Paced by the lowest smoking rate ever recorded, Oklahoma moved up three spots to 43rd in America’s Health Rankings, issued by the United Health Foundation. The improvement was the second highest among all states, trailing only Florida and Utah, which improved their ranking by four spots. America’s Health Rankings are based on four components or aspects of health – behaviors, community & environment, policy and clinical care. Health outcomes are also used to rank states.
“Despite the many challenges facing us, I am encouraged that our employees and our partners across the state continue to work toward improving the health of all Oklahomans and that their efforts are producing results,” said Interim OSDH Commissioner Preston Doerflinger. “We know where our focus must be in providing the core services that will make a difference in the lives of all our citizens going forward.”
In smoking rates, Oklahoma improved to 36th nationally – an improvement of nine spots. Oklahoma’s smoking rate has declined 25 percent in the past five years. That is the largest improvement for any state since 2012 but is still 2.5 percent higher than the national average of 17.1 percent.
An area in which Oklahoma is better than the national average, low birthweight, saw the state improve to 7.9 percent. Oklahoma has improved 11 spots to 22nd in the past five years, one of the best advances in the nation.
The best ratings for the state were in the low occurrence of excessive drinking (2nd), pertussis rates (2nd) and the number of mental health providers (5th). Oklahoma also had improvements in obesity rates, the number of people who are physically active, and drug deaths, but still ranks well below the national average.
Areas of concern include lack of health insurance, diabetes rates, and children’s immunization rates.
While Oklahoma’s uninsured rate has decreased the past three years to 13.9 percent, the national ranking dropped another two spots to 48th and the rate lags far behind the national rate of nine percent.
Following a national trend that saw an all-time high in diabetes rates of 10.5 percent nationally, Oklahoma is ranked 41st with a rate of 12 percent. The rate of immunization among children 19 to 35 months dropped significantly (75.4 percent to 67 percent) moving the state ranking to 42nd while overall adolescent immunization rates improved by six places (40th to 34th).
The complete rankings and summaries for Oklahoma and all states can be seen at https://www.americashealthrankings.org

By Darlene Franklin

God’s love never fails. At all. We can’t climb over, dig under or detour around His love. It fills every crook of the known and the unknown.  (Ephesians 3:19, Romans 8:39, NIV))God’s love never fails. At all. We can’t climb over, dig under or detour around His love. It fills every crook of the known and the unknown.  (Ephesians 3:19, Romans 8:39, NIV))However, our experience with His care works more like a magic trick. Imagine a heaven-sized jug filled with milk-colored love:An empty cup sits next to thefull container of God’s love.God’s no-matter-what love showers creation nature with times, seasons, and beauty. His written word shouts it in glorious prose. We read about babies held in the arms of barren women, of David dancing before the ark on the way to Jerusalem. The Living Word, Jesus, spelled it out in flesh, demonstrating how we should love one another.I feel more like Helen Keller, who lived in a void absent of sight, sound, or speech. She said, “I cried because I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet.” I don’t recognize its abundance until I see someone in greater need. We refuse the provided cup but instead use a self-made cone, which fails.God protected the Israelites for forty years. He provided for every need, but they still didn’t believe in His faithfulness When a spring didn’t appear to quench their thirst, they begged for Moses’s help. He fashioned a drinking cup of his own design when he struck the rock with his staff. Because He didn’t speak to the rock as God had instructed, the Lord was greatly displeased. For reasons I confess I don’t completely understand, God denied him entrance into the promised land. My daughter had Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). I described the experience as traveling through a black hole that ate my flesh and spat out dry bones. BPD couldn’t be healed, but a person with the illness could adapt, survive, and even thrive. Whether we suffer from some form of short-term mental illness, a disorder, or just the highs and lows of life, many people have experienced a dark place. We seek God, begging for His love, and instead it seems like He is hiding. (Isaiah 64:7)Push the magic another step in your imagination: Suppose both the cup and the jug appear empty.Like the milk in the magic trick, God’s love hasn’t disappeared. But sometimes it’s invisible to the human eye. Roman philosopher Seneca pointed out that every new beginning comes from other beginning’s end. Joseph understood that. He became Pharaoh’s second-in-command only after he had been both a slave and a prisoner. Only after I accept the fact that no amount of effort can make my sixty-year-old body do the work of a young adult does the murk that’s been hiding God’s glory wash away. God rubs His hands together. “I’ve been waiting for you to join Me. Let go and watch Me go to work.”Light-bulb inventor Thomas Edison is famous for saying he found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.  Failure to see God’s love doesn’t mean it’s not there.Back to the full jug and empty cup.Milk is poured into the glass so that milk appears in both the jug and the cup.Ebenezer Scrooge’s cup was worse than empty. Generations have celebrated the transformation of the king of “bah humbug” to the man who vowed to honor Christmas in his heart.During my Bible college years, I wrote a term paper on God’s love. I had no idea how necessary the verses, theories and patterns I uncovered would be throughout my life.My cup has appeared empty many times. * Studied piano for twelve years before being told I wasn’t good enough. * Married for life-divorced after twelve years.* Trained for missionary service-kicked out of two churches.I thought I reached rock bottom when my son was taken from the home as a teenager. Instead, God’s love pulsed within that my frozen core and kept me going when I felt hopeless. Those years trained me for my daughter’s death. I felt numb, but not unloved. Love poured over me through the gifts of countless friends from around the world. When I couldn’t see God’s care in my drinking cup, He kept me alive and healed me.The promise is no illusion. God’s love is real, and it will never fail.Even if it took me 10,000 tries for me to see His brilliance.

