All 99 degrees of the July sun beat down on the parking lot outside the Stuart Ranch Headquarters in Waurika, OK. Inside, the walls of the log cabin-style building are lined with awards and family photos, most of which include horses and cattle. The sound of boots on a concrete floor echo down the hallway as Terry Stuart Forst rounds the corner and greets a visitor with a smile and a handshake.
Forst is the General Manager of the 46,000 acre operation, a title she’s held since 1992 when her father handed her the reins.
She pulls out a bench and sits at a long dining table as she reflects on memories and stories of the ranch.
Forst has had agriculture in her blood from day one. Some of her earliest memories as a child include going with her siblings to play at “Big Daddy’s Playhouse”, which was the scale house her grandfather used to weigh cattle.
“When I was growing up, if I was on a horse, I was happy,” Forst said.
Upon graduating high school in Oklahoma City, Forst went on to attend Oklahoma State University which she credits with giving her some of the best friendships in her life. There she received her bachelor’s degree and returned home to the ranch. However, before she took the position of General Manager, she tried her hand in a few other roles across the region.
“I got my real estate license and lived in Dallas for a while,” Forst said. “I felt like a duck out of water and really was not happy.”
Forst decided to apply for Texas Christian University’s Farm and Ranch Management Program on a whim. She received a phone call the next day for an interview.
“When things just start falling into place perfectly, you know it’s God’s plan,” Forst said.
Shortly thereafter she got her son Clay enrolled in a local school and her youngest son, Robert, into a day care close by. When everything began to fall into place, Forst knew she was headed in the right direction. After graduating first in her class from the Farm and Ranch Management Program in 1992, she and her sons returned home to the ranch for good.
“We will be 150 years old next year,” Forst said explaining the history of Stuart Ranch. “I am the fifth generation, my son’s Robert and Clay are the sixth, and my grandchildren are the seventh.”
The Chisholm Trail Museum in Duncan, OK comes up in conversation between Forst and her visitor.
“Do you want to see it?” Forst asked.
“The museum?” the visitor asked.
“No the actual Chisholm Trail,” Forst said. “It runs right through our land. I’ll take you to see it!”
She climbs into her white Ford Expedition, looking over her grandkids’ car seat as she backs out of the drive. Dixie, a brown and white Welsh Corgi and Forst’s chief traveling buddy, takes a back seat for the ride.
A white cloud of dust trails the car as Forst drives down Jefferson County roads reminiscing on the history of the ranch – a subject that Forst is a scholar on.
The ranch, which was founded in Caddo, OK in 1868, is the oldest in the state of Oklahoma under continuous family ownership. To help the reader grasp the age of the operation, it was founded a few months before Ulysses S. Grant was elected President, five years before barbed wire had been designed and half a century before World War I broke out.
“Caddo is the oldest part of the ranch,” Forst said. “Daddy bought this place [Waurika] in 1993. When he died in 2001, we started realigning to make this our headquarters. It just made more sense and we’ve been here since 2004. It’s a very new move relative to our operation.”
The operation of 46,000 acres has now expanded into an area just east of Waurika, OK where their headquarters is located today. The ranch is separated into three categories: horse, cattle and outfitting divisions. Much to Forst’s delight, her two sons followed her footsteps and made the choice to live and work on the ranch.
The horse division is managed by Forst’s younger son, Robert, and has a history and tradition as deep as the ranch itself. The horse operation has had worldwide success over the past century taking home several world champion titles. Stuart Ranch received the American Quarter Horse Association’s Best of Remuda award in 1995 for their quality of working horses.
“We bred a little under 50 mares this year,” Forst said. “We do all of that in-house with artificial insemination.”
This is just one of many ways Stuart Ranch has diversified and adapted to ensure their success and growth.
The cattle division is comprised of 60 percent Black Baldies and 40 percent Herefords. Cows calve in one of two 60-day calving periods; February through March and September through October. Forst oversees the cattle operation and has four “camp men” that reside on the ranch to ensure things are taken care of properly.
The hunting division, Stuart Ranch Outfitters, is an Oklahoma Agritourism destination managed by Forst’s oldest son, Clay. The outfitting operation offers package hunts at both Caddo and Waurika locations. Hunters have an opportunity to hunt whitetail deer, turkey, waterfowl and feral hogs on 46,000 acres ranging from tallgrass prairies to rolling rocky hills.
Between the three divisions of the Stuart Ranch, no one would argue that Forst has a full plate when it comes to work. With 150 years under their belt, you can bet that Stuart Ranch has weathered a few storms and fought their fair share of uphill battles as well.
Forst has a way of dealing with those difficult times in life.
“I told my boys at a young age that sometimes all we can do is put one foot in front of the other, pray and keep trucking,” Forst said.
Forst goes on to talk about her love for the agriculture community. While that community encompasses thousands of families, she has never hesitated to help her neighbors – even if they’re 300 miles away.
When wildfires struck farms and ranches in northwest Oklahoma and southwest Kansas this March, Forst hurt with them. She rounded up 11 volunteers, 11 miles of fence, skid steers, trucks and countless tools and headed north.
“You’ve gotta help when you’ve gotta help,” Forst said. “The neat thing to me was seeing thousands of trucks loaded with hay and then you see one old man with a stock-rack pick up hauling two bales. Everyone just gave all they could. I can hardly talk about it.”
Forst has also received many awards and held positions that one simply does not attain without a strong work ethic and impeccable leadership skills. She served as the first female President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association and was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 2007, just to name a few.
Although, if you want to hear about Forst’s accomplishments, don’t go to her. Her humble attitude can make obtaining information about herself a challenge. She will, however, brag on and on about those who have helped her along the way and shaped her into who she is today.
“I have been very blessed to have some really, really, really great friends,” Forst said. “The list goes on and on.”
May 19,, 2018 is set to be the ranch’s 150th anniversary celebration. Some may wonder how the ranch not only stayed above water, but thrived through 150 years of trials and hardships. Forst is quick to attribute the ranch’s success to God’s grace and, as long as Terry Forst has anything to do with it, the ranch will be around many generations to come.
“It’s interesting what God will do and how he’s orchestrated things in my life,” Forst said. “My whole life has been faith, totally and completely. I tell Him ‘I’m not quitting, so don’t quit on me, Lord!’”

