Jewels From The Word

Grandpa Ela T. Swift was one of the cowboys in the group that hung out with Will Rogers when he came to visit Vinita, Ok. in 1934. He told them, “Have a rodeo in Vinita next year and I’ll come back.” But he and Wiley Post died that year in an airplane crash, and the rodeo was [...]

Downtown Vinita building burning

I stood with the townsfolk at the corner watching the burning building, my heart heavy remembering.

I was born there, in Dr. McMillan’s office in that building on the hottest day of the year in 1949.

When I was in junior high school, we girls stopped after school at a café on the [...]