Last weekend our family went to Tulsa for a friend's wedding and while there we visited the Woody Guthrie museum. I don't know Tulsa but I think it is located in the "Brady District". You can google it. Andy and I had been to the museum earlier this year and I found it amazing not only for the information about Woody Guthrie and his influence on American music, but also for the information about the Dust Bowl and Oklahoma history. When we went earlier this year, the museum had a travelling exhibit about the Beatles' first U.S. visit, and that was fascinating too. This time, the featured travelling exhibit was about Bob Marley.
Since I had gone through the Woody G exhibit and watched the videos and listened to the recorded stories before, I didn't spend much time on it. But I did notice that the informational video playing this time was different from the last time. And our son, Drew, caught a comment from someone on the video that I didn't catch. It was from a musician named "Sis" Cunningham from Watonga, Oklahoma! The following information is from OKHISTORY.ORG, sent to me by Jane Malcolm after I posted the question on facebook "does anyone know anything about Sis Cunningham"?
"CUNNINGHAM, AGNES (1909–2004).
Agnes "Sis"
Cunningham was born in Watonga, Blaine County, Oklahoma, on February 19,
1909, to William and Ada Boyce Cunningham. She grew up on a small farm
that had been homesteaded by her parents around the turn of the
twentieth century. Agnes's father was a socialist and follower of Eugene
V. Debs, the Socialist Party leader in 1901. Agnes Cunningham studied
music at Weatherford Teachers College (now Southwestern Oklahoma State
University) in Weatherford, Oklahoma, in 1929. After she graduated, she
taught music in the public school system. In 1932 she sought training in
socialist doctrine at Commonwealth Labor College, a radical labor
school in Mena, Arkansas. There she began writing labor songs and
learned the elements of social theater. She also trained in union
methods, organizing techniques, labor journalism, and labor-farmer union
developments. After finishing her course work, she returned to Oklahoma
and recruited for the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union.
In the 1930s Agnes Cunningham helped organize the Red Dust Players, an agitprop theater group, whose members presented short plays promoting political agitation and propaganda. The Red Dust Players performed at union meetings throughout the Oklahoma countryside to educate farm workers, sharecroppers, and tenant farmers on ways in which the union could better their lives.
In 1941 Cunningham married Gordon Friesen, a free-lance writer. The couple moved to New York City, and she became involved with the Almanac Singers, whose membership included Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Lee Hayes. The Friesens soon moved to Detroit, and Agnes became an active worker for the Communist Party in the 1940s. By the 1950s she had returned to New York, and she worked with folk groups and published Broadsides, a magazine promoting young songwriters. The Friesens came under investigation by the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee but were never called to testify. Agnes Cunningham Friesen died in New Paltz, New York, on June 27, 2004."
I am currently working on finding information about the Roman Nose Hills Trail Ride, its history, and checking into whether or not we can get it listed on some Oklahoma Historical register or get some other historical recognition. Like the Watonga Cheese Festival, which has been going on for 39 years, I've heard different stories from different people about who started it (both the festival and the Trail Ride). I am a person who wants to know things -- I don't ask questions to cause trouble or make waves, I ask questions to learn, to understand things. So I'm asking for information about the "Roundup Club" and the Byron Wolfe Trail Ride. Are they two separate things, are they connected and how? I can't wait to visit with our friend Coot about some information I've uncovered so far .... he's been here in Watonga long enough to know some things and he's not afraid to talk!!
If anyone who reads this knows anything about any of these events and wants to share, please contact me. My email address is phoenixcir@yahoo.com.
A very interesting movie called "the Reckoning" is worth watching.
In the 1930s Agnes Cunningham helped organize the Red Dust Players, an agitprop theater group, whose members presented short plays promoting political agitation and propaganda. The Red Dust Players performed at union meetings throughout the Oklahoma countryside to educate farm workers, sharecroppers, and tenant farmers on ways in which the union could better their lives.
In 1941 Cunningham married Gordon Friesen, a free-lance writer. The couple moved to New York City, and she became involved with the Almanac Singers, whose membership included Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Lee Hayes. The Friesens soon moved to Detroit, and Agnes became an active worker for the Communist Party in the 1940s. By the 1950s she had returned to New York, and she worked with folk groups and published Broadsides, a magazine promoting young songwriters. The Friesens came under investigation by the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee but were never called to testify. Agnes Cunningham Friesen died in New Paltz, New York, on June 27, 2004."
I am currently working on finding information about the Roman Nose Hills Trail Ride, its history, and checking into whether or not we can get it listed on some Oklahoma Historical register or get some other historical recognition. Like the Watonga Cheese Festival, which has been going on for 39 years, I've heard different stories from different people about who started it (both the festival and the Trail Ride). I am a person who wants to know things -- I don't ask questions to cause trouble or make waves, I ask questions to learn, to understand things. So I'm asking for information about the "Roundup Club" and the Byron Wolfe Trail Ride. Are they two separate things, are they connected and how? I can't wait to visit with our friend Coot about some information I've uncovered so far .... he's been here in Watonga long enough to know some things and he's not afraid to talk!!
If anyone who reads this knows anything about any of these events and wants to share, please contact me. My email address is phoenixcir@yahoo.com.
A very interesting movie called "the Reckoning" is worth watching.