Jeanne Kleinschmidt, a resident at The Fountains at Canterbury in Oklahoma City, earned a featured space in a national art calendar competition hosted by Watermark Retirement Communities.
The Watermark Expressions art calendar, created by Watermark Retirement Communities which manages The Fountains at Canterbury, is designed to be a source of inspiration for all those who receive it. Pieces of art submitted for the competition included sculpture, needlepoint, oil and watercolor paintings and mixed-media. Each month features a beautiful work of art and a brief background story detailing the artist’s background, personal history, artistic training and inspiration. The calendar is distributed nationwide.
Kleinschmidt’s oil painting, ‘Serenity,’ was selected as one of 12 features for the 2018 Watermark Expressions art calendar out of entries from Watermark communities located coast to coast. The work was inspired by Colorado scenery.
“The annual Watermark Expressions calendar competition is an opportunity to showcase the abundant creativity being cultivated in our community, as well as the many exceptional artists residing at The Fountains at Canterbury,” said Becky Strong, director of community life at The Fountains at Canterbury. “Jeanne is a brilliant artist and we are excited to see her honored with national recognition for her skills and passion.”
The piece was first judged as part of a local competition among residents at The Fountains at Canterbury. Three local experts narrowed down the pieces and sent the five best on to the national competition. Final selections to be featured in the calendar were made at the Watermark Retirement Communities’ national resource center in Tucson, Arizona.
Please call (405) 381-8165 today to receive a 2018 calendar at no cost while supplies last.
The Fountains at Canterbury is dedicated to being the first choice in senior living, providing a continuum of care including independent living, assisted living, memory care, innovative rehabilitation therapies and skilled care. The Fountains at Canterbury is managed by Watermark Retirement Communities and is committed to creating an extraordinary community where people thrive. To learn more, please call (405) 381-8165 or go online to www.watermarkcommunities.com.

