Longtime
EDITOR’SNOTE
Welcome to Claremore’s new premier magazine, with a name that may seem obvious at first glance.
“This Is Us” – and indeed, it is. Rogers County has much to be proud of, and if you have any doubt, you may not have read all the great stories in our newspaper and on our website.
While this first edition may be modest in terms of size, we hope to grow it as we go along. That growth will depend on our readers and advertisers, which is why we’re striving to provide great content, sharp photos and eye-catching advertising from our local businesses in this first issue. We hope this will be a quarterly magazine – and again, that will depend on you.
Inside this edition you’ll find stories on local museums and merchants, from angles you may not have seen before. We’re confident you’ll enjoy the writing and photos by Angel Ford.
Since the magazine is about “us,” and so is the content, we invite your contributions. If you think of a person, business, organization or institution you feel would be a good fit, let us know at editor@claremoreprogress.com. Give us contact information, if you can. We promise to listen and to consider.
And if you want to support us with advertising, we’d be delighted to have you. Email advertising, at advertising@claremoreprogress.com.
We thank you for checking us out. Let us know what you think –and we’ll see you in a few months.
Heather Kilpatrick Publisher
Kim Poindexter Editor
Joe Mack Advertising Manager
Claremore’s museums keep local legends, stories alive
By Angel Ford
As the air grows cold outside, history comes alive indoors.
With Route 66 running through town and history around every corner, Claremore offers residents and visitors a welcoming way to explore famous names, forgotten moments and the collections that preserve them in various ways. Three museums, each with a personality all its own, invite guests to trade the cold for stories and offer a glimpse into the lives of the fascinating figures who left their mark while they walk through the history that shapes the city today.
Claremore Museum of History
Long before they were widely known, many of Oklahoma’s most recognizable figures had ties to Claremore – and their history is being preserved at the Claremore Museum of History.
Such figures include singer Patti Page, the playwright Lynn Riggs and Stuart Allen Roosa, one of only two dozen astronauts to have gone to the moon. Steve Robinson, president of the museum’s board of directors, is a native of Claremore and said he loves the town, along with the museum he cares for.
“An unusual thing is just the phenomenon of Claremore,” said Robinson. “For a community our size, to have the number of worldwide-known citizens is quite amazing.”
Claremore’s MOH does not just cover the city’s history but much of the surrounding areas, such as Rogers County and other parts of northeast Oklahoma.
“Andy Payne is really from Foyil, and Andy Payne’s a big part of our museum,” said Robinson. “Patti Page was born here, but she graduated in Tulsa and lived in California and other places, but she always claimed Claremore as home. We try to distinguish that we’re really the Claremore Museum of History, not the Museum of Claremore’s History.”
To Robinson, it is important that they do cover certain parts of Claremore’s history. As in most U.S. states, systems of historical preservation long neglected Black history, and Claremore is no different, Robinson said.
“We pieced together from our Black community, people who have saved different items,” said Robinson. “We have the Lincoln School, which was an all-Black school. It was too small to have reunions every year, but schoolwide, they’ve had two reunions now. And they produced a yearbook one year in 1951, and we have a copy.”
The exhibit is featured during their Juneteenth celebration every year. Robinson said it evokes a lot of emotions from the Claremore community.
“We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long, long way to go,” said Robinson.
Robinson said everything done at the museum can be credited to volunteers, and it has been paid for by volunteers. He would describe the museum to someone who has never been in one word: surprising.
“I use the word ‘surprise’ because the quality of our museum rivals a lot of major museums and a lot of them may be bigger, but the quality of our exhibits and just the beauty of the original wood floors and the wood cases that we have — it’s not your typical small-town museum at all,” said Robinson.
Oklahoma Military Academy Museum
Located on the campus of Rogers State University within the historic Meyers Hall lies a collection of artifacts that tells the stories of more than 10,000 boys who left home to become men in the early 1900s. Oklahoma Military Academy Museum houses the unique collection of the onceactive military academy in Claremore.
The museum possesses something even
more unique than the collection itself: its curator, Dewey F. Wilson Jr. As a former cadet of the academy in the 1960s, Wilson offers visitors to the museum a firsthand account of his experience as he walks through the hushed hallways.
Wilson said he can remember his first day at the academy like it was yesterday.
“I remember getting my head shaved,” said Wilson. “We had fatigues, they had to order our uniforms. We didn’t get those right away because they had to send off our measurements.”
Wilson said he attributes the academy for readying him for his successful career in the Air Force and the ease with which he was able to settle in.
