James Robert Wills was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing. He was also noted for punctuating his music with his trademark "ah-haa" calls.
Troyal Garth Brooks is an American country singer and songwriter. His integration of pop and rock elements into the country genre has earned him his immense 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.
Muskogee is the 13th-largest city in Oklahoma and is the county seat of Muskogee County. Home to Bacone College, it lies approximately 48 miles (77 km) southeast of Tulsa. The population of the city was 36,878 as of the 2020 census, a 6.0% decrease from 39,223 in 2010.
Ruth Alston Brown was an American singer-songwriter and actress, sometimes referred to 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 originating in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The group was founded in 1943 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.
Roy Linwood Clark was an American singer, musician, and television presenter. 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.
Lane Clyde Frost was an American professional rodeo cowboy who specialized in bull riding, and competed in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). He was the 1987 PRCA World Champion bull rider. Frost was also the only rider ever to score a qualified ride on Red Rock, the 1987 PRCA Bucking Bull of the Year. During a ride in 1989 nicknamed "The Last Ride", Lane sustained fatal injuries when the bull Takin' Care of Business struck Frost with his right horn. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Canadian Music Week is an industry conference and music festival held in Toronto and Ontario, Canada.
James A. Shoulders was an American professional rodeo cowboy and rancher. He is commemorated at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. At the time of his death, he was one of the most successful contestants in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), having won 16 World Championships, which was the most of any performer at that time. He was known as the 'Babe Ruth of rodeo'.
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 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, Larry received a call from Al Brumley, originally from Powell. MO. Al and his brother, Tom,bwere in Bakersfield, CA playong country music. Al told Larry that if he ever wanted to be anybody in country music he needed to get out there. Larry packed his bags and headed West. He went to work for Cousin Herb Henson at KUZZ. He was there when it all happened, The Bakersfield Sound. He had an air shift at KUZZ a television show, produced Barbara Mandrell"s' first 45, plus making lifelong friends with Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Bill Woods, and the other greats of Bakersfield music scene. Scott later moved to Los Angeles where he worked at radio stations KBBQ and KLAC from 1967 to 1982. During the Los Angeles time, his boss and dear friend, Bill Ward, knew the talent, but wanted him to fain more experience, KVEG, Las Vegas and WiL. St. Louis. Then returned to Los Angeles. Bill and Larry had met in Dallas at a Gordon McLendon station. They were the first all country Station. Larry did the night shift, Bill was daytime. Larry still had his old California friends and knew about country music going to Los Angeles. He asked Bill if he wanted to go to California. They left Dallas for Burbank and KBBQ.
Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to have served three terms. Harjo is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv. She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an MFA degree at the University of Iowa in its creative writing program.
Bobby Nelson Poe, Sr., also known as The Poe Kat, was an American musician who had a long and varied career in the music business.
Robert James LaFortune was an American philanthropist and politician from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. LaFortune was mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma from 1970 to 1978.
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, Don Cherry, Charlie Christian, Tommy Crook, Pat Kelley, Barney Kessel 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, B. B. King, Michael Bolton and Dwight Yoakam.
Connie Barriot Gay was an American music entrepreneur who is 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.
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, 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.
The Oklahoma Eagle is a Tulsa-based Black-owned newspaper published by James O. Goodwin. Established in 1922, it has been called the voice of Black Tulsa and is a successor to the Tulsa Star newspaper, which burned in the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. The Oklahoma Eagle publishes news about the Black community and reported on the 1921 Tulsa race massacre at a time when many white-owned newspapers in Tulsa refused to acknowledge it. TheOklahoma Eagle is also Oklahoma's longest-running Black-owned newspaper. The Oklahoma Eagle serves a print subscriber base throughout six Northeastern Oklahoma counties, statewide, in 36 U.S. states and territories, and abroad. It claims that it is the tenth oldest Black-owned newspaper in the United States still publishing today.
