January 2025

Betty Jane Reimers peacefully passed from this life on Jan. 18, 2025, at the age of 93. She was born Nov. 16, 1931, on a farm near Calumet, Okla.

Her early education began at Rock Dale, a nearby country school, when she was just 4 years old. After her family moved to a farm closer to Calumet, Betty attended Calumet High School, graduating at the remarkable age of 16. She then attended business school in Oklahoma City and worked at the First National Bank in Calumet.

Michael Scott Wills was born to Ardith Jane Wills and Armel Leon Wills on Oct. 30, 1967, in Ponca City, Okla., and went to be with the Lord on Jan. 20, 2025, at the age of 57 years and three months at the Watonga Mercy Hospital. He passed after a sudden illness.

Mike attended schools in El Reno, Maple and Greenfield. He graduated from Greenfield in 1986. He went into farming and ranching with his grandfather the day he graduated. He learned most of his grandfather’s ways and practiced them until his death.

Memorial services for Matthew Wayne Mitchell of Minco will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 25 at First Baptist Church in Minco, under the direction of Huber-Reynolds Funeral Home.

Matt died Jan. 8, 2025, at his home in Minco. He was born Nov. 18, 1966, in Chickasha. He lived throughout Oklahoma the majority of his life. At the age of 19, Matt joined the Oklahoma National Guard and served over 20 years, retiring in 2012.

What do you do with 43 turnovers by your opponent?

El Reno High School's girls basketball team answered that question with a 76-3 road victory over Santa Fe South last week to move to 11-0 on the season and remain tied with Carl Albert for the District 5A-1 lead.

The Indians took a 6-0 district mark into this week's road game at Elgin as well as a 39-game win streak dating back to last season. El Reno leads the Titans in the tiebreaker category by a positive 90-81 margin.

Kathleen Douglas came back to work for the city of El Reno once after retiring. 

She made it clear at last week’s city council meeting after being honored for her service that one encore would suffice. 

The executive assistant at the fire department, Douglas spent 25 years “directing traffic” for the firefighters, both en route to a fire as well as in the fire station. 

“She kept us in line,” Fire Chief Jason Duff said while honoring Douglas as the “Fireman of the Year.”

MaCrae Putnam admits to being a material girl struggling in a digital world.

Owner of “Make it Sew,” a quilt shop in downtown El Reno, Putnam sought a boost to help her business escape the post-COVID blues. 

The award-winning quilter has expertise in everything from batting to backing and blocking to binding. But she once lacked the know-how to reach and draw in the fabric faithful. 

With findings spanning decades, a forensic audit of the city of Yukon has identified significant problems related to prior administrators, including unauthorized transfers of funds, the diversion of $185,000 to an unusual nonprofit, the sharing of “hard-core” pornography, an avoided investigation of inter-office sexual encounters and an overpayment of nearly $35,000 in vacation benefits to a former city manager at the heart of the examination.

The Redlands Community College Board of Regents voted last week to sell a one-acre parcel of property to Brakes Plus, LLC.

The property is adjacent to the 0.89 acres recently purchased from RCC by Waffle House.

The RCC agenda for the Regents meeting said the sales price for the one acre was $413,820.

The transaction reflects the college’s commitment to fostering economic development and creating opportunities for growth in the El Reno community, said Redlands President Jena Marr.

Both El Reno basketball teams have reached double-digit wins for the year and will be on the road for the next four games.

The Indians will be back at Jenks Simmons Field House next on Jan. 28 to face archrival Carl Albert.

With all that’s going on in Washington, D.C. right now, it’s easy to forget how historic the November election was for Oklahomans. For the first time since the judicial system was reformed — or better stated, deformed — in the 1960s, Oklahomans voted not to retain a sitting Oklahoma Supreme Court justice.