Press release: September 22, 2006

Mama Grace published for Oklahoma Centennial

After a flood demolished their home along the banks of the Chikaskia near Blackwell, Oklahoma in 1907, Mama Grace packed her five children and her treasured Majestic cookstove into a covered wagon and travelled -- minus Papa -- to her father’s homestead in Waynoka, Oklahoma.

A hundred years on, a historical novel based on her story, first penned by her daughter Letha Crossman, then picked up and revised by her great-granddaughter, Dana Bagshaw, has been selected by Oklahoma Centennial Commission the upcoming 100 years celebration.

Letha Crossman was resident and teacher in Ponca City from 1940 to 1968. Dana Jones Bagshaw grew up in Fort Smith, Arkansas, attended Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma in the 60s. She later received a B.A. degree from San Jose State University in California, and took employment in Silicon Valley as a technical writer. She currently resides in England where her play Cell Talk has been published and performed.

“What a story!” Sandra Olson of the Waynoka Historical Society exclaimed. She described Grace as “a courageous woman, a true pioneer who braved the unknown” “an entrepreneur” and “a wife who longingly watched the road for her husband’s promised coming.”

The book includes photo section of historical photos courtesy of the Waynoka museum, along with photos from the author.

In the final chapters of the book, Papa packs up the cookstove and the family and travels – minus Mama – perched atop the refurbished wagon through a bemused Tulsa in 1918 to a new farm in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

Mama Grace by Dana Bagshaw is available from Evans Publishing, Inc. Barnsdall, Oklahoma, at: www.readonoklahoma.com

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