story and photos by Betty Thompson

Pawnee – It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The framed photo of young Virginia Norris Rogers sitting horseback, dressed in her boots, jeans, button up and cowboy hat, is no exception. The photo is a mere glimpse of the woman she would become, strongly rooted in agriculture.
“I tell people my outfit never changed, I just buy bigger sizes,” laughs Rogers.
Rogers said she began working on the ranch at a very young age with her father and their long-time ranch hand Albert. She even had a horse before she was born, which she later named “Chicken,” because of his yellow color.
“I was out at the crack of dawn getting cattle in,” Rogers recalled. “We would work until noon or so, and then my dad would go off to auction.”
Her father, Cecil “Whitey” Norris, started trading cattle at the age of 16 and became an auctioneer at age 23. Rogers said he went to an auction just about everyday.
After marrying Avis, Rogers’ mother, in 1933, Cecil bought 160 acres of land and used every opportunity from trading and auctions to buy more land. Together, they built a ranch of nearly 5,000 acres with horses and Hereford cattle.
Rogers is proud to be a fourth-generation farmer in Pawnee County and deeply rooted in agriculture. Family photos and keepsakes fill her walls and shelves, including her parents’ spurs, which hang above the front door. Her grandfather’s brand was the first brand ever registered in the state of Oklahoma and is still used today by her cousin John Henry.
“I think it’s [agriculture] been more fulfilling than shaping,” said Rogers. “It’s hard to describe what’s in your blood. You don’t know anything else.”
Rogers was no stranger to the hardships that ranch life brought: drought, cattle prices, finding reliable help, and more, but her love for ranching never faltered. After marrying her husband Olin, she said “it was just natural” for them to start their own ranching operation, Rogers Ranches, LLC, and have been running the operation ever since.
Rogers and Olin have been married for 42 years and have been running their commercial Angus herd on the farm Olin grew up on since 1986.
“It’s not a lot, but it’s enough to keep us busy,” laughed Rogers.
Busy is an understatement.
Not long after marrying, they bought an insurance agency which they worked while running their cattle operation, and only just sold it in November 2011.
Rogers was also very active in Oklahoma Extension Homemakers, now known as Oklahoma Home and Community Educators, a service designed to provide homemakers with resources similar to the resources farmers receive from the extension service. Rogers served as the county secretary/treasurer under Martha Waters, who was the first woman to be a director of an Oklahoma county extension.
A few years later, she was appointed to serve on the Pawnee County Health Department Board.
Like her father, Rogers and Olin have always been active in the Pawnee County Cattlemen’s Association (PCCA). Olin served as PCCA president in the early 1970s, and Rogers served as president from 2009 to 2011. During Rogers’ time as PCCA president, PCCA became a unified county under the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association (OCA). Rogers went on to serve for three years as a district director for the OCA before being elected as the North Central District vice president, putting her on the Executive Board of Directors. She also makes it a priority to be involved in the Oklahoma Cattlewomen’s Association as well.
“It has been very rewarding,” Rogers said. “I love it. Olin and I both enjoy meeting other people and learning about ranches across Oklahoma.”
Rogers was recently appointed to serve as the president of the Pawnee County Economic Development Foundation by the chairman of the Pawnee County Commissioners. The Foundation is actively involved in trying to bring new businesses to the community, and recently awarded a $75,000 grant to the city of Pawnee to refurbish an old building.
In addition to her leadership positions, Rogers writes a column for the local newspaper addressing concerns for farmers and ranchers.
“I just had this wild hair idea one day to start writing about issues in the cattle industry,” Rogers said. “Every now and then I throw in a column about my upbringing, experiences on the ranch as a child, or encourage membership and participation in the OCA.”
If you think she cannot make time for any other commitments, think again.
Rogers also serves as Chairman of the Board for her church, as well as staying busy with four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
She attributes this desire to give back to her upbringing.
“I learned early from my family that caring for people was important,” Rogers said. “You have to do what you can for others. I hope to relate to others that agriculture is vital to our state.”
Another important lesson she learned on the ranch is that you can be caring and giving, but also a tough fighter.
Rogers laughed recalling that she woke up to her father saying “Get up boys!” even though it was only her sister and her. Perhaps that oftentimes hard upbringing is what made her so strong when she was diagnosed four years ago with breast cancer.
However, cancer picked the wrong cowgirl. Today, she is cancer-free and proud to be called a survivor.
“I never had a ‘straight path’ in life,” Rogers said, “but I love doing what I am doing now—trying to be one of the best representatives for agriculture I can be.”

