For a full list of events/details visit: www.okhistory.org/calendar/ohs

Will Rogers Days and Motion Picture Festival November 4, Will Rogers Memorial Museum, 1720 West Will Rogers Boulevard Claremore, OK 74017. The Will Rogers Memorial Museum (WRMM) and Birthplace Ranch will celebrate the 143rd birthday of Oklahoma’s Favorite Son with the Will Rogers Motion Picture Festival. From November 2 through 5, four days of activities will be held to honor the memory of the Cherokee cowboy, philosopher, and movie actor who had starred in 50 silent movies and 21 talkies by the time of his death on August 15, 1935, in an Alaska airplane crash.

Crowds cheered as construction crews lifted the final steel beam into the frame of the new Love Family Women’s Center Monday. The facility is under construction on the campus of Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City and will increase the hospital’s capacity to deliver babies by 40%.
The women’s center is being built at the northwest corner of Mercy’s campus at West Memorial Road and North Meridian Avenue. Construction kicked off in July 2021 and is on schedule to be complete in fall 2023.
Labor and delivery and postpartum services at Mercy have been at capacity for years, limiting the hospital’s ability to serve more patients. Over the last decade, Mercy has seen a 34% increase in births. The hospital, built in the 1970s, was designed to accommodate up to 3,000 births annually, but the hospital made room for a record 4,035 births last year.
“Like Mary and Joseph experienced the night Jesus was born, many days there’s just not enough room in the inn here at Mercy,” said Dr. Chad Smith, chief medical officer and obstetrician/gynecologist at Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City. “Our Mercy Birthplace team is awe-inspiring, and they do everything in their power to create as much room and serve as many families as possible. But we’re excited this building will give us much more space to serve many more families when they need us.”
The hospital currently has 43 patient rooms dedicated to labor and delivery and postpartum services. When the Love Family Women’s Center opens, that number will increase to a total of 73 patient rooms.
The four-story, 175,000-square-foot building will feature an obstetrics emergency department and the state’s first hospital-based low intervention birthing unit staffed by certified midwives. It will also serve as a hub for services designed for women of all ages, including women’s surgical recovery and physical therapy.
Three large caesarean section suites in the women’s center will connect to the hospital on the first floor via the existing hospital surgical suite. This strategic design allows for quick, safe access to additional services if medical emergencies occur during delivery.
Postpartum rooms will be on the third floor of the women’s center and connect to the hospital via a skybridge. This allows moms of babies needing a higher level of care to have direct elevator access to the existing neonatal intensive care unit on the fifth floor of the hospital.
A large conference center will host support groups and classes on everything from childbirth and infant care to CPR and more.
“What makes this building so special is the love and support from our community that made it all possible,” said Lori Cummins, vice president of development at Mercy Health Foundation Oklahoma. “They say it takes a village to raise a child. With more than 40% of this project funded through donations, it’s taken a village of generous people across Oklahoma and the country to make this longtime dream a reality.”
The Tom and Judy Love family, for whom the center is named, gave a $10 million lead donation to kick off the project, inspiring another $33 million total in donations toward the Love Family Women’s Center.

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Story and photo by Van Mitchell. Staff Writer

