A well-earned retirement
Astory this week by The Oklahoman's food editor, Dave Cathey, provided a charming respite from the continuing grind of the coronavirus pandemic and overheated politics.
Cathey wrote about Rosita Parker, who since 2003 has been the woman behind the renowned garlic-cream house dressing at Cattlemen's Steakhouse, and who retired Thursday after 62 years working at restaurants across Oklahoma City.
“She always came to work with a smile on her face. Always positive,” said Dick Stubbs, Cattlemen's owner, who first hired Parker at one of his restaurants 50 years ago. She followed him to three others during the next half-century. “But more than anything, Rose always wants to get things right,” Stubbs said. “Always looking for the quality, wanting it to be consistent.”
Parker came to the United States from Panama in 1944, at age 5. She started working at 19, as a carhop, and never stopped, putting her nose to the grindstone every day while raising six children.
Now 81, she is grandmother to 13 and great-grandmother to 12, but says she has no immediate retirement plans other than to relax. “It's going to be my time!” she told Cathey.
Here's hoping Parker has a long and fulfilling retirement. She certainly has earned it.
Another success for OSBI's cold case unit
In announcing the formation of a new cold case unit in late 2018, Ricky Adams, director of the Oklahoma
State Bureau of Investigation, said perpetrators of unsolved killings or abductions should know “that we will not stop looking for them.” The OSBI is following through on that pledge. Prosecutors recently filed a first-degree murder change in Lincoln County against Earl W. Wilson, 55, who is accused in the stabbing death of Oklahoma City florist Paul Aikman in September 1985. The attack happened at a former rest stop along the Turner Turnpike. OSBI agents turned up few clues at the time, but last year DNA results from cigarette butts and fingerprints taken from the scene led authorities to Wilson. This is the fourth “win” for the cold case unit, which is reviewing more than 1,200 homicides and missing persons cases dating to 1950. Kudos.
New speed limits coming for turnpike stretches
At a meeting Tuesday, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority increased the speed limit to 80 miles per hour, from 75 mph, on stretches of some of its highways. These include a newly widened 13-mile portion of the Turner Turnpike, between Bristow and Sapulpa; a 31-mile stretch between
Muskogee and Tulsa on the Muskogee Turnpike; and 25 miles of the Cherokee Turnpike, from mile marker 3 to marker 28. The changes will not take effect until new speed limit signs are posted, which could take months. In the meantime, many motorists will continue to travel at 80 mph or higher anyway. As anyone who has driven the Turner Turnpike between Oklahoma City and Tulsa knows, setting the cruise to 75 can regularly get you passed as if you're standing still.
Hoping virus outbreak is behind VA center
The executive director of Oklahoma's Department of Veterans Affairs, Joel Kintsel, says he is optimistic the worst is behind a state veterans' center hit hard by COVID-19. We pray that's the case. Ten residents of the Claremore center died in July after testing positive for COVID-19, officials said at a news conference Tuesday. They said 18 residents had tested positive and were experiencing moderate or severe symptoms; 34 were positive but asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, and 21 employees were isolating at home after testing positive. Kintsel said the outbreak likely began when an asymptomatic employee unknowingly transmitted the virus to a resident. Ben Robinson, Oklahoma's secretary of military and veterans affairs, said, “Since the onset of COVID-19, we've been working diligently to keep our veterans safe.” Thank goodness, no virus-related deaths have been reported at the state's six other veterans' centers.