Oral History Interview with Betty Price

Oral History Interview

with

Betty Price

Interview Conducted by Juliana Nykolaiszyn March 26, 2009 / June 10, 2009

Inductees of the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame Oral History Project

Interview History

Interviewer: Juliana Nykolaiszyn Transcriber: Samantha Siebert, Natalie Nielson Editors: Jacob Sherman, Latasha Wilson, Juliana Nykolaiszyn

The recording and transcript of this interview were processed at the Oklahoma State University Library in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Project Detail

The oral histories collected as a result of the Inductees of the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame Oral History Project preserves the voices and experiences of extraordinary Oklahoma women who serve as pioneers in their fields, made significant contributions to the State of Oklahoma, or have championed other women, women’s issues, or served as public policy advocates for the issues important to women.

This project was approved by the Oklahoma State University Institutional Review Board on June 18, 2007.

Legal Status

Scholarly use of the recordings and transcripts of the interview with Betty Price is unrestricted. The interview agreement was signed on March 26 and June 10, 2009.

Inductees of the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame Oral History Project

About Betty Price…

Betty Price was born in Booneville, Arkansas. After graduating from Central High School in Muskogee, Oklahoma she earned a degree in music education from Northeastern State University. Price is inducted in the NSU Music Hall of Fame and in 2001 was named distinguished alumni by her alma mater. From 1989 to 2007, Price directed the commissions of major sculptures, murals and paintings in and around the State Capitol.

After joining the Rose State College Community Service art faculty, she taught music at both Norman and Mid-Del for three years. She was a piano teacher while raising her three children, but after helping get a family friend elected to the Oklahoma State Senate, she became his secretary. She later worked as a secretary and artist for Lt. Governor and then Governor George Nigh.

She began working for the Oklahoma Arts Council as public information officer in 1974, and served as Executive Director of the Oklahoma Arts Council from 1983 until her retirement in 2007. During this time she worked with eight different governors. Price is a member of the Oklahoma Centennial Commission, the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum, Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission, Oklahoma Tourism Promotion Advisory Committee, the National Board of Artrain USA, Friends of the Mansion and Friends of the Capitol. She has served as an arts advisor to many state and non-profit organizations as well as on a number of boards across the state.

Price was inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985 and in 2006 she was honored as Red Earth Ambassador of the Year. Named State Arts Agency Director of the Year by the National Assembly of State Art Agencies in Washington, D.C, she is also the recipient of the 2004 Newsmaker Award from the Tulsa chapter of the Association of Women in Communications. In 2000, she was named the National Director of the Year by the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. In addition, she has been named among the Women of Influence by Oklahoma magazine and Honored One at the Oklahoma Indian Sovereignty Symposium in 1999, the same year she received the Chickasaw Nation Governor's Award. She earned the recognition of Centennial Woman of Distinction from the Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority in 1998 and received the National Alumna Award from the sorority in the early ’80s.

She is married to Norris Price; they have two children, Lisa Ann and George, a daughter-in- law Lisa Jan, two grandchildren, Natalie and Matthew Price, and sister Elaine Mason.

Inductees of the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame Oral History Project

Betty Price

Oral History Interview

Interviewed by Juliana Nykolaiszyn March 26, 2009 / June 10, 2009 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Nykolaiszyn My name is Juliana Nykolaiszyn with the Oklahoma State University library. Today is Thursday, March 26, 2009. I’m in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma interviewing Betty Price. This interview is being conducted as part of the Inductees of the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame Oral History Project. Betty Price was inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. Thank you for joining us today.

Price It’s a pleasure to be here.

Nykolaiszyn Well, let’s begin by learning more about you. Could you start with where you grew up and give us a little background into your early life?

Price I was born in Booneville, Arkansas and lived with my family in Shawnee, Oklahoma and El Paso, Texas. Then we moved to Muskogee. I was ready for first grade and so I started school in Muskogee and that’s where our home was after that.

Nykolaiszyn So tell me a little bit about the school you attended growing up as a young girl in Muskogee.

Price Well, I attended Longfellow, what we called grade school in those days, and West Junior High School and Central High School in Muskogee. I loved school, and of course, we thought Longfellow was the best of all schools.

Nykolaiszyn Now was Longfellow quite large or very small?

Price It was a large school. At that time we didn’t have kindergarten, so we started first grade and that’s where we made a lot of our lifetime friendships.

Nykolaiszyn What were some of your favorite subjects growing up?

Price Well, I loved art and music, and I liked spelling. In high school, I liked Spanish—that was a lot of fun. I also was involved in journalism. I have a story about this; my father had so wanted me to be a teacher that when I decided I was going to take typing in high school, he tried to stand in the way of that because he didn’t want me to become a secretary. As things happened in my life, it was the ability to be the co-editor of the high school newspaper in Muskogee and then going to Northeastern State University, I received a scholarship the second year to be the editor of the college newspaper even though I was a music major. It just worked out great.

Nykolaiszyn Wow, did you think you had a career in journalism budding?

Price Well, I didn’t think so, because my father wanted me to be a teacher as I said. And he and Mother both had convinced me that I should be a music teacher, and so that’s what I planned to do for my career.

Nykolaiszyn So growing up, did you play any instruments [or have] music classes?

Price We had a rule in our house that we couldn’t touch the piano keys until we were in the second grade. Mother would play for us, but we didn’t get to touch the piano. Then, in second grade we could take piano lessons. I had a tyrant for a teacher, Miss Mary de Graffenreid, she taught violin and piano. She was a very tough teacher. I used to play, I remember, just thinking I’m doing this so well, I wish Miss de Graffenreid would come up on the porch and hear me playing. She always made me a little nervous, I think. But we had recitals and they were a lot of fun.