“I knew how to shine my shoes. I knew how to march. I knew how to salute. I knew the general orders – you know, I already knew all that stuff when I left here and went into the Air Force,” said Wilson. “When I went through basic training in the Air Force, I had my stuff squared away. My training instructor down there was always yelling at these guys. I don’t think he ever got in my face for anything.”
Museum Executive Director Dr. Danette Boyle believes the men who graduated from the academy would ”knock your socks off,” and said they have given so much to keep the history alive.
“These men have given millions and millions of dollars to this institution, and it’s all documented in scholarships,” said Boyle. “They’ve set up huge scholarship endowments to help the students.”
The museum underwent renovations and reopened in 2022. Boyle said they raised upward of $600,000 to upgrade the museum to include interactive exhibits, such as an airplane simulator, soldiers’ barracks and touchscreen displays.
“One of these days, we’re gonna lose all the alumni, so we want to keep this to remind us of all that they did,” said Boyle.
Boyle said alumni from all over the country come back to visit, whether it be for their reunion or just to view the exhibits, and they have continued to support however they can.
“This [academy] produced some really great men,” said Boyle. “It is a very honorable place. It’s hard to imagine it now, but here in Claremore, Oklahoma, we had this school.”
J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum
Claremore’s J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum displays over 12,000 firearms and thousands of other artifacts, ranging from Old West saddles and John Rogers statuary to more local history.
The largest privately owned collection of firearms was first begun by the man for whom the museum is named, J.M. Davis. He was the former mayor of Claremore and also owned the Mason Hotel, where he first began to display his collection.
Now, 52 years after his death, the museum continues to showcase his collection and works to add more to it. Executive Director Randy Ramer is passionate about the museum and the artifacts it houses.
Ramer said he pursued a sense of direction once he was hired in May 2024. He found it after weeks browsing through old newspapers, and it was from early interviews of Davis himself.
“He said his collection exists for educational purposes, and educational purposes only,” said Ramer. “That’s a pretty good direction, you know? When you wonder, ‘What is he trying to do here?’ It’s not just about entertainment; it is about education. And he used those exact words.”
Ramer said while the Hollywood version of firearms can be fun, the museum is working to tell the more serious stories tied to the weapons.
“I am struck with a sense of humility when I walk through these halls, because I know people use these things in the most noblest of ways sometimes – and sometimes in the most dastardly of ways, too,” said Ramer.
To Ramer, the collection represents the higher aims of human beings. He said his greatest challenge is ensuring the stories are told in the correct way, and he feels the weight of that.
“You owe it to them,” said Ramer. “You owe it to the people who use these tools.”
The museum will be receiving a facelift this year and has been working with Tulsa architecture group 1Architecture to see it through. Ramer said they plan to showcase something different while maintaining the character of the original building.
“We’ve been trying to get back to the earlier history of the museum, Mr. Davis, his collection, and when the museum first opened,” said Ramer. “... [The plan] modifies what we have, slightly enhances it, makes it a little more contemporary, according to what visitors expect, because we’ve got lots of competition.”
Early conceptual art mirrors designs made by displays within the museum itself and includes a new neon statue in the shape of a revolver to catch the eye of those passing through Route 66.
Ramer said renovations will begin in February, with the goal of opening in May. A new American Revolution exhibition is set to open this spring.
Longtime owner of the Men’s Shop to enter semi-retirement
By Angel Ford
For nearly four decades, Jerry Feese has dressed generations of Claremore residents for weddings, funerals, job interviews and Sunday Mass, but now he is preparing to hand over the reins to another as he looks toward retirement.
Feese is the longtime owner of The Men’s Shop, a higher-end clothing and tuxedo rental store in Claremore. He aims to sell the store this year as he steps down to part-time work. Feese said he has had to shut down the store for a month or so due to health reasons a few times, so he thinks it is time to move on.
“We’ve got a lot of loyal customers, a lot of good people,” said Feese. “Not just in Claremore, but in all the northeastern part of the state, we have supporters. It’s been good.”
Feese said his favorite part of being the owner of The Men’s Shop is taking care of the people who step through the doors each day.
“If I wasn’t having fun, I wouldn’t be doing it,” said Feese. “I still have fun now. I like socializing. That’s good for you. Period.”
Owning a clothing store was not what Feese expected to do as his future career. When Feese was growing up, his father owned an automobile parts store, and as a boy, Feese worked there for a while. He said it was hard to work for his parents, yet the experience cultivated in him a love for the job. He said while he worked for his father, he thought, “I want to own a hardware store when I have one.”
Feese got his first retail job as a floor sweep at Anthony’s Department store in Claremore, located in what is now the Cranberry Merchant Antique Mall. Feese worked his way up from sweeping floors to managing the store.
