It was once the neighborhood of oil barons, business owners and city founders. At its apex, Brady Heights – which sits just north of downtown along Cheyenne and Denver avenues – was the neighborhood where the wealthiest put down roots and put up walls. But as Tulsa expanded south and east, so went the stylish neighborhoods; Brady Heights, Tulsa’s first and once-regal neighborhood, fell into disrepair.

“Blight isn’t even the word for it. I would say that 20 percent of the homes were abandoned; another 10 percent were boarded up. There were prostitutes, slum lords,” says Tim Williams, who purchased his first home in the neighborhood in 1980. Since that purchase, Williams has bought and restored at least 13 properties in Brady Heights.

Also in 1980, the National Register of Historic Places put Brady Heights on its list due to the neighborhood’s unique and historically significant architecture; it was the first Tulsa neighborhood to receive this designation. Streets are lined with Victorian, American Foursquare, Bungalow and Craftsman homes. Newer homes have been built on lots where older properties were razed, and they, too, are built to mimic the historic construction of the older homes in the eclectic neighborhood. The designation seemed to stop the neighborhood’s decline. Williams and a few other property owners formed a neighborhood association and partnered with city officials and the Tulsa Police Department to clean up the crime-ridden neighborhood.

Brady Heights began its steady climb out of disrepair that was propelled by the redevelopment of downtown Tulsa. “Once downtown started its rebirth, it really affected Brady Heights in a positive way,” says Williams. “(City officials) started talking about the plans, and people are going, ‘Hey, (Brady Heights) is a place where you can afford to have a spectacular house close to downtown.’ That was kind of the impetus of the younger crowd moving into the neighborhood.”

And now Brady Heights is ready to show off. The biennial Brady Heights Historic Home Tour will take place Sept. 22 from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ten of the neighborhood’s homes and its three churches will be open for touring. “What’s cool about the home tour is that we try to get houses that are historic that are original and restored; houses that are in transition, in the process of restoration; and the infill houses that are historically appropriate to the neighborhood. It’s fun to see how different houses that appeal to different people,” says Williams. The tour will also include the famed mansion of the infamous Tate Brady.

Tickets for the home tour are $9 each or $24 for families and can be purchased at the start of the tour at Centenary United Methodist Church, 636 N. Denver Ave. Proceeds benefit the Brady Heights Neighborhood Association’s cultural and social projects. For more information, visit the association’s website at www.bradyheights.org.

More than anything, the Hispanic Chamber is the bridge between the Hispanic business community and the general business community. We serve as liaisons between the two, facilitating communication, identifying business opportunities and facilitating cultural and business understanding to both. We provide informational resources and guidance to small business owners. We assist them with all areas of establishing their business, serving as the bridge between them and the City of Tulsa and its different departments. We also provide educational opportunities through the Small Business Academy, and we provide all the opportunity for exposure and networking through our luncheons and other networking events.

Since I have been involved with the Hispanic community, I have seen the growth from the mom-and-pop small store to the [store that has] multiple locations across town and even across the state. Business owners are savvier about their business; as they grow, they like to invest in new ventures. We now have many very successful business owners who have several businesses, varying in type and size, with several real estate investments on the side.

The Hispanic Chamber is working to establish better relationships with the City of Tulsa, but we still have work to do. If entities such as the City of Tulsa created bilingual positions, it would make the process smoother for so many. More than anything, the political climate must change. (The Hispanic community is) not invisible, and yet politicians act as though we are. Look at the latest political campaigns: Not one advertisement has been made in Spanish, and (candidates) have failed to consistently reach out to the community. Politicians rely on a handful of “token” Hispanics, and they think reaching them is reaching out to all. If there is an immigration reform, those who are choosing to ignore this ever-growing and economically powerful segment of our city will have a rude awakening.