On Tuesday, September 26, 2017, Oklahoma City’s Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble will present its first concert of the 2017-18 season, “Song and Dance,” featuring works of 20th and 21st century composers celebrating song, dance and rhythm. Brightmusic strings, clarinet, horn and piano will present works by George Gershwin (“Porgy and Bess” Ballade), a suite of four tangos by Astor Piazzolla, a work by Oklahoma City’s Edward Knight and a sextet by Ernö Dohnányi (aka Ernst von Dohnanyi). Try and resist the urge to get up and dance!
The works on the program are: George Gershwin, “Porgy and Bess” Ballade (for violin, clarinet & piano) Gershwin was an early 20th-century American composer and pianist best known for his Rhapsody in Blue.
Astor Piazzolla, The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (for violin, cello & piano) Piazzolla was a 20th century Argentinian composer best known for his tangos.
Edward Knight, Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon (for violin, cello, clarinet & piano) Knight is a contemporary American composer living in Oklahoma City celebrated for his distinctly American sound.
Ernst von Dohnanyi, Sextet in C major, Op. 37 (for violin, viola, cello, clarinet, horn & piano) Dohnanyi was a 19th-20th century Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor.
Brightmusic musicians performing are: Gregory Lee (violin), Mark Neumann (viola), Jonathan Ruck (cello), Chad Burrow (clarinet), Kate Pritchett (horn) and Amy I-Lin Cheng (piano).
The performance will take place at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, September 26 at St. Paul’s Cathedral, 127 NW 7th Street (at Robinson). Individual concert admission is $20 per ticket. Children, students and active-duty military personnel are admitted free with ID. More information about this concert is available on Brightmusic’s website at http://www.brightmusic.org.