Feese majored in business and economics while he attended Northeastern State University. He graduated in 1969 and was shortly drafted into the Vietnam War.
“You didn’t have much choice back then,” said Feese. “I was married then, but didn’t have any children. While I was serving, I had corresponded with [Anthony’s] before I got out, and they held my job, my seniority and everything, so it worked out well.”
Feese bought The Men’s Shop in the late 1980s; he is the third
owner. The store was originally opened in 1969, and has retained the name to this day. Feese said he bought the store shortly after retiring from Anthony’s but despite his years of experience in clothing retail, it was a challenge for him in the beginning.
“I had the department store mentality. I didn’t have a private, individual, small-store mentality,” said Feese. “It took me a while to learn that part of the business. And about three years in, I was struggling, so I spoke to a business consultant and they gave me some information. We shut the store down for about a month, marked everything down, changed everything around, sent out letters to customers, and invited them in for a big sale. That kind of turned us around, got us back on our feet.”
Feese moved to Claremore in 1977, and will remain in town as he works toward full retirement. With plans to assist the new owner in taking over the store, Feese said he will be working part-time at The Men’s Shop as he assists with the day-to-day operations and helps him get settled in. While the deal has not yet been finalized, Feese said he looks forward to resting.
“It’s kind of nice on the days off when you sit at home in the morning, drink coffee, rather than get up, get dressed and immediately head out,” said Feese.
Feese said he isn’t sure what he will do during his semi-retirement aside from focusing on staying healthy, so he can enjoy it.
“We’ve got a sailboat, but I’m not stable enough on my feet to use it much anymore, so I can’t do my sailing,” said Feese. “I don’t play golf. Maybe community service of some kind. I’ve always thought I’d like to help in the literacy council and help someone learn how to read, or something like that.”
Over the years, Feese has watched families grow. Parents who once shopped with him would later bring their children, who grew up, started families of their own and continued the tradition. He acknowledged those families and said he will miss the selfless acts his longtime customers bestowed on him.
“Thank you for all the support, appreciation, help, and the love that you’ve given us,” said Feese. “Just yesterday, I had a customer come down and shovel off my sidewalk for me. I [will miss] stuff like that.”
Claremore Area Chamber of Commerce enters new year with new leader
By Angel Ford
Anew chapter has begun at the Claremore Chamber of Commerce, one shaped by both longstanding leadership and a familiar face.
With Barby Myers retiring, Ashley May, formerly the chamber’s communications director, is taking on the role of president and chief executive officer.
Myers hired May just before the pandemic, and the new president will be celebrating her sixth anniversary at the chamber this year. May said she loved handling the communications aspect, but is confident in her ability to step into her new role.
“I think I have elevated the quality of communications coming out of the chamber, so I’m pretty proud about that,” May said. “I’ve got to learn a lot. I would have been content just doing that forever because I like doing it. But I also knew that Barby has taught me so much. I learned so much from her. So I knew I was capable of stepping into her role whenever she was ready to leave. Her vote of confidence in the board means a lot.”
May said she does not yet know what she looks forward to as president and has no plans, as of now, to change anything.
“Barby set a really good example for me, so I’m trying to keep things as they are now before I try to make any major changes,” said May. “I know if I made a major change, there’s probably a reason she didn’t make that change, you know? She will always be 12 years ahead of me in the chamber world. But I’m excited to see what we can do differently because we’ve done things pretty much the same because it’s what works. Now, I’m just trying to work on growing the membership.”
While unsure of what she looks to change, May is clear on what her main focus is at the moment: creating and maintaining more meaning-
ful relationships with the community and members of the chamber.
She said she especially hopes to build bridges with members who don’t often attend chamber events or work with other members.
“I want to get out more and get to know some of those people and encourage them to come and get involved because I think that’s really important,” Myers said. “I want our members to know it’s not just your money; you’re not just a sponsorship to us. We care about you and we care about your business. We want to do what we can to be the best resource for you.”
Myers officially retired as president of the chamber in December but has stayed on in a temporary capacity to remain a resource and guiding hand when needed. She said she chose to retire now as the timing seemed right, and the chamber could plan ahead while she was still there to assist.
“I felt like I had done all the things I needed to do to position the chamber in a way that will continue to grow and be successful,” Myers said. “I love Claremore. I love the business community. I love the nonprofit community. We’re really, really blessed here.”
Myers plans to travel and enjoy time with her husband, who is set to retire in a year. While this is an ending to a muchbeloved chapter in her life, Meyers said she will always love the city of Claremore.
“This part of Oklahoma is pretty special and the people are really - every town’s different, but they’re similar in, it’s the people that make it,” said Meyers. “... It’s just been a great ride.”
