April 2021

Graveside services for Jan (Anita) Van Fleet, 66, of Chico, Texas, were held Thursday, April 22, 2021, at the Cowboy Church Cemetery in Henrietta, Texas, with Rev. Larry Miller officiating. Arrangements were under the direction of Davis Funeral Home in Henrietta.

Jan passed away Saturday, April 17, 2021. She was born Sept. 22, 1954, in El Reno to Roy and Jeanie Walbaum. She married Robert Van Fleet on Nov. 2, 1974, while attending Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford.

Our Lord opened his arms to welcome Marilyn Sue Conner into His Kingdom. Marilyn passed away on April 20, 2021, in Little Rock, Ark., after a brief illness.

Marilyn’s memorial service will be Monday, April 26, 2021, at 11 a.m. at Frisco Cemetery, north of El Reno.

Funeral services for Julia Kay Rodriguez were held Wednesday in the Benson Memorial Chapel with Pastor Kristen Donovan officiating. Burial followed at the Concho Cemetery under the direction of Huber-Benson Funeral Home.

Julia died April 16, 2021, at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City. She was born Jan. 8, 1955, in Geary. She was a certified nursing assistant currently living in Oklahoma City and a member of the First Nation of the Nazarene Church.

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In the first school-sponsored Junior-Senior Prom since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, El Reno High School students flocked to the Festivities Event Center to walk the red carpet for the grand march. Called “The Masquerade Ball,” students turned out in colorful dresses and tuxedos for the event.

Vehicles such as classic cars, muscle cars, sports cars, farm trucks, a monster truck and stretch limousines lined up three wide for more than a block waiting to drop off students for the walk.

El Reno has a film commission in place.

Last week the city council named the 10-person board to help guide, grow and foster the film industry here.

El Reno has hosted a number of movie productions over the past year, most finding their way to the Lifetime and Hallmark television channels.

Oklahoma has an attractive rebate program tied to the movie and music industry, and while California was shut down because of COVID-19, Oklahoma was open for moving-making.

Downtown El Reno development drew attention during last week’s city council meeting.

Council agreed to rezone property on South Rock Island from Combined Residential (R2) to Convenience Commercial (CC).

The request for the rezoning was made by David Jensen. The proposal was approved 4-1 with council member Steve Jensen voting to abstain, which counts as a no vote.

The property is .45 acres. It rests on the east side of Rock Island, just across the road from the campus of Etta Dale Junior High.

Brothers Steve and Peter Jensen of Jensen Farms in El Reno were recently recognized for their farming and cattle operation as a finalist for Producer of the Year 2021.

Sponsored by Livingston Machinery Company and supported by Manitou Group, the winner of the contest will receive a new Manitou telehandler for free for one year.

Matriarch is a nonprofit organization for indigenous women and children.

Co-founder Sarah Adams-Cornell said the support group has been addressing “the moving parts” -- domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault and more -- that cause murder and missing-persons cases to manifest in indigenous communities at-large.

Cornell and her friend, Kendra Wilson Clements co-founded Matriarch together about five years ago, and have since opened two chapters in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Frank Lucas (OK-03), U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), and U.S. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) sent a letter last week to President Biden urging him to suspend the executive order to close down prisons, including the Great Plains Correctional Institution located in Hinton.

Dear President Biden, 

We write urging you to suspend your January 26, 2021, executive order to close down prisons, including those housing criminal aliens.