The Medicare enrollment period runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, and with that comes to changes to some enrollment plans and options.
Ginny Curtis-Gillespie, Licensed Insurance Agent, and owner of Navigating Medicare, located at 2232 West Hefner Road, Suite A in Oklahoma City, said this year Medicare recipients will have broader plan options available to them.
“In the past, we have had two or three companies that have had really good plans, and this year all of the plans have beefed up and have really exciting benefits,” Curtis-Gillespie said. “It is almost difficult to pick a plan that is better than another one from this year.”
There are three options for coverage: Original Medicare (which is Part A and Part B) plus a prescription drug plan, Original Medicare plus a Supplement (Medigap plan) plus a prescription drug plan, or a Medicare Advantage plan which combines all three.
Medicare Part A and Part B is offered by the federal government. It provides basic inpatient and outpatient health coverage. Part A is for inpatient or hospitalization coverage and Part B is for outpatient or doctor visit coverage.
U.S. citizens or permanent residents living in the U.S. for at least 5 years who are age 65 or older qualify for Medicare Part A and Part B if they have paid taxes for 10 working years. Those under 65 might be eligible to enroll in Medicare Part A and Part B if they have a qualifying disability.
Curtis-Gillespie said Navigating Medicare has offices in Guthrie, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Ardmore and Shawnee.
She said so much of insurance these days is made to seem complex, difficult, and tricky. She said her agency is built on our family values which are a commitment to Honesty, Integrity, Togetherness, and Support.
She said they work to help clients understand all of their plan options.
“Our experienced team of agents are licensed and appointed with several insurance providers offering a variety of policies,” Curtis-Gillespie said. “This means our agents are here to work for you. We work to ensure that the plan you end up with is the one that fits your needs and not try to make you fit into a plan. What we do is we look at the client’s drugs and doctors, and then we select the top three plans we think will work the best. The biggest takeaway we are trying to get people to understand is, no matter what their plan is, they should be comparing their current plan with plans that are available from those (insurance) carriers for next year.”
Curtis-Gillespie said Medicare enrollment is also a time of scam phone calls and Medicare enrollment commercials.
“Most of those plans they are marketing, very few people qualify for them,” she said. “When you see the advertisement on TV, it is for the low-income, low subsidized.”
Curtis-Gillespie said her team of insurance agents don’t call to solicit business.
“With what we do, no one should be calling them (resident) directly,” she said. “Their phones are blowing up, and people are calling them 24/7. If they didn’t ask them to call, then they shouldn’t answer the call.”
Curtis-Gillespie said residents should also not give out their personal information when contacted about Medicare enrollment.
“When someone calls a client, they should not ask for their Social Security number, Medicare number,” she said.
Curtis-Gillespie said another Medicare enrollment change this year is that insurance agents are required to tell customers their conversation is being recorded.
“These plans change every year,” she said. “Everyone should be reviewing their plans every year regardless whether it is great for them or not. “It is our belief that if they understand Medicare, they will make a better decision when they pick their plan. We sit down with them and explain all the parts of Medicare, and we explain their options.”
Curtis-Gillespie said integrity is a core foundation of her business.
“We are not afraid to say that we love referrals,” she said. “Having integrity means sometimes telling you that your current insurance is better than anything we can offer or that we are not able to help you. We believe this builds the kind of relationships that will lead to people telling others about us. We are there to give you the support you need through the various seasons of life. Whether you need to change your plan, reacquaint yourself with your current benefits, or do a plan comparison, we are there to give you the support that you need.”
For more information about Medicare enrollment plans call Navigating Medicare at
(405) 842-0494 or visit: www.navigatingmedicare.com

Story by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

Five or six Saturdays each fall, some 86,000 fans invade Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium to watch the University of Oklahoma play football.
For a few hours, the surge of humanity encapsulated inside the Palace on the Prairie becomes Oklahoma’s seventh largest population.
And from dehydration to cardiac arrest, Norman Regional Health System nurses, techs, paramedics, and other employees team up to provide care inside the Gomer Jones Coronary Care Unit.
For the record, Gaylord Family Stadium can seat up to 86,112, making it the 23rd largest stadium in the world, the 13th largest college stadium in the United States, and the second largest in the Big 12 Conference, behind Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium.
Norman physician Dr. Harold Belknap established the Gomer Jones Coronary Care Unit within the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in 1971 and continued as acting chief until 2003.
All fans who come through the door can get help for free.
“I feel like on game day, the stadium is the safest place to be in town,” Norman Regional Health System physician Dr. Patrick Cody once said.
Stephanie Gehrke, RN, emergency nurse manager, has directed the clinic for five years now.
“I thought it was a great concept because I know the clinic has been around for quite a while,” she said of coming into her role. “It’s a great service for the fans. Some of them get to head back out to the game after we get them fixed up.”
Beginning three-and-a-half hours prior to each home contest, the clinic is typically staffed by emergency department nurses, techs along with an attending ED doc, two residents, and two medical students.
Six to seven teams are gathered to operate cooling zones, which come in handy early in the season when temperatures inside the stadium can easily reach more than 100 degrees.
Runners rotate between the zones to check stock and see if anything is needed.
EMSSTAT bike medics stationed throughout the stadium can get to your seat in about two minutes, and each of those medics can handle a cardiac arrest by themselves with the equipment on their bike.
Employees within the health system are invited to sign up each year.
“It can be anyone from a unit secretary to EVS (environmental services) – anyone that is interested in going,” she said.
Gehrke said the clinic sees a bulk of heat and alcohol-related complaints from fans including falls and lacerations.
The clinic has seen heart attacks, strokes, and cardiac arrests “basically anything and everything.”
“It’s so dependent on the time of the day and the temperature,” Gehrke said. “Night games are usually better in terms of heat-related things but we could end up with … more intoxication-related complaints.”
Gehrke said if you want to stay in the stands and out of the clinic on game days follow a few simple rules.
“The biggest thing is hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, and come prepared to continue drinking water,” she said. “A lot of people do drink water before they come in and kind of forget to keep drinking it during the game and sit out there and bake in that sun.”
Comfortable shoes are a must
“Heels and flip-flops probably aren’t the most appropriate thing for a crowded stadium because they trip over the stairs and lose your balance,” she said.
Inside the clinic, personnel initiate “a lot of IVs” for fluids and give nausea medicine.
“For the clinic, we want to try to get them seen but also get them back to the game if appropriate,” she said. “We kind of push those fluids in them, make sure they can stand up and walk and drink fluids without getting sick. The majority of our job in the clinic really all revolves around hydrating people for the most part.
“The majority of the people we never see again.”
The hospital also has volunteer stretcher teams composed of young adults from local schools who might be interested in the medical field.
“They are stationed throughout the stadium so if someone were to pass out or fall they are able to put them on their stretcher and get them into the clinic,” Gehrke said. “Like Dr. Cody said it probably is one of the safest places. If you’re injured you’re going to get pretty quick care.”
Gehrke said the first game of the season saw 115 calls throughout the stadium and 54 patients were seen in the clinic.
For more information about Norman Regional Health System click here:
https://www.normanregional.com/careers

