VOC women – MoH

BETTY OLDHAM

Lifetime nurse and hospital volunteer Biography Betty Ruth Brown Oldham was born on June 17, 1932, at the Brown farm 13 miles northwest of Buffalo, Oklahoma. She was the second child out of six children born to Halbert and Nadean Brown. Betty has 4 brothers…

LILLIE WARNER

Lifetime nurse and hospital volunteer Biography When Lillie Ada Thompson was born on September 8, 1891. Her father, William, was 33, and her mother, Mary Elizabeth Riggs , was 30. She married Charles Henry Warner on July 26, 1909, in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. They had two…

DONNA FROMAN

Long time Claremore business woman and community service volunteer Biography Donna Froman was born in 1942 at home in Sequoyah, Oklahoma. Born into a family with a long history in Northeast Oklahoma. Her parents were Albert Casto Knight and Edith Gravitt Knight. Donna graduated…

PATTI PAGE

Biography Born Clara Ann Fowler on November 8, 1927 in Claremore, Oklahoma, Patti Page became a pop music legend, selling in excess of 100 million records over a career that spanned seven decades. From humble beginnings as one of eleven children born to a railroad…

MARY SNODDY

One of three in the first graduating class at Claremore High School following integration and Oklahoma Department of Human Services employee Biography Ms. Mary Alice (Brown) Snoddy was born in 1938. She graduated in 1956 from Claremore High School as part of the first class…

JOHN & JUNE SMITH

Claremore Coach and CPS employees; Long time First Baptist Church members Biography John Smith was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 11, 1932, to Ada Gazelle and John Hartley Smith. He and his mother moved to Claremore after his father’s passing when he was two.…

ALICE FARBRO

Pioneer family member and long time resident of Claremore Biography Alice Cline Farbro was born on December 17, 1929, the year of the big depression. When the stock market fell, people committed suicide, and many Oklahomans left the state of Oklahoma to try to find…

MELINDA KNIGHT

Dot’s Café owner and long time resident Biography Melinda Kay Washom Knight was born July 26, 1955 to Robert and Dorothy Washom. She was born on the family farm in Claremore, Oklahoma where she was still living until the flood of 2019. Robert was a…

NORMA HADDAD EAGLETON

Play Audio A pioneering public official and true servant to her community and fellow citizens. Biography Norma. Eagleton is known for many accomplishments including first female Tulsa city commissioner and Oklahoma corporation commissioner. Norma was the first woman elected to a voting position on the…

Pat Reeder

Journalist - Long time Claremore Progress writer and Will Rogers Memorial Public Relations Director Biography Born and raised on a rocky hillside of her father’s Cherokee allotment, overlooking the Verdigris River bottom, northeast of Nowata Oklahoma, Patty Reeder was the daughter of Jim and Juanita…

Jesse Lingenfelter

Business woman, wife and mother. A pioneering Claremore business owner’s wife. Biography Born December 11, 1914 in Perkins, Oklahoma to Robert and Ethel (Hedrick) Webb, Jessie was reared and educated in Pryor, Oklahoma. She graduated with the class of 1933, and in 1934 Jessie married…

Coke Meyer

Great Niece of Will Rogers Doris "Coke" Meyer speaks about her great-uncle, Will Rogers, Oklahoma's favorite son. Oklahoma’s favorite son used to say “My ancestors didn’t come over on the Mayflower, but they met the boat.” Will Rogers who had a rich Cherokee heritage, was…