by Traci Chapman
Staff Writer

As Russell-Murray Hospice prepares to commemorate its 30th year in business, those associated with it are celebrating a new home and new levels of care to those who need it most.
“It’s appropriate we are here today, holding our board of directors and annual advisory board meeting, in our new building,” RMH Executive Director – and the organization’s first RN – Vicki Myers said. “It’s peaceful, it’s efficient, it’s just perfect for everything, and if Russell-Murray is here for 30 more years, this building is perfect for us.”
Myers made her remarks during the Nov. 15 annual meeting of the two boards at Russell-Murray’s new home, located at 2001 Park View Drive in El Reno. The new building, recently purchased by the longtime hospice care organization, is more than triple the space of its previous offices, located in historic downtown El Reno, Myers said.
“As we’ve grown, the staff really has had to try to work in a situation that just wasn’t feasible,” she said. “They were just crammed in with each other, and while everyone handled it very well, it just wasn’t working the way we wanted it to.”
That meant when a former medical office building located adjacent to Mercy Hospital El Reno came on the market, the organization jumped at it. The space meant not only plenty of room for a growing staff, but also room to grow and a more prominent location, headquartered not only near the hospital, but also other medical providers. That’s good news for the staff, but also for Russell-Murray’s patients, said Melodie Duff, RN, patient care coordinator. As RMH closes out the year and heads into 2018 – its 30th anniversary – Duff said staff and those associated with its success have a lot to be proud of, including 4,440 patients who have been treated and cared for by the organization’s nurses and caregivers.
“We currently have patients from infants days old to patients over 100,” Duff said. “We serve without care about their ability to pay, and we’re always there for them, no matter what.”
That’s something unique in Oklahoma hospice – and elsewhere – Russell-Murray Clinical Supervisor Missy Ellard said.
“If a patient qualifies and desires hospice care, we do not turn patients away based on their reimbursement status,” she said. “Many hospices, even not for profit hospices, have a ‘quota’ of non-reimbursable patients and will decline patients if they don’t have a payer source – RMH has never done that.”
That assistance totaled about $400,000 last year, Administrator Christina Ketter said. With $3.8 million in revenues and a $2.6 million payroll, Russell-Murray saw a jump in helping those who could not afford it.
“It might be younger people who lost their job and didn’t have insurance and, of course, the seniors who might not have access to Medicare or something like that,” Ketter said. “To me, our charity care, the way we look at our patients and how we treatment them shows what kind of an organization, what kind of people we are.” Russell-Murray’s approach has worked – from its roots as a small El Reno hospice care provider to an organization with offices also located in Kingfisher, Weatherford and Oklahoma City. In October, those sites combined served 118 patients through the work of 25 full-time RNs and LPNs, as well as several per diem PRN nurses, across RMH’s four offices.
“We serve approximately 75-mile radius surrounding each of the four offices,” Myers said. Even before the move, Russell-Murray was working to expand its services, not only to patients, but also their families. In March, the organization celebrated the opening of the Virginia E. Olds Resource Library, coordinated originally by Carol Russell Davis and Evan Davis and Vicky Joyner. When RMH began looking at moving, Carol Davis undertook the transfer of the library’s books to the new site, while Sue Pennington-Unsell is director of bereavement. Named for retired University of Oklahoma School of Social Work professor and longtime Russell-Murray counselor Virginia Olds, the library is unique among hospice organizations, Myers said – and is something that can help not only patients and their families, but also nurses who deal daily with end-of-life care and the emotional toll it can take. “We wanted to accumulate information related to social issues involved in bereavement, emotional and psychological resources, coping with these kinds of illnesses and more,” Myers said. “It’s important to remember that the patient isn’t the only person who suffers through an end-of-life illness – it’s incredibly difficult and stressful for their family, their friends and their caregivers.”
Those caregivers are the backbone of Russell-Murray’s nearly 30-year success, and they make those who work with them proud every day, Duff said.
“I can’t tell you how many thank you cards and calls we get, talking about how our staff treats their patients, and particularly those who can’t afford it,” she said. “We hear all the time that our nurses never judge and are always there to do everything they possibly can do – and that’s an accomplishment in itself.”

