Practical Perfection

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December 21, 2012

The first thoughts of many a girl after she’s recovered from the excitement of having an engagement ring slipped over her finger are of pounds to lose and hair to grow.

It is a delicate game of timing to get precisely primped without the signs of irritation that come with waxing, toning and zapping yourself into perfection. Let’s face it. It hurts to be beautiful.

Three months before your wedding is not the time to try any thing crazy. But there are many options and plenty of time to lift, tighten, whiten and fluff in all the right places as close to 90 days before flowers are arranged, photos are taken and the string quartet strums the “Bridal March.”

Locks Of Love

Normal, healthy hair grows a quarter to half an inch a month, says Shawna Burroughs, a stylist specializing in wedding hair at Jerra Herron Salon. Growth can be stimulated with certain vitamins, massages and treatments, she says, but a bride should consider what length of hair she wants at least six months before the wedding. Then she should spend the three months before taking really good care of it. Burroughs suggests a trim every four weeks, eating healthy, not over processing with color and using good products.

“Three months is not time for an experiment,” says Burroughs. “It’s mainly just trying to get your hair back to its best health with treatments, etc.

“It’s all in good health and not stressing out,” she adds.

Extensions are an option for women who need a little boost. Burroughs can create a full head of long, flowing locks that will last four to six months, or tuck a just few extensions into an up-do.

Burroughs recommends that women who color regularly get a touchup seven days to two weeks prior to the wedding. Major color changes should be taken care of at least six months before the wedding.

Trial runs on the wedding day ‘do are a good idea. If all goes well on the first try, Burroughs says, book for the big day. However, a month before the wedding a second trial run scheduled on the same day as a dress fitting ensures the hair is exactly right.

Fit And Trim

Contouring and tightening treatments like Thermage can take six months, says Karen Weidner owner of Utica Square Skin Care Clinic.

That means toned arms and a flat belly are going to come from cutting back on cupcakes at wedding showers and hitting the gym.

“A lot of women are really afraid to lift weights. If you really want to make improvements, that is really what you have to do,” says Monique Washington, a certified personal trainer at St. John Siegfried Health Club.

You don’t even need a gym membership, Washington points out. Your body weight is resistance enough. Pushups, squats, crunches, arm dips and lunges hit all the areas that a woman would most like to be toned.

If you do have a gym membership, myriad options await you behind the weight room door.

“If you just do cardio, you’re just going to get a smaller version of yourself,” says Washington. “If you want muscle tone. You have to do resistance training.”

All Aglow

Two months before the wedding is a bride’s window for addressing her skin.

“I would do a corrective facial to remove impurities like any benign abnormalities, lumps, bumps, brown spots to even out skin tone,” says Weidner.

A corrective facial is specific to every woman’s skin, but might include microdermabrasion and dermaplaning to restore and correct skin. Weidner also makes sure the bride will not have an adverse reaction to any products that will be used to give her a final glow just before the wedding.

Laser fractional resurfacing two to three weeks before the wedding can give the skin a bright and youthful appearance. This is also a good time for a full body exfoliation or chemical peel to make the skin soft and create a smooth surface for a spray tan.

“Some brides like to do Botox and fillers,” Weidner says. “That is something you need to plan ahead for.”

She suggests three to four months to give it time to take full effect.

For the final blushing bride touch, plan a facial and brow wax a week before the wedding.

Say Cheese

Perfect hair and perfect skin need a perfect smile.

“With dentistry today, you can do pretty much anything in three months,” says dentist Chris Ward who specializes in cosmetic, implant and sedation dentistry.

Chipped or damaged teeth can be repaired. Gaps and crooked teeth can be aligned. Missing teeth can be replaced.

Ward advises allowing four weeks after dental work for swelling and irritation to resolve so a bride looks her best and can enjoy her day. Implant work should start three months ahead of the wedding. If laminates or veneers are needed to repair teeth, a bride should allow two months.

Teeth can be whitened in one office visit or in two to three weeks with a dentist prescribed at home process. A few days of tooth sensitivity often follows a bleaching treatment. Ward says bleach a month prior to the wedding to avoid sensitivity on the big day.

