Oma Kay Murray

00:00:00Regan Siler: This is Regan Siler with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma. This interview is part of the Historical Society's ongoing oral history project. The date is August 16, 2024 and I'm sitting here with Oma Kay Murray at the Bristow Library Annex. She's going to tell us a little bit about her life and her history living in the Bristow area. Can you please state your full name?

00:00:23Oma Kay Murray: Oma Kay Murray.

00:00:26Regan Siler: Okay. And do I have permission to record this interview?

00:00:29Oma Kay Murray: Yes.

00:00:29Regan Siler: Okay. Can you tell us when and where you were born?

00:00:35Oma Kay Murray: I was born October the 11th, 1951 in Bristow, Oklahoma.

00:00:42Regan Siler: Okay, and were you born at the, were you born at the Bristow Hospital?

00:00:45Oma Kay Murray: I was born at the hospital on Eighth Street.

00:00:49Regan Siler: Was that called the Sisler, was that the Sisler?

00:00:51Oma Kay Murray: Sisler Clinic? I think so.

00:00:56Regan Siler: Well, can you tell us about the people in your family? Let's start with your parents. What are your parents full names?

00:01:03Oma Kay Murray: Daddy was James Rufus Copeland, and mother was Oma Olivi or Oleva, is what's on her birth certificate. Oma Oleva Alexander Copeland.

00:01:16Regan Siler: Okay, and I have your dad, his date of birth as 7/12/1911. And then I have your mom's birthday as July 5, 1913. Does that sound right?

00:01:29Oma Kay Murray: Yes.

00:01:29Regan Siler: okay. And do you have any siblings? And if so, what are their names?

00:01:36Oma Kay Murray: I have a brother. That's all. He's older than I am. He, his name is Buddy Alexander Copeland, and he's living in Florida right now.

00:01:49Regan Siler: Okay, um, what type of work did your parents do?

00:01:53Oma Kay Murray: Um, well, what I remember first is that mom and dad, when daddy came back from the war, mother was working for the Dr Pepper plant here in town.

00:02:10Regan Siler: Because right before I came up here, I was at the I was down at the depot, and they said they thought that your dad worked at the bottling company.

00:02:19Oma Kay Murray: He did. He did.

00:02:20Regan Siler: So they both did?

00:02:20Oma Kay Murray: He had a truck, and he delivered out in the country, south of town and to all those little stores that we used to have. And mother worked in the office. She kept the books.

00:02:32Regan Siler: So, they both worked there. Interesting. And where was the bottling company located?

00:02:38Oma Kay Murray: It was on Eighth Street, where Southwest Pecan is.

00:02:42Regan Siler: Really?

00:02:42Oma Kay Murray: Yes.

00:02:43Regan Siler: So, was it very big?

00:02:45Oma Kay Murray: No, not necessarily. There was a there was a building that they drove into and and that was where they loaded the Dr Pepper cases and stuff. And then the other building was where they cooked the Dr Pepper, and I think that was up above. And my brother told me this because my brother was old enough to be down there and and he would, you know, play down there. He's, he's nine years older than I am, so he was around it a lot, and he would go with daddy on on the trips down south to do all the little stores and and make deliveries and, and that's really all he really, that I remember him talking about, is south.

00:03:34Regan Siler: Going out south.

00:03:35Oma Kay Murray: Go out south, going out south. And there were little towns out there, you know, there was Gypsy and, and then there was, what's the one where Rayma Lee's [Rayma Lee Montgomery]

00:03:50Regan Siler: Like in Mason or?

00:03:54Oma Kay Murray: Welty! Welty, there's a little store, and I think it's even still there now.

00:03:58Regan Siler: Well, so did they work there for very long? Like, I wonder how long I need to do my research and find out how long the bottling company was there. We were just had been donated, like bottles and some stuff from the bottling company was recently donated to the museum. So that's why it was interesting to know that both your parents had worked there.

00:04:21Oma Kay Murray: They both worked there. I have pictures that I sent to the depot and and it was a lot, you know, it was all the workers, and I knew some of them, like Roy Kuykendall, worked there. And, oh, it was Darlene. Oh, I can't see this is where I can't name.

00:04:35Regan Siler: No, that's okay.

00:04:55Oma Kay Murray: That's bad. But anyway, I can see him. He had a filling station at one time, too. Let me think later.

00:05:09Regan Siler: No, that's okay.

00:05:10Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, there were several people that I knew, but

00:05:13Regan Siler: So, do you, how long do you have any recollection of how long your parents worked there?

00:05:18Oma Kay Murray: No, because I just, I just remember that

00:05:21Regan Siler: Because you were little.

00:05:22Oma Kay Murray: So, I would, yeah, I was little. They, they sold the the Dr Pepper plant to a man that didn't do a very good job of keeping things going like the other one did. And I can't remember his name, either, it'll come to me. But anyway, so they sold it to him, and then he moved on. I think he moved to Claremore [Oklahoma], the man that I can't remember. And mom and dad went to New Mexico to get in the oil field, and they were just there. And I was there too. I was little bitty. And then they got a call from daddy's brother that lived in Louisiana, and he went down there. They, we all went down there and stayed while he worked offshore, and then he was kind of the last one hired for the company. But then he was the last one, first one to be let go.

00:06:35Regan Siler: Oh, shoot, so did your mom work while you guys were in Louisiana?

00:06:40Oma Kay Murray: No, no.

00:06:40Regan Siler: She just stayed home and took care of you guys?

00:06:42Oma Kay Murray: And he worked offshore a week, and then he was home a week, and he worked offshore a week, and yeah.

00:06:49Regan Siler: So, then when did they move back to Bristow?

00:06:54Oma Kay Murray: I did first grade in in Patterson, Louisiana, and in the summer after that, we moved back, and daddy just kind of had odd jobs. He worked for the Johns Brothers. He worked for the one that I told you had a filling station. He worked for him. Hodges.

00:07:18Regan Siler: Hodges?

00:07:19Oma Kay Murray: Yes, yes. And then he got on with the school, and he worked at the school as a janitor.

00:07:28Regan Siler: So, did your did you have your parents were here? What made you come back to Bristow? Parents or grandparents?

00:07:38Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, yeah, I had grandparent here, it's the only one that I really knew was my Grandma Copeland. So it was daddy's mother, and she lived.

00:07:47Regan Siler: So, is that what made you come back to Bristow?

00:07:50Oma Kay Murray: I think so. I think so.

00:07:51Regan Siler: Like the family connection.

00:07:53Oma Kay Murray: Because we, you know, we were here starting out, and then went to try to better ourselves and make better jobs. I'm saying myself, but they were.

00:08:01Regan Siler: Right.

00:08:02Oma Kay Murray: And, so, when we got back here, Daddy got that well, he had some odd jobs, and then he got that job with the school, and mother worked as a secretary for the Methodist Church.

00:08:15Regan Siler: Okay, and did your dad's family live in this area?

00:08:22Oma Kay Murray: Several, well, I say several did. My aunt lived with her, the my grandma and she was a nurse, Mary Tribble.