I had fun doing a lot of different things, in the pep squad, and being the co-editor of the newspaper for our high school in Muskogee really took me away from my music somewhat. We had chorus, as well, so I was always participating in that. But it was fun to be involved with the school newspaper and then fun again to be involved with it at college, although it was hard work.

Nykolaiszyn You mentioned your parents did not want you to become a secretary. They wanted you to become a teacher. Growing up back then, what were career options for women outside of teaching?

Price Career options were being a nurse, a secretary, or a teacher. That was basically what you could choose from. With all of my emphasis on music, it just seemed like a good idea that I teach. I taught my first year at Norman and I was a music teacher for two schools every day. I had all of the students in those two schools. But it was a great time at OU [University of Oklahoma] and I enjoyed that and Norris finished his

degree there. The second year I taught second grade and that was in Del City. We settled in and Norris went into real estate at that time. But this business of typing, I got my scholarship with my ability to be the editor of the newspaper, the Northeastern. And that way I stayed in school and got my music degree and I was the Outstanding Senior Woman, of which my parents were very proud.

Nykolaiszyn Well, that’s great you had that funding to go to school, because I’m sure at that time it was hard in Oklahoma.

Price It was. It really was. I had a brother and a sister and we all had to be educated. My father worked for the post office and that was why we had moved to Shawnee, El Paso, and then Muskogee. My brother became a doctor and my sister lives here in Oklahoma City and is my dearest friend.

Nykolaiszyn And are you the oldest, middle, or youngest?

Price I am the oldest.

Nykolaiszyn As you were growing up, did you envision yourself becoming anything else other than a teacher? Or was it set?

Price No, I didn’t envision myself being anything else other than a teacher. After I taught two years, I became pregnant with our first child, Lisa. So I started teaching piano lessons while we had three children. Our family was always interested in politics. The dinner conversation would usually be political at my house and I loved this and I loved to be involved in elections. But one of the things that I think evolved was that we lived in a neighborhood where a friend of ours decided to run for the state Senate. His name was John [L.] Garrett and we had all of the family out working hard to get him elected.

When he was elected to the state Senate [in 1964; 43rd District], he needed a secretary. And guess what, I was the only one in the neighborhood who could type, so I went to work for him and that changed the whole career path because I went to the State Capitol. I loved the building. I started bringing art into our office and pretty soon other senators were asking for art for their offices. That led to a friendship with George Nigh, who was Lieutenant Governor at that time, and I started working part-time for George Nigh, as well. So I was a music teacher no longer and never to be again. But the most exciting change in my life happened.

Nykolaiszyn Boy, what a difference going from teaching kids to the State Capitol.

Price Yes, and I emjoyed working with legislators. Now, that’s not always easy and as I got into my work with the Arts Council, one of the things that helped I think was that I had become acquainted with a lot of the legislators, both senators and house members, and the governors. In my career I have worked with eight different governors, and some of those were two-term governors. So it was something that started because of a political campaign and changed my whole career path.

Nykolaiszyn Thanks to typing.

Price (Laughter) Thanks to typing.

Nykolaiszyn So with then Lieutenant Governor Nigh and then Governor Nigh, what work did you do for him?

Price Well, I worked as a secretary for him, but also I am an artist. As an artist, he decided that he would like me to paint all of the state emblems and so I researched the state emblems and I did a large plaque that had all of these state emblems on it. When the tour guides would start on the first floor of the Capitol, they eventually would come up to the 5th floor, which is where the Lieutenant Governor’s office was at that time, and they would use that to inform their students or the people who were visiting about our state. It was very educational. I found out that the state colors were green and white. Nobody knew what the state colors were and used various things. There have been a lot that have been added to the state emblems since then, but this gave us a chance to visit with the young people who came there. Then I painted a painting of the Capitol and an oil derrick for George’s office; and he still has that painting. (Laughs)

Nykolaiszyn Now back then, was there a lot of art in the Capitol?

Price No. When we were in high school, I came to the Capitol with the Student Council and we had a day at the Capitol. That was the largest building that I had ever been in, and I loved it. The only thing was, there was very little art in the building. There was the World War I memorial that had been there since 1928 on the south side of the Capitol. Then, after I started working in the legislature there were four portraits that were in the fourth floor painted by Charles Banks Wilson of Oklahoma’s famous Senator Kerr, Jim Thorpe, Sequoyah and Will Rogers. But other than that, there were just bare walls every place else.

Nykolaiszyn So after you worked for Governor Nigh, what did you go on to do?

Price I would take a week off during the legislative session and go participate in the [Festival of the Arts in downtown Oklahoma City]. I met the

director of the Oklahoma Arts and Humanities Council, which is what it was called at that time. He asked me to go to work for the Arts Council. I didn’t think I wanted to work full-time. My husband thought it was a good idea because I had been on committees. I had helped establish a mental health clinic and had some other things I was doing. He decided that our children were growing up, they were going to need to go to college, and that I should take this full-time job. Little did he know or did I know that it would be full-time-plus position because of all the activities across the state in the arts.

Nykolaiszyn Wonderful. So you joined the Oklahoma Arts Council starting back in 1974?

Price That’s right.

Nykolaiszyn What was one of your first jobs with them?

