No. 24: July 2016 What’s Happening in LG · 7/7/2014  · Facebook winners were asked to “like” their favor-ite in the five categories to choose the contest winners. Dacie Ellis,

What’s Happening in LGA Free Local Newsletter

Sponsored by the Locust Grove Arts Alliance

No. 24: July 2016

“What’s Happening in LG” is available at two new locations:Harps Grocery and the LG Post Office

The Circus is coming! The Circus is coming!

Chamber to bring bigtop to town Sept. 15

The Locust Grove Area Chamber of Commerce willsponsor a one-day circus on September 15.Two performances of the circus will be held on that dayby the Culpepper & Meriweather Circus. show timeswill be 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.More details about the location and circus acts will becoming in future issues. Check the August and Septem-ber issues of “What’s Happening. . .”

Battle of LG play scheduled July 8The Locust Grove Sum-

mer Art Camps three-weekspeech camps are under-way, with nearly 20 kidsmaking up the cast withspeaking roles in the next

“We will tell about theBattle of Locust Grove thattook place in the PipeSprings location during theCivil War on July 3, 1862,”she said.

The play titled “He Diedat His Post” gives the au-dience some backgroundinfo about why the CivilWar broke out, and cel-ebrates the lives lost to thefallen soldies.

“We try to honor thesesoldiers who came here andnever saw another day;there were 103 who diedthat July day,” said Stone.“Last year we used 103glow sticks, cracked themshook them and hung themin the trees throughout thepark before the audiencearrived for the play. Duringour battle scene, whennight has fallen, the glowsticks were appearing.”

The cast is still trying todecide how they want tohonor the fallen soldiersduring this year’s perfor-mance. Everyone is invitedto come see what they de-cide upon.

In the event of rain, theperformance will be post-poned to July 15 at 8 p.m.

play, and several more kidsare joining in as extras tohelp make the show a suc-cess.

A performance is sched-uled for 8 p.m., Friday, July

8, at Pipe Springs Park.Camp and play director isApril Stone; she is alsodirector of the LocustGrove Children’s Theatersponsored by the LocustGrove Arts Alliance.

“This is the third yearwe have asked everyoneto bring their lawn chairsand come out to watchwhat we have to showthem,” said Stone.

PLAY REST. . . SavannahMeeks, left, and Dacie Ellistake a break from practiceof “He Died at His Post.”Meeks is a dying Confeder-ate soldier, and Ellis is hisfriend. The play will be pre-sented at 8 p.m. July 8, atPipe Springs Park.

Page 2 What’s Happening in LG July 2016

LGAA meets July 13 at VFW

EDITOR’S NOTE: While this newsletter is producedby the LGAA and will contain our organization’s news,we also want to publish information about any activitiesin Locust Grove that our community might be interestedin.

Please contact Betty Perkins at [email protected] 918-479-5617 (leave a message if no answer), if youhave news on LG events, places, or people for inclusionin future issues. For advertising, call Roxann Perkins Yatesat 918-530-5321 or email at [email protected] LGAA is a nonprofit organization, advertising mustsupport the publication of this newsletter. Your support isgreatly appreciated.

About What’s Happening in LG

The next meeting of the Locust Grove Arts Alli-ance will be at 5:30 p.m. July 13, at the VFW Hall.The group will be reviewing the celebration of theBattle of Locust Grove which was held July 8 at thePipe Springs where the original Civil War battle oc-curred. The play, under the diretion of April Stone,is sponsored by the LGAA,

At the June meeting, April Stone talked about theWillard Stone Legacy event, and that a play aboutStone would be held by the Children’s Theater at adate to be determined. The Pipe Springs productionof the Civil War battle is still scheduled for July 8 at8 p.m.

In a decision made through the group email, theLGAA voted to purchase personal liability insurancefrom Cowan Insurance for April Stone, who is work-ing with Locust Grove children in various camps thissummer. The insurance cost $354.

April Stone also reported by email on the dancingworkshop which LGAA sponsored by providing pay-ment for the instructor Louise Siddons.

“Four people from LG listened and danced withSiddons and her partner Spencer,” Stone said. Dancesincluded the one-step, triple-step, Lindy, Jitter Bug,Charleston and Swing Dancing.The dancers also attended thedance sponsored by the Go-Get-ters each month and was held laterthat night.