00:08:34Regan Siler: Say her name again.

00:08:35Oma Kay Murray: Mary Tribble.

00:08:36Regan Siler: Okay.

00:08:37Oma Kay Murray: The the first baby born in the hospital. That picture that they have, the nurse that's holding her is my aunt.

00:08:44Regan Siler: Oh cool!

00:08:46Oma Kay Murray: And then Donna Branscum was a sister to my dad, and she was the the nurse for the health department.

00:08:59Regan Siler: Okay.

00:09:00Oma Kay Murray: So, and they, they were here, but none of the, none of the boys lived here. So, we had, I had brothers or uncles in New Mexico and Texas and Louisiana and Illinois. They were just kind of, yeah.

00:09:20Regan Siler: So, have you been here? So you guys moved back around the second grade?

00:09:24Oma Kay Murray: I was probably six.

00:09:26Regan Siler: Okay. And have you been here since then? Or did you

00:09:30Oma Kay Murray: The only time that we were away was while I was in school in Tahlequah, and then we moved, Rick, Rick worked at Tahlequah [Oklahoma] while I finished my schooling, and then we came back to Bristow, and he had worked at the carpet mill before. So, when he came back to Bristow, he started school at Okmulgee Tech, and then worked at the carpet mill at night. So, so we've been back here since '73.

00:10:07Regan Siler: For a real long time.

00:10:08Oma Kay Murray: For a real long time.

00:10:09Regan Siler: Okay, well, let's talk a little bit about your early childhood and home life. Do you remember any of your favorite toys from your childhood, or any favorite games that you played? That's taking it way back.

00:10:26Oma Kay Murray: That is, that's taking it way back. You know what I remember a lot is just riding bicycles and being outside and making up games that we would play and, and the neighborhood kids would come, and we would ride bicycles in, in the street in front of the house where we live was dirt, you know, it was a dirt road. And I lived right next door to the garment factory. So, we would ride bikes in the garment factory, and then we could go just a block, and we would be at Washington School,.

00:11:01Regan Siler: Okay.

00:11:01Regan Siler: Grandma was taking care of you.

00:11:02Oma Kay Murray: And, so, we just, I remember that night, I did, I we just couldn't afford a lot of toys, so we just kind of made things.

00:11:12Regan Siler: You used your imagination!

00:11:13Oma Kay Murray: Right. We did.

00:11:15Regan Siler: Something that I think is lacking a little bit.

00:11:16Oma Kay Murray: Yes, I think so.

00:11:19Regan Siler: Did you have chores that you were expected to do when you were young?

00:11:26Oma Kay Murray: Well, I just had to keep my room picked up and that type of thing. But when I got old enough to push a lawn mower, I started mowing yards, and I would mow mom and dad's yard. That was and that was kind of a chore. But then I would mow for the lady across the street, and then I'd mow for my grandma. My grandma always paid me $5.

00:11:52Regan Siler: Oh! But you didn't get paid?

00:11:54Oma Kay Murray: I didn't, mother didn't no mom, dad didn't pay me.

00:11:57Regan Siler: But your grandma did?

00:11:57Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:11:59Oma Kay Murray: Grandma was taking care of me.

00:12:02Regan Siler: Do you remember having any favorite activities or hobbies as a child?

00:12:07Oma Kay Murray: I like to paint, and that was the paint by numbers. And I like to do that. I like to color. I just, you know.

00:12:15Regan Siler: I always did, too! The best thing in the world was getting the box of 64 crayons, a brand new box of crayons.

00:12:21Oma Kay Murray: And, yeah, and then I and I like the different, I mean, like, I like the the colored pencils.

00:12:31Regan Siler: Yes.

00:12:31Oma Kay Murray: And then, yeah, and all the different colors in the big boxes of crayons, yes.

00:12:36Regan Siler: So, I'm gonna skip ahead a little bit. Since you open the art door. I talked to both of your girls before this interview, and they said you wouldn't probably admit how artistic you are, but to visit with you about your artistic abilities.

00:12:56Oma Kay Murray: Oh, I don't know, I kind of got away from, well, I still painted, though. I would paint things. I would paint rocks, and I'd paint gourds, and I would paint tin cans. I made, I made a Christmas ornament every year, and I just made oodles of them. So, I would give them to my friends, and I would give them to the teachers at school, and and, and I had a set for me, and as the girls got married and had trees, then I would make them, you know, I just that. And I made one of Oklahoma and had it on the tree. I don't know, I just did that, but it just, I've lost that. I can't do that now, because I don't have time.

00:13:46Regan Siler: Well, now, did you have, did you have a hand in painting the pirate?

00:13:52Oma Kay Murray: No, that was my dad.

00:13:53Regan Siler: That was your dad.

00:13:54Oma Kay Murray: My dad.

00:13:54Regan Siler: That painted the pirate.

00:13:57Oma Kay Murray: Yes.

00:13:57Regan Siler: So, do you think you inherited some of your artistic ability from him?

00:14:01Oma Kay Murray: Maybe, maybe, yeah, and he painted a lot when, well, he started painting when he was working at at school, and he would take his lunch, and I don't know if you remember the old junior high building.

00:14:16Regan Siler: Oh, yeah.

00:14:16Oma Kay Murray: Okay. Well, there were stairs that would take you up up to the very top, and there was windows all around, so the lighting was really good. So, Daddy would go up there and paint instead of eating, you know.

00:14:30Regan Siler: Really, well that's cool!

00:14:30Oma Kay Murray: He would go up there and paint and and so he he would he got better. He got better as he painted more and more. And he did landscapes more than he did. He didn't, he didn't do people well, you know, he tried, he tried to paint cowboys and stuff like that, but he never got everything just, just right.

00:14:54Regan Siler: He never got that down?

00:14:55Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, yeah, never.

00:14:55Regan Siler: He was more, more into the landscape thing. And okay, did do you remember collecting anything as a child?

00:15:09Oma Kay Murray: Rocks.

00:15:11Regan Siler: So, you did collect rocks?

00:15:12Oma Kay Murray: I did collect rocks. And I, you know.

00:15:15Regan Siler: Are those the ones you painted? Or did you

00:15:16Oma Kay Murray: No, well, no, no, I no.

00:15:18Regan Siler: You just liked to collect them?

00:15:19Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, I just like to collect them. And so I used different things to collect them. Sometimes I would look for holes in rocks. And so if I'd find, you know, rocks with holes in them, I would, I would save those or and Daddy made a patio out of rocks, and we would go and drive the the old dirt roads. And if there was a rock on the side of the road, we would that we could get

00:15:50Regan Siler: That looked like it would work?

00:15:50Oma Kay Murray: And we would get it, and we'd put it in the car, and he made a patio in the backyard that was real nice.

00:15:51Regan Siler: Oh, wow!

00:15:51Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:15:52Regan Siler: And from rocks from all over.

00:15:58Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:16:01Regan Siler: Well that's cool.

00:16:02Oma Kay Murray: But it always had to be, it couldn't just be a rock. It had to have, I had to tell what, why I liked it.