Price Well, the reason that they wanted me to go to work for them was because they knew that I had been advocating at the Capitol for arts funding and I didn’t hesitate to talk to these senators and house members about funding. So their idea was that I would do work with people in the Capitol, and then be the public information director (which again typing made possible) for the Arts Council. So it opened a whole new world to me. I loved the building, but I kept thinking about art for the building. I was asked to be the co-chair of a ceremony to dedicate the four historic murals by Charles Banks Wilson, and that was in 1976. This gave me a new relationship with the Governor’s Office. Of course, George Nigh was not Governor yet; he had been Lieutenant Governor. And it was almost like I was the art person in that building and painters would ask me to help them decide what color to paint a wall in the building. Now we have the Capitol Preservation Commission and everything’s set up where you don’t have random questions like that.

But I started spending part of my time at the Capitol visiting with legislators and it occurred to me one day that it might be nice if we had art available to put in legislative offices. So we contacted artists and had them bring their paintings to the Capitol. We had one day when they would come from all over the state and put paintings out in the rotunda on the fourth floor and then legislators would come out and choose a work of art for their offices. Well, it was amazing. It gave us access to every office because they all wanted a piece of art, and then you’d have to come in and check on it and talk about it. So it gave me a chance to really get to know legislators. Then, of course, we were trying to get funding for the Arts Council and I worked hard on that for many years.

Nykolaiszyn What a great advocacy piece, having that beautiful piece of art in their

office and you have to stop by and check on it and “Oh, by the way…” (Laughter) Now you became the Executive Director in 1983. How did this come about?

Price Well, it came about because the director was leaving and there were five men who had been directors of the Arts Council before I became the director. The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities were created in 1965. Henry Bellmon was Governor and you had to have state legislation to get the funding from the National Endowment. So this was when the Oklahoma Arts and Humanities Council was created. Of course it’s now the Oklahoma Arts Council, but that was the name of it at the time. It was created to enrich the lives of Oklahomans with the arts. I worked to help get that funding matching the federal funding in order to make it possible for us to deal with non-profit organizations in the state that were doing arts projects.

The five men that were directors before me were gone and I was acting director. There were some legislators who decided I should be the director, so they went to the Governor and asked him to make me the Director of the Arts Council. The Council is a 15 member board, and it’s their responsibility to hire the executive director.

Nykolaiszyn And who was the sitting Governor at that time?

Price George Nigh was Governor then. But I befriended all the governors. You know, I liked working in politics and in government and I liked all these governors. And there was something about the Governor’s Mansion, for example, if they needed art in the Governor’s Mansion, they would call me. When David Boren came in as Governor, I was in the Arts Council at that time and David had been a house member. My senator was the Mental Health [committee] chair. David Boren would come over and sit in the office and we would visit while he was waiting for Senator Garrett. Well, we just talked about the arts, because David loved the arts so much. So when he was elected Governor, I was invited to be on his inaugural committee. I was on that committee because he wanted an inauguration that was focused on the arts. We had a wonderful, wonderful time. And David Boren has continued to be a very close friend.

Nykolaiszyn What were some of the things that were included in his inauguration?

Price Well, we had Stage Center downtown. We had organizations from all of the state come in: trios, dance companies, orchestras, and we had a marvelous event where you’d go from one to another in order to hear or see a different performance. He had a cousin named Hoyt Axton, and Hoyt Axton and Arlo Guthrie came and performed at his inaugural ball.

That was a lot of fun!

Nykolaiszyn Oh, I bet. My goodness. So as Executive Director of the Arts Council, you continuously try to work for increasing awareness and funding. What were some of the other key roles that you were involved with?

Price Well, we were involved with the non-profit organizations across the state. I liked to be out with the people who are having performances and meeting the people in these towns. Another thing about working with the legislature, you need to know some people in their towns, their arts people need to get acquainted with their legislators and a lot of times they weren’t. It was part of what I saw my job as being was to be aware of what was happening in towns all over the state and wonderful things were happening. I feel that the arts enrich a community more than anything else. So it was fun to go out and get acquainted with people across the state and visit with their legislators while I was in that town.

The Arts Council does so much and I probably expanded the position by being so interested in the visual arts and the Capitol. And getting the legislation written to establish a Capitol Preservation Commission and that then was a way that the Capitol had an overseer with the Preservation Commission being responsible for the building and the grounds around the Capitol. I would be asked to do the commissioning of works of art as we started looking at those bare spaces on the walls. And then some wonderful things happened as a result of that.

For example, we had a state senator who would march me out to the center of the rotunda and show me that space where the Indian ballerina mural [Flight of Spirit] is now and he would say, “That needs to be a mural of the Indian ballerinas.” Then he would go back into [the chamber] and vote against the arts appropriation. (Laughs) This was kind of hard for me to understand. But it started a whole new way of working with the public art in the Capitol. We commissioned Mike Larsen to do the mural. And one of the most wonderful moments of my life was when we had a Sunday opening for the new mural in the rotunda, there were a thousand people there. It was jammed with adults and children. We had an orchestra and we had all five of the Indian ballerinas together. It was the first time they’ve all been in each other’s presence; people thought they danced together all over the world, but they didn’t.

We had Maria and Marjorie Tallchief, Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, and Moscelyne Larkin. [During the program] each one of these women was brought up separately on stage and we had little ballerinas with bouquets of roses for each one of them. Then they received a medallion. David Walters was Governor at that time, and he

presided with great enthusiasm. It was so wonderful to have these women there. Then five years later we brought them back and made them Cultural Treasures. Cultural Treasures is something that we developed during my time as Director of the Arts Council. These are people like John Hope Franklin, a very very wonderful historian and friend. And we have others like Scott Momaday and Charles Banks Wilson and all of the ballerinas. The first one was Te Ata, the Indian storyteller. We celebrated Te Ata and she was still living at the time, so we had her as our first cultural treasure.