DANCERS ENJOY LESSONS. . . Several couples took les-sons and then joined the Go-Getters in their monthly dancethe first Saturday in June.

Battle of Locust Grove at Pipe SpringsAt sunrise on July 3, 1862,

a Union force of approximately250 men under the command ofCol. William Weer over-whelmed a Confederate unit ofsimilar strength led by Col.James J. Clarkson.

Surprised by the Union at-tack, Clarkson’s men fled andwere pursued by Union troops.About 100 Confederates died,and 100, including Clarkson,were captured along with 60wagons and 64 mule teams.Union casualties totaled threekilled and six wounded.

The battle impacted Confed-erate morale in the CherokeeNation. The Confederate sol-diers who escaped retreated toTahlequah, causing panic andlarge-scale desertions among

Rural OklahomaMuseum of Poetry

6603 S. 438 - Locust Grove

Visit us atrompoetry.com

the pro-Confederate Chero-kees.

--Jon D. May, OklahomaHistorical Society

July 2016 What’s Happening in LG Page 3

COWAN INSURANCE AGENCY

Justin Cowan -- Agent

410 E. Main Locust Grove, OK

Auto - Home - Farm - Boat -Life - Bonds - Mobile Homes - Commercial

Turner’s Laundry&

Stash & Dash Mini Storage105 N. Wyandotte -- West Edge of Locust Grove

918-479-5759 or 918-479-5296Lighted, Fenced & Video Surveillance

Owner: Movita Turner

The June meeting of theLG Chamber of Com-merce included election ofnew officers and boardmembers, discussion offundraisers and beautifica-tion efforts.

Officers elected wereShaun Perkins for vice-president, Jennifer Hensonfor treasurer and MarshaEvans for secretary. Mem-bers added to the Board ofDirectors were KateBowerin, Jeff Kerr andJerry Yates. All of the can-didates were unopposed.

A consideration to raisedues to $10 for individu-als and nonprofits and $50for businesses was dis-cussed but not acted upon.

The Keep OklahomaBeautiful Campaign has aprogram called Fresh PaintDays, which funds paintand painting supplies forone building in a commu-nity. The Chamber is cur-rently looking for a build-ing to paint with fundingfrom this program.

Chamber elects officersTami McKeon of Grand

Gateway continued herwork with the Chamber byexploring strengths andweaknesses in the town’squality of life and improve-ment efforts.

Having a marathon andthe work that would entailwas also discussed as afundraiser for the Chamber.In conjunction with thatevent and others, a Swabthe Deck Day was sug-gested, wherein local orga-nizations and individualswould be asked to contrib-ute their time and energy tospiffing up the town in aone-day effort.

The Chamber meets onthe third Tuesday of eachmonth and all citizens areinvited. The next Chambermeeting will be July 19, at6:00 p.m. at a location tobe announced. Keep up todate on Chamber activitiesby liking the Locust GroveChamber page onFacebook.

EYE TO EYE. . . Madison Mennecke threads a needle atSewing Camp last summer. This year’s camp will be heldJuly 11-14. Contact April Stone for more information at 918-729-0487.

The Texas CoffeeSchool is offering a schol-arship to a just-graduatedsenior or to a senior of the2017 class.

For those who love cof-fee and want to become abusiness owner, informa-tion about the scholarshipand the application can befound attexascoffeeschool.com.

Texas Coffee Schooloffers scholarship

Page 4 What’s Happening in LG July 2016

“A Community Bank With Roots, Not Branches”

Established 1949

Online Banking: www.banklg.comVoice Banking: 1-877-479-5225

Phone: 918-479-5225FAX: 918-479-8787

Member FDIC

Dacie Ellis has winning shots from camp

WINNING PHOTOGRAPHS. . . The winning shots fromthe Locust Grove Children’s Photo Camp, taught by AprilStone, include the two shots above by Dacie Ellis, who at-tended the camp on an LGAA scholarship. Both are firstplace winners, with the one on the left in the portrait cat-egory, and the one on the right in the still life category. Prizesincluded cash, a Red Box movie rental, cheese fries and adrink from DJ’s Diner, and picture frames. The winners werejudged by Facebook viewers at the end of the photographycamp week. Ellis had three first place winners including thetwo above and one in the Photo Booth.Other winners areAvery Parker, action photo; and Nikkia Bolin, water photo.