00:16:03Regan Siler: It had to have some character, too. I can, I can get on board with that. Can you tell me about your school life? I know you said you started off in Louisiana in the first grade. Did you go the rest of your school years in Bristow?

00:16:27Oma Kay Murray: Yes.

00:16:28Regan Siler: Okay.

00:16:28Oma Kay Murray: Yes.

00:16:28Regan Siler: Um, do you remember having any particular influential teachers?

00:16:34Oma Kay Murray: Um, Mrs. Jackson, scared me, scared me, scared me, but she she was such a good teacher.

00:16:49Regan Siler: And what did she teach?

00:16:51Oma Kay Murray: She teach, she teach. She taught. She taught third grade.

00:16:57Regan Siler: Third grade, okay.

00:16:57Oma Kay Murray: And so I had her, and then I loved Mrs. Holcomb, and she was the art teacher for a while, but then, when Ola Lee was the name of the the librarian, when she left, then Mrs. Holcomb took over the

00:17:19Regan Siler: What was Ola Lee's last name? I almost think I did an old interview, an old oral history that they

00:17:25Oma Kay Murray: I can't remember that. I just remember Ola Lee.

00:17:29Regan Siler: So, then Mrs., what was, do you remember Mrs. Holcomb's first name?

00:17:32Oma Kay Murray: Gladys.

00:17:33Regan Siler: Gladys Holcomb. And then what was Mrs. Jackson's first name? Do you remember?

00:17:37Oma Kay Murray: Ima Jean.

00:17:37Regan Siler: Ima Jean Jackson.

00:17:39Oma Kay Murray: And see, and then I worked with them. I didn't work with Mrs. Holcomb. She wasn't working anymore. But when I, when I started teaching speech, I would, I worked with kids at Edison on Monday and Wednesday, and then on Tuesday and Thursday, I would go to Washington and work with the speech kids over there, so I worked with some of my teachers.

00:18:04Regan Siler: That's full circle. Do you remember how you got to school as a youngster?

00:18:12Oma Kay Murray: I walked, because I was only a block away, so I would walk to school and walk home.

00:18:20Regan Siler: Walk home. Were you a member of any clubs or organizations which would probably be more

00:18:27Oma Kay Murray: That was high school, high school, the pep club, the Latin Club. Take Latin that was so hard, but we joined the Latin Club. I was in a math club, but not a strong math student, but just, you know, you get in those clubs because your friends are in there.

00:18:51Regan Siler: Right, right.

00:18:52Oma Kay Murray: And so, yeah, I wasn't a strong math student.

00:18:54Regan Siler: So did you enjoy school?

00:18:55Oma Kay Murray: I did.

00:18:57Regan Siler: Overall.

00:18:57Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:18:58Regan Siler: Did you have a did you have a favorite subject?

00:19:09Oma Kay Murray: It wasn't math.

00:19:13Regan Siler: It was probably art!

00:19:14Oma Kay Murray: You know, Wanda Newton taught, what was it? Something living.

00:19:14Regan Siler: Family Living?

00:19:26Oma Kay Murray: Family Living, Family Living. And we, we did the whole, we started, you know, like our on our life outside of school and, and we met our husband, and we got married, and we had to plan the wedding, and then we had to buy a house. So, we walked around and looked at an empty house.

00:19:48Regan Siler: Oh wow!

00:19:48Oma Kay Murray: And so we had to set up our own floor plan and go buy groceries and, and how to learn how to change a flat and.

00:19:58Regan Siler: Oh, well, that's good!

00:19:59Oma Kay Murray: Uh huh.

00:19:59Regan Siler: That's good. In family living, when I had it, we had egg babies. We had a husband and egg babies we had to decorate and carry around, and then not break the egg, you know.

00:20:10Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:20:12Regan Siler: Well, so I understand that you had, or have a group of friends that you've had for a really long time, and that you guys called yourself something?

00:20:23Oma Kay Murray: Mr. Miller called us the dirt, the half, dirty half dozen.

00:20:30Regan Siler: The dirty half dozen and, and I understand that you're you guys are still friends to this day?

00:20:36Oma Kay Murray: We're still friends to this day.

00:20:38Regan Siler: Which is pretty cool.

00:20:40Oma Kay Murray: It is awesome. It is awesome.

00:20:42Regan Siler: Still get to get together and do things, and when you can.

00:20:45Oma Kay Murray: We went a couple of weeks ago to the lake. You remember Sandy Davis, Betsy Davis? Okay, Betsy's got this four story house on Grand Lake, and she's just there sometimes. And then she has an apartment in Tulsa. And so, anyway, she let us have that for the weekend. And so there were five,

00:21:10Regan Siler: So, is her mom part of your

00:21:12Oma Kay Murray: Yes. So, it was Sandy Johns.

00:21:16Regan Siler: Okay.

00:21:16Oma Kay Murray: And Paulette Patton, now she's Womack. And then there, let me think a minute, Susan, Susan Brown, who's remodeling this house right here.

00:21:16Regan Siler: And her last name is Sweatt, now, isn't it?

00:21:34Oma Kay Murray: Yes. It is yes, it is Sweatt. And then Carolyn Humphrey Dobrinski.

00:21:41Regan Siler: Yes.

00:21:42Oma Kay Murray: And well, and then we always had Nona. Nona Welch was her name, and then she married, and it was Harvin. And anyway, she she was chronically ill all the time, but she made us laugh. We just had so much fun with her, and she had diabetes, and she didn't take care of herself, and so she and she smoked and she, you know, so there was always something wrong with her, but when she was feeling good, she was fun. She was so much fun. We lost her.

00:22:19Regan Siler: I, actually, ran into, crazy enough, Stephanie and Betsy when my husband I were out to eat at lunch. And Stephanie was, she was a year older than me, and she was like my big sister. I loved her to death, and it was so like I again, I cried. I had just we hugged, and it was I was so happy to see them because I hadn't seen Stephanie in forever. Then to just run into them at lunch in Tulsa was awesome. Pretty, pretty cool to get to see them again.

00:22:50Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:22:50Regan Siler: I think that's so, so neat that you guys are, are all still friends.

00:22:54Oma Kay Murray: We're all still friends and hang out and we're going, actually, we are go all going out to eat Monday.

00:23:04Regan Siler: Oh fun!

00:23:05Oma Kay Murray: We're going to go to Tulsa. So Susan's here Paulette's going. Kathy Mattox, we, we, she graduated in '69 in Oklahoma City. So, so Kathy's going, and Paulette and myself, and then we're meeting Linda Barry and Karen Elias. Do you remember Karen Elias?

00:23:32Regan Siler: I don't know her.

00:23:33Oma Kay Murray: Okay. She was in our she was in our class and but wasn't it wasn't in the group that ran around and stuff, yeah,42

00:23:42Regan Siler: Well, that, that's fun. I'm glad you have that.

00:23:46Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, I'm glad I have it. That's just, they just, it was so relaxing to go. There was a deck on each level, so we'd get out and go on the first deck, and then sometimes they'd come up and go on the second deck.