Juvenal Saldívar owns a boot shop, and this year decided to open the Bazaar shopping center, giving 50 small Hispanic businesses, the opportunity to have a store front for a fraction of the cost of renting a space. Supermercado Morelos is on its way to opening its fifth supermarket in the state. The Anaya family from Pancho Anaya bakery has the quintessential “American Dream” story. These and others have used their profits to invest in real estate and other business ventures. I could go on and on; the Hispanic entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

When Dr. David Gilbert and his wife Vanessa relocated from the Philtower to a 1,500-square-foot Tulsa midtown ranch home five years ago, their goals were specific. “One of my favorite magazines is Atomic Ranch,” says David Gilbert of the quarterly publication featuring Mid-century Modern-renovated, ranch-style homes.

“We wanted to capture the modern style you might see in L.A. or New York but in keeping with the 1950s architecture of the home,” Gilbert explains. The couple teamed up with Aaron Rogers, co-owner of CRFORMA, to begin the transition.

“It was great working with the Gilberts because they knew what they wanted to achieve from a design standpoint,” says Rogers. Although the project was done in phases, several standards were established throughout the home. In addition to refinishing the original wood floors, all the trim, doors and hardware were replaced with a simpler, more modern style.

To keep with the goal of blending the exterior architecture with the new, modern interior, Rogers used the same stone from the outside, a blend of gray limestone and Hackett sandstone, to create the fireplace as a dominant focal point. A custom frosted glass panel hides the AV equipment. The new floating fireplace hearth is poured-in-place concrete with a natural gray integral color. Clear-coated raw steel wraps the fireplace and the interior of the custom niches and is utilized beneath the hearth for the toe kick.

While the steel-wrapped niches are a perfect location to artfully embed the AV speaker components, they were initially designed to feature the vintage camera collection of Gilbert’s grandmother. The Eames chair and ottoman are from Gilbert’s grandfather’s office. “He was a doctor in Oklahoma City and would take naps in that chair,” he says.

According to Gilbert, one of the best changes occurred in the kitchen where previously it was too small and uncomfortable to want to cook or eat there; the room was completely gutted. “We added the large storefront window over the sink and counter to create a greater amount of light and open the space into the backyard,” says Rogers.

The maple cabinets coated with a special blended stain to allow the grain to be seen were custom built by Ultimate Cabinets. Hidden above the stove in the custom anodized aluminum and frosted glass shelving units is a custom designed stainless steel ventilation system. The countertops are quartz from Silex Interiors, and new, oversized tile flooring was installed. “Originally, the washer and dryer were in the garage, but we incorporated them into the kitchen cabinets for more convenience,” Rogers added. Now the Gilberts especially enjoy eating breakfast in the new space.

Both bathrooms required extensive renovation. In the guest bathroom, all the plumbing locations remained the same, but the classic 1950s brown and ochre tile throughout the space was replaced with simple finishes and color tones of white, black and stainless.

In the master bathroom, a six-inch-thick, poured-in-place concrete countertop extends into the glass walled shower and turns down to the floor, creating a ledge for shower supplies. The wall mosaic is a mix of glass tile and Carrara marble, and the shower floor is a black mosaic tile. Below the custom wall cabinet is a motion-activated light that comes on when anyone walks into the bathroom at night.

“We like to name our projects, and the Gilberts thought that Qi Ranch reflected their goals,” explains Rogers. Using the alternative spelling of chi, the Chinese term for life force, the simplicity of this impeccably renovated ranch provides a welcome respite from the “busy-ness” of daily life.

Parker Millsap says that he never really noticed the distinctiveness of his voice until other people noticed it and pointed it out to him.

“I have this theory that it somehow comes from growing up in the Pentecostal church. It’s pretty lively, and I spent a lot of years getting ‘yelled at,’ because, you know, the preacher gets really excited and screams and stuff, and I think a lot came from that,” the Purcell native explains. “Anything that you experience twice a week for your entire life, it has to affect you in some way, so I think maybe, subconsciously, that worked its way up through my voice,”

Although his vocals have been compared to those of one of his idols, Tom Waits, what resonates the most about Millsap is not his voice, but rather something even more captivating under the surface.