Tying The Knot, Or Not

By

Megan Morgan

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December 21, 2012

Oklahoma is a good neighbor, often greeting travelers from neighboring states with an immediate casino, if not a collective “howdy.” In turn, however, Oklahoma needs just one thing: a place to get hitched, at least for some seeking to remarry.

Due to an obscure law that is still in practice and enforced, Oklahoma prohibits recent divorcees from remarrying within six months of a legal separation. This means that many couples in this situation choose to leave the state’s borders to get married.

Although neither the state nor the wedding industry collect or retain statistics, Eureka Springs, Ark., is one city that has seen the economic effects of this Oklahoma legislation. Bill Ott, marketing and communications director of two hotels in the small town, says that he has definitely noticed the business that Oklahoma has sent to his establishments.

“Oklahoma continues to be our annual number one geographic market for weddings at both of our local hotels – the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa and the 1905 Basin Park Hotel,” he says.

And since the town boasts the title of the “Wedding Capital of the South,” this is no small market, nor is the number of Oklahomans driven to wed out of state negligible.

“Notable numbers of Oklahomans using our facilities and our services would be an accurate description,” Ott says.

A hotel manager concierge from Eureka Springs, speaking on condition of anonymity, agrees that much of his establishment’s business comes from Oklahoma.

“A substantial amount of our business is from Oklahomans – probably around 50 percent,” he says.

Also, he says, it is not just the hotels that gain business.

“You have to remember, too, that there are wedding planners and organizers, and also probably pastors and different churches that gain business,” he says.

The manager says it would make sense for Oklahomans to travel there as a means of avoiding the trap of the unusual law – and Eureka Springs businesses appreciate the boon.

“If you took a survey of all the businesses in Eureka Springs, you’d probably be surprised about how large a percentage of the business comes from Oklahomans,” he says.

Deborah Shallcross, attorney with GableGotwals, says that most of her clients were already familiar with the law prohibiting a quick remarriage. As a former district court judge of 30 years, Shallcross spent nine of them in the divorce division.

“I didn’t hear a lot of surprise from either party about the remarriage law,” she says. “But I did hear complaints.”

Shallcross says that most of the complaints that she heard were from those who wanted to marry again quickly.

However, as old-fashioned as the law might sound, Shallcross says that it is still in place for a reason.

“The legislature passes laws that reflect the policy of the state. This has always been Oklahoma’s policy to prefer marriage over divorce,” she says. “This makes it harder to jump from an old relationship into a new one.”

As to her personal opinion of the law, Shallcross says that she isn’t opposed to its presence in the books.

“I was obligated to enforce it, of course, but I personally have no problem with it,” Shallcross says. “The six months after a decree is signed is a time when people should reflect. I would hate to see people jumping from one failed relationship into another relationship so quickly.”

But for those who are ready, of course, there’s always Eureka Springs.

Beyond Mall Walls

By

Meika Yates Hines

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December 21, 2012

Ever-rising ticket prices and ridiculously overpriced concessions combined with an onslaught of digitally enhanced, mediocre movies being churned out of Hollywood are leaving more movie goers turned off instead of tuned in.

It’s no wonder that the numbers at multiplex movie box offices are in a slump, and alternative movie-going experiences are on the rise.

Stay-at-home options, such as Netflix, On Demand cable and Redbox, may be growing in appeal, but Americans like to get out of the house and go places to be entertained, and the theater is a venue that continues to evolve over time.

Like all else considered “alternative,” movie theater alternatives come to life when the demand for something new and different from the mainstream is strong enough.

As a predominantly commercial-driven film market, Oklahoma has traditionally not had an art house following. However, in recent years, art house theaters, such as Circle Cinema in Tulsa and the Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s (OKCMOA) film program, have had a real opportunity to carve out a niche for independent and international film screenings due to an outpouring of demand in a commercially oversaturated market.

Both venues have experienced growing success, as the interest and attendance continues to gain momentum.

“Content is really what sets us apart from the mall movie experience. We really try to show the best of world cinema, and we work to have exclusive engagements of films that can’t be found in multiplex theaters,” says Brian Hearn, film curator for the OKCMOA film program.