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By Nick Thomas

Story and photo by Van Mitchell. Staff Writer

Nelda Fister, M.S., R.N. was born into nursing, and she continues that path today at age 80, as Assistant Professor for the Department of Nursing at the University of Central Oklahoma.
She is serving in her 48th year of teaching at UCO, where she works with 150-170 students each semester.
“I always wanted to be in nursing,” she said. “I grew up on a farm and there were a lot of good doctors/farm families/role models that helped me look at that road.”
Fister was the only member of her family to go to college. She graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University in 1965.
“College was never not going to be an option,” she said. “Neither of my parents completed high school. My mother quit school when her mother died so she could stay home and care for her younger siblings. My father served in World War I, and was preparing to prepare for duty for World War II, when he was notified, the war had ended. Following my parents’ marriage, they settled in the Oklahoma Panhandle and began a hard life of farming during the Depression. It was important to them that their daughter receive a good education, as they believed it would bring opportunities they did not have. They (parents) were going to make it work and they did.”
Fister said her parents’ faith helped shape her desire to help others.
“My parents’ belief in God guided their life, and I learned at an early age that the development of a strong value system, and caring for others was important,” she said. “I was very lucky to have a stable home that provided positive guidance as I navigated the developmental tasks of childhood.”
Prior to beginning her teaching career, she was pediatric supervisor at Wesley Hospital in Oklahoma City. She joined UCO after several years on the faculty at Oklahoma Baptist University.
“I have seen a lot of changes,” she said. “I have worked under six presidents at UCO, and have (taught) thousands of students.”
Fister serves on multiple committees as well as the UCO Faculty Senate.
Her focus on the importance of community involvement was pronounced through helping establish pediatric triage following the April 19, 1995 Alfred P. Murrah bombing.
She has served as Mace Bearer for UCO Commencement Ceremonies, and has multiple honors including the first Excellence in Education Award for Sigma Theta Tau Beta-Delta-Chapter-At-Large. She received the Neely Annual Excellence in Teaching Award in 2019.
The first nursing class from the nursing department at the University of Central Oklahoma graduated in 1972. Since that time, more than 3,500 graduate nurses have entered the workforce.
Students interested in earning a nursing degree from the University of Central Oklahoma now have multiple options for their education. Students may obtain their BS through the Traditional Track Bachelor of Science in Nursing, the Fast Track B.S. in Nursing and the Online R.N. to B.S. track. UCO also offers a two-year Master of Science in Nursing degree.
Fister said success in and out of the classroom requires hard work and dedication.
“Success in the nursing program and later in the profession requires a high degree of responsibility,” she said. “Success in the professional domain is the final outcome of this education. “My goal has been to provide students with an intentional direction to develop study methods that will ensure success as they expand their knowledge base, think critically about concepts, and apply knowledge in a variety of settings. I want them (nursing students) to grow academically, but I also want them to grow professionally.”
Fister’s care for her students reached a new peak this year with the implantation of a “worry envelope” that is posted on a bulletin board outside of her office.
She said it allows students to write down their worries in private.
“They write down their concerns, and if they want me to, I will pray for them,” she said.
Fister said she isn’t sure if this will be her last year teaching at UCO, but adds she has plenty of outside interests including cooking and sewing that would keep her busy.
“I think I am making a difference,” she said. “I keep saying this is going to be my last year, and then I have students send me a note that says you made such a difference. That is what keeps me here. This place has been so much a part of my life. I don’t know what I am going to do, but I have a lot of interests, so I will be okay.”