July 2016 What’s Happening in LG Page 5

Quantie Auto SupplyHarold Jr. & Georgeann Quantie - Owners

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Phone (918) 479-8797 Fax (918) 479-8796

Hwy 82 South, P.O. Box 428Locust Grove, OK 74352

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Ellis wins 3 firsts

Send news items to LGAA,

6620 S. 4382Locust Grove,

OK 74352.For advertising, contact Roxann

Yatesat 918-530-5321.

Seven kids participatedin the photography camptaught by April Stone, andthree of the seven ended theweek as award-winningphotographers.

The camp was a part ofChildren’s Theater, spon-sored by the Locust GroveArts Alliance, and taughtby director April Stone.

After several lessons andhands-on exercises, thekids were challenged withtaking the best photographof the week in five catego-ries, including Action, StillLife, Portrait, Photo Booth,and a category chosen bythe group, Water. The wa-ter photos could be of any-thing, but water needed tobe in the photo itself.

The photos entered bythe kids had to be takenduring the week of photog-raphy week, and were

posted on Stone’sFacebook page on Friday.Facebook winners wereasked to “like” their favor-ite in the five categories tochoose the contest winners.

Dacie Ellis, 13, wonthree of the five photo con-tests with her photos StillLife, Portrait and in thePhoto Booth.

Winners also includedAvery Parker, 8, with herAction photo, and KikkiaBolin, 17, with her photo-graph of water at PipeSprings Park

Other kids participatingin the camp included Sa-vannah Meeks, KadenParker, Danny Stone andJocelyn Willis.

Two students receivedscholarship grants from theLG Arts Alliance for thiscamp.

Kids can sew, too! Just ask any of the dozen or sowho have been to Sewing Camp in Locust Grove thepast two summers.

LG Summer Art Camps are in their third year, un-der the direction of April Stone. Sewing ends the sum-mer camps, and is scheduled for July 11-14. The campis for ages 8 to 18 and meets from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30p.m. on the north side of grade school hill. Cost is$60 per participant. Two scholarships are available.See lgartsalliance.com to apply.

The kids will learn how to sew by hand, how totake measurements, how patterns are used, and theywill learn the basics of the sewing machine. Stonesaid the past two sewing camps have produced somefine finished products.

“The first sewing camp, all of the kids made pil-lowcases using a pattern they pinned to material andcut out, and used the sewing machine to put the casetogether,” said Stone. “They were donated to a home-less shelter, and that was probably our favorite partabout making them.”

Last summer, the kids did a lot of hand sewing, asa group, sitting around sewing and talking. They fin-ished enough squares to make a baby quilt top.

“We had a baby in mind for that quilt to go to,”said Stone. “We even had a piece of material fromthe baby’s late grandmother that we used for the backof the quilt. We see the baby using that quilt now,and it’s special to all of us.”

For more information about the camp or to signup, contact Stone at 918-729-0487.

Sewing Camp July 11-14

“I think this art camp could help me expressmyself and do something productive over mysummer break.” -- Dacie Ellis

Page 6 What’s Happening in LG July 2016

Sisters SweetsDonuts

Breakfast & Lunch

Open: 5 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

918-479-2677

First VAN-tage Treasure Tour a success

Rowland’sQuick Shop

“Your HometownConvenience Store”

Open: 4 a.m.-10 p.m.

New Fuel Pumps!Kitchen

coming soon!

The Locust Grove Creative Communities group re-cently did a VAN-tage Treasures LG Trivia Tour in townand some lucky (seemingly!) folks won some great(seemingly!) prizes. The group rode around town on June2, randomly hopping out of the van to ask citizens LGtrivia.

The game took place at Harp’s, La Mansion Restau-rant, Wal-Mart, the Sno-Cone Stand, Joan Bennett’shouse and a random alley off Delaware Street.

Game show host Angela Holman led the group andwas great at asking folks if they wanted “to risk it all” bycontinuing to answer questions and win more prizes.

Question leader Jennifer Henson came up with thequestions, many of which stumped local citizens. Comeon people: Brush up on your LG trivia. Know the townfounder and the year we were founded!

One question that everyone seemed to know was,Which day during the week is the chiropractor’s officeclosed?

Photographer on the trip was Marea Breedlove, whotook more pictures than we could print. Maybe more nexttime.

This event, which will be repeated, was a fun way toget people interested in Creative Communities, a 20-month initiative that Locust Grove is participating in.