Nykolaiszyn Now that we’re talking about the Capitol, can you take me through some of the work that was commissioned in the building?

Price Yes, Oklahoma Black Gold and We Belong to the Land were the lunette murals and they were painted by an artist named Jeff Dodd. Jeff is a fabulous artist, but just (laughs) to kind of clarify something about getting these murals up into those spaces, we had engineers who helped us with installation. You needed to examine the molding before the mural went up. Jeff had a fear of heights, and so I was the one on the cherry picker that went up and examined the moldings. And I loved it, I didn’t mind those heights at all. In fact, when the dome was put on the Capitol, that was when I went up on the scaffolding (laughs) to inspect the murals. I enjoyed going to these heights to inspect the Capitol art.

Nykolaiszyn It’s good you weren’t afraid of heights.

Price Right. (Laughs) My husband doesn’t like them very well, but I wasn’t afraid of them at all. We have Wilson Hurley murals on the second floor and those are mural-sized paintings that Wilson finally agreed to do. Wilson Hurley was born in Tulsa, but he ended up living in Albuquerque, New Mexico and we became good friends. And I tried and tried to persuade him to paint these paintings. He at one point said that artist that did the ballerina mural meant for his to be the most important work of art in the Capitol. (Laughs) So, with the help of one of my Council members, Ann Alspaugh, he was persuaded to do those four paintings. And [they represent the four corners of the state].

We created galleries in the Capitol, too. There is a gallery on the first floor for changing exhibits, there’s a gallery for photography, and then we have our State Art Collection gallery. In 2008 the legislature named that gallery for me and that’s been so exciting. So the Betty Price gallery is where the State Art Collection [is a permanent installation]. We also have a gallery next to the Blue Room. George Nigh called me one day after he had gone in as governor and he said, “Come over here, I want to ask you about something.” He had this space that was between the Governor’s office and the blue room. The Blue Room, of course, is the

ceremonial room that the governors use frequently. So I asked him what he was planning and he said, “I think this should be an art gallery.” So I got busy and visited some museums and found out how you’d [create a gallery that became] the Governor’s Gallery. The Arts Council keeps all of these exhibits, these changing exhibits, going and it’s quite a job. It truly is. But people love it. And I even love to see a legislator or maybe a maintenance person in the building looking at the new exhibits, they seem to really like it.

Two major works of art that are important to our building are the two sculptures outside. I was on the Centennial Commission and The Guardian by Senator Kelly Haney is atop the building and it was my job to, number one, decide what this was going to be, who was it going to be, and then who the artist was going to be. I had a wonderful committee and we determined that there should be an Indian on top of the building. Then we ran a competition for the artist and Senator Haney won the competition and it was really great. The sculpture in front of the Capitol is by Allan Houser. I became acquainted with Allan Houser shortly after I had started, while I was working as the Interim Director for the Arts Council. I got acquainted with him and started working with him. His studio in Santa Fe was fascinating and I loved to be there when it was the right timing in the process.

This was a sculpture that he and David Boren talked about. David liked Allan’s work as well and he called me one night from Allan’s studio and he said, “I have just seen this wonderful figure that Allan wants to do.” I said, “Well what about the one he and I were talking about?” and he said, “No, this is a different one.” So I got outvoted and I’m really glad I did. This is an outstanding sculpture and we’re so proud of it. At the time, Henry Bellmon was Governor and we needed $150,000 to pay for that sculpture. As it turned out, Henry Bellmon vetoed some of his own legislation but he left the money in for this sculpture. He had David Boren on the phone and Senator Penny Williams and they persuaded him that he should leave the funding in there. That sculpture is valued at over a million dollars now if you were to purchase it. It was a great time for us. We had a ceremony inside the building for the sculpture and then came outside and we had this gigantic red parachute that covered the sculpture. It started raining a little bit and so the parachute got pulled off the sculpture before we were quite ready. It quit raining and they had an Indian dance on the plaza [and smoking ceremony]. So that was one of our events that was so memorable.

Nykolaiszyn I was telling you before we started today, I’ve been to several state Capitols and Oklahoma’s is by far—it just blows you away when you walk in. The art everywhere is just amazing.

Price Working with the major murals, sculptures, portraits has been a privilege.

Nykolaiszyn Now, you of course have been in the Capitol pre- and post-dome. You are a domer.

Price That’s right. (Laughter) And I was able to climb up to the heights when the dome was being constructed with a hard hat, and it’s pretty exciting when you’re involved somewhat in the process. The dome had been a wish of some people that I was associated with for a long time. It was just nice to see that finally happen. I was asked to be on the Centennial Commission so that opened a lot of doors for the arts, because how better to celebrate than with the arts? And we’re so proud of the towns across the state that had their centennial projects. But the dome was major for us. I worked with Blake Wade who was the Director of the Centennial Commission. And I think Oklahoma had a great celebration, absolutely wonderful.

I haven’t talked very much about the Council. I’ve talked a lot about the Capitol and working with visual arts, which I love to do. But the Arts Council, as a state agency, has matching funding for non-profit organizations and this has to be for art projects. We have a granting process. Part of our funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, still. But we were able to get our funding up quite high over what we were getting from the Endowment. It’s still such a small part of the state budget; one tenth of one percent of the state budget is for the arts. And the arts are so important.

One of my passions has been to get art and music teachers back in our elementary schools. My role models were the art teacher and the music teacher. We started in first grade doing art. My friend, Helen Sue Bebb, my closest friend, was an artist, too. As children, we painted together and did all kinds of arts projects and have stayed as friends all our lives. We even met in Taos, New Mexico and painted together.