Like with Waits, when you strip away that signature gravely voice of his, what you’ll find is a brilliant songwriter at his core, and that’s the concrete that is solidifying his position as one of the Oklahoma music scene’s up-and-coming artists.

His ongoing regular Tuesday night gig at the Deli in Norman aside, he’s been busy expanding his live performances across the state and Texas, and playing bigger shows such as the Folk Alliance Festival in Canada, Stillwater’s Red Bull Gypsy Café and SXSW.

Millsap opted out of the Stevie Ray Vaughn/Eric Clapton-esque guitar solos that he enjoys and once played, choosing instead to dig into his blues and gospel roots and add a soulful, folksy edge: less in-your-face, more in-your-head.

“That kind of playing is fun, where you play a solo and people go wild and clap, but it’s more like pyrotechnics with a guitar, and that’s just not my kind of art,” he explains.

“I’d rather make someone feel something more than just react. I like to make someone sit quietly through an entire song and really connect with it.”

This appreciation for what he calls “the silence in space” may very well be that extra something special that has his debut album Palisade not only catching the attention of music fans, but of his peers and critics alike.

Millsap says that he wanted the album, which was hailed as one of Oklahoma City’s best local albums of 2012, to come together naturally without having to force fill anything up.

The resulting product is true to taste: an accurate reflection of the tone he wants to convey because it was recorded exactly how he plays live.

“It seems like when a lot of artists record a record, they bring in a full band and try to make it sound like a huge rock record. I didn’t want to make a record like that,” he remarks. “I think it’s the quiet moments that are more important – you know, the space between the notes and the music. You make people wait for something and they might appreciate it more when it gets there.”

In 1925, the area around Broadway Avenue in Oklahoma City was flourishing with automobile businesses located in quaint, brick buildings with large, open show rooms. The Packard Building became a fixture of this area known as Automobile Alley, but as downtown entered a steep decline in the following decades, it was just another vacant structure in an abandoned district.

With the renaissance of Midtown and Automobile Alley, the Packard Building is once again purring with new life, as Oklahoma City diners flock to one of the area’s most recent culinary additions: Packard’s New American Kitchen.

General manager John Ross appreciates the history of the location of his new dining endeavor. After all, he has a culinary history of his own. Born into a family of restaurateurs and chefs, food has been a passion of his since childhood. According to Ross, watching the space take shape was remarkable.

“Midtown Renaissance has done a wonderful job renovating the Packard Building,” he says. “The building has actually been unoccupied longer than it has been occupied since it was built and was apparently quite a mess when renovations began. When we got into the space it was a shell with windows, drywall interior walls, and chipped linoleum tile. We were pleasantly surprised to uncover the original black, white and red marble mosaic floor, which was hand-laid in 1925 as the Packard automobile showroom floor…there are still imperfections, but we like that it gives the space a sense of history and character.”

Just as important as the ambience at Packard’s is the food, of course. Ross says the restaurant aims to marry Oklahoma City’s new trend in fine dining with its working class roots.

“‘New American Kitchen’ describes Packard’s in that it is offering a fresh and updated look at food that has become great American fare,” Ross says. “It is food that is exceptional and yet comfortable, aims for perfection without pretentiousness, and depending on little more than the time of day, one can dine wearing jean shorts or a black tie.”

Among the difficult choices facing diners are such offerings as pan-seared grouper, pasta carbonara and the most popular offering so far, the pesto pork chop. Not to be overlooked is the restaurant’s impressive cocktails menu, including the Pack Mule – the restaurant’s personal take on a Moscow mule – and the Panhandler: a bourbon cocktail boasting COOP Gran Sport Porter, maple, lemon and torched rosemary.

The cocktails aren’t the only offerings with plenty of local flavor. Packard’s sources as many ingredients locally as possible, from dairy and coffee to produce and protein.

