Oklahoma People
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Hi: my name is Britni Hendrickson.  I am a 15 year old Country Music Recording Artist. I have been singing since I was 3 years old, this is what I have always wanted to do. I just returned from Nashville with a single "Deep Water", which I recorded with Westwood records, It is receiving airplay overseas and here in Locust Grove Oklahoma where I am from. I am in the process of completing my album "Drive Me Crazy", which will be out around the first of the year.

Click HERE to read read about other Country Music Stars in or from Oklahoma.

Meet J. T. Hale, a great believer in legacy and being the best you can be.

Meet Benny Anderson, one of the top hunters and fishers in the state.

I've met a whole lot of cowboys in Oklahoma.  Not typical, I'll admit, but easily the most fascinating is Jim --- (no name please even if you know him) from Red Country.

30 years ago Jim had a 4020 with a long wheel-based trailer behind it that wouldn’t start some of the time so he was taking it to the shop to get the starter worked on.

It would not start so he crawled under the tractor with a screwdriver to jump it. When the engine started the tractor jumped into gear, ran over his head, yanking the whole left hand side of his face off, breaking both collar bones, breaking many ribs, and piercing one of his lungs. Then the trailer as it went over him, caught his clothing and then dragged him for over half a mile, during which time the powerful John Deere tractor went down into the ditch, out of the ditch, into someone’s yard, through the end of their trailer house, then their board fence, then across another ditch, whereupon the trailer somehow latched onto wire fence and began yanking posts out of the ground one by one and dragging the whole shenanigans until finally it lugged the tractor enough to kill it.

Jim had not passed out in all this time but was fully conscious for hours until someone found him.

Doctors were amazed that he was alive at all. They said he would never walk again. "You watch me!" he told them. "You just watch me."

In the hospital, knowing he would be crippled up forever, he offered to split everything they owned down the middle with Irene and give her a divorce so she could find a better man. "But you can come and visit me every once in a while if you want to." She refused to leave him of course, scoffing at the silly idea of even considering it when he needed her more than ever.

With hand crutches, and slowly, Jim does indeed walk today. Even with modern narcotics at his beck and call Jim is still in constant pain.  He can't sleep in bed because of his leg pain. In spite of that he mows his own yard, using a walking mower. By crawling from place to place he keeps the flowers pruned, fertilized, and blooming brilliantly, and takes care of all the waterfalls the kids have put in the yard for him.  When asked why he didn't hire it done Jim looked astonished.  "But, what would I get to do then?"  He can handle his 75 HP Evenrude-powered boat well enough for kids, grand kids and great grandchildren to occasionally water ski behind him.

Jim had to keep leaving us at the table and retire to the front room for rest. As he came back Irene was telling us something more about something he had done. "Is she telling stories on me again?" he demanded. She came right back at him. "No, this one is the truth."

In his spare time since the first accident, Jim has taught himself many new skills, just one of which is to carve detailed and beautiful birds or animals, and then paints them by hand, just from seeing a side view photo or picture of them. Many of these are in flight with just a bare twig of something to support them, perfectly balanced. His whole mantle was full of the figures. "I would have some better ones to show you," he apologized. "But the kids and grand kids loved some of them so much they just had to have them."

The very first thing Jim carved was a cowboy hat, boots with working spurs, and a cross like you used to see along the highways.  He carved it from a big tree that had fallen on him.  The tree popped his intestines, broke his hips, and both legs.   Jim clawed his way back onto the tractor seat. The engine started that time and he drove to town to get himself to the doctor, not stopping at home because he did not want to worry his wife any.  Yes, the tree had put him in the hospital again, but it didn't even stop him, much less kill him.

Oh, I almost forgot, on top of all this, and even though he had no insurance when the first accident happened (much less the second time) and having all those hospital bills to pay off, Jim has made a living, with financial investments, and by managing several farms and other ventures. Just to give you an idea of how well he is making a living, when Irene’s birthday came up several years ago he gave her a present of one million dollars. Last year she insisted that he only give her $250,000.00 "And I haven’t spent any of it," she admitted. She looked around the beautiful home so full of loving memories. "What else do I need?"

His very nature of dogged self-reliance has dictated at least one rewarding way of investing. When other farmers across the nation were banding together to drive tractors to Washington to demand relief from rising costs, Jim refused to go with them. "While they were driving to Washington to get lower fuel prices I invested in oil." It was the right time of course.

Jim shakes his head at the thought of joining those other farmers in their march. "Me? Go there asking for someone to give me a break? I’ll just work a little harder or a little smarter."

Like everybody knows:  There's cowboys, and then there's that breed of Oklahomans that would make even a truck driver from Texas proud enough to slap on a cowboy hat!

Now read about cowboys Indians Businesses schools stories

I don't recommend much poetry, but this I do.  Here are beautiful pages of poetry, images and song to stir the deepest emotions in one's soul. This delightful Oklahoma web site from Tulsa will waken you to the beauties around you.