Exclusively for "One Poor Correspondent," Louisa McCune-Elmore, editor in chief of Oklahoma Today magazine and a native of Enid, Oklahoma, offers her ranking of the greatest Oklahomans of all time:
1. Will Rogers
2. Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips
Thanks, Louisa!
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8 comments:
Could there be any other state whose list of greatest citizens extends all the way to two? Perhaps Vermont . . .
(No offense, Louisa!)
I was trying to think of the greatest North Dakotans of all time, and I couldn't get past Roger Maris.
On the other hand, Oklahoma hasn't even been a state for 100 years now, has it?
North Dakotans are very proud of native son Lawrence Welk, too. At least they were 25 years ago.
I don't know what Louisa has against Mickey Mantle.
Oklahoma goes about 9 deep in sports (Jim Thorpe is one, Mantle two, Johnny Bench is 3 and number 9 is undeserving baseball HOFer Lloyd Waner, just above him is his older brother, the deserving HOFer Paul.
Darrin Erstad is third on the North Dakota list, nuf said.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/features/si50
Now, I don't think Louisa meant this list to be exhaustive. Obviously, there's no Charley Pride on it, no Roy Clark, not a single Hanson -- great Oklahomans, every one of them.
Boys, boys, boys....indeed, Wayne and Will, number two and one, respectively. I could certainly add my others, Woody, Wilma, Webb (Jimmy, writer of Wichita Lineman), Wiley (Post, that is, greatest airman to fly these skies). But I sort of like leaving the remainders to the collective imagination. Mickey? Sure. Thorpe? Of course. But, it all comes back to Wayne and Will, in the end, for sheer cosmic charisma.
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