For many years the Theatorium theater (114 West Main) owned and operated by Louise Riotte’s father, Rudolph Helbach, was one of the most important entertainment centers in southern Oklahoma. It was located in Ardmore, founded in 1887 as a railroad loading point for cattle and cotton and situated about 25 miles north of the Texas border in about midway between Arkansas on the east and the Texas panhandle on the west. Ardmore at that time was the largest town in Indian territory.
Louise Riotte lived in the SE corner of K Street NW and 11th street. I visited with her several times about her books and national magazine articles she submitted over the years. Louise was an avid gardener and below is a youtube link to a 6 minute video interview with 84 year old Louise in 1992 by Oklahoma Gardening Classics.
Louise Riotte wrote a story in the Frontier Times back in November 1980. It was published by Western Publications of Iola, Wisconsin, and was an article about Marshal Dow Brazil and Deputy Bud Ballew. In 1970 local writer and Ardmoreite Louise Riotte published an article about bloody Caddo in a national old west magazine. She wrote many columns in The Daily Ardmoreite.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/23679167/louise-therese-riotte
Oil boom town of Wirt, Oklahoma
Highway 77 through the Arbuckle Mountains in the 1920’s, a convict labor crew was brought to the Arbuckles to build a highway across the mountains. The camp that the convicts lived in was similar to any army bivouac camp. Located near Turner Falls, this camp served the needs of the convict work crew building the highway through some of the roughest country in Oklahoma. Below are some rare photos of the labor camp. It took 2 years to build the 6 mile stretch of road.
The photo above is Highway 77’s Horseshoe Bend near Turner Falls.
The Daily Ardmoreite
Feburary 24,1925
submitted by Melinda Taylor
Behind Ardmore Bars
Nate Dow, well known jail breaker, slept in the Carter county jail last night without making any attempt to get out. Dow, about two weeks ago, broke out of the Jacksboro jail in Texas, taking with him two jailmates. He was captured Friday at Slick, Oklahoma and is now being returned to Jacksboro. He is wanted for highway robbery.
At Okemah yesterday morning Dow got out of his cell on a couple of different occasions, but he was unable to get out of the jail because the jailer was standing in the only doorway.
Two years ago he broke out of the Fort Smith jail and Sheriff Carl Smith offered $500 to anyone who would show the manner in which Dow made his getaway.
Dow said he didn’t care to take a chance on the local jail as the windows are charged with electricity. – Ardmore Daily Press
The Mailbag
The older I get the stronger I get. When I was young ( a long time ago ) it would take me at least 3 trips to carry in $30 worth of groceries. Today I carried in the house close to $300 of grocers in one trip! -Bill Holder
Schoonover Family Bluegrass Band Concert
August 26 at 6:00 p.m.
Wilson school cafetorium
Pie/Cake auction at intermission
$10 for adults. Children 12 and under free but must be accompanied by paying adult. All proceeds go to Wilson museum. Reservations can be made via PayPal on our website below.
http://www.wilsonhistoricalmuseum.org
HAM Radio Talk KC5JVT via EchoLink
No new HAM contacts made this week. Just talks with the usual HAMs I’ve talked to over the past 9 months. Of course, I haven’t tried to make new contacts. What’s that old saying from many moons ago…. To get a letter you have to send a letter. lol
I did have a laugh, well I should say about 12 other HAMs had a laugh on me this morning on our video Net that takes place every morning at 10am CST. What caused the laugh was when I said, ‘boy howdy.” KonaBob is on the big island of Hawawii and said his wife laughed out loud. His brother-in-law is from Oklahoma and they said they can always tell someone is from Oklahoma when they hear, “boy howdy”. Any HAMs out there that want to join us some day at 10am a vedio chat, feel free to do so.
https://www.konaweb.com/hamcam/
Below is from my Vol 4 Issue 173 August 12, 2000 newsletter:
After a bumpy start, a concrete slab is finally in place in front of the courthouse on which the pavilion will sit. I took some pictures of Day Concrete pouring the concrete slab. It was over 100 degree heat, and there were 12 concrete men, working fast and furious to get the slap ready before it set up. But it looks great….. and soon the pavilion will be in place.
I noticed the workers with RFD Construction out of Sulphur are going around City Hall here in Ardmore putting in new red paver sidewalks. They did Main Street a long time ago, and the past few weeks have been doing North and South Washington at Main. If things go okay, hopefully we will have the same beautiful bricks around the new pavilion presently being built at the courthouse. Here’s a pic of the work going on around City Hall.
In the above photo Firemens Lunch cafe was located on the north side of the brown building (left side above picture). The cafe is gone. The owner “Jelly” Lightsey sold his cafe for $16,000 and the new owner tore down the cafe and made a parking lot into it.
Below is the same location today.
Below is an inside view of the Firemans Lunch cafe
Below is an email from my March 20, 2002 newsletter regarding the old Firemans Lunch cafe:
“I enjoy T&T very much. It is forwarded to me by my cousin, Vaden Martin, who lives in Ardmore. I was born and raised in Ardmore and it brings back lots of memories. You have written about alot of old restraunts that had good food and I have eaten at most of them. There is one that I haven’t seen mentioned and that is The Firemens Cafe. It was on South Washinton across from the City Hall and Fire Station. It was owned and run by E. H. (Jelly) Lightsey. He bought the place in the mid-40’s from a Mr Coe who ran it for many years. His wife continued to make home-made pies every day and we bought them from her. My Dad would get up every morning Monday through Saturday at 4am so he could get opened up to fix breakfast for his early morning route men. There was always a taxis waiting outside our house at 4:30am to take him to the cafe. My dad was a terrific cook and he worked at many of the restraunts in Ardmore. He was a cook in the new Priddy’s when it opened. I am sure there are many of your readers who remember the little white block cafe when the food was very good. Thanks for the work you are doing with T&T. I know it is very time consuming however it brings a lot of reading pleasure to lots of people.” -Frank Lightsey [email protected] here in “The Valley” of Texas
“The safety of the state is the highest law.” -Justinian
This quote is above the entrance to our courthouse on the north side. It was chiseled into the granite in 1910 when the courthouse was being built. I watch the news on TV and see all over this country how lawless people are trying to tear down what has took over 250 years to build. Thousands of Americans have given their lives so we can do what we want, go where we want, say what we want and worship where we want. I think how important freedom is, and how people are risking everything to get here, to enjoy the same freedom as we who live here do.
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore, OK
580-490-6823