Ross is proud that Packard’s is the newest member of Midtown’s revitalization. “The shared sense of positive change in the area is palpable,” he says. “Everyone knows that they are part of something bigger happening in OKC. It is exciting to be a part of it, and I can’t wait to see the process of change unfold.” 201 NW 10th St., Oklahoma City. www.packardsokc.com

Hardcore Tulsa soccer fans pine for the glory days of the Tulsa Roughnecks. The team, imported from Hawaii, regularly ended its seasons with playoff berths in the North American Soccer League’s Soccer Bowl. The team had talent, including Charlie Mitchell, Iraj Danaeifard and Victor Moreland. It also had fans. Lots of fans. At its peak of popularity, 20,000 fans filled the stands for games at The University of Tulsa’s Skelly Stadium. The Roughnecks rarely failed, but the North American Soccer League did in 1984, ending professional soccer in America until Major League Soccer debuted in 1993.

Soccer in Tulsa didn’t disappear during those lean nine years. If anything, the soccer scene exploded. Tulsa is home to the Athletics, one of the top five of nearly 50 semi-pro teams in the National Premier Soccer League. It’s about to be joined by a new indoor team, the Tulsa Revolution. Tulsans take their soccer very seriously. Soccer is so prevalent in Tulsa that it’s become a self-sustaining engine of sorts.

“We started something with the Roughnecks. Soccer’s grown tremendously in Tulsa over the last 25 years,” says ex-Roughneck Charlie Mitchell. “We now have a young bunch of elite athletes here that have reached the highest levels of competitive programs. The University of Tulsa, a Division I program, among the top five in the country, is here. We’ve got coaches that worked with some of the most competitive teams in the country. They have high standards and a love of the game that they’re passing along to Tulsa’s younger players.”

In the 1980s, the NASL represented the best of the best soccer, not just in the U.S., but around the world. The great Pelé played for the New York Cosmos. A handful of Roughnecks came over from the United Kingdom. The Roughnecks were right up there at the top of the league, competing twice for the NASL championship and bringing it home to Tulsa in 1983. The team was rewarded with a ticker tape parade, and its success left an indelible mark on the community. They were winners. They were exciting. They attracted both dedicated and casual fans. Soccer became the sport to watch in Tulsa.

May The Better Team Win

Roughnecks fans – kids during the 1980s – still tell stories about practicing with the team. On Mondays, the entire team assembled at various restaurants, inviting fans to lunch with them. Many fans were on a first-name basis with the Roughnecks. In 1983, as the NASL began rapidly folding, and the Roughnecks had trouble staying alive financially. With the loss of crowds in other cities with failed teams, the Roughnecks weren’t even pulling in enough money to make payroll. A local telethon rallied fans and raised enough to keep the team alive.

The Roughnecks started the first soccer camps in Oklahoma. There was no shortage of attendees. Tulsa kids with a love of soccer also had a love of the Roughnecks. Getting lessons from this band of British footballers was, for the kids, like learning from living legends. Members of the team still kick around in the Tulsa soccer scene, coaching youth teams and teaching at soccer camps. Some, now more than 60 years old, still play. And they still win.

Mitchell and Victor Moreland were inducted into the Soccer Hall of Fame in 2012. Mitchell also passed his soccer skills to players at Northeastern State University, where he coached for nine years. He currently serves as executive director of the Highlanders Football Club, a Bixby team he started in 1997. Mitchell, like other Roughnecks, can’t put the cleats away.

Tulsa’s soccer crowd won’t forget the Roughnecks anytime soon. The 30th anniversary of their NASL championship win against the Toronto Blizzard before a crowd of 60,051 will be celebrated in October. The location, of course, will be TU’s H.A. Chapman Stadium, which to diehard Roughnecks fans will always be known as Skelly Stadium.

The Roughnecks were a blue-collar team that had one of the lowest payrolls in the league. As one fan says, it wasn’t about the money for these players. They loved soccer, and when they took the field, they rolled up their sleeves and got the job done. That attitude was right for Tulsa, a town built on rolled-up sleeves and jobs well done. The team was fearless, and that fit Tulsa, too. Just as Tulsa boosters were (and are) comfortable going toe-to-toe with larger cities, the Roughnecks never shied from taking on teams from those larger cities. They welcomed teams like the New York Cosmos to town. They wanted the challenges.

