My friend Debbie told me a story about her father that warmed my heart and stopped me cold. Here’s the basic story as she related it: My father grew up in a home where his father was an alcoholic and he had to quit school to provide for his family because his dad drank most of what he earned.

Marilyn Jane (Hicks) Sims was born January 26 , 1931 in Oklahoma City to Dr. C.A. and Atha (Meadors) Hicks of Holdenville, Oklahoma. She passed away April 18, 2022 at Villagio Assisted Living Center in Oklahoma City at the age of 91.

Kenneth R. Olden, also known as Buddy, was born to the late Cleveland and Nicey (Stroud) Olden on October 16, 1939.

Wolverine of the Week Cy Tiger is the Holdenville News Wolverine of the Week. Cy earned first place medals in the sprint relay races and the shot put at the track meet in Konawa.

April 9, the Red Hat Ladies were royally entertained by the Young at Heart Group at the Texas Banner First Assembly of God Fellowship Hall. Name cards were scattered along the U-shape tables along with spring flowers and our napkin rings were even made out of the same spring flowers. We had our choice of peach or raspberry tea. What a treat! The buffet had all kinds of cheese, crackers, pickles, spinach dip, tuna salad, chicken salad and fruit dip. Oh Wow!

The 13 Annual Native American Convocataion will be held on Sunday, April 24, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. at the Buck Family Pavilion. Keynote speaker will be Celena George, Miss Indian OU 2020/2022. The event is sponsored by the Council of Holdenville American Indian Alumni and for social distancing purposes it will be held as a drive-in style. Everyone is invited to attend.

Entry level employees received a raise last Tuesday night at the Holdenville City Council meeting. The city has long been faced with the problem of losing good employees to other entities who offer them more money and city employees have long been faced with the problem of not being able to earn a living wage working for the city. Mayor Massad commented that the council has been trying to get all employees up over $10.00 an hour for over a year and a half but the money just wasn’t in the budget. He stated that he believes now the finance committee has been able to work this wage increase into the current budget. Councilman Lynn Lantz, chairman of the Finance Committee, commented that he and fellow finance committee member, Councilwoman Julie West had found money in the budget for the remainder of this fiscal year to go ahead and approve these raises. He further stated that they were working on next fiscal year’s budget set to start on July 1 of this year and was confident there would be enough money to sustain the amount given in raises. 18 employees were recommended to the council for a raise from $9.12 an hour to $10.00 an hour. There was no discussion among the council before Councilwoman Lori Babb made a motion to approve the raises, seconded by Councilwoman Jeanna Gordon. The measure passed with a unanimous vote.

Faith Freewill Baptist hosted the Holdenville Ministerial Alliance Community Good Friday Service last Friday night. One of the highlights of the service was Kobe Johnson, great grandson of Rev. Richard and Sister Turner, founders of the Loaves and Fishes Ministry. Kobe spoke of his legacy of godly great grandparents, both Rev. and Sister Turner and Bill and Loyce Muse. He also spoke of our call to give and serve as Christians in our communities. This past year, the Holdenville Ministerial Alliance served 2080 people. They gave away over 66,000 pounds (over 33.31 tons!) of food to citizens in Holdenville. The Alliance helped an estimated 1, 728 familes over the past 12 months. They continue the legacy of self sacrifice and selfless giving which Rev. Turner always modeled. Rev. Turner’s great grandson Kobe Johson is pictured above with his family. Front Row (L-R): Sister Kailyn Johnson, Great-Grandmother Loyce Muse, Grandmother Laquita Turner, Mother Amie Johnson. Back row (L-R): Clinton Roland, Kobe Johnson, and Father Darin Johnson. More pictures page 2.

MARRIAGE Jerry Mac Bowen and Kimberly Denise Walker, both of Wetumka CIVIL Jackie Lee Siegrist Jr. vs.

Will we just have to “live” with Covid from now on? Seems that’s the way it was with the famous Spanish Flu. It peaked out back in 1918 after it had killed about 500 million people worldwide. To this day we have to take our annual flu shots since the old “flu” still lurks about. That seems to be the way this current Pandemic is working out. It may always lurk about.