00:24:02Regan Siler: You were living the life, weren't you?

00:24:04Oma Kay Murray: Yeah! Oh yeah, finding out how the other half lives.

00:24:08Regan Siler: Exactly. Um, well, can you tell me a little bit about the house that you grew up in here in Bristow?

00:24:14Oma Kay Murray: Mm, hmm. When we bought the house, it was small. It had a big front porch. It was covered. It had the big posts, you know, to support the cover. But it was

00:24:31Regan Siler: And this was the one over by the garment factor?

00:24:32Oma Kay Murray: Uh huh, but it was little, and it had a it had a back porch, and that was where mom had the, the washing machine, and then there was a little outside back porch that you could step down. And Daddy had a big garden in the back. He could grow anything. But over the years, they redid the kitchen and, and they changed the floors. It had hardwood floors, and I wish that daddy hadn't, they there was some kind of, some kind of flooring that they put down that it just

00:24:33Regan Siler: It messed up the floor.

00:24:38Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, it messed up the floor. So anyway, then we put carpet over that, but there was a front bedroom and a back bedroom, and the bathroom was in between, and there was doors to enter it both ways, and then I slept on an we had a we lived in a trailer in Louisiana, and they took one of the beds out of it, and it was just a half bed at the back of the trailer, and they put it in the living room, and not in the living room, in the dining room. And I slept in the dining room.

00:25:49Regan Siler: Well, I was going to ask you if you had your own room, but you slept in the dining room.

00:25:53Oma Kay Murray: I slept in the dining room.

00:25:54Regan Siler: Oh, my goodness. And, how long, how long was it like that?

00:26:02Oma Kay Murray: Well, by the time that I was in high school, Daddy took the two closets out and took the wall out. I mean, don't take them out, but he cleaned them all out, and then he took the wall that out that separated the two closets, and he made a door in the dining room that would go into a hall, and you could go to the right or the left, or to the restroom in the front and then that front bedroom after my brother left, I could, I could go in the door from the living room, or go inn the door, you know, from the dining room.

00:26:41Regan Siler: So, it was high school, then, before you had your own room

00:26:44Oma Kay Murray: Right.

00:26:44Regan Siler: My goodness, okay, where did you spend most of your time? Were you, sounds like you were probably more of an outside kid.

00:26:52Oma Kay Murray: I was, I was outside all the time till dark, but it was just a block up to the highway and then two blocks to my grandma's house. She lived on Third Street, on the corner and of Oak and, and Third and, so, I go up there. My cousin from New Mexico is eight months older than I am, and she came every summer because her mother died when she was little. I don't know if she

00:27:29Regan Siler: So that was probably fun for you?

00:27:30Oma Kay Murray: That was like having a sister, yeah, yeah. She was my sister for a lot of years and and then she would come down, you know, even after she was of age to be able to drive. She would drive down. You know, I would never have driven that far by myself, but she would drive.

00:27:49Regan Siler: Well, what were meal times like in your family? Did you guys, was was dinner for you like sitting down with the family every night? Or were you going different directions or?

00:28:00Oma Kay Murray: No, we were able to sit down every night and eat, and we ate things out of the garden. We always had vegetables out of the garden and tomatoes, which I didn't like tomatoes, but my mother loved them. And, you know, cucumbers and carrots and asparagus and there were different kind of fruit trees power in the backyard, right planted in the backyard, there was a little pear tree and a, I'm sorry, an apple tree.

00:28:36Regan Siler: So, whenever you were younger, did your mom teach you how to cook?

00:28:44Oma Kay Murray: No, I didn't want to be in the kitchen, cooking. I wanted to be outside.

00:28:48Regan Siler: You wanted to be outside. So, do you remember? Was she a good cook? Do you remember?

00:28:52Oma Kay Murray: She was a great cook.

00:28:53Regan Siler: Do remember coming away with any good recipes or favorite meals?

00:28:57Oma Kay Murray: I do. I have her, I do have her recipe book and it's just a notebook, you know, spinal back notebook, and she had written down, or she would cut them out and paste them in there.

00:29:10Regan Siler: So, do you remember having, like, a favorite meal that she cooked for when you were young?

00:29:15Oma Kay Murray: Well, I love mashed potatoes. When I was little, Mother said, I used to wake up in the night and say, I want tatties, I want tatties. She would go get cold mashed potatoes out of the ice box, and I guess I would eat 'em. So anyway, but yeah, she just that mashed potatoes really was my favorite, and fried chicken.

00:29:40Regan Siler: Fried chicken?

00:29:42Oma Kay Murray: Just plain old home meals.

00:29:44Regan Siler: So whenever you think about growing up in Bristow, do you remember having any favorite community activities? And you know, for instance, a lot of people talk about Western Heritage Days, day camp, you know, parades, county fairs. Tell me about some of that those times for you and what you remember?

00:29:44Oma Kay Murray: Well, I remember Western Heritage Days, and they had the saloons, and they had the saloon girls that would, you know, prance up and down the street, and you could see those, and there were gun fights in the middle of Main Street, and we had Woolsworth then. Woolsworth was there, and then Ben Franklin.

00:30:29Regan Siler: Tell us what Woolsworth is.

00:30:31Oma Kay Murray: Woolsworth was like, it's just like a department store that you walk into. Clothes were not a lot but, but there were toys, and there were cooking things, and there were, I don't know, it kind of reminds me of the Dollar Tree.

00:30:50Regan Siler: Okay.

00:30:51Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, things that you can go in there to find and records, records. I always went to Woolworths to buy my records.

00:30:59Regan Siler: To buy records? Okay. Well and that kind of leads into my next question of what were some of the biggest and most popular businesses around town. But it sounds like you liked Woolworths and

00:31:10Oma Kay Murray: I liked Kemp's. When we walk, I I, my mom took me to school at junior high, but I had to walk home. So, I walked, you know, all the way home to Oak Street. Yeah, it was quite a walk, but I had some people that walked with me to, like, Sixth Street, and then, you know, then I walked by myself the rest of the way, which I wouldn't let my kids do today for anything.

00:31:39Regan Siler: But did you you mentioned Kemp's? Did you used to stop by there?

00:31:42Oma Kay Murray: We stopped there, if, you know, if we got out of school early or something, we would stop there. And there would be kids and, and there was a, I guess you would say bar or whatever. But anyway, you could sit up on the stools and order your, your drinks or your shakes, or whatever you wanted right there. Yeah, while you visited with your friends,

00:32:07Regan Siler: Hung out with your friends, huh? Did you have a favorite place to eat out in town or did you primarily eat at home?

00:32:16Oma Kay Murray: No, I ate in the cafeteria.

00:32:19Regan Siler: Well, even as a family.

00:32:22Oma Kay Murray: Oh, even as a family. I don't remember eating out very much as a family, but that's something that I'm kind of jealous of, because mom and dad lived, at one time, they lived right across the street from Opal Lyons. You know the house that Opal Lyons and and, and I can't remember, okay. Do you know where Emily Winter lived on Fifth Street? Okay, okay, so the that it's on the south side, mom and dad lived straight across the street on the on the north side.

