Famous Oklahomans to Read About
Brent K. Ashabranner
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This prolific author was a government worker in Africa and a Peace Corps
official.
Garth Brooks
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Read all about this country-western singer extraordinaire!
Jesse Chisholm
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This part-Cherokee trailblazer's greatest accomplishment was bringing
the Plains Indians to the peace table.
Nadia Comaneci
http://opac.tulsalibrary.org/search/Y?SEARCH=Nadia+Comaneci+biography
This Romanian gymnast received seven perfect scores and won four medals at
the 1976 Olympics. Today she lives and works in Norman, Oklahoma with her
husband, gymnast Bart Conner.
Agnes DeMille
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This choreographer, dancer, and author is best known for the ballets she
created on American themes and for the choreography of the musical Oklahoma!.
Dizzy Dean
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In his prime this man led major league baseball in wins,
strikeouts, complete games, and innings pitched and moved on to a
broadcasting career after his retirement as a player.
Ralph Ellison
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This author is most famous for his 1952 novel Invisible Man revealing the realities of the black experience in America.
Woody Guthrie
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As a folk- and country-based songwriter whose lyrical concerns embraced
social issues, Guthrie was the primary influence on the generation of
singer-songwriters who emerged in the early 1960s.
Hanson
http://opac.tulsalibrary.org/search/Y?SEARCH=Hanson+biography+musicians
Read about success of the band, made up of the three brothers Isaac,
Taylor, and Zac.
LaDonna Harris
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This Comanche woman spent many years working for the rights of Native
Americans.
Shannon Lucid
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Read about this Oklahoma astronaut through her various space shuttle
missions to her six months aboard the Mir space station.
Wilma Mankiller
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Mankiller was first woman Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
Mickey Mantle
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Find out all about this New York Yankee, famed for his legendary hitting
ability.
Shannon Miller
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Miller made history in 1992 by winning five Olympic gymnastics medals, the
most ever won by an American.
Adam Moore (Broken Arrow Boy)
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Adam Moore describes how he suffered a serious brain injury and recovered
with medical help and family support.
Bill Pickett
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This son of a former slave had an unusual bulldogging style that made him
a rodeo star.
Will Rogers
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Learn all about the life of this rope twirling humorist from his Oklahoma
roots to his death in an Alaska plane crash.
John Ross
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Read about this Cherokee chief who led his people for more than 40 years,
first in an effort to keep their homeland, and later through their
greatest trial when they were forced to go west by the United States
government.
Barry Sanders
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This former OSU standout was a well-known running back for the Detroit
Lions and the NFL's 1989 Rookie of the Year.
Willie Stargell
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Study this 1988 National Baseball Hall of Fame member from Earlsboro,
Oklahoma.
Sequoyah
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This Cherokee Indian invented a method for his people to write and read
their own language.
Maria Tallchief
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This descendant of the Osage tribe became one of American's prima
ballerinas; she gained international fame and founded the Chicago Ballet
and the Ballet of the Lyric Opera in Chicago.
Thurman Thomas
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This OSU football standout is one of the smallest players in the National
Football League and one of the best, playing for the Buffalo Bills since
1988.
Jim Thorpe
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This Oklahoma Indian came to be considered one of the world's finest
all-around athletes of all time.
J.C. Watts
http://opac.tulsalibrary.org/search/Y?SEARCH=julius+Watts+biography+black
Read about this African-American who began life in a poor, black
neighborhood in Eufaula, Oklahoma and went on to become a United States
congressman.
Troy Aikman
http://opac.tulsalibrary.org/search/Y?SEARCH=Troy+Aikman+biography
Read about this Superbowl-winning quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys from
Henrietta, Oklahoma.