The Oklahoma Hall of Fame was founded in 1927 by Anna B. Korn to officially celebrate Statehood Day, recognize Oklahomans dedicated to their communities, and provide educational programming for all ages. The first Oklahoma Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony was held the next year, inducting the first two members into the hall of fame. In the 1970s, the Hefner Mansion was donated to the association to house the exhibits and busts or portraits of the inductees, and the organization changed its name to the Oklahoma Heritage Association in 1971. It then moved into the former Mid-Continent Life Building in Oklahoma City in 2007 and opened the Gaylord-Pickens Museum with interactive exhibits. In 2015, the organization changed its name for the final time to the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, in order to better represent the goals and mission of the organization.
To be eligible for induction, an individual must satisfy the following criteria:
Reside in Oklahoma or be a former resident of the state. Have performed outstanding service to humanity, the State of Oklahoma and the United States. Be known for their public service throughout the state.
In 2000, the rules were changed to allow for posthumous nominations.
Portraits of the inductees can be seen at the Gaylord-Pickens Museum in Oklahoma City. As of 2020, 714 members have been inducted since 1928, with more inducted annually.Oklahoma Hall of Fame. "Permanent Exhibits," Oklahoma Hall of Fame: Gaylord-Pickens Museum. 2015. Accessed May 24, 2016.
Notable inductees †Indicates a posthumous inductee 1920s 1928 Dennis Thomas Flynn (U.S. congressman), representative for Oklahoma Territory's at-large congressional district (1893–1897) Elizabeth Fulton Hester (civic leader)
1929 James S. Buchanan (educator), 4th president of the University of Oklahoma (1924–1925) Charles Francis Colcord (oilman) Alice Mary Robertson (U.S. congressman), representative for Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district (1921–1923) Richard A. Sneed (military), Confederate Army veteran and Oklahoma Secretary of State (1923–1927; 1931–1935) and Oklahoma State Treasurer (1927–1931)
1930s 1930 David Ross Boyd (educator), 1st president of the University of Oklahoma (1892–1908) Alice Brown Davis (Seminole chief), chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma 1922–1935 Edward K. Gaylord (publisher) Annette Ross Hume (civic leader) John Graves Leeper (public servant) Frank Phillips (oilman) Joseph W. Scroggs (educator)
1931 Charles F. Barrett (military) Laura A. Clubb (philanthropist) Gregory Gerrer (artist/religious leader) Roy V. Hoffman (military) Douglas H. Johnston (Chickasaw governor) Ernest W. Marland (governor) Benjamin Nihart (educator) Joseph B. Thoburn (historian)
1932 (25th anniversary of Oklahoma)
Frank M. Bailey (jurist), member of the Oklahoma Supreme Court (1919–1921) Joseph Blatt (religious leader) Fowler Border (physician) Fred S. Clinton (oilman) John B. Connors (public servant) John Hazelton Cotteral (jurist) John B. Doolin (public servant) William A. Durant (public servant) F.B. Fite (physician) Frank Frantz (public servant) Thomas P. Gore (U.S. senator) Charles Haskell (governor) Frederick W. Hawley (religious leader) William Miller Jenkins (public servant) Walter A. Ledbetter (attorney) Jasper L. McBrien (educator) Grant McGee (journalist) John Jasper Methvin (missionary) Joseph Samuel Murrow (missionary) James F. Owens (business executive) Gabe E. Parker (educator/public servant) David Phillip Richardson (physician) Will Rogers (actor/civic leader/journalist) Campbell Russell (attorney/public servant/rancher) Jasper Sipes (entrepreneur) Sidney Suggs (publisher) Elmer Thomas (U.S. senator) Charles P. Wickmiller (pharmacist)
1933
John A. Brown (merchant) Madeline B. Conkling (public servant) Edward Everett Dale (historian) Elva Shartel Ferguson (publisher) Bella Gibbons (educator) John A. Hatchett (physician) John Francis Kroutil (entrepreneur) Daniel William Peery (public servant) Una Lee Roberts (civic leader) Angie Russell (civic leader) Angelo C. Scott (educator) Charles Bingley Stuart (attorney/jurist)