“Our year round mission is to enrich lives through the visual arts. That’s basically what we do: we treat film as a visual art form, and it’s still entertaining. We show all kinds of genres of films, and it’s the weirdest list in the world. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Comedies, documentaries, classics – there’s something for everyone.”

Built around Oklahoma City’s last downtown movie palace, which was constructed in 1947, the OKCMOA has breathed new life into what had been known as a “pigeon palace” for years.

Gutted, refurbished and transformed into a state-of-the-art cinema in the original theater’s space, the historic theater retains all original architectural elements that were salvageable.

Boasting a Waterford crystal chandelier and café with a full bar, it’s safe to say that the swanky digs and film content selection cater to an adult crowd, whom Hearn says Hollywood has been ignoring for years.

“The studios are absolutely creatively dead in my opinion. There’s too much focus on comic book movies and sequels and teenagers who will come see the same movie over and over and buy a bunch of concessions,” Hearn explains.

“So many grown ups don’t want that. They want more than special effects-driven movies and A-list celebrities. They want movies that are going to be intellectually challenging and emotionally compelling. They want an experience that’s going to enrich their lives somehow.”

Like the vintage vibe of the OKCMOA theater, drive-in movie theaters also offer a tried and true, nostalgic alternative.

Though there are fewer than 500 operating drive in theaters in the U.S., Oklahoma metros are fortunate enough to be home to two of them: the Winchester in Oklahoma City and the Admiral Twin in Tulsa.

As Americana as cheeseburgers and Hollywood itself, the drive-in takes us right back to the ‘50s and ‘60s, says Admiral Twin co-owner Blake Smith, and an evening at the drive-in is more economical than going to an indoor theater, since with double features, there’s more bang for your buck.

“There seems to be a resurgence of drive-ins, and I think it’s because we cater to such a wide demographic of people,” Smith says.

“We offer options that indoor theaters can’t compete with. The drive-in is just a completely different animal. We get couples in Mercedes and folks in 1963 or ‘83 Buicks. The appeal is different all across the board.”

On the flip side to art house theaters catering to adults, drive-ins prove to be particularly good for young families, where kids can fall asleep in the car or run outside and play.

The in-car privacy factor allows for more flexibility. Don’t feel like dressing up? Forget about it. Talk, text, snack on all of that food that you probably shouldn’t eat but love.

A little bit of anything goes as long as you’re not bothering other people at a drive in.

“So many movie theaters now, even though they’re nicer than they were 15 to 20 years ago, with stadium seating and nicer seats and stuff – they’ve gotten a little sterile. I think that’s why so many people are realizing that they can see their entertainment dollar go further if they opt for something a little bit different,” Smith says.

Propelled By Passion

By

Sharon McBride

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December 21, 2012

Robyn Sunday-Allen, Cherokee, RN, MPH, the current CEO of the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic, says she has always had a passion for serving the Native American community and for medical services.

Sunday-Allen was not only born at the Claremore Indian Hospital, but she also says as a child she spent a lot of time playing in the halls of the hospital because her mother worked there. Her maternal grandparents also received care there for diabetes.

“As a result, I grew up in hallways of what was then the ‘old’ Claremore Indian Hospital,” says Sunday-Allen.

It was that early, positive experience that cemented her desire to pursue a medical career and to work in Indian health.

“I went to the University of Oklahoma College of Nursing on an Indian Health Service scholarship,” says Sunday-Allen. “For every year they paid for my school, I owed a year of service in Indian Health. I was fortunate enough to start right out of OU at the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic. My scholarship payback was up 15 years ago, but I love my job, and it is hard to imagine working anywhere else.”

Throughout the years, the clinic has grown significantly. Established in 1974 as a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, the clinic serves the urban Native American population of central Oklahoma. In 1995, Sunday-Allen worked as a registered nurse there. She was subsequently promoted to nurse manager of health services in 1997, to chief operating officer in 2001, and to chief executive officer in early 2009.

“I’m proof that the clinic is very supportive of its staff and wants to further their education,” says Sunday-Allen. “I’ve always had big dreams for myself and the clinic.”

Sunday-Allen says her background in nursing really helped set the stage for her success as CEO.