But the thing that I feel we must have is the enrichment that the arts give the people across this state. And, yes, it’s good to have your governors involved and your legislators involved. But there are thousands of people in this state who serve on these non-profit boards just to make something cultural happen in their towns. We have a wonderful artist-in- residence program where artists go in and work with children. The things that our organizations do are so well-planned and well-executed. And as I said, I have tried to be out across the state working, seeing these events and talking to these teachers and parents and art advocates about what they are doing for their hometown.

Nykolaiszyn So you’ve probably been to every county in Oklahoma?

Price Yes. I’ve been to every county in Oklahoma and of course we have to have a non-profit to come to us for grants. We’ve been in at least 70 counties across the state with some kind of art project. We also had a culture coalition for about ten years, and that was working with the Museums Association, the Visual Arts, and other associations to kind of look at the big picture. We had [a] great Congress on the Arts and Humanities when David Boren was Governor and continued this sort of thing where we’re sitting with others who are running the statewide organizations, and I think that that is more efficient. Also the creativity that you have when you are there with other people who have such a vision for their particular mission, whether it be a museum or a music organization, or other non-profits.

Nykolaiszyn You’re very well connected in the Oklahoma arts community. Who are some of your favorite Oklahoma artists?

Price Well, I’ve enjoyed working with Mike Larsen with the Indian ballerina painting and the relationship with Allan Houser, who died in 1984. Allan Houser was nationally and internationally known. We were very good friends. I would try to be out in New Mexico as frequently as possible and always would meet Allan in his studio and with his wonderful wife, Ann, who is now 96 years old. She’s quite a spritely little lady. She likes to go to the casinos and she wins a lot of money. (Laughs) But it just gives me a wonderful friend that I have there even though Allan is gone. I travelled to Washington with him when he got the National Medal of Arts [from the President], I travelled to New York when a sculpture of his was dedicated at the United Nations. So it was like here’s a chance for Oklahoma to celebrate Allan Houser, who was born in Oklahoma, celebrate Allan and show how much culture we have in our state. Allan’s work is on the OU campus now; it’s at the Tribal Headquarters at Apache [and Gilcrease Museum]. It’s interesting, Allan was the first baby born after Geronimo’s band was released from Fort Sill. He was very proud of that. And he worked on getting a letter from an older tribal member to document the fact that he was the first baby born out of captivity. It just is part of that wonderful mystique that we have with our artists.

Other artists that I admire include Charles Banks Wilson. The historic murals are wonderful works of art. And when I was up on the scaffolding examining those, I just appreciated him more than I ever had. We went to the Smithsonian with him when he was going to mount those murals. The murals were spread out on the fourth floor rotunda and glued on to plexiglass forms before they were raised and installed in the building. Charles Banks Wilson is one of my favorites. He is 90

years old. I saw him a couple of weeks ago when he was honored at the History Center. Dr. John Hope Franklin just died yesterday and John Hope was a dear friend and a cultural treasure. He enjoyed coming back to Oklahoma and was also speaking some place and we became fast friends. And it will be a great loss to Oklahoma. We also have an artist- poet Scott Momaday, and he is a great artist and writer. Those are some of the artists that I admire.

Nykolaiszyn And you could probably go on forever and ever…

Price I could. (Laughs)

Nykolaiszyn …because Oklahoma has such—we’re a young state but it has such a rich tradition, especially with Native American art, some of the immigrant populations, I mean it’s such a great tradition.

Price There are some other things that the Council does. We have a touring art program where orchestras and ballet companies and other performing groups can go into the smaller towns and we pay half of the fee for them to come in to the towns. For example, Guymon will have the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra come out to Guymon for a concert, and that gives the people in that town a chance to have their own event. So many of them would never be in Oklahoma City and have the opportunity to enjoy and be enriched with symphony music.

Nykolaiszyn It’s those little things that help inspire communities. And you never know, you could have a young child there who says, “I want to do that!”

Price Yes, you know that’s why it’s so important that children be exposed to the arts as early as possible. The enrichment that the arts give children helps them with their other subjects. I taught second grade as I mentioned, and it didn’t occur to me that you wouldn’t use the arts to teach your children. For any subject you can use the arts—art and music. And when we know that there are children who are not getting art and music in their elementary schools, by third grade their creativity is just pretty much shut down. It’s so important to start as babies being exposed to the arts, and then in school to have art and music teachers. I can’t emphasize that enough. It’s something that changes how they feel about themselves. We even have an alternative art program where there are alternative schools in which children or teenagers can come into an environment where they are able to learn to play the guitar, or to write, or to paint. It gives them a new self-esteem and they can become better students as a result of getting engaged and wanting to be there the day they’re involved in the arts. And then some of them have gone on to be substantial providers to the communities. They really were lost and the arts have enriched them and brought them to success.

Nykolaiszyn Well, one other thing the council is involved with is the Governor’s Arts Awards.

Price That’s correct.

Nykolaiszyn Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Price Yes. The Director of the Arts Council called me into his office one day when I was Public Information Director and he said, “I have found that another state has a Governor’s Arts Award. I want you to find out about it.” So he handed the project to me and it was very exciting. I contacted that state, which was South Carolina, and found out what they were doing. Then we started this during David Boren’s administration. This Governor’s Arts Awards [GAA] is a favorite of mine, because people nominate from all over the state. And then we have various awards: the Governor’s Award, we have an Art Education Award, and Community Service Awards. There are many ways that people can be recognized. We always do the ceremony at the State Capitol with the Governor presiding. We have people come from all over the state to celebrate these wonderful advocates for the arts.

