WONDER WOMEN
Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame inducting all-female class
Without Oklahoma women, Christmas wouldn’t sound the same.
Of course, neither would country music, rockabilly or the civil rights movement.
“A couple of the biggest hits
I had — ‘Grandma’s Song’ and ‘Bucket to the South’ — were both written about Oklahoma. So, it had
a powerful influence on me … and I think there’s just a lot of talented musical people in that state,” said Gail Davies, a Broken Bow native who in the 1970s embarked on a hit-making career as a country singer and songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, in a phone interview.
“But you still, as a woman, are gonna have to be twice as good, twice as smart and twice as humble.”
Davies, who in 1980 became the first female record producer in country music, will be among 10 Oklahoma women inducted Tuesday into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame.
Along with Davies, the inductees include Jody Miller, a Grammywinning country singer; Gayla Peevey, who recorded “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”; Kellie Coffey, an Academy of Country Music Award winner; Katrina Elam, who has co-written hits for Carrie Underwood and Reba McEntire; and Susie McEntire, an award-winning country and gospel artist.
Molly Bee, who famously covered “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”; Lorrie Collins, half of the rockabilly duo the Collins Kids; Gus Hardin,an ACM Award winner; and Evelyn LaRue Pittman, who penned the opera “Freedom Child” about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., will be inducted posthumously with the Muskogee-based
hall’s first all-female class.
“I was really kind of astounded that I would be included,” Peevey said. “It’s an honor, and I think more women are being recognized now— and that’s great . ... It’s time.”
Daylong festivities
The induction ceremony will be noon Tuesday at the Oklahoma History Center. Along with the class of 2018, previous Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame inductees Wanda Jackson, Norma Jean, Becky Hobbs, Jana Jae, Barbara McAlister and Leona Mitchell are expected to attend, along with acclaimed Oklahoma singer-songwriter Samantha Crain.
Family members of the late Sammi Smith, Jean Shepard, Kay Starr and Patti Page also are on the guest list, along with relatives of Cassie Gaines, who was posthumously inducted into the state music hall of fame, along with her brother and fellow Lynyrd Skynyrd bandmate, the late Steve Gaines, at a recent event in their hometown of Miami.
“All these women deserve recognition,” said Hugh Foley, chairman of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame’s induction selection committee. “One of the exciting things is all these ladies are going to be in the same room together.”
Tuesday’s festivities have been two years in the making for Brian Maughan, who has formed close ties with Miller and Jackson through his nonprofit SHINE Foundation.
“Following up on the stories that they had shared with me, I began to discover several of (these women) weren’t in the hall of fame and I wanted to try to lobby on their behalf,” Maughan said. “They had to go out and compete in largely a man’s world. It’s just really amazing that they have overcome and achieved.”
‘Grand Ladies’
Along with the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, Maughan found a partner in Kim Cline, owner of Kendall’s Restaurant in Noble, where a dinner for the inductees is planned at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. She said her restaurant is known for its collection of state memorabilia,but a few years ago, she began brain storming her new exhibit “Grand Ladies of Oklahoma Music.”
Once she and Maughan started working with the honorees, Cline was thrilled by the items they and their families were willing to entrust to her. Highlights include an iconic “Nudie Suit” Collins performed in, the hot pants outfit Miller donned on her USO tour with Bob Hope and the dress Peevey wore on “The Ed Sullivan Show” to sing “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.”
“It is really amazing to me that it has stood the test of time,” said Peevey, an Oklahoma City native. “It’s really special to know that ... something that you did is kind of a legacy.”