Voices of Oklahoma facts for kids
Voices of Oklahoma (VOk) is an online project that collects and saves the stories of people from Oklahoma. It's like a giant digital scrapbook of voices! You can find these stories on their website, www.voicesofoklahoma.com.
This project is a great resource for students, teachers, and anyone who wants to learn about Oklahoma's past. The stories cover many different topics, like ranching, politics, education, business, music, and arts. VOk hopes that young people will learn from these stories and use that knowledge to help shape their own futures. The main goal of Voices of Oklahoma is to save Oklahoma's history, one person's story at a time.
Contents
How Voices of Oklahoma Started
The idea for Voices of Oklahoma began in 2008. A man named John Erling was having lunch with his friend, Walter Helmerich. Walt, who was an oilman in Oklahoma, shared many interesting stories about his life.
John Erling asked Walt if he could record these stories. Walt agreed and even gave permission for his voice to be put online as part of a new project to save history. Walt liked the idea so much that he became one of the first people to donate money to the project.
Launching the Website
By the end of 2009, John Erling had already interviewed 40 people. The Voices of Oklahoma website officially launched on April 10, 2010. The very first interview featured on the site was with Wilma Mankiller. She was the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation and a very important leader.
Who Has Been Interviewed?
Many famous and interesting Oklahomans have shared their stories with Voices of Oklahoma. These include:
- US Senator Jim Inhofe
- David Green, who started Hobby Lobby stores
- Musicians like Roy Clark and Tommy Allsup
- Bill Anoatubby, the Governor of the Chickasaw Nation
- Actress Peggy Dow Helmerich
- Writer and artist N. Scott Momaday
- And many more important people from Oklahoma's history!
Founding Supporters
Several groups helped fund the Voices of Oklahoma project from the beginning. These include the Grace and Franklin Bernsen Foundation, the H. A. and Mary Kay Chapman Charitable Trust, the Helmerich Foundation, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the William K. Warren Foundation, and the Williams Companies Foundation. Their support helped make this amazing project possible.
Voices of Oklahoma Book Release
In November 2018, Voices of Oklahoma released a book! It's called "Voices of Oklahoma: Stories from the Oral History Website VoicesOfOklahoma.com." The book was written by John Erling and John Hamill.
The book has 206 pages and includes more than 50 parts from interviews found on the website. It's divided into different sections based on topics. You can read about the Oklahoma Land Run, sports, people who started businesses, lessons in leadership, and stories from World War II.
Featured Stories in the Book
Some of the people whose stories are in the book include:
- Steve Ripley
- Chester Cadieux, who founded QuikTrip
- George Nigh
- Porter Reed
- Henry Bellmon
- Betty Boyd (Oklahoma Legislator)
- And Walter Helmerich III, who helped start the project!
The book was supported by Burt B. Holmes and the Chickasaw Nation. Because of their help, 230 libraries across Oklahoma received copies of the book for free. This means even more people can learn from these important stories.
Meet the Interviewer: John Erling
John Erling, the person who conducts all these interviews, was born in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. He started his career in radio in North Dakota. He then worked in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Omaha, Nebraska.
In 1976, John moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. He became the host of the morning show on 740 KRMG (AM) radio station. He became well-known for talking about the "Tulsa Mountains" on his show.
John spent 29 years as a popular radio host, interviewing many local and national figures. After he retired from radio, he worked in advertising for a few years. Then, he launched the Voices of Oklahoma project! John Erling is now a member of both the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame.