by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

Linda Ardray worked in health care for more than 30 years.
Approaching retirement after working as an MRI tech, Ardray wondered what she would do with the rest of her life.
She knew she had a lot of free time ahead of her. And she didn’t have any big plans to travel the globe.
Sitting at home all day didn’t seem too appealing either.
“My dad was an accountant and he always said you have to start your own business, that’s the only way you’re going to make it,” she said with a laugh.
So she took a deep long look at where her passions lied.
Turns out they were lying at her feet under the kitchen table.
“My dog is my kid and I wanted to get her really good food,” Ardray said of the beginning of her business plan. “I went online to see what I really needed to look for.”
She went to one of the big box stores for pets. Up and down the aisles she went, eventually leaving without what she was looking for.
“That’s why I thought we needed this in Moore,” she said. “I like that I’m right here and that I’m a little neighborhood store.
That’s how The Dusty Paw was born.
Just east of the Cleveland County Health Department’s Moore location, The Dusty Paw serves pet owners looking to make informed decisions about what they feed their animals.
“Unfortunately, the pet food industry is not very transparent,” she said. “There’s groups out there trying to change legislation on the wording of pet food. Instead of pet food a lot of it is pet feed.
“Once I started this store and really delved into it I thought ‘Oh, my God.’”
She noticed immediate changes from both her dog and her cat when she switched their food to one with purer ingredients.
A reduction in shedding was one of the first benefits.
Ardray has a miniature Australian Shepherd. Now 13, her dog still acts like a pup.
“She just runs circles in the backyard,” Ardray said. “When I changed her over I saw the biggest difference.”
Getting up every morning to go to work and then coming home at night, Ardray discovered that after 30 years she didn’t truly know the community she lived in.
Now, every day is an opportunity to bond with someone new.
“The customers are happy when they come in. The dogs are happy when they come in,” she said. “I’ve made a lot of friends here.”
She opened The Dusty Paw in February 2016, shifting from health care to entrepreneur.
“I had more time when I had a job,” she said, only half joking. “But it’s been fun. It’s been very rewarding.
And some things still remain the same. She’s still taking care of people on a daily basis.
Owning a business has allowed her to express her creative side. Often people come to The Dusty Paw in search of quality pet food but they fall in love with Ardray’s hand-made vests and leashes.
Pets are welcome to browse with their owners and most often leave with either a new treat, toy or article of clothing.
“I want them to know that they can come in here and if I can’t answer their questions about nutrition I’ll find out,” she said. “I have a nutritionist I can call for answers. I just want it to feel welcome here, not just a store.”
Ardray remains active in the community, raising funds for various causes, most of them animal related. In December she’s offering an opportunity for owners to bring their pets for photos with Santa. All proceeds benefit the Moore Animal Shelter.
She has a drop box for Pet Food Pantry, which currently serves over 8,000 lbs of dry food & over 2,500 cans of wet food each month to cats and dogs belonging to the homeless, elderly and veterans in Oklahoma.
The pantry also gets her expired food.
With Blake Shelton playing on the radio in the background, Ardray describes herself as a “wanna-be country girl.”
Her down-to-earth demeanor makes it easy for people to ask for advice. She’s researched the ins and outs of all things pet food related.
She warns customers to make sure they know where their food is sourced from.
“You can put Made in the USA on something and it can still be sourced from overseas,” she said.
You can be sure Ardray knows where everything in her store is coming from.
It’s now her passion in life.