1934
Eugene M. Antrim (educator) Maude Richman Calvert (educator) Emma Estill-Harbour (educator) Grant Foreman (historian) William Wirt Hastings (U.S. congressman) Samuel W. Hayes (jurist) Travis F. Hensley (public servant) Thomas P. Howell (physician) Charles William Kerr (religious leader) Everett S. Lain (physician) Pawnee Bill (entrepreneur) Zack Miller (rancher) Frances F. Threadgill (civic leader) Clara Wilbanks Waters (administrator)
1935
Czarina Conlan (civic leader) Etta D. Dale (educator) Charles Newton Gould (author/educator) David W. Griffin (physician) Edith Cherry Johnson (journalist) Roberta Lawson (civic leader) Oscar J. Lehrer (educator) W. H. McFadden (civic leader) Robert M. McFarlin (oilman) Ida May McFarlin (philanthropist) Lewis Jefferson Moorman (physician) Mell A. Nash (educator) Jennie Harris Oliver (author) E. B. Ringland (minister) Winonah Leah Monroney Sanger (physician) Mary Frances Troy (educator)
1936
William Bizzell (educator) Alice David (civic leader) Rachel Caroline Eaton (historian) Annette Blackburn Ehler (civic leader) Sargent Prentiss Freeling (public service) Forney Hutchinson (religious leader) William S. Key (military) W. H. Kornegay (attorney) LeRoy Long (physician) James W. Maney (entrepreneur) M. Alice Miller (civic leader)
1937 (30th anniversary of Oklahoma)
Mabel Bassett (public servant) A. G. C. Bierer (jurist) Elmer E. Brown (journalist) Frank Carter (public servant) Dorothea B. Dale (public servant) James S. Davenport (jurist) Clarence B. Douglas (military) John Franklin Easley (publisher) Lucia Loomis Ferguson (civic leader) Ida Ferguson (nurse) Albert L. Kates (publisher) James R. Keaton (jurist) Lilah Denton Lindsey (educator) Margaret McVean (attorney) Jessie Moore (attorney) Boss Sebastian Neff (rancher) Minnie Shockley (educator) Ida Belle Wright (historian)
1938
Henry G. Bennett (educator) Maimee Lee Robinson Browne (civic leader) Scott Ferris (U.S. congressman) Carolyn T. Foreman (historian) Everette Fry (manager) John W. Harreld (U.S. senator) Walter Harrison (journalist) Abbie B. Rich Hillerman (prohibitionist) Patrick J. Hurley (diplomat) William B. Johnson (attorney) Henry S. Johnston (governor) Arthur N. Leecraft (public servant) Bohumil Makovsky (educator) John Bruce Nichlos (oilman) G. Lee Phelps (missionary) Jane Gibson Phillips (civic leader) William B. Pine (U.S. senator) George Rainey (educator) Scott Preston Squyres (attorney) Martin E. Trapp (governor) E.A. Walker (banker) Anna L. Witteman (civic leader)
1939
O. H. P. Brewer Jr. (public servant) Cassius M. Cade (business executive) Nancy "Nannie" K. Fite (public servant) George Riley Hall (publisher) John B. Harrison (jurist) Lillian Gallup Haskell (civic leader) Blanche Fallis Lucas (civic leader) Isaac Newton McCash (educator) James I. Phelps (jurist) Meta Chestnutt Sager (educator) William Skelly (oilman) Kathryn Van Leuven (attorney) A.M. Wallock (religious leader)
1940s 1940
George Walter Archibald (publisher) Jesse C. Bushyhead (physician) Frank Buttram (oilman) Nannie Cleveland (educator) Milton C. Garber (U.S. congressman) Everette B. Howard (U.S. congressman) Letitia Ledbetter (civic leader) Anna Lewis (historian) Eugene Lorton (publisher) Chris Madsen (Law enforcement) Alma J. Neill (physiology) Lutie Hailey Walcott (civic leader) Muriel Hazel Wright (historian)
1941 Ella Lamb Classen (civic leader) Julien Charles Monnet (educator) Robert L. Owen (U.S. senator) William Mark Sexson (religious leader) Edgar Sullins Vaught (jurist)
1942 Stanley Vestal (historian) Houston B. Teehee (public servant) Lewis Haines Wentz (oilman)
1943 Gladys Anderson Emerson (educator) O.C. Newman (physician) Waite Phillips (oilman) Janie Stewart (educator)
1944 John R. Abernathy (religious leader) Kenneth C. Kaufman (author/educator) Burton Rascoe (author) Paul Sears (botanist)