As the parent of two children, Courtney Griffin, Ph.D., is well aware that the choices she and her husband make will have a profound impact on their daughters’ lives.
But Griffin is also a scientist at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation who studies the emerging field of epigenetics. And through her research in this area, she is learning that the decisions we make as parents—what we feed our children, how much attention we give them as infants—may impact more than just our children, but also the genetic destinies of our descendants for generations to come.
Epigenetics are chemical changes to the genome that affect how DNA is packaged and expressed without affecting the underlying genetic sequence.
“Epigenetics works like a watermark on top of genes,” said Griffin. “If you imagine your genetic makeup as a well-oiled machine, epigenetics are like the rust that settles on it and leaves a surface coating. This can muck things up, suppressing genes that need to work or turning on genes that are meant to be quiet.”
Scientists have determined that these marks can form as a result of the foods we eat, the toxins we ingest or even the stressful events we experience. And that they can persist for generations in some species.
“The real news with epigenetics is that these actions can theoretically affect more than just you and your children, but also your great grandchildren, great-grandchildren and beyond,” said Griffin.
A geneticist by trade, Griffin has spent her career manipulating DNA, the encyclopedia of genetic information that is inside of each of our cells. Griffin edits DNA of laboratory mice so that she can understand the development and function of blood vessels in these animals. She said her experience has shown her that epigenetic marks really can serve to reprogram genes’ behavior.
“Anything that genetics controls, which is essentially everything about us, can be altered,” said Griffin. “It comes back to how the marks are read by proteins in the cell. Any extra variable changes what they read, and these variables can be introduced by bad lifestyle habits.”
Luckily, said Griffin, research suggests these epigenetic marks don’t have to be permanently etched onto your DNA. “It appears these marks are quite malleable in humans, and making healthy choices like eating a better diet or reducing stress can make a difference,” she said.
“To me, it’s profound and empowering that we can influence how our genes work through the choices we make,” she said. “It gives us yet another reason to live a healthy life and make smart choices, because it doesn’t just affect us.”

by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

After nearly 33 years in nursing, Stephanie Waller Wojczynski, RN, went to the Northwest Classen senior prom this spring before graduating in May.
She wasn’t earning a diploma or degree, those had already come in bunches over the last few decades.
Waller Wojczynski’s commencement was the beginning of her retirement after 18 years of school nursing.
“So far I’m really enjoying it,” she said of her retirement. “I’ve had a lot of time to do things I haven’t been able to. One big thing is my mom moved in with us. She needed extra care and it’s given me time to take care of her so it’s a win-win situation.”
She became an LPN in 1984 and then transitioned to RN in 1989. She earned her BSN in 2000.
“I kind of went the long and winding road,” she laughed. “From the time I was a little kid I always wanted to be a nurse. My mom still has a picture I drew when I was five years old in kindergarten of what I wanted to be.”
School nursing came into her life at the right time.
She originally entered Oklahoma City Public Schools in 2000 when her husband was ill and unable to watch the kids.
The school nursing hours allowed her to be free when her kids were out of school.
“After I had been doing it for a few years and he passed I remarried and found I really, really liked it because it’s a lot more challenging than anybody would guess. It’s amazingly challenging,” she said. “Essentially, for a lot of these kids, we are their only health care provider. A lot are uninsured … and with the Affordable Care Act the working poor can hardly afford that. “And we have those who might not be in the country legally and that’s not my job to figure out. My job is to take care of the kids.”
The kids were always the reason she showed up every day.
From the funny to the tragic, school nursing ran the gamut for Waller Wojczynski.
Her first year as a school nurse brought her into the courtroom. A middle school girl came into her office one day and told her that her mother was selling her to older men for drug money.
She immediately notified the police. A few months later she was summoned to court after the biological father sued for custody.
“That was stressful,” she said.
During flu seasons, she could see upwards of 40 children a day.
One fall afternoon she was called to her elementary school where the entire office staff was home sick with the flu.
“There was one clerk working the office and there was a line of kids down the hall,” she said. “We sent home more than 100 kids that day with fevers over 100.”
Waller Wojczynski often split her time between several schools. She spent eight years at NW Classen.
As the health care provider for literally thousands, you can imagine the paperwork.
One spring break she worked almost an entire week entering shot records at home.
“I’m not complaining about having to do it at home because that freed me up to take care of the kids when I was at school,” she said. “The most important thing was taking care of the physical needs of the kids,” she said. “It was drop everything if a kid came in with a physical need but it was crunch time to try to get that paperwork done.”
Prom was a chance to see many of the kids she had nursed their entire school career.
“The students treated me like I was a rock star,” she laughed.
As May wound down so did her 33-year nursing career.
She broke down the NW Classen nurse office one last time and broke down herself more than a couple times.
“That was kind of a mixture of sadness and laughter because I kept coming across things that would remind me of funny stories,” she said. “The feelings are indescribable really. I was kind of overwhelmed those last few days thinking this is the last time I would be here.”
Coming up, she plans on visiting her three kids. Her oldest son, 39, lives in Portland, Maine and is an IT professional with Dell Computers. He and his wife have her only two grandkids, twin boys.
One daughter, 26, and a son, 22, are also out on their own working on their careers.
Later this month she plans a trip to her hometown in Michigan. Her husband’s mother also turns 96.
Friends will be met, dinners will be had.
As for the future, Waller Wojczynski sees herself giving a lot of flu shots this fall.
She’s toying with the idea of a hospice role.
But school nursing will always have a special place in her heart.

