November 2025

El Reno High School has seen graduates serve in most branches of the U.S. military, but few households can match the influence of the Marion Conner family.

Ten family members, spanning three generations, have answered the call to defend this nation over a 53-year period.

It’s that commitment to service that has earned the family the 2025 El Reno High School Veteran of the Year Award. The Conners will be honored Tuesday during the school’s annual Veterans Day Assembly.

Public safety was the focus when Canadian County Sheriff Chris West traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Donald Trump and cabinet members for a Homeland Security Committee meeting.

Sheriff West, president of the National Sheriffs Association (NSA), joined incoming NSA Executive Director Justin Smith for a roundtable at the White House to discuss the administration’s efforts to combat cartels as well as drug and human trafficking.

Gladys Van Buskirk celebrated her 107th birthday on Nov. 6. She has lived on the same road all of these years.

When she was a little girl, Gladys would get a new pair of shoes and she told her mother she wanted to walk to Harry’s house to show them to her friend.

Her mother would walk with her the three-fourths- mile trek to Harry’s house where little Gladys would show off her new shoes.

Riverside October Citizens of the Month are Archer Kerr, Isaac Benson, Colton Price, Izzy Vincent, Camryn Rinehart, Greyson Walker, Alivia Ontiveros, Arrelyn Muskett and Dreydan Shawnee.

Also, Solomon Baker, Hazel Dillion, Rylee Deshields, Greyson Perez, Kason Ward, Lane Clark, Yitzel Casanova, Shane Funk, Kevin Factor and Whitney Sneed.

Acknowledging their decision was practically a toss-up, Canadian County commissioners selected a company to conduct the county’s bridge inspections for a two-year period.

Commissioners voted 3-0 Monday to use CEC Corporation of Oklahoma City to perform routine bridge safety inspections in the county from April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2028.

Commissioners recently interviewed vendors from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s pre-qualified bridge inspector list.

The El Reno Wranglers recently held their October meeting, with Trisha Duncan opening with the flag salute and Gary Sorrells leading in prayer.  

The group discussed the upcoming Veterans Day Parade and the annual Thanksgiving dinner/auction set for Nov. 16. 

The club nominated and voted in new officers and board members. They are as follows: Julie Huber, president; Gary Sorrells, vice president; Betty Johnston, historian; Queen Trisha Duncan and Princess Lidy Novak.

Carl Edward “Sonny” Weaver, 88, peacefully passed away at his home on October 25, 2025, after a day of watching football with friends and enjoying a glass or two of wine. Something that he did weekly with his brother Ronnie until his death in February of this year.

Sonny was born November 20, 1936, in Okarche, Oklahoma. Sonny was the oldest of three children born to Carlos and Edith Weaver. Sonny cherished his parents and his siblings, sister Barbara Jo Weaver (Merveldt) and brother Ronnie Weaver. 

On May 18, 53-year-old Carl Kachel stepped into line for a routine blood sugar check in the Cleveland County Detention Center. They turned out to be his last steps.

Jailed on a 16-year-old Jackson County warrant with a $1,000 bond, Kachel’s end came after a string of evictions that also began in 2009. The last one on record was filed on Dec. 2, 2020, by Brigid Kennedy, one of thousands she filed in central Oklahoma that year.  

Jerry Dale Allen, 84, of El Reno, passed away peacefully on Nov. 2, 2025. Born Dec. 22, 1940, in Sarasota, Florida, Jerry was a devoted husband, father and grandfather with a heart for church ministry and a passion for personal projects. 

After moving from Alabama to Texas, Jerry worked at Johnson Space Center in Houston where he made significant contributions to the NASA Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs from 1965-1971. He later moved to Oklahoma where he worked for the Justice Department from 1971-1997 as a metallurgical engineer. 

EDMOND – Set to run alone and having some butterflies in her stomach, El Reno High School junior Lilly Owen admits she was feeling anxious before her biggest race of the season.

“I was really nervous at first,” said Owen.

Then the gun sounded to start the 2025 Class 5A Girls Oklahoma State Cross Country Championships and those nerves simply vanished.