Welcome back. One was born and one died, this week it’s the story of two famous men from this area and I hope you enjoy the ride.
On October 7, 1930 a male child was born in Independence, Kansas who would go on to establish the largest country music management agency in the world. 41 of the top 100 country and pop acts were under contract to him when he sold the business to the William Morris Agency in 1990 in order to pursue teaching. The purchase helped make William Morris the giant company that it is today. This man, who will turn 90 on October 7th traveled the world with names like Roy Clark, the Judds and Roy Orbison. I mean the list of stars is endless. I hope you’ve heard of my friend Jim Halsey who now lives in Mounds with his wife Minisa. Jim has been inducted into both the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and the County Music Hall of Fame in Nashville for his accomplishments,
Minisa Halsey is the daughter of the renowned Indian artist Woody Crumbo and is an artist in her own right. Among their many projects, she and Jim have spent hours recording the life stories of people who have played an important role in American arts and culture, particularly in the south west which brings me to a video they made a few years back. Minisa had contacted me about interviewing Damon “Chub” Anderson as I was writing a book about him at the time. Chub agreed to meet with her and she filmed him at his home in Caney, Kansas. Having watched the film on several occasions I can say she is a very professional interviewer and that leads to the second anniversary.
Jim Halsey was born on October 7, 1930 and almost forty years later on September 26, 1970 E.C. Mullendore III was tragically murdered. I’m sure many of you know his story so I’ll be brief. At the time of his death the Mullendore family had over 400,000 acres under their Cross Bell brand and they also owned the New Orleans Saints football team. E.C. himself held the largest life insurance policy ever issued in the United States. If you haven’t heard about this murder it happened just north of Bartlesville and I hope you will be able to see Minisa’s film soon.
Next up are my travels from last week. At the Tulsa fairgrounds where I attended the big flea market masks are mandatory and I would say 90% of the people I saw were in compliance although there was no enforcement. Unlike most weekends this was the only event taking place at the fairgrounds and the crowd was smaller than usual. In Pawhuska on Thursday and Friday the numbers of people were also down but there was still a two to three hour wait for a table at the Mercantile and I would say maybe a little more than half of the people who were outside like I was wore masks. Also, excitement is growing in town as the Pawhuska high school football team continued their roll with a big win over Hominy. This Friday they will be playing an away game with Commerce at 7PM and it should be a great game, check it out if you can.
Till next time I’ll see ya down the road…….