the Emerson Funeral Home. Did you have Dr. John Kenneth Beadles as a biology teacher at Alva High School?

John Kenneth Beadles was born in Alva, Oklahoma on September 22, 1931 to Joseph Haven and Ellen Amanda Beadles. Kenneth departed this life on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at the age of 79, in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

During the Korean Conflict, he served in the United States Navy as a DT3. After returning from the Navy in 1954, he began his educational career earning a BS degree from Northwestern State College in Alva, Oklahoma with a double major in biology and chemistry in 1957. For the next 5 years, he was a science teacher and football coach in the Alva School System.

In 1962 he began graduate school at Oklahoma State University and received his MS degree in 1963 followed by a PhD in 1965. In 1965, he came to Arkansas State University as an assistant professor in the Biology Department. He left the U.S. in 1966 to work with USAID in the Ethiopia-Oklahoma A&M Project in Alemaya, Ethiopia, Africa as a science teacher, researcher, and advisor at Haille I University.

In 1968, he returned to Arkansas State University as Chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, a position he held for 16 years. In 1982, he was elected President of the Arkansas Academy of Science. He also has been an active leader in the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools, serving two terms on its Executive Committee and as a member of its Committee on Committees.

In 1984, he moved to the position of Dean of the Graduate School and Director of Organized Research until his retirement in 1993. He played a key role in the successful role in the establishment of the School of Nursing and the Doctor of Education degree in Educational Leadership, the university's first doctoral program.

In 2010, he was honored to be selected as one of the "First 100 Distinguished Faculty" at Arkansas State University. He was a member of the American Fisheries Society, Southwestern Association of Naturalists, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, Beta Beta Beta, Phi Delta Kappa and was a Danforth Fellow.

Dr. Beadles was a pioneer in catfish farming and research in Northeast Arkansas during a period from 1965 until 1978 on the 8 pond complex at ASU's farm in Walcott, Arkansas. Many students performed research and learned new techniques in catfish farming during those years. He authored and co-authored a total of 29 Publications and Environmental Reports on mammals and fish during his career.

Across the nation today is a generation of teachers, researchers, and fisheries personnel who began their professional education in Dr. Beadles' classroom. After his retirement in 1993 from ASU, he became involved in Jonesboro civic activities. He served as chair of the Jonesboro Ecumenical Council, helped in the construction of two Habitat for Humanity houses, served on the advisory board of the Women's Recovery Center, the Jonesboro Urban Renewal and Housing Authority, and served for many years as Chair of the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission.

He was an active member of the Jonesboro Rotary Club having perfect attendance for 38 years. He served as President in 1978-79, Governor of District 6150 in 1985-86, was a Paul Harris Fellow, and a recipient of the James F. Gramling Award for outstanding and dedicated community service. in 1994, he received an international citation for meritorious service to the Rotary Foundation.

While he was District Governor, he obtained a matching grant to build a walk-in hospital in Lahore Pakistan, the first special gift project in District 6150. He served for many years as an United Way volunteer, was on the Board of Trustees of United Way and was selected "Outstanding United Way Volunteer of the Year for 1999-2000" A longtime member of First Baptist Church, he served as a teacher for the past 28 years, was Chairman of the Deacons, Stewardship Chairman, and Finance Committee Chairman.

He served on three church building and major remodeling projects. He helped in the physical construction of Magnolia Road Baptist Church and the South Caraway Baptist Church. For the past 28 years, he has served as a teacher of the Roy Jolly Sunday School Class and in recent years taught Sunday School classes to the residents of Skillcare Nursing Home, Ridgecrest Rehabilitation Center, and St. Bernard Village. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Stella Friends Academy Marker

Oklahoma - As we search back through our archives of the Spring of 2001, Vol. III, of the OkieLegacy (which is not in our database), we find the Stella Friends Academy Marker that sets on the southside of Hwy 11, where a mobile home and farm now reside.

The historical marker reads as follows: "Building near here from 1897 under auspices of Friends Church, the academy was noted for high moral, spiritual and scholastic standards. Closed 1922. Named for teacher of 1st school (1893) in this vicinity, a sod house near Stella Church in Cherokee Strip."

