COVID-19 claims longtime Red Andrews Dinner organizer
For more than 30 years, Betty McCord spent her Christmas holidays making sure thousands of Oklahoma City's less fortunate got a warm turkey dinner and that no child went without a Christmas gift. She is being remembered as a Christmas hero this week after dying July 28 at age 91.
Her affliction with Alzheimer's began shortly after her retirement from the dinner in 2010. A notice placed by her family reported she died after getting infected with COVID-19.
The annual “Red Andrews Dinner,” now in its 74th year, was started by longtime law maker and boxing promoter Earnest “Red” Andrews who took it upon himself to feed a handful of people for Christmas.
McCord, his niece, took over the gathering when Andrews retired, keeping alive a tradition which still provides Christmas dinner, gifts for children, music and fellowship for about 7,000 people a year.
Attorney Robert Gold man, who joined with fellow attorney John Yoecke land Andrews nephew Larry Cassi lin taking over the dinner in 2012, called McCord “a shining example of what a compassionate person can do.”
“If you consider the countless thousands of people Betty' s life touched, the thousands of volunteers who fervently serve less fortunate people on Christmas Day, the heart warming stories throughout the years of the dinner's participants and the volunteers, Betty's l i fe was a shining example of a life well served,” Goldman said. “Generations are indebted to her leadership.”
The f amily asks t hat memorials be made to the Red Andrews Christmas Dinner Foundation Mary Blankenship Pointer, 2513 SW 124, Oklahoma City, OK 73170.