The project is led by an Oklahoma City based non-profit called Creative Oklahoma, which is working witheight towns in the state to explore creative ways to makepositive changes in business, culture and education.

To keep up-to-date on LG Creative Communities, likethe group on Facebook or contact Angela Holman [email protected] or (918) 906-3743.

TRIVIA PLAYERS. . . Ellie and Dallas Miller answered aquestion when the VAN-tage Treasure Tour stopped at LaMansion Mexican Restaurant. Photo by Marea Breedlove.And, below, the “Vannies” piled out of the van and lined upto “accost.” . .hmm , that is, “interview” another unsus-pecting person, Pam Glass, second from right, by askingher a bit of trivia related to the town and its history.

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July 2016 What’s Happening in LG Page 7

By Roxann YatesThe home on Wyandotte

Street is small. Inside livesa woman with a big heart.She’s lived in this home formore than 40 years. Doris(Wilkinson) Rable is myaunt, and her heartabounds with love for life,family and friends.

“The minute I walked inthe back door in 1973, I fellin love with this house. Iwanted this house,” shesaid.

When she was growingup, she dreamed about be-ing a nurse and raising a lotof kids.

“I like taking care ofpeople,” she said. In Tulsashe worked for Blue CrossBlue Shield on medicareclaims from 1970-’78.When she moved to LocustGrove, she worked twojobs—Synergy Gas as abookkeeper and Circle J asa clerk.

In 1984 she retired.“I’m not sure I was

ready for it, but I liked not

TRIPLE GRIN. . . Doris Rable does what she does best-- creating smiles in everyone she meets. Catching her smileare her daughter, Carla McClure, and great-granddaugh-ter Saphire McClure.

(Continues on Page 8)

Family, friends benefit from Doris’ big heart

When the family wasn’ttraveling they spent muchof their time west of LocustGrove on what is nowcalled by the family PerkinsCompound.

“Mother and Dad had ahouse on the same propertywhere the Rural OklahomaMuseum of Poetry sits. Wewere country kids. I fol-lowed Pa (grandpa) around.I played with the dogs andpushed toy cars around thetree roots. I was alwaysdirty.”

From fourth throughtenth grades, she attendedLocust Grove schools.

“In 1955 we were thefirst fifth grade class in thenew grade school hillbuilding. Every day atlunch we would run toNunley’s store and get ahotdog, chips and a drinkfor .26 cents.”

Sometimes Doris andher friends didn’t walkback to school.

“Margie Turner alwayshad money. She would payfor a taxi driven by ShadyWright to take us back toschool.”

At home, Doris and hersiblings were often enter-tained by their paternalgrandfather (Pa) JohnWilkinson.

“Pa didn’t have a badbone in his body. He lovedus kids. He had a beautifulvoice. When we kids

having a rigid schedule,”she said.

In keeping with her de-sire to help others, Dorisserved as a town councilmember from 1986 to1998. The last six of thoseyears she served as themayor.

“I’m glad for the expe-rience. I enjoyed getting toknow so many people. Ihad never been involved incommunity service andlearned a lot about townbusiness. My friend, Kathy(Goforth) Carson, wastown clerk, and she helpedme to understand the busi-ness.”

As a child she movedwith her parents, Ruby(Brantley) Wilkinson andHersal Wilkinson, and hersiblings, Betty Perkins,Johnny Wilkinson andHersal Wilkinson, to Cali-fornia, Texas and Colo-rado.

“Dad always took us onhis little adventures. Hewas a rolling stone.”

Page 8 What’s Happening in LG JULY 2016

Aunt, uncle visit was highlight of summer

(Continues on Page 9)

(Continued from Page 7)would pick cotton or corn,at the end of every row, hewould sing ‘Rock of Ages’or some other hymn.”

Doris’s mother workedhard to maintain the home.

“Mother was alwayswashing, ironing or sew-ing. She wanted to get herjobs done and do it fast.”

But when her Aunt Elsie(her dad’s sister) and UncleEd would visit, the familywas entertained.

“Aunt Elsie was alwayslaughing, telling jokes. Shewould sing and sway whilemaking gravy for dinner.Uncle Ed was fun too.They both brought us kidspop to drink, and we woulduntil our parents told uswe’d had enough.”

Doris’s father was theplayful parent.

“He was outgoing andhe always wanted me to sit

on his lap so he could tickleme.”