The photo on the right is a picture of the old Stella Friends Academy in Alfalfa County Historical Society's book entitled Our Alfalfa County Heritage, 1893-1976.

The higher education problem was solved for the Riverside District when the Stella District, just east of Riverside, recede the Stella Friends Academy. The Stella Academy was a stringent four year High School education that required three years of latin. It had boys and girls dormitories. Charge for rooms per month was $1.25 and Board for a full week was $2.25 or $1.75 for a 5 day week.

We also came across this old photo of the 1904 Stella Friends Academy scholars that was in my grandparents possession. On the back of this photograph it reads: "Teacher, please let scholars see the picture while in their seats. 2 at a time can see much better and not let a bunch look or try to look at once, as likely to soil picture. This is one and let me know soon as possible how many more wanted at 25-cents each. Thanking you and all for favors. I am Respectfully, B. F. Smith." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Kiowa (KS) & Carry Nation

Kiowa, Kansas - Carry Nation Marker, Kiowa, Kansas -- Just a mile over the Kansas Border in NW Oklahoma is the small, rural community of Kiowa, Kansas. On the south side of town, located near the water tower and town park is an historical marker that tells how Carry Nation launched her career of saloon smashing in Kiowa, Kansas.

Carry A. Nation Historical Marker says, "Carry A. Nation, the militant crusader against illegal saloons, launched her career of saloon smashing in Kiowa. She and her followers in Medicine Lodge, her home town, had closed the local saloons by holding prayer meetings on their premises and displays of force. However, as the Women's Christian Temperance Unions jail evangelist, she found as many drunks as ever in the county jail.

These men named Kiowa as their source of supply. A voice spoke to Carry, telling her to go to Kiowa and smash the saloons. On June 1, 1900, she attacked three 'joints' in Kiowa using stones, brickbats, full malt bottles, and one billard ball as ammunition. Carry's attacked surprised local officials, but because of the fact that the operation of such 'joints' was illegal she was not jailed as she would be later in other communities. She did not adopt the use of her now famous hatchet until her visit to Wichita some six months later. The Kiowa attack quickly received national attention and instigated great debate even among the temperance organizations. Carry Nation spent the remainder of her life in the crusade against the liquor interests and lecturing on prohibition. She died June 9, 1911." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

McKeever School Teachers (NW Oklahoma Territory)

Oklahoma - Info from the book, The First 100 Years of Alva, Oklahoma 1886-1986, by Seekers of Oklahoma Heritage Association -- McKeever School District 23 was located on the SW corner of Section 24, 6 miles west of Alva, Oklahoma.

The first school term was held during the winter of 1894-1895 in the Hulet home, 6 miles west and 1/3 mile south of hwy 64 in Section 25 of the Alva Township.

The Hulet home as a dugout, 12 feet by 18 feet with dirt floors. It had a 4 foot depth with sod laid up 2 feet above that. The roof was made of poles and branches of trees covered with dirt. The McKeever School was earlier known as "North Eagle, District 191.

29th January 1895... The pupils that attended the North Eagle, Dist. 191 school were: Harry Benton, Johnnie Benton, Myrtle Cocohm, Clevie Kinney, Mary Kinney, Tommie Kinney, Amon McKeever, Phebe McKeever, Cora Messmore, Evert Litton, Jim Litton, Thomas Litton, Orwell Shirley, Bertha Smith, Cora Turner, Lola Turner, Bessie Vincent, Cora Wiggins, Della Wiggins, Gracie Wiggins.

Sometime during the 1894-95 school year, Dick McKeever purchased the Hulet claims and donated the SW corner of his SW quarter of Section 24 for a frame-boxed school building that was moved from 4 to 5 miles NW of Alva and placed on the donated land.

The second school term was held in this frame box house that measured 14 feet by 28 feet, with wooden floors with 1 inch by 12 inch planks, and desks that were from the same type of plank. It cost $300 to construct the original part of the school.

The School District changed in 1908 from District 191 to District 23 and was known as the McKeever School. The American Elm trees which encircle the school grounds were set out about 1915 and still line the south boundary of the school yard along hwy 64.

List of McKeever Teachers....