“I chose nursing because I wanted a profession where you really got to know your patients and their families and to be able to spend ample time with them,” says Sunday-Allen. “I really enjoy the patient education component of nursing that you don’t often get to do in other medical fields.”

As a consequence, she says she understands more than just the business side of running the clinic.

“For me, it is more than the bottom line that matters,” says Sunday-Allen. “It is patient satisfaction and outcomes that matter most. If patients are happy and know they are receiving quality care, they will return for services, and the revenues will come.”

Today, she and her staff of more than 130 nurses, physicians and support staff provide comprehensive medical and behavioral health services to nearly 17,000 people per year. It is an award-winning clinic, with its diabetes program setting national standards.

“It is vital to the metro-area health systems that we exist because there is no hospital, emergency room, clinic, health department, etc. that could absorb the number of patients that we serve,” says Sunday-Allen.
The future continues to look bright.

“We just purchased another 38,000 square-foot building that is one-tenth of a mile from our existing 27,000 square foot facility, giving us 65,000 square feet for services,” says Sunday-Allen.

Her immediate goal as CEO is to have a pharmacy built with drive-through capabilities on the existing property. Her long-term goal is to grow the overall clinic into a 150,000 square foot medical complex that will meet a large demand for medical services projected for the year 2020.

“We work hard to provide valuable health care services and do this with local funding,” says Sunday-Allen. “It is my mission, and that of the staff at OKCIC, to provide quality, comprehensive health and social services for underserved urban Indians and we do a great job.”

Bill's Thud

By

John Wooley

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December 21, 2012

I should begin by saying I know all the principals in this story pretty well. My friend, Leo Evans, and I have done a feature movie and half-hour documentary together. The relationship between Dennis King and me goes back nearly 30 years, to our long tenure together as Tulsa World writers. (We both retired on the same day in 2006.) And I have long known and admired Clark Wiens for his tireless work as co-founder and president of Tulsa’s Circle Cinema, a fiercely and commendably independent theater operation in an age of homogenized entertainment.

On top of all of that, I’m a Vietnam veteran.

Let me note that I had it relatively easy over there, stationed on a helicopter carrier transporting ground troops and a Marine Air Wing to the Gulf of Tonkin, and later sweeping mines out of Haiphong Harbor. But my year in the war zone left me with a deep interest in literature – including documentary films – about the war and the deeply divided home front, which often treated returning Vietnam servicemen with indifference or even hostility.

That’s where these three guys come in. With Wiens producing, Evans directing and King scripting, they’ve created a feature-length, Vietnam-related documentary, Bill’s Thud, that’s not only coming to a theater near you, but to venues all across the country. The purpose of the picture, says Wiens, is simple: “It’s about honoring Vietnam vets. We honor all veterans, but particularly that group, because they weren’t treated with the same respect the other ones were. If we can get one person to see this film and then say they’re going to go home and tell their neighbor, who’s a Vietnam veteran, ‘Thank you for what you did,’ then we’ll have our reward.”

Bill’s Thud wasn’t always about Vietnam veterans, however. At its genesis, some 10 years ago, it was about one vet. His name was Bill Pachura, and he was Wiens’ brother-in-law.

“After he married my sister, he became my brother – for almost 47 years,” says Wiens. “We were very close. He went to Vietnam in the worst year, 1968, when two-thirds of the people on the (Vietnam Memorial) Wall died.”

A pilot, Pachura was tasked with flying bombing runs from Takli, Thailand, to Hanoi in an F-105 Thunderchief, one of the fighter-bombers nicknamed “Thuds.” After 129 missions, he went on to other assignments, finally retiring from the Air Force and moving to Baltimore with his family.

Years later, Pachura was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Wiens began flying to Baltimore every few months to visit, and it was during one of those trips that Pachura’s son-in-law brought out a book that listed every F-105 ever made.

“There were only 722 of them, and most didn’t make it back to America,” notes Wiens. “They were either shot down or ran out of fuel on the way back to Thailand and were ditched in Cambodia. Maybe 50 or 100 were brought back, and they were used for Air National Guard training.”

It didn’t take Pachura long to find his plane in the book. And armed with that knowledge, Wiens spent a day making phone calls, trying to see if Bill’s particular Thud still existed. When he found out it was sitting on the tarmac at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, being used for security training, Wiens knew he had to reunite his brother-in-law and the plane.