Being the youngest ofthe four siblings, she oftenplayed by herself unlessshe had friends over.

“ I was 10 and was hav-ing a slumber party. I cut awalnut tree down themiddle to make a bow, andDad spanked me in front ofmy friends. That was thelast time I got in trouble asa kid.”

Her last two years ofschooling were at HobartHigh School in Hobart.

“I became friends withCarole Light and Judy Ard.Carole and I were both out-siders. Judy took us in. Wehave remained friends, butJudy died of breast cancerin 1988. Carole and I seeeach other often.”

She also met her futurehusband there.

UNCLE ED VISITS!. . . When Uncle Ed and Aunt Elsievisited from Missouri each summer, for Doris and her sis-ter Betty, it meant soda pop, candy bars and chewing gumin endless quanities until Mother found out. Doris is mak-ing sure that her dog, Jerry, is in the picture too, and if youlook closely, you’ll see a good sized piece of gum in hermouth.

JULY 2016 What’s Happening in LG Page 9

Doris raised kind, caring children, blended family

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“I was going out withJudy’s brother Bill. Whenthey introduced me to CarlMcClure, that was the endof Bill. I though he was sopretty. He had dark hair,blue eyes, and really whiteteeth.”

The couple married in1962 after Doris graduatedfrom high school.

“We were married 10months and 10 days whenCarla was born. In 1965Carl Kent was born.”

Doris and McClure di-vorced when their kidswere one and three yearsold.

“I worried about whatwould happen to my kidsif I were gone.”

Fortunately, Doris hasbeen a constant in her kids’lives, and she is proud thatboth of them graduatedfrom Locust Grove HighSchool and earned associ-ate degrees at OkmulgeeTech.

“I want my kids to con-tinue to be happy, kindpeople. Carla has said thatshe will take care of me

(Continued from Page 8)

when I can’t do for myself.Carl Kent is currently mak-ing room for his dad tomove in with him to helpcare for him.”

In 1981 she met a caringman, Richard Rable, whowould become her husbandof 23 years.

“I was at Turner’s Laun-dry ironing jeans. He keptlooking at me while he didhis laundry.

Doris said he asked,“What do you do in thistown for fun?”

“Nothing.”“Do you dance?”“No.”“Well, what do you do

for entertainment?”“It’s none of your damn

business.”Doris’s statement didn’t

deter him from comingback to the laundry. He alsovisited her when sheworked at Circle J.

“Our first date was sup-posed to be on Mother’s

Day, but I just wasn’t ready.I told my kids to tell Rich-ard I was helping my niecemove. Then I sat across thestreet at my neighbor’shouse to watch him leave.”

Coaxed into going to amovie on Memorial Day,she waited for him to pickher up.

“He pulled up on a mo-torcycle. I was petrified, buthe told me, ‘Don’t move,don’t lean, just sit likeyou’re sitting in a chair.”

They married in 1984,and she grew to love themotorcycle rides.

“I liked them becauseyou would run through somany smells and tempera-tures on the ride.”

Richard died in 2007,and his presence is stillmissed.

“He listened to me, evenwhen he didn’t agree withme. He understood me. Hedidn’t hold anything againstme, and I could let my

guard down and share myfeelings.”

She has a blended fam-ily. In addition to her twokids, there are Richard’stwo Randy and DeniseRable and Karen and PaulDowning who have fivechildren between them.Carla has one son, Kacey,and Carl Kent has a son anddaughter, Bailey andWesley. Rable’s greatgranddaughter, Saphire, isthe daugher of Kacey.

“Kacey and Saphirespend a lot time with meand the times have beengood.”

This little dot on anOklahoma map is brim-ming with memorable ex-periences. Doris cooks forfamily, buys treasures atgarage sales for family andfriends, honors birthdays,travels with Betty (mymom, her sister), and cel-ebrates our lives.

“I like everything aboutthis town, this home, myfamily and friends. Noth-ing bad results out of help-ing somebody. My heart isfull.”

“I like everything about this town, thishome, my family and friends. . . Myheart is full.” --Doris Ann Rable

Page 10 What’s Happening in LG July 2016

Rural OklahomaMuseum of Poetry

Beginning July 1 and continuing Thursday, Friday, Saturdaythroughout the month of July

110 East Main Street -- In the old In-’n-Out Center

(ROMP)

RummageStore