Troyal Garth Brooks is an American singer and songwriter. His integration of rock and pop elements into the country genre has earned him popularity, particularly in the United States with success on the country music single and album charts, multi-platinum recordings and record-breaking live performances, while also crossing over into the mainstream pop arena.
Ruth Alston Brown was an American singer-songwriter and actress, sometimes known as the "Queen of R&B". She was noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean". For these contributions, Atlantic became known as "the house that Ruth built". Brown was a 1993 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The Oak Ridge Boys are an American country and gospel vocal quartet. The group was founded in the 1940s as the Oak Ridge Quartet. They became popular in southern gospel during the 1950s. Their name was changed to the Oak Ridge Boys in the early 1960s, and they remained a gospel group until the mid-1970s, when they changed their image and concentrated on country music.
Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a walk of fame that acknowledges the achievements and accomplishments of Canadians who have excelled in their respective fields.
Roy Linwood Clark was an American singer and musician. He is best known for having hosted Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1997. Clark was an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and in helping to popularize the genre.
Wanda Lavonne Jackson is a retired American singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist who had success in the mid-1950s and 1960s as one of the first popular female rockabilly singers, and a pioneering rock-and-roll artist. She is known to many as the "Queen of Rockabilly" or the "First Lady of Rockabilly".
Paul Steven Ripley was an American recording artist, record producer, songwriter, studio engineer, guitarist, and inventor. He entered the music industry in 1977. He was also the leader/producer of country rock band The Tractors.
Edward R. Salamon is an American entertainment industry executive and radio broadcaster. He is credited as one of the people who led to country music becoming a major force in the mid-1990s. He was dubbed “country radio’s most influential programmer” while programming WHN, New York, which became the most listened to country radio station of all time in the mid-1970s, an accomplishment that led to his induction into the Country Radio Seminar Hall of Fame in 2006.
Larry Scott was an American country music disc jockey who hosted a number of country music shows in the U.S. First announcing on a radio station in Neosho, Missouri in 1955, Scott later moved to the west coast where he worked at radio stations KBBQ and KLAC from 1967 to 1982.
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Crumbo (Potawatomi) was an artist, Native American flute player, and dancer who lived and worked mostly in the West of the United States. A transcript of his daughter's interview shows that Mr. Crumbo was born on January 31, 1912, so there is a discrepancy of the date until confirmation. As an independent prospector in New Mexico in the late 1950s, he found one of the largest beryllium veins in the nation, valued at millions of dollars.
John Steven Wooley is the author, co-author, or editor of more than 25 books. They include Shot in Oklahoma, a history of made-in-Oklahoma movies for the University of Oklahoma Press that was recently named Outstanding Book on Oklahoma History for 2011 by the Oklahoma Historical Society, and a biography of horror-movie director Wes Craven, The Man and His Nightmares, for John Wiley and Sons. Other recent works include his novel Ghost Band; The Miracle Squad, a graphic novel reprinting – with the addition of new material – the comic-book series he did with artist Terry Tidwell in the 1980s; Forgotten Horrors Vol. 5: The Atom Age and Forgotten Horrors Comics & Stories, the latest volumes in his ongoing series with co-authors Michael H. Price and Jan Alan Henderson; The Home Ranch, written with famed Osage rancher John Hughes; and From the Blue Devils to Red Dirt: The Colors of Oklahoma Music, one of only three books commissioned by the Oklahoma Centennial Commission and a finalist for the 2007 Oklahoma Book Award.
Bobby Nelson Poe, also known as The Poe Kat, was an American musician who had a long and varied career in the music business.
The Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, located in Muskogee, Oklahoma, honors Oklahoma musicians for their lifetime achievements in music. The induction ceremony and concert are held each year in Muskogee. Since its establishment in 1997, the Hall of Fame has inducted more than 37 individuals or groups, produced more than 7 concerts, and renovated in part the facility that will educate Oklahomans for generations about those innovators and industry icons from Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization that honors jazz, blues and gospel musicians in the state of Oklahoma. Housed in the former Tulsa Union Depot, which it now calls the Jazz Depot, the Hall of Fame is a music venue that hosts regular jazz performances. It is also a museum, displaying photographs, biographical information, artifacts, and memorabilia from musicians such as Chet Baker, Earl Bostic, Barney Kessel, Charlie Christian, Tommy Crook, Pat Kelley, and Jimmy Rushing.
Sherman Brooks Halsey was an American music video and television director, producer, and artist manager. Sherman Halsey produced and directed hundreds of television shows and music videos for artists such as Tim McGraw, Brooks and Dunn, Alan Jackson, BB King, Michael Bolton and Dwight Yoakam.
Connie Barriot Gay was renowned as a "founding father" and "major force" in country music. He is credited for coining the country music genre, which had previously been called hillbilly music. Gay was the founding president of the Country Music Association (CMA) and co-founder of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The CMA established the Connie B. Gay Award to recognize outstanding service to the CMA by a member not serving on the Board of Directors.
Dana Tiger is a Muscogee Creek-Seminole and Cherokee artist from Oklahoma. Her artwork focuses on portrayals of strong women. She uses art as a medium for activism and raising awareness. Tiger was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.
Ginny Creveling is the former Executive Director of the ONEOK foundation and a champion of numerous causes and organizations in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. She played a vital role in the creation of the Rainbow House in 1977, a child abuse prevention program and crisis nursery, the first of its kind, which paved the way for later organizations such as the Child Abuse Network and the Parent Child Center. She has served as a community leader in race and ethnic relations with the Oklahoma Conference for Community and Justice. In 2007, Creveling was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame for her volunteer and advocacy work.
Linda Morrissey is a Tulsa County district judge. During her time as a judge, Morrissey has influenced the addition of the first courtroom in Tulsa County that dealt strictly with child support, as well as the Families in Transition Plan that removes disputing families from the courtroom and gives them an audience with mediators. In 2003, among other awards, Morrissey was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame for her contributions to the Tulsa County judicial system.
Jeanine Rhea is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Management in the William S. Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University. Rhea taught at Oklahoma State from 1976 until 2004. With the money from an OSU grant, Rhea conducted research in the area of women in management and created a course out of her findings called "administrative strategies for women in business," which later became known as "managing diversity in the workplace." This course gained Rhea nationwide recognition and thousands of students have since participated in the course. In 2005, Rhea was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame. Currently, Rhea works as a performance consultant for Greenwood Performance Systems.