By this time, Wiens had met Evans – via a documentary class at Tulsa Community College taught by King. So the two decided to make a video record of the terminally ill Pachura’s trip to Lackland, accompanied by many of his family members, including Wiens. Wiens and Evans also traveled to Nevada to interview some of Pachura’s war buddies.

“So while he was alive, through Leo’s good efforts, we finally developed a 30-minute film,” recalls Wiens. “I made up a poster and a little book, and I flew to Baltimore and walked through his neighborhood, telling people about the film. So, in his basement, for our first showing, 50 or 60 people were crowded in, watching the movie, seeing his grandchildren touching the airplane. I’d never seen Bill Pachura cry before. He told me later it took him seven times before he could watch it without crying.”

Wiens’ next idea was to have Pachura’s Thud hauled to his hometown of Centralia, Ill., where it would serve as a Vietnam Memorial. That happened, too, with Evans chronicling it all. But it didn’t happen quickly. In fact, it wasn’t until four frustrating years after Pachura’s death that Wiens was finally able to jump through all the Air Force’s hoops and get the deal done. Along the way, however, he and Evans grew to realize that Pachura and his airplane had become the catalyst for a larger story – and a full-length documentary.

“At first, we did it for nothing but the family,” Wiens explains. “But we had Vietnam vets come over to the Circle and watch that short film, and there were enough tears shed to clean the floors forever. And Leo and I said, ‘Wait a minute. If it’s impressing people like that, why in the hell are we limiting this? Why don’t we take this thing national?’”

“As all of this was going on,” adds Evans, “Clark and I spent a lot of time together. At first, when we went to Las Vegas and Reno, we weren’t thinking about all Vietnam vets. We were just thinking about Bill’s friends and fellow pilots. We were thinking about a real documentary, but what we were trying to think was, ‘What is this about?’ We went around and around with it, and we first came up with the idea that it was about heroes.

“But it finally came to me when we moved the plane,” Evans continues. “I thought of how that plane rolling across America was like Lincoln’s funeral procession – a healing process. And that’s when I said, ‘Okay, we’ve got to interview a lot more people. We’ve got to get a broader view.’”

That’s also where their old friend King – a Vietnam vet – came in, providing, Evans says, “another perspective, and someone we could bounce ideas off of” in addition to his scriptwriting.

Now, after lots of tweaking and “at least three major recuts,” according to Evans, Bill’s Thud is ready to go on the road, even as its namesake rests comfortably in Centralia, its own travels ended. Interestingly enough, a couple of years after the filmmakers figured out what the picture was about, they found their theme echoed by none other than the President of the United States.

“The speech President Obama gave at the Wall on Memorial Day this year summarizes exactly what the movie is about,” explains Wiens. “That’s how we end it now, with the President speaking and our credits running to one side. The only reason we didn’t show the film before Nov. 11 is that we didn’t want people to think it was a tool to get votes for him.

“But now that he’s elected,” Wiens adds, “we’re hoping to start a movement for a one-time ‘Thank a Vietnam Vet Day,’ during his term, perhaps to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive, which was on Jan. 28, 1968. We’re not politicians, and it’s going to take politicians to do it, but to have a day in which everyone in America would thank a Vietnam vet – that’s our goal.”

Exotic Product

By

Paul Fairchild

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December 21, 2012

Karen Galbraith and her husband, Dave, own the Walnut Creek Alpaca Farm near Talihina in southeastern Oklahoma. Alpacas aren’t just exotic animals native to South America. They’re a labor of love for this former ballet dancer and chiropractor that practically fell into the business of Alpaca farming. And fell in love with Oklahoma along the way.

Oklahoma Magazine: There are dozens of different livestock types you can raise in Oklahoma? Why alpacas?
Karen Galbraith: Well, we first started with paint horses. But then they did away with the slaughter of horses and it got to the point where you couldn’t give one away. People were turning horses out and it just got to be too much. But even before that, we wanted to try something else. We tried goats and didn’t care for it. I happened to see an alpaca commercial one day and we went from there. Got into alpacas and never looked back.