00:32:57Regan Siler: Okay.

00:32:57Oma Kay Murray: And there's a lot of construction stuff in front of that house, like they're going to work on it.

00:33:03Regan Siler: But they haven't.

00:33:04Oma Kay Murray: And, so, and they haven't.

00:33:06Regan Siler: Yeah.

00:33:06Oma Kay Murray: Are the materials?

00:33:07Oma Kay Murray: Yeah exactly.

00:33:08Regan Siler: Still good.

00:33:09Oma Kay Murray: But Buddy was, I don't know if I was born in that house or the one on 11th street, but anyway, Buddy would they knew, they knew the Lyons. And so there was the Lyons Cafe. And so Mother would would let Buddy come and join her. He would be at school, you know, over there. He went to Edison School. I didn't. I went to Washington and and then, you know, on over so, but he would come and join them at Lyons Cafe. And I never did get to do that. There were no there was,

00:33:51Regan Siler: I've heard about Lyons Cafe.

00:33:52Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:33:53Regan Siler: People have talked about that.

00:33:54Oma Kay Murray: Yeah. And I, I don't know of any cafes. Now there was the pizza place that was where Ty [Biggs Chiropractic] is now.

00:34:06Regan Siler: Darrell's?

00:34:06Oma Kay Murray: Darrell's Pizza.

00:34:06Regan Siler: Oh yeah, Darrell's was big when I was in school.

00:34:08Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, and then Oscars.

00:34:11Regan Siler: Oh yeah.

00:34:11Oma Kay Murray: Like, that wasn't, we didn't really go out to eat as a family. We just, I always considered us poor.

00:34:19Regan Siler: Well, it's funny, though, I think a lot of people from your generation, when I ask that question, it's they might have went somewhere occasionally, but people primarily, people primarily ate at home.

00:34:32Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:34:34Regan Siler: Did you have a favorite hangout as a teacher, as a teacher, as a teenager?

00:34:41Oma Kay Murray: Well, you know, we drug Main and we would go to the Tastee Freez and, but I don't remember places where we got together, except at each other's houses.

00:34:58Regan Siler: Do you remember your family's first car?

00:35:03Oma Kay Murray: I do. It was a Nash Rambler.

00:35:07Regan Siler: Nash Rambler.

00:35:08Oma Kay Murray: Nash Rambler. It was white, and the front seat was divided in two, so the driver had a section and the person in the front have a section, and this is what I remember. And, so, anyway, we would drive from Oklahoma to Louisiana to see my uncle and family down there and stuff. And, so, Mother would scoot over and sit on the same side with daddy, and then she would lay that seat down, and Buddy could sleep on that because it was longer, or he slept in the seat, and then maybe I slept beside him, like that, and so. And we always drove at night.

00:35:54Regan Siler: And it was so safe!

00:35:56Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, yes, yes. And so, yeah, so we, that's the way we traveled.

00:36:02Regan Siler: Well, do you remember who taught you how to drive?

00:36:06Oma Kay Murray: My brother.

00:36:07Regan Siler: Your brother taught you. And do you remember what your first car was?

00:36:12Oma Kay Murray: My brother's old pickup.

00:36:15Regan Siler: So, you gotta hand me down?

00:36:16Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, I gotta hand you down.

00:36:18Regan Siler: And we're probably happy to have it.

00:36:20Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, and I, yeah, and I drove it to college.

00:36:23Regan Siler: Oh, really? So it lasted a while. Do you remember what, what it what kind it was?

00:36:28Oma Kay Murray: It was a Chevy. It was, I don't know what the names of the trucks were, stuff like, but it was just a red Chevy pick-up truck.

00:36:39Regan Siler: Like seven, would it have been like a 70s model?

00:36:43Oma Kay Murray: Oh no, no, yeah, because my brother, let's see, he graduated in '60.

00:36:53Regan Siler: Oh so, oh, so it would have been quite a bit older.

00:36:56Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, quite a bit older.

00:36:58Regan Siler: Okay, it was probably a, would be a collector's item now.

00:37:02Oma Kay Murray: Oh, it would. It would.

00:37:07Regan Siler: What sort of entertainment did you enjoy growing up? Did you, did you get to watch much TV? And if you did, did you have a favorite program?

00:37:19Oma Kay Murray: I watched, Saturday was my favorite day to watch TV. And, so, there was Fury the Horse, and then there wasSky King with his airplane, and, and then the the comedy, or the kind of, of course, we had the, we had the cartoons that were Sylvester and the Road Runner and those kind of cartoons. I liked cartoons. Yes, did you ask me two questions in that one?

00:37:56Regan Siler: Just what your favorite programs were and what, like, if TV was part of your entertainment, whenever you were young.

00:38:04Oma Kay Murray: It was that, and it the TV was a lot different. I mean, you know, it was more.

00:38:11Regan Siler: It was almost like a special occasion or a special treat to get to watch TV, I think, than it is of everyone's got a screen in their face now.

00:38:18Oma Kay Murray: Right, right. Yeah, we didn't know, I was outside.

00:38:22Regan Siler: Which is good.

00:38:23Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:38:23Regan Siler: We need to get back to that.

00:38:24Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:38:25Regan Siler: Do you, do you recall witnessing any pivotal events in history on TV that you saw on TV?

00:38:36Oma Kay Murray: I was in fifth grade when the first astronaut went around the earth.

00:38:47Oma Kay Murray: Did you find that fascinating? Or did it really, do you remember it affect? Do you remember what you thought at the time when, when you realized, hey, there's somebody in space going around.

00:39:00Oma Kay Murray: I don't know, it almost seemed like it wasn't real.

00:39:02Regan Siler: Right.

00:39:03Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:39:03Regan Siler: I can, I can. I can see that.

00:39:05Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, there it when I was in seventh grade, was when Kennedy [John F. Kennedy] was shot, and that was pretty traumatic.

00:39:18Regan Siler: Right. I've had several people as of lately, mention that as the thing that they remember is President Kennedy getting shot.

00:39:26Oma Kay Murray: Yeah. And then

00:39:29Regan Siler: Do you remember how you felt at that time as a seventh grader?

00:39:33Oma Kay Murray: I didn't understand it.

00:39:37Regan Siler: Right.

00:39:37Oma Kay Murray: I, you know, I didn't understand why something like that would happen. I just didn't have a lot of knowledge of those kinds of things happening. I just lived in Bristow, Oklahoma, and I lived in, you grew up on Oak Street, yeah. And so I just, I couldn't. It was sad. It just, I just couldn't.

00:40:03Regan Siler: Right. Well, let's talk about your family and holidays. Do you remember what holidays were like for, for your family when you were younger? Say, let's take Christmas, since that's usually a big one for people.

00:40:21Oma Kay Murray: Well, I would have things that I wanted and, and I could get, I would get some of them, but I wouldn't get all of them. I always wanted a, I always wanted a horse, and I wanted an outfit like Dale Evans. I never got it.

