In November 1969, the world discovered Muskogee, Oklahoma, U.S.A.

And the town where “even squares can have a ball” has been reaping benefits and enduring taunts ever since Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee” went No. 1 on the charts 40 years ago.

Those who grew up with the song recognize it as a great conversation-starter.

Rhonda Beard, a 1967 Muskogee Central High School graduate, recalled how people reacted when she was an American Airlines flight attendant in the early 1970s.

“And it always caused some sort of conversation,” she said. “And response was always positive and interested.”

She and her husband, 1971 Muskogee High School graduate Ken Beard, said they got similar reactions when they lived in various towns, including the country music Mecca of Nashville.

“There was probably a little more discussion about it, since it was such a novel record,” Ken Beard said. “They’d say ‘Oh, there really is a Muskogee, Oklahoma.’”

That sense of identification proves the song’s marketing power, even after 40 years, said Michael Landry, associate professor of business at Northeastern State University.

“It’s got to be worth millions of dollars in publicity,” Landry said. “Not only was it a big hit when Merle recorded it, but it has been re-released since then. Even if it was meant as a satire, it captures a kind of way Oklahoma is. When we recruit faculty here, we know we cannot pay as much as more prosperous states, but what attracts some people are the old fashioned values reflected in the song.”

The Greater Muskogee Area Chamber of Commerce flashes the song title on its logo and answers telephone calls with “We’re proud to be Okies from Muskogee.”

“And when we say that, callers either sing or laugh,” said Sue Harris, chamber president and CEO. Harris could rattle off one instance after another how even tourists from other countries have been attracted to Muskogee because of that song.

“We got a call from Australia, and the guy said, ‘I always liked the song, but I always thought it was a catchy line. I didn’t know it was a real song,’” Harris said.

Then, there was the Japanese tourist who came to Muskogee with a cassette of the song so he can play it here, Harris said. Harris recalled hooking him up with local musicians Jim Blair and Zac Swon.”

“They came up and sang it for him, and it brought tears to his eyes,” she said. “I could just go on and on.”

The Chamber even got a life-sized cut out of young Merle Haggard so tourists can get their pictures made with it. They plan to put it on the Muskogee Civic Center stage, where Haggard performed it.

Still, Harris recalled the mixed feelings when the Chamber considered adopting the song as a slogan.

“It was a mixed bag when we first sat down and talked about it,” she said. “One group remembered the old feeling of what an Okie was and it was unflattering. But we knew ‘Okie from Muskogee’ wasn’t going to go away.”

The term Okie was often used in contempt for migrants who sought to escape the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The song, which may or may not have been written as a satire, also evokes an image of people who are behind the times. Harris said the song is a reflection of the time it was written, 1969, the height of campus unrest and the Vietnam War.

“There are pieces of the song that I like, but not the parts where we come across as being judgmental or narrow,” said former Muskogee Mayor Wren Stratton. “In high school I really found it offensive.”

However, in the decades since then, Stratton said she grew to appreciate the song’s whimsy.

“Anyone who takes the song’s lyrics seriously has issues with it, but not people who realize that it’s tongue in cheek,” she said.

When Muncy R. Bear, a professional driver from Fort Gibson, tells people that he’s from Fort Gibson and explains that it’s near Muskogee, he’s asked the inevitable.

“I've had the phrase, ‘Oh, you're an Okie from Muskogee?,’ asked probably a couple of dozen times,” Bear commented on the Phoenix’ Facebook page.

And, it usually doesn’t end there. People prove they know the song.

“Over the last 14 years, I've had to endure some good singers and some bad singers sing the chorus to "Okie from Muskogee" at least a dozen times. It never gets old,” he said.

Photographer Robert Kelly, a 1969 Central High School graduate, recalled hearing people talk about the song when he went with his parents to photography conventions.

“Back then, the college dean was Orville Eaton at Bacone,” he said. “The song was kind of a neat thing. Before that, Muskogee wasn’t known in the world.”

Landry recalled his first impressions of Muskogee coming from the song.

“I remember being a newscaster with a country-western radio station in Detroit in the late 1960s, and I remember the song was on all the time. It was about down-home America.”

“We never took it as a put down,” said Rhonda Beard, who now teaches sixth grade at Sadler Elementary School. “It was plain old Muskogee, Oklahoma. Nobody made fun of it. I don’t even know if they knew it was a real town.”

Ken Beard, who now is director of business development for Tulsa Connect, recalled waking up to the song when it was played on the KBIX morning show.

“And I swelled with community pride,” he said. ”I didn’t think of this as being a silly country song. It was more like ‘Hey, they’re talking about us.’”



Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com