The Governor’s Arts Awards is one of the oldest programs in the nation and it’s so beautiful in the Capitol building that probably it will always be held there. Although it celebrates some artists, this is more about businessmen and women who have contributed to the arts and helped in, let’s say a ballet company, giving substantial support for dance. The philanthropists are very important to the arts and the future of the arts. So we like to thank them with a medallion. It’s called the Allan Houser Medallion. I designed this medallion to not only honor Allan Houser, but also to be something that was associated with the State Capitol and that winners would have that memory.

Nykolaiszyn From your early days with the emblems with Governor Nigh and designing the medallion, have you designed other pieces that are currently in use?

Price No, I really haven’t. (Laughs)

Nykolaiszyn Okay, just checking. Now you recently retired from the Arts Council, and I know you continue to remain very busy. One of the groups you’re involved with is the Red Earth Advisory Board. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Price Red Earth was an idea that came from Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Kauger. She thought that Oklahoma needed an Indian festival to celebrate all of our wonderful, talented Indian artists, so a small group

came together. One of the things that I want on my tombstone is “Red Earth.” Because Red Earth is the name that came to me just out of the blue when we were meeting to decide on whether we were going to call this the Indian Exposition of 19so-and-so or other long names. It just kept beating in my heart that we needed something that was short and to the point and so Red Earth was selected as the name. We have had great success with Red Earth. The thing that we didn’t realize was how spectacular the dancing would be. We were so anxious to help Indian artists that we didn’t realize that we were going to be helping Indian dancers, too. It’s a great festival. One of the things that Oklahoma needs is to celebrate its Indian population and the artists especially. Indians have the arts as part of their lives; in many of their ceremonials and tribal affairs.

Nykolaiszyn Now, we learned the background we need for our careers in many different places. Sometimes it’s from real world experience, sometimes it’s in school. Where have you learned the background you needed for your career?

Price Well, I think that I had wonderful teachers, teachers who took time with me. That is one thing that happened at Northeastern. The classes were small in most cases and so you had some individual attention from your teachers. The fact that we were interested in politics at our house and spent time on that gave me an appreciation of government and I think helped in molding me for what my future would be. There was a time when I earned a salary when I was playing [piano or organ] for a church. So from the time I was in junior high school I was working in Methodist churches outside of the Baptist church, which is where our family belonged. (Laughs) I thoroughly enjoyed the choir practice on Wednesday night and then playing for the Sunday services.

Nykolaiszyn And it all comes back around.

Price Mm-hmm. It does.

Nykolaiszyn Did you face any stumbling blocks or adversity along the way?

Price Well, I think it’s always difficult to get funding for the arts. It’s difficult to get funding for anything, but getting funding for the arts is difficult. And I wouldn’t call it a stumbling block, it was a challenge. A challenge to see what we could do to help fund the arts, because the legislature has a mandate that we are to have quality arts experiences for every man, woman, and child in this state. So as a result there’s a lot of work to be done with not all that much money. I do think that having that as a challenge was something that kept me energized.

------End of March 26, 2009 interview ------

Nykolaiszyn My name is Juliana Nykolaiszyn with the Oklahoma State University Library. Today is Wednesday, June 10, 2009. I’m in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma interviewing Betty Price. This is interview number two. This interview is being conducted as part of the Inductees of the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame Oral History Project. Betty was inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. Thanks again for joining us.

Price Oh it’s my pleasure.

Nykolaiszyn We spoke a lot last time about your involvement in the Arts Council. I just want to touch base on a few things that we talked about and maybe go a little deeper. The focus of the Arts Council I’m sure has changed from when you first started to when you left. Tell me a little bit about the evolution.

Price Well when we first started, the national endowment had been formed and the carrots which went out to the states, if they would make an effort to get an Arts Council established in state government then there would be funding that would come and that funding could be used for grants. What happened was when we first started we had money but we didn’t have very many non-profit organizations, so it was really important that the non-profits be established in the state so that we could be a cooperative agency with them. And so it never happens now, but at first, there was a reason to need someone to fund when we started the Arts Council. I remember that the director during one period of time decided that we needed a State Art Collection so he developed a program and we were able to buy art with federal money and started the State Art Collection which was really a marvelous addition to the state.

Nykolaiszyn It seems that the Arts Council from promoting education in schools to art in the communities has been a very big focus through the years. How important was that while you served throughout your tenure?

Price It was very important and one of the things that was very close to my heart was in getting artists-in-residence into schools where children would have a musician, an artist or teachers of other arts disciplines coming to their school where that might be the only time that they were exposed to the arts because so many of our schools didn’t have art or music teachers. So that is one thing that I think changes lives. I’m convinced that we wouldn’t have to build so many prisons if we had art and music teachers in elementary schools.

Nykolaiszyn And it’s still a problem today.

Price It really is. And it just seems that the people who can make the difference simply haven’t realized yet how important it is to start the children with art and music.

Nykolaiszyn Well also during your tenure with the Arts Council, you saw a lot of technology changes as well. Can you talk about how your online presence developed? It was pretty early.

Price Well I had a brilliant staff and we were the first state agency to go online with grant applications and we’re very proud of that because it helps people don’t understand a lot about what the Arts Council does. And so much of what happens with the Arts Council is that the grants that go out there cause the arts to happen all over the state. This was a really wonderful thing for our agency.

Nykolaiszyn On average how many grants are awarded a year?