Five officials representing a wide range of experiences will be inducted September 14 into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame for City and Town Officials. The black-tie optional hall of fame induction ceremony will be at the Tulsa Convention Center in Tulsa in conjunction with the Annual Conference Banquet for the Oklahoma Municipal League.
They will become the 56th – 60th inductees into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame since 2001.
Those to be inducted this year were recently announced by the Oklahoma Hall of Fame for City and Town Officials Foundation, which is supported by eight organizations of Oklahoma municipal government officials or service organizations.
Those to be inducted on September 14 are:
Marilyn Kay Andrews, Former Mayor (deceased), Ponca City
Elaine Grace Carr, Mayor, West Siloam Springs
Mick Cornett, Mayor, Oklahoma City
Michael R. “Mike” Nunneley, Town Administrator, Mannford
Drake Rice, Former City Manager, Cushing (Asst.), Prague & Blackwell.
Formed in 1999, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame for City and Town Officials Foundation recognizes individuals for outstanding achievements or contributions to city and town government. To be selected, an honoree must make significant contributions to Oklahoma local government, through their positive spirit of public service, with unquestioned ethics.
The website:
www.okcityandtownofficials.org highlights the careers of each inductee in the past 15 years. Visitors to the website are able to navigate through biographies, video and photo features about each inductee.
The Oklahoma Hall of Fame Foundation is supported by the Oklahoma Municipal League, The Mayors Council of Oklahoma, the City Management Association of Oklahoma, the Municipal Electric Systems of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group, the Oklahoma Municipal Retirement Fund, the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority and the Oklahoma Municipal Clerks, Treasurers and Finance Officials Association.
Tickets for the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and banquet are $45 each available from the Oklahoma Municipal League by calling 405-528-7515 or by email to cathy@oml.org .

If you won a free vacation where would you go? Oklahoma City Public Schools Child Nutrition

I’d like to go to Las Vegas to see the sights but I promised the Lord I wouldn’t gamble. Teresa Gipson