OM: Tell me about getting into it. Nobody just jumps into something like alpaca farming.
KG: We did. I bought my first alpaca before I’d seen one in person. I bought it over the internet.

OM: It showed up and you were just good to go?
KG: Yeah. I wanted to do it. I found a breeder and bought a female. She had a baby girl before she even arrived at our farm. I ended up buying that female and before that female even came home we’d already bought two more females and a male. When we had them all come here at once it was a male with four females.

OM: After you jumped right into it, what was the “Aha!” moment where you said, “This is what I want to do?”
KG: Day one when they got here. I just fell in love with them and knew I wanted to do it. I know it sounds crazy but we bred the females and the girls had their babies. I resold a female with her son along with another female. I sold that package my first year and I was already in the black.

OM: I know alpaca farming isn’t your first career and you’re originally a city girl, definitely not from these parts. What brought you to them?
KG: I was dancing ballet, my first love, but I had to have several eye operations. After the last one, I realized I was getting too far behind in my dance career. So I dropped it and went to school to be a chiropractor. I opened up a practice and got into a car accident. I thought I wouldn’t be able to practice after that but changed my mind and decided I could still do chiropractic enough to help people. Well, I wanted to help Native Americans so I came to Oklahoma. It was great. Eventually, though, I did have to leave chiropractic. But I wanted to stay in this area. There wasn’t much work here so I had to take a lot of different kinds of jobs. Then I met my husband, Dave, and we moved onto the ranch after we were married. We were together for a short time before we decided to start alpaca farming.

OM: Where is alpaca wool used? Is it common? Can I find it at the mall?
KG: More and more you’re starting to find alpaca wool everywhere. It used to be very rare. Now you can go to a yarn shop and find alpaca yarn. The alpaca wool itself is so much warmer than sheep wool and it’s also softer and stronger. It’s just a much better wool. Alpaca wool has just taken off. I’ve even seen a wedding dress made out of alpaca wool.

OM: What pays the bills? Selling the alpacas or selling their wool?
KG: Right now I make most of my money from the breeders. We raise show quality alpacas and every year we try to breed up. We’ve improved our breeding stock and we sell the breeders. But we also sell the wool to handspinners or have it spun up by a mill. In the end, the wool will bring in the money. But right now it’s still a breeder’s market.

OM: Alpacas are livestock, for sure, but how is raising them different from, say, raising horses or cattle?
KG: Horses are bigger. They’re harder to sell. I can make more money with alpacas and they’re smaller and easier for me to handle. And they’re sweet. They’re just sweet, timid animals. When you’re around them, you start to realize how peaceful and friendly alpacas are. I can take a new male or female and put them in with the herd and it’s not like horses. Horses will tear each other up. But I can introduce a new alpaca to the pen and I don’t have to worry about it getting injured.

OM: How much will a solid alpaca put me out?
KG: It depends on the quality you want, from beginner’s level on up to show quality. Ours start at about $700 and go up from there.

OM: You sound like a person who loves what they do. I guess the alpacas won’t send you packing back to the city?
KG: I love it here. I’ll never move back to the city, I swear.

The Giving Star

By

Staff

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December 21, 2012

“Mayor Bobby LaFortune, who was our neighbor at the time, said, ‘Peggy I want you to be on the library board,’” Helmerich says. “I thought, ‘Oh mercy, I can’t turn him down,’ but I thought, ‘What am I doing?’”

Although she felt out of place at first, Helmerich found her place fund raising for the library.

“Someone said, ‘We’ve got an endowment fund with only $300 in it, and I thought, ‘You know, that’s kind of a shame,’” Helmerich says. “So the library head and I decided we would do some money raising and have an author come to our library for the 10th anniversary.”

What started as a simple fundraiser for the library has evolved into the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, an annual honor awarded to an American author in Tulsa.

Born in a small town in Mississippi, Helmerich attended Northwestern University and studied classical theater before moving to Hollywood to begin a career in acting.

Helmerich, then known as Peggy Dow, signed a seven-year contract with Universal Studios, making her on-screen debut with Undertow in 1949 and most notably appearing as the nurse in 1951’s Harvey with James Stewart.