Price Well there are about 800 organizations that really qualify to come in for grants and there are about 1500 grants a year.

Nykolaiszyn Wow.

Price Yes.

Nykolaiszyn That’s really good.

Price It really is good.

Nykolaiszyn Well regarding to the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame, when you were notified that you were going to be inducted, what was going on in your mind?

Price Well of course I was just overwhelmed and thinking that this is one of the greatest things that can ever happen to me. And my family and friends were so thrilled. It was just something that had so much meaning to it and to be included with the women who were already in the Women’s Hall of Fame was a great honor for me.

Nykolaiszyn Can you describe a little bit about the ceremony and what it was like back in 1985?

Price Well that’s a long time ago. But I recall there was a really fine group of women that was honored that night, but one that I was particularly thrilled about because I was a friend of David Boren and that his aunt, Mae Boren Axton was installed in the Hall of Fame that night, too. It was a fun evening. I remember my dress was purple and that I had more

eye makeup on than I usually do.

Nykolaiszyn It was the eighties.

Price Yes, that’s right!

Nykolaiszyn It was okay.

Price It was. And I think that this was just—it was fresh, it was fairly new. I had family from Muskogee come. It was a wonderful dinner that evening. It was in a hotel here in Oklahoma City.

Nykolaiszyn Did you have to get up and say a few words?

Price I did have to say a few words, and that was very few. I was pleased and honored to accept.

Nykolaiszyn Well could you tell me what this type of honor means to you?

Price Well it means that somehow I have accomplished something as a woman that is worthy of recording in our state’s history. And for so long there was a glass ceiling where women weren’t directors of most state agencies and in positions where men had been primarily in those places of leadership. And I think that you have to have a great deal of enthusiasm and love for what you’re doing in order to get to that position. I was very fortunate as I worked with the different governors and the different members of the Council to have the art’s agency recognized nationally for the work that it did. The meaning to me and my family is one that has been something that we’ve shared with our friends and family over the years. And it’s a very nice honor.

Nykolaiszyn Well how do you feel that now people look at you as a role model?

Price Well it’s hard to think of myself as a role model. But I recall a few years ago I was asked to give the address at the University of Oklahoma Fine Arts Commencement. I gave that address that day to a full house. I later met a young woman who had been in the graduating class and she told me that she had gone to work for a museum because she had heard me speak. She realized that that was what she wanted to do, that she wanted to be in arts education. She became the arts education director for a major museum.

Nykolaiszyn Those are good stories.

Price Yes.

Nykolaiszyn Looking back both in your professional and personal life, can you share some moments that you consider some of your biggest highlights?

Price I can. I think that one was the unveiling of the Allan Houser sculpture in front of the State Capitol. That had been a very hard project for us, difficult as these public art projects can be. It was a great day. A lot of my work has been with Indian people and I enjoy that very much. I think that because we took the land from the Indians that this sculpture is one that memorializes the Indians and gives them the credit for having been on this land first. This was their land and the Indian woman, As Long as the Waters Flow, is the name of it. [It was named by the artist and refers to all the U.S. government treaties that were broken.]

Nykolaiszyn Are there any more highlights you’d like to share?

Price I think a highlight would be becoming the executive director of the Oklahoma Arts Council. I really loved my job. After I became the executive director, it was just something that I always would want to be. And highlights always included the Governor’s Arts Awards.

Nykolaiszyn Does the Governor have a say in who wins?

Price No. He has his opportunity to present medallion to them, congratulate them and make a speech for [a standing room only audience].

Nykolaiszyn Well you made mention of some early teachers and some family members throughout the interview, but would you like to say anything special about the people who helped play an important role in your life?

Price Well at the time that I was in high school, I think that my role models were my teachers and I also feel that in my job I still had role models. I assume I was a role model, but I had role models that I really felt helped me along the way. The idea of role models—what comes to mind is when you’re so involved in the arts and you love the arts and you are trying desperately to give the arts more to the state, to the boys and girls and the adults in this state, the way that you do that is you look at other people and see how they are managing something that is rather difficult and that somehow happens and evolves in terms of leadership. I feel that leadership in the arts has been tremendous in this state. Having the opportunity to be a leader has given me the most satisfaction and knowing that there are young people out there who will someday be filling the positions that people like me are in, then I think we feel fortunate.

Nykolaiszyn Tell me how you met your husband.

Price Well I met my husband at Northeastern. He was from Eufaula and I was in Tri Sigma sorority. And that’s another honor that I’ve had as a member of my sorority. I’ve had national honors there and it’s very, very important to me. But I was in Tri Sigma and he was in a fraternity and so they kind of liked one another. The first time I ever talked to him I recall asking him (because he has a ruddy complexion) if he was Indian. And actually he was part Indian. His grandmother was Indian. But he likes to tell people, “That funny looking thing asked me if I was part-Indian.” And that’s how our romance started. We dated in our freshman year and sophomore year and then he went with the National Guard to Japan where he served in the Army there. He was there a year. When he came back, he went to school at OU and finished at the University of Oklahoma and we got married. I got a job teaching school in Norman, which was my first job, and he was finishing school. So I had a year of teaching and enjoying the campus life as well. It was a lot of fun. And he’s wonderful. He is so helpful to me and so supportive. We have a lot of fun together.

Nykolaiszyn And you have the trains?

Price Yes.

Nykolaiszyn Tell me about the trains.

Price Well he loves trains and collects model trains. He built a NorrisTown USA station in our backyard. And every year at Christmas time we have a party for boys and girls to come in and run the trains. He loves to do that for the kids. And the adults are really as interested as the kids.