Mine’s weird, Transylvania. I like the vampires and were-wolfs. Paula Bonilla

I would go to Peru because that’s where my mother is from. Juana Latham

I’d be on my way to Hawaii. Wanda Weathington

Local produce abounds at markets

by Bobby Anderson
Staff Writer

It’s a late summer Thursday afternoon at the Farmer’s Market at Central Park in Moore and Dale Roath is defending his honor.
“Is the old boy from Dibble still lying to us?” a customer playfully teases as he walks up to inspect Roath’s vegetable stand.
“He’s hoarding all those tomatoes,” fellow vender Jerry Smith calls out from the next booth.
“Don’t listen to this guy here,” Roath shoots back.
It’s all part of the summertime fun that goes with the farmer’s market.
“I think it’s important to buy local,” Roath said, counting out change from a cucumber sale with the man who had supplied the earlier ribbing. “You get stuff fresh, right out of the garden. Lot of times you go down to the grocery store and you get stuff that’s been shipped from all over the country and a lot of times it’s not the quality you get down here.”
Everything on Roath’s table was planted from seed and raised by him and his wife.
Roath taught science, social studies, coached and was a principal during his 34 years at Dibble Public Schools.
He says the market is a great hobby and truth be known he gives as much ribbing as he gets from vendors and customers who see the value in shopping local.
Next to Roath, Smith is tending to his novelty plants.
“I’ve been doing this so long I had to do something to make some money,” Smith explains of his assortment. “If I sell the same thing everybody else does I can’t sell this time of year. I’ve got something I can sell year-round.
“My stuff is unusual – shrimp plants and plants from all over the world,” Smith said.
Miniature pepper plants, African milk trees – all grown in one of three greenhouses on his five acres.
Smith lives by Lake Thunderbird and says there’s something that just draws people to markets like these.
“The people mostly. I feel it’s like a family out here,” Smith said of the reason he keeps coming back. “It’s something that’s local that brings people out.”
The market runs this year until Sept. 2.
Central Park Special Events Coordinator Teresa Smith says the market tries to stay flexible and affordable to attract local vendors. Rental for a space under the Farmer’s Market Pavilion is just $15 and a discount is given for those who want to pay in advance.
Bathrooms are a stone’s throw away and customers can pull their cars up to within just feet of the vendors.
The pavilion is next to a newly constructed aquatic center that draws hundreds of families daily. Most agree that doesn’t hurt either.
Roath has been coming to the Moore Farmer’s Market for six years. A regular at the Bethany market until it closed, Roath was looking for a good place to land to showcase his wares.
“I’ve really liked it,” Roath said. “I live 35 miles out but it’s easy to get to. It’s a nice facility with this canopy and you don’t have to set up a tent in a parking lot like we did over there. The bathrooms are right here and people can pull right up to the front.
“Over the last six years I’ve met a lot of people and I have the same customers that come back over the last five years.”
A few booths down Bob Sirpless is handing out free tastings from his local Legends Vineyard and Winery.
It’s his second year at Moore.
“It’s value-added,” Sirpless said. “We grown our own grapes and put it into wine. We also do the Norman market and we have some good sales here. It’s not too long and it’s not like going to one of the other shows and spending the whole day driving.”
Like Roath, Sirpless makes the drive on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings.
Moore Assistant City Manager Todd Jenson says the city has offered a farmer’s market for 12 years and it’s become a vital part of the community as it’s passed through six different locations.
“It’s very important. It adds to the quality of life,” Jenson said. “It’s one more event where people get out and meet their neighbors and meet new people.
“Each vendor has its own loyal customers and if they don’t they’ll develop it over time. This is (the farmer’s market’s) home.”
Home’s a good word.
“The people are friendly up here,” Roath said. “I don’t have any problem with competition. Everybody tries to get along and nobody is trying to cut each other’s throat like some markets I’ve seen.”