Story and photos by Darl DeVault, Contributing Editor

Courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command

USS Oklahoma, a 27,500-ton Nevada class battleship, was built at Camden, New Jersey. She was commissioned in May 1916 and generally operated in the Atlantic over the next five years. In mid-1918, Oklahoma went to European waters to help protect convoys. Late in that year and in June 1919 she escorted President Wilson during his voyages to and from France. In 1921, the battleship moved to the Pacific, visiting the west coast of South America prior to joining the Pacific Fleet. During most of the rest of the decade, Oklahoma served with the Battle Fleet during its many exercises, drills and Fleet Problems. She participated in the Fleet’s trans-Pacific cruise to Australia and New Zealand in mid-1925. In the summer of 1927, she transported Naval Academy Midshipmen from the east to the west coast during their annual training cruise.
Oklahoma was modernized at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1927-29, emerging with a greatly altered appearance and notably improved battleworthiness. After brief service with the Scouting Fleet, she returned to the Pacific in mid-1930, and renewed her participation in the Battle Fleet’s activities. In July 1936, Oklahoma was sent to Europe to help evacuate U.S. citizens and others during the Spanish Civil War. She rejoined the Battle Fleet in the Pacific later in the year.
In 1940, Oklahoma’s base was shifted from the U.S. west coast to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on 7 December 1941. Moored outboard of USS Maryland (BB-46), she was hit by a great number of Japanese Type 91 aerial torpedoes. With her port side torn open over much of its length, Oklahoma rapidly rolled over and sank to the harbor bottom, with the loss of over 400 of her crew. Many of the men trapped in her upturned hull were cut free through the intense efforts of Sailors and civilian Navy Yard employees.
During 1943, Oklahoma was the subject of a massive salvage undertaking, involving turning her upright, patching her damages and refloating her. She was drydocked late in the year to be stripped of guns and other equipment and repaired sufficiently to make her relatively watertight. Too old and badly damaged to be worth returning to service, Oklahoma was formally decommissioned in September 1944. She was sold for scrapping in December 1946, but sank while under tow from Hawaii to California in May 1947.

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Imagine having to choose between paying your electric bill or paying for your life-sustaining medications or food. For many seniors living on a fixed income, that is a difficult reality.
The price of medications continues soaring — over the last decade, research shows many of the top-selling, brand name medications have increased more than 50-percent, with more than half of them doubling in price, that’s according to the National Library of Medicine.
The cost of medications alone can leave them facing difficult choices every month.
“We never want a patient to have to make that decision of am I going to eat this week, am I going to have air conditioning this week, or am I going to pay for that blood pressure medication,” said Justin Henson, a nurse practitioner at Valir PACE in Oklahoma City.
September is National PACE Awareness Month. PACE stands for Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly. It is an approach that aims to bundle. It is a relatively new model of care that is gaining momentum across the United States. Valir is one of the first to implement the model in Oklahoma
The goal is to help more seniors, who otherwise would require nursing home care, continue to live independently in their own homes. It does that by bundling their medications, meals, transportation, physician visits, and therapy needs under one umbrella care plan, that also provides opportunities to socialize and be a part of the community.
The results are impressive – reducing hospitalizations and improving quality of life.
PACE participants, like Nick Felix, say the program has helped them to enjoy the life, despite the issues that come with aging. For Felix, heart issues top that list.
“My heart fibrillates whenever it wants to. It’s like dancing a Cha-Cha to a Waltz. You know you’re not in sync at all,” said Felix, a 90-year-old former dance teacher and movie choreographer, who still enjoys dancing at his favorite studio.
Henson has worked closely with Felix, helping him manage his health and medications to stay healthy and active.
“He’s had a very complicated cardiac history,” Henson said. “But he is a guy who will wake up every single morning doing his push-ups. He loves to go out and walk, he loves to go dancing every week.”
Managing the challenges of a complicated regimen of medications without the worry of cost is one aspect of PACE Felix likes best.
“Well, it’s lifesaving. I mean you’re talking about my heart medicine, my joint medicine, I’ve got all kinds of arthritic conditions — and they tell me when to take it, what to take and how much to take,” he remarked.
Medications are packaged and labeled for each day, and time of day for each participant and
Valir PACE provides those medications — helping eliminate the financial pressure off of rising drug costs for seniors.
“We do get a lot of patients who want to join our services and we note as they’re coming onto services that they have been without their medications for three months, four months,” Henson said. “Diving into why they have been without these medications, often it is they’re trying to pay for electricity or they’re trying to pay for food.”
Henson added ensuring seniors have their medications and take them as correctly can lead to better health outcomes and a better quality of life.
“If you have a medical condition, even if it’s a small medical condition, but it’s not treated, it can grow into a large medical condition,” he said. “Taking medications as prescribed, when prescribed is going to be the best way to keep you as healthy as possible, and as young as possible as long as possible.”
Valir PACE is located at 721 NW 6th Street in the heart of downtown and has just opened an Alternative Care setting at 2411 Main Street in Choctaw, expanding services to seniors living in that more rural part of the metro. To learn more, visit ValirPACE.org or the National PACE Association at NPAonline.org.