00:40:35Regan Siler: You never got it?

00:40:36Oma Kay Murray: I never got those two things. And I was so upset. But, you know, we didn't get a lot.

00:40:43Regan Siler: Right.

00:40:44Oma Kay Murray: We didn't get a lot of presents and stuff. Sometimes I would get paint by number sets, you know, that I could, that I could work on, if it was rainy or something outside. Just simple things, just, I got a stuffed bear when I was little, and I slept with it until I was probably 13. I, you know, Buddy would, Buddy always worked. He was, he, when he was in school, he was working, and he would get me things for Christmas. And he did get me a western belt. And it had a belt buckle that was, you know, pretty good size. And there was a little, like a little dare, a little, is it, did you call them a Derringer? The little bitty one. Yes, I don't know. Anyway, it was a cap gun.

00:41:42Regan Siler: It was in the belt buckle?

00:41:44Oma Kay Murray: So, if you would push your stomach out, it would come out and pop. I just love that.

00:41:53Regan Siler: Oh, that's funny.

00:41:54Oma Kay Murray: I just love that. Yeah, I wore it, I wore it to Western Heritage Days.

00:41:57Regan Siler: Oh, you did? Well, that's perfect, isn't it? Well, as a child, do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up? Do you ever remember thinking about that?

00:42:10Oma Kay Murray: Well, I had two nurses in the family, so I thought I wanted to be a nurse, and the more I learned about it, but yeah, the less I wanted to do that. So, I played, I played teacher, you know, I had a chalkboard. I did one of my Christmas presents was a chalkboard. It was about this big, and I would stand it up on something, you know, a shelf or something, and, and I would play like I was a teacher. So, I guess that was

00:42:39Regan Siler: Maybe you

00:42:40Oma Kay Murray: That was

00:42:41Regan Siler: It was foretelling your future?

00:42:43Oma Kay Murray: That was maybe the intention for me.

00:42:45Regan Siler: Well, and that's a good transition into my next question, because I wanted to talk to you about the jobs that you've had. I know whenever we visited on the phone, you said you started out at Drumright [Oklahoma] your first year, because you were trying to get on here, and they didn't want to hire brand new teachers, and then

00:43:04Oma Kay Murray: From Bristow.

00:43:05Regan Siler: From Bristow, so, so tell me, because it's a long history that you have with Bristow Public Schools. Tell me how many years you've

00:43:15Oma Kay Murray: This one will be 51.

00:43:19Regan Siler: Fifty-one.

00:43:20Oma Kay Murray: But it's 52 altogether, counting Drumright, see.

00:43:23Regan Siler: Right, right.

00:43:24Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:43:24Regan Siler: So, tell me, tell me about your, tell me a little bit about your time at Bristow and what that's been like for you.

00:43:31Oma Kay Murray: Well, I did get a job the second year that I, I interviewed, and it was special ed, which my masters was in special ed. And, so I had, you know, they called, they called it, you were mentally retarded.

00:43:53Regan Siler: I know things have changed a lot.

00:43:55Oma Kay Murray: Yes, and it was, you were educable, mentally retarded, or you were trainable, you know, the more severe. So,I had the educable class, and it was in, it was at the old high school, but I was across in the in the the administration building.

00:44:03Regan Siler: Right.

00:44:18Oma Kay Murray: That yellow building, but I'd go in, and on the right was my classroom, okay, and so I had, I had some I loved them. I loved the kids. There was one family that the dad did not have any legs, but they pulled him around Bristow in a wagon, and I had his daughter, but we knew that family, because he was a watch, he worked on watches, and he had watches. And, so, I got my first watch for Christmas in sixth grade, and it was from that family.

00:44:59Regan Siler: Oh, wow.

00:44:59Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, and so anyway, I remember that. But so I taught there for a year and, but I went over and talked to Holderby, Holderby. He was in charge of the special ed department, and so I started asking him about having speech services at Bristow, and he said they had actually had speech services at Bristow in the past, but I guess they left and they didn't pursue it or whatever. So, anyway, we talked together and decided that we were going to try to get that going, and and, and we did. So, from '73 to '90, no, yes, from '73 to '90, I did speech at Washington and Edison for the four days, and then I went to the high school, or junior high or, you know, to service kids out there on Friday. And then I burn out. Paperwork is awful. It's much worse now. I wouldn't, I wouldn't be able to do it at all. But I burnt out, so I was going to school at night. I knew I was burning out, so I was going to school at night. And finally got a certificate for elementary education. And so I applied for an elementary education job and got the first grade position. And Kathy Mattox was next door to me teaching. So, she was kind of my person that I went to for help, and she kind of guided me through and got me through, and I taught first grade till '13. And I just, I just wasn't happy anymore, and so I retired. I was going to retire. And Vicki Groom called, you know how Vicki is. Okay, I need you to come over here and teach speech. And I said, Vicki, I can't do speech anymore because I said I either have to get a master's in speech or I have to take the test and pass it, and I can't pass a test because now speech has all the medical services that they do for people, and I don't know anything about that. Well, I'm going to call the State Department. She got online with a lady in Oklahoma City that was starting a program called Speech and Language Pathology Assistant, and you had to work under a speech and language pathologist. So, I got on doing that. Jennifer [Jennifer Morgan] was my SLPA, that or SLP, that I worked with and through, and then did the things that she told me to do, and, and so I've been there since. And I love it. I love working with the little kids and and

00:48:22Regan Siler: So, now are you just working half days?

00:48:24Oma Kay Murray: I am just working half a day.

00:48:26Regan Siler: Half days now, okay

00:48:28Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:48:28Regan Siler: So 50, you're on your 51st year at Bristow Public Schools. That's just

00:48:34Oma Kay Murray: And I still love it.

00:48:35Regan Siler: And that's wonderful.

00:48:36Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:48:36Regan Siler: That's wonderful. Um, and then the other thing that you have, obviously, been instrumental in is day camp. So, tell us about day camp and how you got started and

00:48:49Oma Kay Murray: We moved here, and I started day camp that summer that we moved here, I started day camp, so that was I was six. And, so, I went to day camp through till I was able to be a day camp helper. I was working with Chuck West and Wanda Newton. They were awesome. And, anyway, we, I was, I was able to become a counselor, and,, and I worked becoming a counselor, and then somebody else was doing it, besides Wanda and Chuck, because they, they retired, but they, whoever did it, didn't last. Well. I think it was Womack. Mrs. Womack. Margaret, Mary Margaret, Womack, okay, she worked there, but I don't remember who the male, I don't know if there even was a male. I don't remember who the other person was, but anyway. Yeah, but Vicki and I took it on, Vicki and I took it on and we did it. I can't even remember when we started. I can't remember when we started.

00:48:49Regan Siler: It's been so long.

00:49:16Oma Kay Murray: I can't!

00:50:17Regan Siler: Well, I know that you, because Emily was saying, you, you know, obviously you've taught all of your grandkids how to swim, plus, she said, millions of other kids in Bristow.

00:50:27Oma Kay Murray: Yeah.