“That spirit is still here,” says Sonny Dalesandro, owner of the Tulsa Athletics. “Our youth teams don’t fear anybody. Their attitude is, ‘If you beat us, it’s because you’re a better team and you outworked us.’ Tulsa teams are fearless when they take the field. They take the same attitude the Roughnecks held when playing teams from bigger cities. They roll up their sleeves and get to work, too.”

Same City, New Teams

Even today, Roughnecks memorabilia enjoys healthy sales on eBay. A vintage 1976 Roughnecks jersey will cost you $100. There’s a market for everything Roughnecks, from pennants to programs and tickets to posters.

Dalesandro didn’t want to let soccer go when the Tulsa Roughnecks folded. With friends, he founded a men’s league team, the Boston Avenue Athletic Club, in 2005. It was casual, with a lot of Sunday matches, but a lot of hanging out, too. That club developed a second team, fondly called “the reserves,” that consisted primarily of players from TU, Oral Roberts University and a couple of professional teams.

The Athletic Club won a lot, becoming one of the best teams in the state. And that club was the seed for the Tulsa Athletics. It was also the beginning of a popular team strategy in Tulsa: Find the fuel for your engine in your own backyard. The Athletics recently joined the National Premier Soccer League. It’s a highly competitive league, but it’s also not a professional league, allowing players – especially college players – to retain their amateur status. With NCAA Division I soccer teams like TU and ORU down the street, good players aren’t hard to find in the college off-season.
“We absolutely ask TU and ORU players to join the fray. Tulsa has an incredibly deep player pool in terms of talent. We want the Athletics to be a representation of our finest local players,” says Dalesandro.

The Athletics themselves are a huge part of Tulsa’s soccer engine. They have fans. Attendance at games averages 3,500 avid spectators. The Athletics performed remarkably this year, losing only one game. It’s expected to dominate the division in 2014. The fan base will grow, and strong fan bases get teams promoted to higher level leagues. But Dalesandro also tips his hat to the Roughnecks when he talks about his team’s fan base.

“Without the Tulsa Roughnecks and the clubs they started and founded, Tulsa would just be another football town in America. We want the Athletics to have their own identity, while drawing on the past successes and influence of the Tulsa Roughnecks,” he says. “We really want the Athletics to embody the past, present and future of soccer in Tulsa.”

That future will be played out in the old, unused Drillers Stadium. The team will pay for renovations, updates and utilities. Dalesandro also plans on adding a beer garden and two playgrounds for kids.

After one season in the NPSL, the Athletics are the 30th largest in average game attendance. That number includes all competitive soccer teams in the U.S. and Canada – including the MLS; at present, there are 19 teams in the MLS. That the Athletics could, in its second and third seasons in the NPSL, move ahead of some MLS teams for game attendance is a real possibility.

Local entrepreneurs Adam Mellor and Shannon Clark are bringing a whole new angle to Tulsa soccer. Earlier this year they announced the arrival of the Tulsa Revolution, the city’s first professional arena league soccer team. Again, the Revolution is using the time-honored technique of finding solid players in its own backyard. The team recently held public tryouts, inviting locals to take a shot at pro soccer.

The Revolution will be aggressive this season. In addition to locals, they’re hunting talent in the Professional Arena Soccer League for its highest caliber players. The short-term goal is nothing less that making an appearance in the playoffs this year. The long-term plan is building an organization with high-end performances that will attract fans and keep them coming back.

“Americans easily fall in love with arena soccer. It has all the aesthetics and technique of the outdoor game,” says Revolution Head Coach Michael Nsein. “However, it’s played at 100 miles per hour with lots of scoring. The problem most Americans have with outdoor soccer is that an entire game can be played without a single goal scored. Indoor soccer averages eight to nine goals per game. It’s end-to-end excitement and entertainment, keeping even the most casual soccer fan on the edge of their seat.”