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Story and photos by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

This winter is about to be a little warmer for a few homeless four-legged friends thanks to Chuck Musgrave and the Salvation Army of Central Oklahoma.
Musgrave helped cut the ribbon on the Army’s new dog shelter recently just as the temperatures began to fall.
Musgrave first learned of the project at his Edmond Rotary Club meeting a while back.
The Salvation Army was making a presentation on the variety of services the group offered to Oklahomans.
It wasn’t until after the meeting when he approached a Salvation Army member and asked a question that he got involved.
“I asked them ‘what do you really need? What is it that’s not in your budget that you really need,’” Musgrave recalled. “They explained to me that this was really a pretty vital project of the services that needed to be provided and the people that needed to be served.
“It interested me.”
Salvation Army Advisory Board Chairman Ryan Frace grew up with a father who was a veterinarian. He understands the bond that exists between people and animals and this project was a reminder of that.
“This is an extension of the Salvation Army’s reach here in Central Oklahoma to help individuals and to help their families as well,” Frace said. “I’m honored today to welcome you to the opening of this new kennel for guests that are staying at the shelter that also need support for their family member which happens to be a four-legged family member.”
Every Thursday night a group of Salvation Army volunteers drives into sections of OKC reaching out to the homeless population through Night Watch to serve with compassion, and provide food, blankets, clothing, or toiletries.
Frace has been on those missions and noticed something each time out.
“I know how important pets are in everybody’s lives,” Frace said. “We would go out and it was so prevalent how often people would have an animal with them as a companion as protection and they would make the choice to stay on the streets – sometimes in extremely harsh, inclement weather and dangerous environments to stay with their pets rather than have nowhere for the pet to go and them to come into a shelter.”
Frace said the Salvation Army is breaking new ground in terms of solving the issue that so many face when it comes to deciding between their safety and the safety of their pets.
The shelter itself is fully plumbed with heating and cooling allowing dogs to safely avoid inclement weather less than 100 yards from where their humans will be staying for the night.
Musgrave already was familiar with the Salvation Army and the good it does. He’s routinely worked with the Buck$ 4 Bikes program where the Women’s Auxiliary and its community partners work to raise funds to provide a bike to every child who asks for one during The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Program.
Oklahoma Bicycle Society generously donates a new bike helmet for each bike. Last Christmas, Buck$ 4 Bikes was able to provide 594 Christmas wishes to Angel Tree children who requested bikes.
Musgrave is now retired but formerly served as president of Sunbelt Industries, a recycler of aluminum oxide abrasives.
“The thing that called to me was the real need was there but nobody had the capacity to meet the need and the Salvation Army was trying to step up,” said Musgrave, a lifelong dog owner. “The thing about doing business with the Salvation Army is you know the money is not going to be wasted and is going to be meeting the critical needs of people. That makes it a real safe place to participate.”
Musgrave also works with the local Pet Food Pantry so the pet connection was natural for him.
“What I learned at the Pantry was there are people that will feed their pets rather than feed themselves,” he said. “When you think about when you’re alone and don’t have a community support system then your pet is your support system. They think of them like their brother, their sister, or their baby and they’re not going to leave them out.”
Approximately 30 million Americans receive assistance from the Salvation Army each year through a range of social services including outreach to the elderly and ill.
The Salvation Army uses 82 cents of every dollar donated to support those services in 5,000 communities nationwide.

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