00:50:28Regan Siler: It's, that's just kind of a, that's what Bristow is known for, is their day camp, you know.

00:50:34Oma Kay Murray: Right, right.

00:50:36Regan Siler: And then we have the period, unfortunate period, without the without the swimming pool, but we're back and running again and and got it going. So, when did you, what year did you, because you're not doing it now, right?

00:50:49Oma Kay Murray: I'm not. I volunteered. I just, well, I won't go into why I quit, but I volunteered. I'd come up and do

00:51:01Regan Siler: And help in some areas.

00:51:01Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, I would help wherever they needed me, or I'd just walk around helping out with archery and all of those kinds of activities.

00:51:11Regan Siler: Well, you've seen between school and day camp, you've probably been involved in just about every kid's life that's come through Bristow.

00:51:21Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, and they'll stop me and say, I know you. And I'll say, tell me who you are.

00:51:28Regan Siler: Well, you probably still get a lot of random hugs and hellos.

00:51:31Oma Kay Murray: I do. I do.

00:51:33Regan Siler: And stuff like that because of all the kids that you've been involved with over the years.

00:51:38Oma Kay Murray: I always wondered what my calling was in life. You know, what God really wanted me to do. And I didn't really feel like I was doing anything special.

00:51:47Regan Siler: Well, how in the world can you think that?

00:51:50Oma Kay Murray: I don't know. I just, I don't know. I just, I didn't, it took me a long time. I finally realized that, that that is my calling, and that is what I meant to do, is to touch lives and save lives, and you know.

00:52:04Regan Siler: Absolutely, absolutely, because, you know, when you think back as, especially as an adult, and which, you know, there was one particular coach for me that whenever I look back, he had a very particular hand in my life at a certain time. It wasn't even a big span. It was just a really small that was pivotal for me. And I think whenever you probably don't even realize as a teacher or even interacting with kids at day camp, when maybe they don't have much of a summer or other things to do when you show your care and your interest in them, what a difference that makes in, in their lives, you know. So, to say you didn't know what your calling was is CRAZY!

00:52:54Oma Kay Murray: Well, it is, it's crazy, but I didn't. I just, I would pray, and I'd say, God, what am I supposed to be doing? You know, I'm working. I'm working. What am I supposed to be doing besides working?

00:53:06Regan Siler: Well, you've definitely, you've definitely found your calling. Um, okay, well, let's talk about your family. Um, when and where did you first meet your spouse and tell us his full name?

00:53:21Oma Kay Murray: Jesse Richard Murray, and I met him at the drive in.

00:53:26Regan Siler: I hear that there, there's a funny story there.

00:53:29Oma Kay Murray: Oh, I don't necessarily want to tell it.

00:53:31Regan Siler: Oh, you don't? Okay, well, you don't have to.

00:53:34Oma Kay Murray: Does it revolve around a car?

00:53:37Regan Siler: Well, they didn't tell me. They just said ask, ask mom about how she met dad, because it was kind of a funny story.

00:53:45Oma Kay Murray: Well, you know, they had, I think it was Wednesday night that you just paid $1 a car load or something like that. And, so, we ran out of room, so some of us got in the trunk. Was my mom and dad's car. It was a Rebel Rambler. And anyway, we got in the trunk and and I met Rick in the trunk. I had never

00:54:12Regan Siler: You met him in the trunk! Well, one of the questions I ask is, what was your first impression? But I'm not, I mean.

00:54:20Oma Kay Murray: I don't know.

00:54:21Regan Siler: Not sure you could have a first impression in the trunk.

00:54:25Oma Kay Murray: It was dark.

00:54:25Regan Siler: Well, so once you, so that was when you first met him, and then did you guys start hanging out after that or?

00:54:31Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, sort of, we just kind of came together. I can tell you a better story. I don't know if you're going to ask me about it. When we moved, when we were going to move to Bristow. My dad got on the phone and called Murray Transfer and Storage, and they, to come and move us. And, so, Rick's dad asked, do you need a big truck or a small truck? And he said, oh, I think a small truck will do. Well, we lived in a trailer and, and we lived in the trailer park. We, that was our trailer park, and we split it with dad's brother, so he lived there, and we lived there, and then other families lived there and then, but we got a chance to move to a house, and it was a real nice house, screened in front porch, big living room. I think there were just two bedrooms, but I don't, I don't remember where I slept. I don't remember where I slept, but anyway, they, he came with a small truck, and they just couldn't take all the furniture, and it was a lot of the furniture was in there, and they were antiques, and my dad was just an antique lover. And, so, they packed everything in as tight as they could, and lowered the back end down and set stuff out on that. Well, Rick's mother came on the trip and his dad, well, and his grandpa, and, so, she took me over on a mat and put it out underneath the tree and played with me so I wouldn't get in the way. So, I met my mother in law and father in law when I was six years old.

00:54:40Regan Siler: Well, isn't that that neat!

00:55:55Oma Kay Murray: Isn't that funny? Yeah.

00:56:02Oma Kay Murray: Well, no, they didn't tell me that story, so I'm glad you told me.

00:56:15Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, I should have told you that and left the other one out.

00:56:26Regan Siler: Oh, no, that's funny. Um, so did you have, like, an engagement period, or did you just decide to get married or can you tell me about that?

00:56:48Oma Kay Murray: We just decided to get married? We thought it was too expensive driving back and forth to Tahlequah. He would drive to Tahlequah on the weekends, and or I would ride home with Don Tunnell (ph) and, and then we'd be there in Bristow, and then I'd ride back to school with Don Tunnell (ph). So, and then he moved down there and lived in a travel trailer that was this big and, but anyway, then we got married at Christmas. So we, we were six months.

00:57:09Oma Kay Murray: So, did you get married in Tahlequah, or did you get married here?

00:57:26Oma Kay Murray: No, we got married in Bristow, in the Methodist Church. But I didn't, I didn't want it to be a big wedding. So, there was a room in the in the church that had a little altar down at the end of it. So, they set chairs up on either side of the room, and then I entered through the back door and a little, just a little wedding.

00:57:49Regan Siler: Okay. Well, so I know the answer to this, but tell me how many children you have and what their names are.

00:57:56Oma Kay Murray: Okay, I have two girls, Jessica Renee Tiger now.

00:58:05Regan Siler: Right.

00:58:05Oma Kay Murray: Okay. Jessica Renee Tiger. And then, oh, she's forty, forty-nine.

00:58:16Regan Siler: I have her as '76, February, 4, 1976. That's her birthday?

00:58:22Oma Kay Murray: Yes, yes. Okay, I was going from 70. I should have been going from 80 for Emily, no, Emily Kay.

00:58:31Regan Siler: Emily Kay.

00:58:32Oma Kay Murray: Murray. And she was born in on September the 15th, 1980. She's 44.

00:58:44Regan Siler: Well, your girls can't say enough about how much they love you and how good you are to the family, and how you'll do anything in the world for your family.

00:58:54Regan Siler: I will.

00:58:54Regan Siler: You will, yeah, that's

00:58:56Oma Kay Murray: And I will.