Start Early, Play Often

The University of Tulsa is a big star for Tulsa’s soccer world to orbit. The men’s team ended the 2012 season with a 14-6-1 record, earning the Golden Hurricane a berth in the Sweet 16 and garnering the team the overall number 14 spot in men’s NCAA Division I soccer. The women’s team closed the season with a 12-6-4 record, putting it close to a berth in the playoffs.

TU head coach for women’s soccer, Kyle Cussen, estimates that half of his team comes from Oklahoma, with most of those from Tulsa. Cussen goes to the Oklahoma well for players, but over time, he puts back as much as he takes. TU offers summer soccer camps for kids of all ages, pulling in 500 or more kids in one session. Day camps are held at local elementary schools. The Golden Hurricane, on both the men’s and women’s sides of the game, reaches out to youth leagues around the city. And they should. Those kids are their future players.

“When I started coaching, I was determined that if I became a head coach, I’d recruit Oklahomans first because there’s a lot of talent here,” says Cussen. “The talent’s been here, but the kids are getting noticed now because youth leagues are more competitive and traveling a lot more. Our teams travel all over the nation to play the best teams in the country.”

Tulsa Soccer Club Hurricane is exactly the kind of institution Cussen’s thinking about. If you’re growing pro players, you better give them the high-end training grounds they need. TSC Hurricane Executive Director, Jim Tindell, has spent years building up his facility in Jenks. His complex is where the best of the best Oklahoma soccer players are made.

TSC definitely gets them while they’re young. One of its programs includes kindergartners. There’s no shortage of teams to play on. TSC supports 90 of them.

“We have programs for all ages and playing levels, the largest coaching network, the most nationally licensed coaches, the only club affiliated with a MLS franchise, the only club in the Elite Clubs National League – the highest level girls’ national league – and the biggest youth tournaments, and the only major college showcase,” he says proudly.

Soccer’s The Future

A lot of smart people think there’s a Major League Soccer team in Tulsa’s future. Cussen believes that if crowds continue to support the Athletics and the Golden Hurricane, it makes Tulsa a good candidate. Dalesandro’s more adamant.

“First, soccer’s worked here before. The MLS knows that. The Roughnecks were one of the top averaging clubs in the NASL. The MLS sees Tulsa as a potential market for a team,” he says. “After that, it’s about Tulsans recognizing one extremely important thing: This is our only shot at having a major sports team in our city. This understanding has to lead to a unified effort to show our city’s leaders and local businesses that this is what we want here. Our hopes are that the community sees this situation the same and reacts accordingly to bring something very special to a very deserving city.”

Obtaining a MLS team will be the latest expression of the Oklahoma City-Tulsa rivalry. Prodigal, an advisory group with a specialty in professional sports, announced plans in mid-July to build a stadium large enough to hold a USL Pro soccer team. The as-yet-unnamed franchise will debut for the 2014 season – in an as-yet-unnamed stadium. The USL Pro league is, for want of a better description, a farm team for the MLS.

“It’s not easy to get a MLS franchise. You’ve got to have the fan support, the corporate support, and the resources to pay the franchise fees,” says Prodigal’s Executive Vice President of New Business Development, John Allgood. “It takes a lot. We don’t feel like Oklahoma City is ready for a MLS franchise right now, but it will be in seven to 10 years, and hosting a USL Pro team is a perfect way to earn our stripes.”

Regardless of which city gets the franchise, Tulsa will always be a soccer town. The city is a soccer engine that fuels itself, a perpetual motion machine that trains, nurtures and produces players that find spots in the highest echelons of semi-professional and professional soccer. Tulsa is where goals are scored.

To Joniece Frank, Frankoma pottery dishes are so much more than functional pieces.

“It’s the design,” she says. “It gives beauty to an object. You don’t need beauty, but it makes life a more perfect place to enjoy.”