Nykolaiszyn That’s a lot of fun.

Price Yes.

Nykolaiszyn Could you give some words of wisdom to people who are looking to follow in your footsteps?

Price Well I think that one of the things that was helpful to me as Director of the Arts Council was having a good staff and having wonderful council members who were willing to serve, fifteen at one time working hard on making the decisions on the grants, and helping out in many ways. But I feel that those are what have meant so much to me. What’s important is working with the legislature and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is not always easy, but I think that state agency employees, whoever they are, need to appreciate the legislature. That is a hard job. Early on in my career, I had been asked to run for the House of Representatives and I made the decision that I could do more [for the state] if I worked in the Arts

Council and kept working hard there than if I went to the legislature. And of course my life would be a totally different life if I had chosen to—and of course I would have had to be elected. My family decided that they had been in enough political campaigns that they would just as soon I didn’t run for the office.

Nykolaiszyn Well there’s time now.

Price Well there have been some people talking to me.

Nykolaiszyn If Betty Boyd could come back from retirement, then you could do it too.

Price I love Betty Boyd.

Nykolaiszyn If you could give any piece of advice to Oklahomans, what would you tell them?

Price Well I would tell them that they need to be sure that they have arts in the lives of their children and their grandchildren, and that’s starting from the time they’re born or even before. That the arts are so important to their development as a person and what the arts can do for their brains in terms of music and drawing and all the things that you can do with the arts. It’s sad that sometimes children don’t have art teachers until fifth grade. I think that the creativity level has gone down from the time they started kindergarten or pre-kindergarten. You lose so much by waiting that they need to be exposed to the arts all the time. And we have such great examples of young people who really did not look as if they were going to make it in terms of school. Many of them were headed to prison. And if they were given a musical instrument and given a chance, or given clay to start doing sculpture and start working in the arts they found that in the alternative sites that the days that they had the arts, they would always be there when they were in those alternative schools and they couldn’t stay in the regular classroom sessions. I think that this is what is going to make our state great if we have more children exposed to the arts when they first start school. It needs to be a priority. It doesn’t cost all that much money and in the long run it pays off because they achieve academically higher when they’ve had the arts.

Nykolaiszyn What’s next on the agenda for you? What are you busy with now?

Price Well I am enjoying more time with Norris and our children and grandchildren. I also have stayed on the Indian Museum and Cultural Center Board as an emeritus member. And this is a wonderful project that is actually a $150 million project to have an outstanding Indian Culture Center for Oklahoma City—actually the state of Oklahoma. And it’s located on the river. There’s already one building there and I just sat

in on a panel for a public art project for that information center. It is going to be a sculpture and it will be done by Bill and Demos Glass from Locust Grove. They’re well known artists and they won the competition. Right now we’re raising money for the Cultural Center. It’s difficult times to try to raise this money but we have a wonderful staff and the chairman for the board is Governor Bill Anoatubby. He’s the Governor of the Chickasaw Nation. We have extraordinary leadership both in staff and board members.

Nykolaiszyn And are you still creating art in your spare time?

Price I haven’t started painting again but I plan to. I’ve been invited by a gallery to display my work there so I’m getting ready to take that on. [I remain close to Norman Wilks who started my art career in his gallery.]

Nykolaiszyn What does Oklahoma mean to you?

Price Oklahoma is precious to me. I think it is a marvelous place to live and I like the people in Oklahoma. People are so friendly and I always kind of wore a tourism hat, too, with the arts and how we want them to see the best of what we have when they come to our state. The arts certainly work into that very well. I just think this state has a spirit about it. We saw that with the Murrah bombing and we will see it with the hard times that we’re in right now, that people are strong. They love the state, they support the state. And by the way, I was very thrilled that the new license tag has an Allan Houser sculpture on it. I was with his family over the weekend at the Red Earth Festival.

Nykolaiszyn Well that’s a good position to be in. You mentioned your tombstone. When history is written about you, what would you like for it to say?

Price I would like [them] to know that during the time I worked for the Arts Council that it made a positive difference in the lives of children and adults across the state of Oklahoma, exposing them to the arts and giving enjoyment and knowledge to them.

Nykolaiszyn Well before we close our interview, is there anything else you’d like to add that I have not asked about?

Price Well I would like to talk just a moment about the other women that are in the Women’s Hall of Fame. So many of these are friends or they are people that I have known of during my life and I think that Oklahoma has extraordinary women. I’m so glad that you’re doing what you’re doing to help bring this to history as well as the public in letting people know that there are women in every phase of careers that have done a remarkable job for the state of Oklahoma. And as I love our state and

love Oklahoma, love that George Nigh got Oklahoma as the state song, I must think about the women that I know and admire and even though my role models were teachers, I feel that there are role models as judges and lawyers and women in all kinds of jobs that are role models. I think that’s what makes us a great state. In summarizing, my interests in legislature and the fact that there is a body that comes to the Capitol that works for the people of Oklahoma. They should be held in high esteem. They do a good job for us. And those men who have been governor, we may end up with a woman as governor and I know that there will be a very hot campaign this time around. So we have people like that who love their families and yet they will give of themselves for the betterment of the state in their jobs.

Nykolaiszyn There are many great women in the Hall of Fame. There really are.

Price There are a lot of great women in the Hall of Fame. And I think that the chance to talk about it is good as is the opportunity to have it included in the history of our state.

Nykolaiszyn I appreciate your time sharing your life with us, your stories from your long career and your passion for the arts in Oklahoma. We appreciate it very much.

Price Thank you so much. It’s my pleasure.

------End of June 10, 2009 interview ------