Beginning in September, Mercy will have a familiar leader at the helm in El Reno.
Cindy Carmichael will return to Mercy Hospital El Reno for a second time as administrator. She served as interim administrator in 2009 prior to becoming chief operating officer in her current role at Mercy Hospital Ardmore. “Cindy has a love for El Reno, and El Reno has a love for her,” Mayor Matt White said. “We’re excited for her to be part of our continued success.”
In addition to her new position, Carmichael will provide support and oversight to Mercy administrators in Kingfisher, Guthrie and Watonga as regional administrator.
Carmichael has been with Mercy for more than a decade and has spent a large portion of her career dedicated to the development of rural health care. While in Ardmore, she helped forge a deeper relationship with Oklahoma Heart Hospital, which provides cardiac care for patients in southern Oklahoma. Carmichael also was instrumental in the construction and opening of a new Mercy clinic in Ardmore.
“Cindy has spent her career helping provide quality health care to towns across Oklahoma,” said Jim Gebhart, regional strategy officer for Mercy and president of Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City. “She brings an awareness of rural health care that gives us great confidence with her in this role.”
Doug Danker, El Reno’s former hospital administrator, will continue his service with Mercy as director of emergency medical services, where he will focus on growing Mercy’s ambulance service across the northern half of Oklahoma. Danker began his career with Mercy, formerly Parkview Hospital, in 1989 as a paramedic. He later served as supervisor of medical surgery and as director of nursing before being appointed administrator in 2012.
“It’s a double win for El Reno,” White said. “Mercy has given us a fabulous team with Doug and Cindy, and I’m excited to see what they’ve laid out for the community.”

Dear Savvy Senior, My wife and I are both in our late sixties and are looking to buy a new car. Can you recommend some good resources that can help us evaluate and choose a good car for older drivers? Car Shoppers
Dear Shoppers,
With more than 40 million licensed drivers in the United States age 65 and older, many automakers today are designing certain vehicles that are friendlier for older drivers. But what makes a good car for seniors? For many, top priorities include a vehicle that’s easy to get into and out of, easy to adjust for fit and comfort, easy to operate and see out of, as well as reliable, safe and a good value.
To help you narrow your vehicle choices, Consumer Reports and the American Automobile Association (AAA) offer some great information and tools to assist you.
CR Best Cars
Consumer Reports recently put out a top 25 ranking of new cars for senior drivers. Each vehicle on their list offers excellent or very good ratings on reliability, safety, road-test performance and owner satisfaction. And, they offer a variety of senior-friendly features that are extremely important to older divers, like:
* Easy front-seat access: Vehicles with low door thresholds, wider door openings, and step-in heights that reduce the need for ducking or climbing, make getting into and out of a car easier for those with physical limitations.
* Good visibility: Being able to see well out of the front, sides, and back of a vehicle for tall, medium, and shorter drivers.
* Simplified controls: Easy-to-read gauges and simplified/intuitive controls for changing the radio, shifting gears, and adjusting the heating and cooling is a high priority among older drivers.
* Bright headlights: Powerful headlights can make driving at night easier for people with decreasing or compromised vision.
They also weighed in extra safety features (standard or optional) like a backup camera, automatic emergency braking, forward-collision warning and blind-spot warning.
Their picks include a variety of compact and midsized sedans and SUVs, two minivans and a station wagon from seven different automakers. Here’s their top 25 ranking, starting with one through 25: Subaru Forester; Subaru Outback; Kia Soul; Subaru Legacy; Kia Sportage; Toyota Highlander; Toyota Prius V; Toyota RAV4; Honda Odyssey; Nissan Rogue; Honda Accord; Ford C-Max Hybrid; Hyundai Sonata; Toyota Camry; Subaru Crosstrek; Toyota Sienna; Honda CR-V; Honda Pilot; Kia Forte; Ford Escape; Toyota Corolla; Kia Sorento; Ford Flex; Hyundai Santa Fe; Hyundai Tucson.
For more information on their top 25 list, see ConsumerReports.org/elderly-driving/top-25-new-cars-for-senior-drivers.
AAA Tool
Another great resource that can help you evaluate and chose a vehicle that meets your needs is the AAA online tool “Smart Features for Older Drivers.”
At SeniorDriving.AAA.com/SmartFeatures you can check the areas you have problems with – like diminished vision, cognitive decline, limited upper body range of motion, decreased leg strength, arthritic hands, short stature or overweight – and the tool will identify vehicles that have the features that will best accommodate your needs. Although this tool looks at model-year 2016 vehicles, in many cases the features shown are carried over for 2017 models.
They also have a Smart Features brochure you can download that will tell you what to look for in a vehicle to best accommodate your needs.

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.