John Frank, Joniece Frank’s father, was the originator of Frankoma pottery. She says that her father was an artist first, and that it why the beautiful pottery remains so popular.

John Frank began the ceramics department at OU, scouring for scraps to build studio equipment in dumpsters and alleys since he did not have a budget, Frank describes.

“Then, after studying a geological survey, he got to looking for clay to use. He found the beautiful red clay of Ada,” she says. “He started making pots with it and started the Frankoma company the next year.”

The family moved to Sapulpa in 1938 so that John Frank could focus on the company full-time. Throughout the years, and until Frank’s death in 1973, the studio suffered from multiple fires but was able to rebuild and get back on its feet each time.

“It is art, and it is loved by people. That’s why Frankoma is still alive. It’s been utterly destroyed twice, but it keeps coming back,” Frank says.

Since Frank and her sister, Donna, have retired, ownership of the company has changed several times, but Frank says that collectors will always seek the pottery.
Randy and Marianne McFarlin of Ada are just two of these collectors.

“I was exposed to Frankoma very early on,” Randy McFarlin says. “Growing up, we ate on Frankoma dishes, and when my family moved to Tulsa in 1960, my parents took us to the factory on Route 66.”

As he got older, he and his wife began to appreciate Frankoma in a new way.

“For us, it was the Ada connection. The clay was dug right here – right around the corner from our house,” McFarlin says.

McFarlin later served as president of the Frankoma Family Collectors Association, a close-knit group that first met in 1994. Held at First United Bank in Sapulpa, the reunion is part collectors gathering and part pottery sale.

“People love to talk to the Frank sisters and all those who have been a part of Frankoma over the years,” McFarlin says. “It keeps the interest and tradition alive.”

The show, open to the public, will be held Sept. 28 this year.

“This work talks to you,” Frank says. “It’s like how God designed man – with beauty and love. And I don’t believe that any one company has better represented the state of Oklahoma.”

In her decades-spanning career as a country music performer, songwriter and recording artist, Bartlesville native Becky Hobbs has made her presence felt with such honky-tonk barnburners as “Hottest ‘Ex’ In Texas” and “Jones on the Jukebox,” while also writing and co-writing a variety of hits for other acts. One of the most notable songs in the latter category is “Angels Among Us,” which the band Alabama took to the upper reaches of the national country-music charts in 1994.

By the time that single came out, Hobbs had begun musically exploring a personal connection with an ancient angel named Nanyehi, whose English name was Nancy Ward. A noted Cherokee woman of the Revolutionary War era, she also happened to be Hobbs’ great-great-great-great-great grandmother.

“I wrote a handful of songs about her in the early ‘90s,” Hobbs recalls. “I’d known about her ever since I was a little girl, because the history was handed down to several generations before my mother, and I think really as soon as I started writing songs and playing music, I felt that one day I would pay tribute to Nancy Ward.

“I always thought it would be in the form of an album, though,” she adds. “I had no idea I would ever embark on writing a musical.”

She did, though, and the results were most recently seen on the stage of Northeastern State University’s Center for the Performing Arts in Tahlequah.

“Our very first workshop for Nanyehi was three years ago at NSU,” says Hobbs. “The heartbeat of the Cherokee Nation is in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and our chief, Bill John Baker, is a fellow Nancy Ward descendant. So I called the Chief, and he put the wheels in motion. It wouldn’t be happening without him putting the Cherokee Nation and NSU together to co-sponsor this venture.”

It also probably wouldn’t happen if not for a meeting between Hobbs and veteran stage director Nick Sweet, who worked with her during Bartlesville’s celebration of the Oklahoma Centennial back in 2007.

“I was asked to close the show and play some of my songs, so of course I did my honky-tonk songs, and ‘Angels Among Us,’” she says. “But I also did a couple of songs that were inspired by Nancy Ward, ‘Let There be Peace’ and ‘Pale Moon,’ and I spoke briefly about her.
“Nick Sweet was the director of the whole show, he’d put it together, and he came up to me afterwards and said, ‘I know who Nancy Ward is. I directed [the outdoor drama] The Trail of Tears one year.’ And at that moment, we said, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to write a musical about her one day?’”

