LEGENDS Lifelong Tulsan Maxine Horner has impacted the state through her time as a legislator and her commitment to multiple causes.
Maxine Horner ADVOCATE, ARTS ENTHUSIAST AND STATESWOMAN BY GAIL BANZET-ELLIS
F
ormer Oklahoma Sen. Maxine Horner is living her best life at 86 years old. Witty and energetic with a penchant for comedy, she is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother confident in who she is and what she has accomplished throughout her career. Her roots run deep in Tulsa, where she began her education as a student in a segregated school. In adulthood, Horner was as an advocate for social justice and civil rights, progressing from a job at the north Tulsa YWCA to a position at Booker T. Washington High School. She next worked at Sunray DX Oil Co., now Sunoco, as the first African American to be hired there in a professional position. From there, Horner was involved with the Tulsa Urban League and was employed in the office of Congressman James R. Jones — a job that uncovered her political ambitions and convinced her to run for the state senate. Serving as one of the first African-American women in the Oklahoma Legislature from 19872004, Horner was passionate about education and authored the landmark SB 156 — the Oklahoma Higher Learning Assets Bill, known today as Oklahoma’s Promise. The legislation provides college scholarship money for students with at least a 2.5 grade-point average.
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TulsaPeople AUGUST 2018