1945 Joseph P. Blickensderfer (educator) Roy Gittinger (historian) Raymond S. McLain (military) Paul A. Walker (educator)
1946 Robert Burns (public servant) Frances Dinsmore Davis (fine arts instructor) Charles Evans (educator) Mark R. Everett (physician)
1947 (40th anniversary of Oklahoma) William Green Beasley (religious leader) Yvonne Chouteau (ballerina) Daniel Luther Edwards (religious leader) John Elmer Mabee (oilman)
1948 Roy Temple House (literature) Mattie O. Watts Kimes (artist) Fred Lookout (Osage chief) Edward H. Moore (oilman) Lynn Riggs (playwright)
1949 Nina Kay Gore (civic leader) Robert A. Hefner (oilman) Oscar Jacobson (artist/educator) Irene Bowers Sells (journalist) Poe B. Vandament (publisher)
1950s 1950 Angie Debo (historian) Norris G. Henthorne (journalist) Jay G. Puterbaugh (entrepreneur) Waldo E. Stephens (internationalist) Jim Thorpe (Olympian) Louis A. Turley (medicine)
1951 Joseph Horace Benton (opera singer) Eugene S. Briggs (educator) George Lynn Cross (educator) Luther Harrison (journalist) Ernest Lachman (physician) Perle Mesta (civic leader) William H. Murray (governor) C. I. Pontius (educator)
1952 George Lynn Bowman (public servant) Joseph J. Clark (military) Everette Lee DeGolyer (geologist) Thomas Gilcrease (oilman) J. Raymond Hinshaw Jr. (physician) Richard Lloyd Jones (publisher) Savoie Lottinville (author)
1953 C.B. Bee (public servant) James E. Berry (public servant) William J. Holloway (governor) Roy Johnson (oilman) James C. Nance (public servant) Pearl M. Sayre (civic leader) Nan Sheets (artist) Gomer Griffith Smith (U.S. congressman)
1954 Felix M. Adams (physician) J.R. Hinshaw (physician) Louise Davis McMahon (music) Maud Lorton Myers (civic leader) John L. Peters (humanitarian) Theodore 'T.H.' Henry Steffens (humanitarian)
1955 Annetta A. Childs (civic leader) F. Hiner Dale (public servant/jurist) Paul Harvey (radio commentator) Gaston Litton (historian) James Cash Penney (business executive) Ross Rizley (U.S. congressman)
1956 Charles Blake Goddard (oilman) Robert S. Kerr (governor) Jesse Lee Rader (historian/librarian) Robert Terry Stuart Sr. (insurance) Nora Amaryllis Talbot (educator)
1957 (50th anniversary of Oklahoma) Carl Albert (speaker of the House) Robert H. Bayley (physician) Stanley Carlisle Draper (civic leader) Te Ata (historian/storyteller) Erle P. Halliburton (oilman) Roy Harris (music composer) James A. Rinehart (attorney/public servant) Anna T. Scruggs (mental health) Roy J. Turner (governor)
1958 Boots Adams (oilman) Willis Maxson Chambers (educator) Alice Marriott (historian) Dean Anderson McGee (oilman) Lucile Page (civic leader) John Wesley Raley (educator) Oliver S. Willham (educator)
1959 C.R. Anthony (entrepreneur) Della Duncan Brown (civic leader) Harold Harvey Herbert (educator) H.C. Jones (entrepreneur) Alfred P. Murrah (jurist) Bess Truitt (poet laureate) Natalie Overall Warren (civic leader) Mac Q. Williamson (public servant)
1960s 1960 Stephen Sanders Chandler Jr. (jurist) Ruth Wilson Hurley (civic leader) Richard Kelvin Lane (business executive) Joe C. Scott (educator/rancher) Ned Shepler (publisher) Joseph Richard Taylor (artist)
1961 Virgil Browne (entrepreneur) Anna Lee Brosius Korn (founder/civic leader) Joseph White McBride (publisher) Mike Monroney (U.S. senator) John Rogers (attorney) Fred Earl Tarman (publisher) William K. Warren Sr. (oilman)
1962 Jennie Dahlgren (public servant) J. Howard Edmondson (public servant) John Elson Kirkpatrick (philanthropist) J.B. Perky (vocational agriculture) William Angie Smith (religious leader)
1963 W.P. Atkinson (publisher/civic leader) Orel Busby (jurist) Gordon Cooper (aerospace) Ben Graf Henneke (educator) Herschel Hobbs (religious leader) Carol Daube Sutton (civic leader) Bud Wilkinson (coach)
1964 Merle Newby Buttram (civic leader) Harvey Pettit Everest (entrepreneur) Van Heflin (actor) Mickey Mantle (baseball) Tessie Mobley (opera singer) Clarence H. Wright (business executive)
1965