Hobbs was just embarking on a European tour, and Sweet had a full slate of productions to direct, so it took a year before they finally started on what would become Nanyehi – Beloved Woman of the Cherokee. And it was then that Hobbs began feeling encouragement from forces that could be described as angelic.

“I had that handful of songs I’d written in the early ‘90s, and I wrote the remainder of the songs [for the musical], except for two, in a few months,” she recalls. “I was just plugged in. It was one of those situations where, before I went to sleep, I would think of the song, and I’d wake up having dreamt most of it. It’s really been my favorite time of the whole process; I felt very connected and very guided.

“There are 17 songs in the musical, and I feel that they’re the best writing I’ve ever done,” she adds. “It’s all been inspired by the creator; my job is just to keep my little ego out of the way. I like what I heard Paul Simon say on a TV show: The songs are already there. They’re already written. You just have to tune in to them.”

Certainly, the story behind the songs – Nancy Ward’s remarkable life – was already written, telling of her bravery in the Battle of Taliwa in 1755, when she took up the rifle of her fallen husband and led the Cherokees to victory, as well as her peacemaking efforts among the white colonists and her own tribe in what is now eastern Tennessee.

“Her life story, from the get-go, is totally incredible, and very controversial as well,” notes Hobbs. “Some of the Cherokees today feel she was a traitor. And that makes her story even more interesting, because she wanted the Cherokees to survive, more than anything, but she felt the way to do it was to live in harmony with the whites, because there were more and more of them coming across the mountains every day.”

Nanyehi’s true-life story, in fact, proved to be so rich that it initially overpowered what Sweet and Hobbs were attempting to create.

“At first, Nick and I thought it would be more like a musical revue, and then we got into the history of it – and our first draft was just too weighted down with history,” she explains. “We wanted to make sure we had the historical part correct, but then we realized it was too much like a history lesson. You know: history lesson, song, history lesson, song. So we did several workshops and readings and really concentrated on developing her as a person, a real-life woman who walked this planet – a mother, dealing with all these situations.”

By 2011, she and Sweet were ready to take the musical, still in workshop form, to the Tulsa Performing Art Center Trust’s SummerStage Festival. The resulting newspaper publicity led to Nanyehi’s first non-workshop performance.

“A lady called me from out of the blue,” recalls Hobbs. “She’d recently found out that she was a descendant of Nancy Ward, and she said, ‘My granddaughter has a regional theater company in Hartwell, Georgia, and she’s interested in talking to you.’ So I called, and they wanted to take it on. We were thrilled.

“To give you an idea of how we have been so spiritually guided: I had no idea that the Cherokee called Hartwell, Georgia, ‘The center of the world.’ There’s a monument three miles from Hartwell that has a plaque telling how it was ceremonial ground where all these different roads came together, with a lot of trading activity and dancing.”

While most of the players in the Tahlequah production are local, the role of “Nanyehi” will be filled by New York-based actor Michelle Honaker, reprising her performance at Hartwell.

“About 18 people from Oklahoma came to see our Hartwell production, most of them descendants of Nancy Ward,” says Hobbs. “And they all said, ‘You have to have her play Nancy Ward again.’ She blew everyone away.”

According to Hobbs, Honaker’s appearance is being sponsored by Chelsea’s Gary White, one of the Oklahomans who traveled to Georgia to see the Nanyehi staging.

“He and his wife, Barbara, have been so supportive of this musical,” she says. “Otherwise we could not have afforded to bring her in. She’s a great singer. She’s a great actor. And she embodies the spirit of Nancy Ward.”

The play is directed and co-written by Sweet. Hobbs is music director, and the band includes her husband, guitarist Duane Sciacqua, who’s worked with the likes of Paul McCartney, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh.