with one-liners and off-beat style, he roped in a generation and beyond By Joseph H. Carter, Sr., 1992 Inductee Will Rogers was born in 1879 on a sprawling Cherokee ranch near Oologah, Indian Territory. After working cattle and riding the range, Will Rogers circumnavigated the globe three times. He launched his show business career as […]
home with the most powerful in Washington By Vivian Vahlberg, 1983 Inductee Everyone in my seventh-grade carpool to Oklahoma City’s Taft Junior High School wanted to try out for the school newspaper. I didn’t. I had no interest in getting my hands dirty with printers’ ink. When I learned that being on newspaper staff meant […]
respect for the founder, and don’t call him Ray By Joe Hight, 2013 Inductee Ray Tassin demanded the same respect in the classroom as he did as a Naval Reserve commander. The World War II veteran, chairman of the Central State University Journalism Department, founder of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, and member since […]
the persistence to keep digging By Joe Hight, 2013 Inductee WEWOKA—Keep digging. Keep asking questions. Those words could be good advice for any journalist. But they were among the hallmarks of Vance H. Trimble’s journalism and writing career that spanned for more than 85 years. A career that included a Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting; […]
many started in Oklahoma radio, now many in Hall of Fame By Jerry Bohnen, 2006 Inductee Oklahoma’s long list of “radio” journalists are among some of the nation’s most widely heard reporters, becoming legends in America’s broadcasting industry. They were known for their coverage of wars, space launches, and for their leadership in radio newsrooms. […]
warning: writing is hard work By Bob G. Burke, 2003 Inductee I was a junior at the University of Oklahoma in 1969 when I met Jack Bickham. It was his first year as an assistant professor in the widely acclaimed Professional Writing Program in the H.H. Herbert School of Journalism. But Bickham was hardly a […]
from small moments to a legacy By Sue Hale, 2005 Inductee As city editor of The Oklahoman, I was at my desk, editing frantically to make deadline. It was a winter’s night in 1986. Suddenly I realized someone was standing next to me. Edith Gaylord had been attending a concert downtown. “That series you wrote […]
just so you know the rest of the story By John Durkee, 2017 Inductee No one knows who delivered the first radio news broadcast in Tulsa. Most likely it was on station WLAL. The original owner said the call letters stood for “We Laugh A Little.” The station signed on in October of 1923. The […]
Dyers lead with six Hall of Fame members By Ray Dyer & Andy Rieger, 2010 Inductees Oklahoma newspaper pioneers simultaneously built their hometowns while collectively lifting their young state. Families were and are the cornerstone of the state’s weekly and daily publications. They had well-known Oklahoma names, such as Gaylord, Lorton, Jones, Livermore, Mayo, Dyer, […]
the Hall of Fame newsroom in the 1980s By Joe Hight, 2013 Inductee In a small newsroom, the Shawnee News-Star was filled with future Hall of Famers when I worked there in the 1980s. I worked there twice, between a short stint at The Lawton Constitution and Morning Press where I also worked with Hall […]