00:58:58Regan Siler: They wanted to make sure that you knew that.

00:58:59Oma Kay Murray: And they're learning that, too.

00:59:01Regan Siler: Yes.

00:59:01Oma Kay Murray: Helping Rick.

00:59:01Regan Siler: Yes.

00:59:02Regan Siler: Yes.

00:59:03Oma Kay Murray 59: 03

00:59:04Oma Kay Murray: When it's hard.

00:59:05Regan Siler: Yeah, right. Can you remember or any, like, challenges of being a mom in the early days? Any struggles that you had?

00:59:17Oma Kay Murray: Jessica never slept until she was nine months old.

00:59:23Regan Siler: And you, actually, had another baby after that?

00:59:27Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, I wanted them close together, but it just didn't happen. And, so, they're almost five years apart, but

00:59:39Regan Siler: You were probably trying to catch up on your sleep.

00:59:41Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, a lot of it, a lot of it, it was and she had colic. I think a lot of it was the colic too, but this is what I blame it on. I ate at Taco Burger. Every week we would go out and eat at Taco Burger, and I would eat an empanada dinner, and I blame it on that. Then I craved fish with Emily, and she slept like a baby. So, go figure.

01:00:10Regan Siler: Go figure. Well, so how many grandchildren do you have?

01:00:13Oma Kay Murray: I have three. Jessica has Garrett Tyler Long and Gracie Renee Long and then there's Olivia Kay Wilkins.

01:00:30Regan Siler: Okay, all right, um, the girls also wanted me to ask you why they call you Snow White.

01:00:41Oma Kay Murray: Because I go out and feed the animals, and they don't run away when I go out and feed them. They just wait until the food gets down, and then they come and eat. So, I feed the birds, and I feed the turkeys, and I feed the deer, and I've got a road runner that runs past and then get jumps up and gets a drink out of my bird bath, and it's just fun.

01:00:48Regan Siler: So, you're an animal lover?

01:01:10Oma Kay Murray: I'm an animal lover. Yes, I am.

01:01:12Regan Siler: Well, I think that that warrants you being named Snow White.

01:01:16Oma Kay Murray: I guess so. I guess so. They come up with stuff. We have so much fun together.

01:01:22Regan Siler: So, what would you consider to be the most important invention during your lifetime?

01:01:42Oma Kay Murray: I don't know. I mean, I hate to say the phone having it with you when we managed without it, but it's such a fast paced world now, it's kind of, what would we do without it? The cars have changed.

01:02:03Regan Siler: Cars are computers just about anymore.

01:02:05Oma Kay Murray: Right. And I don't want a computerized car, because I don't do computers very well. Color TV, I guess.

01:02:16Regan Siler: That's fair. How do you feel the world is different now than it was when you were young or a child?

01:02:24Oma Kay Murray: Too fast-paced. So much more dangerous than it ever was when I grew up.

01:02:33Regan Siler: You know, I just talked to Linda Kay Herman. I interviewed her yesterday, and she actually said almost the exact same thing, that whenever you guys grew up and you rode bikes and everyone was around town, you never thought about your, you never had fear, really, like what you do. Like you really wouldn't let your kids do that now.

01:02:55Oma Kay Murray: Right.

01:02:56Regan Siler: Which is sad. I mean, I feel like you guys had a very carefree time of growing up.

01:03:02Oma Kay Murray: And, see, my parents thought, saw it as a different generation, and it was, you know, much more fast paced than than they grew up in their little country houses with nine kids in a two-bedroom house.

01:03:16Regan Siler: Right.

01:03:18Oma Kay Murray: That was my grandparents.

01:03:19Regan Siler: Right, right. So, what do you feel is our nation's biggest problem right now, and how do you think it can be solved?

01:03:29Oma Kay Murray: Oh, gosh.

01:03:30Regan Siler: I'm challenging you, Oma Kay.

01:03:33Oma Kay Murray: I know.

01:03:35Regan Siler: And you don't have to answer if you don't want to. But I just think it lends to the maybe the perspective, if someone can answer it, of, you know, of the time period when someone goes back and listens to this 100 years from now, of the things that were troubling to you at this time.

01:03:52Oma Kay Murray: I think it's the fact that we've gotten away from God for one thing. And you're supposed to love your neighbor as yourself, and that's just not true anymore. People don't care for each other. They can, and I mean, I'm guilty of it too, seeing people on the side of the road wanting money and stuff. You can't do that because you don't know if they're for real.

01:04:21Regan Siler: The intention.

01:04:22Oma Kay Murray: Yeah, right.

01:04:23Regan Siler: The intentions behind it.

01:04:25Oma Kay Murray: Right. And, so to me, that's, I think it's just a troubling world as to how to solve it. I just, I don't have a clue.

01:04:37Regan Siler: Sometimes it feels like maybe it's swung too far the other way, and not really sure how to how to get it back.Have any historic events affected your life, and say, for example, like the Oklahoma City Bombing, 9/11 COVID, natural disasters? Have there been any types of those historic events that have had a direct effect on your life?

01:04:38Regan Siler: I think COVID has. It shut down the schools, and that's created school issues for the kids.

01:04:46Oma Kay Murray: Kind of long-lasting.

01:05:15Oma Kay Murray: Right, right. And I'm not so sure about schooling at home. There would be parents that would, that would participate in that and make sure their kids did things at home that they were supposed to do at school. But then you've got the parents that are not going to.

01:05:38Regan Siler: And then those kids get left behind.

01:05:40Oma Kay Murray: And they get left behind. Yeah, and that's not fair.

01:05:42Regan Siler: I agree with that. Well, is there anything else that you would like to tell us about, or any wisdom that you would like to share for future generations?

01:05:53Oma Kay Murray: I don't think I'm that person that could come up with.

01:05:55Regan Siler: No, I mean, I really think it's, it can be a very basic sentiment. I think you are. I think you've experienced a lot of life, a lot of kids, a lot of family things. I mean, I know there's some wisdom in there that you can share with us.

01:06:11Oma Kay Murray: I just try to stay as positive as I can, and I try to keep everything upbeat. That's what God wants us to do. You know, you, you, you're thankful in the good times, but you're thankful in the bad times, too. And you get through them.

01:06:37Regan Siler: Right.

01:06:37Oma Kay Murray: And you get through them easier that way than you do when you're sitting over in a corner sobbing.

01:06:43Regan Siler: And stewing and negative.

01:06:45Oma Kay Murray: And yeah, and using drugs to try to help you get through it and things that are just so wrong.

01:06:50Regan Siler: So, your message is, then, to just try to be positive through all circumstances.

01:06:55Oma Kay Murray: Mm-hmm.

01:06:56Regan Siler: Okay, I like that.

01:06:57Oma Kay Murray: And thankful.

01:06:58Regan Siler: Yes and thankful. Well, we appreciate you taking the time to visit with us today, your interview will become an important part of our oral history archive for the museum. We appreciate you and thank you.

01:07:11Oma Kay Murray: You're welcome.