“I was very fortunate to get some terrific parts,” Helmerich says. “There were some B-movies which everyone has to sort of do to pay their dues, but I was really so fortunate to get nice parts.”

"You really have to stand for something and really believe in it heart, soul and mind.”

After only three years, Peggy Dow married Walt Helmerich, an oil and gas man, in 1951, and moved to Tulsa to begin a family. Now more than 60 years, five sons and 13 grandchildren and great-grandchildren later, Helmerich, along with her late husband, has lived her life dedicated to improving the health and arts landscape of Oklahoma.

Although Helmerich has spent her life in service, this year was particularly noteworthy as the University of Oklahoma renamed their drama program, the second oldest in the country, the Peggy Dow Helmerich School of Drama.

“That was really a wonderful honor,” Helmerich says. “It’s a marvelous school full of the most beautiful young people; I said I was really sorry they couldn’t name it for some big movie star rather than someone who was a kind of starlet type who was just in the beginning of a career.”

In addition to Helmerich’s donations to the school of drama, she has also supported numerous organizations across the University of Oklahoma system, as it was Walt Helmerich’s alma mater.

Also this year, the Peggy V. Helmerich Women’s Health Center opened a second center at Hillcrest South to help provide education and other services to Oklahoma women.

“We have a wonderful hospital that’s a real state-of-the-art place,” Helmerich says.

Tulsans would be hard-pressed to find an organization that hasn’t been touched by the generosity of the Helmerich family. For Peggy Helmerich, her faith is what has made it all possible.

“Being grounded in my faith has really been important to me,” Helmerich says. “It is so important to be grounded in things: it’s that old silly adage, ‘You have to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.’ You really have to stand for something and really believe in it heart, soul and mind.”

Christmas concert with Tulsa Symphony Brass and Organ

By

Staff

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December 18, 2012

Sunday, Dec. 23, at 7:30 p.m.

The Tulsa Symphony Brass joins organist Casey Cantwell for a special concert of Christmas music in the beautiful candlelit nave of Trinity Episcopal Church. “Christmas Music for Brass and Organ” begins at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The concert features Christmas carols and other favorite music of the season. A reception will follow. Tickets are $20 each, and Trinity Episcopal is located at 501 S. Cincinnati Ave., Tulsa. For more, go to www.trinitytulsa.org.

Winter Solstice Walk at Spiro Mounds

By

Staff

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December 18, 2012

Friday, Dec. 21

Cultures around the world and across time have marked the winter solstice – typically occurring on Dec. 21 or 22 – as a shift in the seasons and time for ritual and celebration. With the sun at its southernmost point in the sky, people knew where they stood in nature and the cycle of time. The Native American builders of the ancient Spiro Mounds in present-day LeFlore County were no exception. The Spiro Mounds Archaeology Center will offer three special tours around the state’s only prehistoric Native American archaeology site open to the public on Friday. Tours will be at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and are about a mile in length and last about two hours. Archaeologist Dennis Peterson will explain the mounds, the people who made them, excavations and how some mounds line evenly with the solstice and equinox sunsets. Admission to the center is $1-$4. Cost to participate on the walks is $2 for children and $3 for adults. Go to www.okhistory.org for more.

Tulsa 66ers Basketball

By

Staff

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December 18, 2012

Friday and Saturday, Dec. 21-22

In seasons past, Developmental League teams battled quietly in the shadow of their NBA pro affiliates. Such was true for the Tulsa 66ers, D-League little brother to the Oklahoma City Thunder’s overachiever sib with all the popularity, grades, athleticism and good looks. But a new collective bargaining agreement has put a handful of players in the middle. Thunder players Reggie Jackson, Perry Jones III, Jeremy Lamb, Daniel Orton and DeAndre Liggins have seen assignments to the 66ers since season’s start, giving them time on court. Hey, it’s better than spending the next few months planted on the bench, and it makes play in Tulsa more interesting. The 66ers take on Iowa Energy at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21, at the team’s home court at SpiritBank Event Center, 10441 S. Regal Blvd. The team takes on the Canton Charge at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22, also at the event center. Tickets are $12-57. Go to www.spiritbankeventcenter.com to purchase online.

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