Hospital to open Sunday, Aug. 21

–Sequoyah County Tinm, Aug. 12, 1949

From the files of Your Sequoyah County Times

25 Years Ago

(From the Aug. 5,1999, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —Sequoyah Memorial Hospital in Sallisaw will celebrate its 50th year at a rededication ceremony at 2 p.m. Sunday.

The hospital first opened on Aug. 21, 1949, with four nurses and 31 beds.

Today the hospital has 40 beds, 230 employees and offers numerous health care specialties.

Ruth Ann Roark, hospital administrator since 1989, said she has seen many changes over the years. Roark joined the staff in 1966 and was assistant administrator for several years before she was named administrator upon the retirement of Carrie Lee McClure in 1989.

And now, when many small or rural hospitals are facing cutbacks and even closure, Sequoyah Memorial Hospital is secure in its funding and its future, Roark said.

Sequoyah Memorial continues to survive, Roark said, because of the support of the community and the wisdom of its board of trustees and staff.

50 Years Ago

(From the Aug. 8,1974, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —the 31st annual Sequoyah County Round-Up Club Rodeo gets under way at 8 p.m. Thursday. Action in the International Rodeo Association competition will continue through performances beginning at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The traditional rodeo parade will begin at 5 p.m. Thursday.

The parade will assemble in the area in front of the Jaycee Hut. Riding organizations, political groups and other participating in the parade will line up in order. Any individual may also ride in the parade, according to Parade Marshal Bob Cotton and assistant Duane Choate.

—After winning singles titles, Wayne Bradshaw Jr. and Perry Lattimore, both of Sallisaw, teamed to win the open doubles division in the first annual Sallisaw Invitational Tennis Tournament Sunday.

The four-day tournament was sponsored by the Sallisaw Jaycees and Your TIMES.

75 Years Ago

(From the Aug. 12,1949, issue of the Sequoyah County Times) —The Sequoyah Memorial Hospital will be opened to the public at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21, to climax many years of work and struggle.

The open house will last from 2 until 8 p.m. It is expected that hundreds of visitors will pour in from throughout the county and from neighboring counties in Oklahoma and Arkansas, to see the latest word in small hospitals.

The idea of a memorial hospital for the county was first conceived at a meeting of the Sallisaw Lions Club several years ago. Since that time, the work has been carried out by a county hospital board, which brought the project through the long tedious stages of development.

The money had to be raised, the plans had to be drawn up and approved, the contracts had to be let, and the construction had to be supervised. The board, which was composed of five prominent countians, did its work well, as Sequoyah County’s citizens will discover when they visit the hospital one week from Sunday.

The board included Wheeler Mayo, chairman SW Armstrong of Vian, Edgar Blackard of Muldrow, and Dr. J.A. Morrow and Guy Thompson of Sallisaw.

The hospital will be ready to accept patients at the close of the formal opening.

—A partnership composed of R.C. Williams, Dr. F.B. Oliver and Dale Byrd has purchased the Palace Drug Store from Allen Smith, it was learned Wednesday.

Dale Byrd who has been employed by Smith for the past two years will manage the store for the new firm. Goy Wood, pharmacist, will continue in the same capacity.

Smith stated that he had no plans right now as to the future other than a few days vacation before “looking around” for a new location.

100 Years Ago

(From the Aug. 8, 1924, issue of the Sequoyah County Democrat) —Uncle Sam, in the person of a flying squadron of prohibition agents, “mopped-up” in Moffett Saturday afternoon.

Swooping down on the little border hamlet of Sequoyah County shortly after 2 o’clock, the band of federal officers, leaped from their automobiles and with the dust of a 30-mile ride from Sallisaw, where they had obtained the warrants of search and arrest, still hovering over the road, dashed into several houses and placed a number of persons under arrest for selling liquor.

The raid came to a sensational close on South Sixth in Fort Smith when a man was overtaken and arrested after all speed limits were broken by pursued and pursuers.

Padlocks will appear on the doors of at least a dozen houses in Moffett, if the authorities have their way, it was stated by Hiram Sutterfield, unit head of prohibition field forces in northern Arkansas, who led the raiding parties.

The raid was the climax to a quiet investigation conducted by special men working with the regular agents, it was learned. The officers, who had been at work since July 25, had accumulated fourteen bottles of liquor which they declared they had purchased from the persons arrested Saturday.

“Moffett has gained almost a national reputation as a town in which wide-open saloons were conducted,” Sutterfield states.

“The violations were so flagrant in Moffett,” declared one of the officers, “that we shall attempt to place information before the district attorney, warranting the issuance of warrants for the arrest of several property owners there whom we think had knowledge that a saloon was operating on their premises.”

—Five bullets from the revolver of Perry Chuculate, night patrolman, failed to stop an alleged booze car, going north on Wheeler Avenue late Sunday evening. Patrolman Chuculate spotted the car while out driving with his family in the south part of town. The officer intended to search the car as its occupants were suspicious looking characters. Just as soon as Chuculate tried to stop the speeding car the driver put on more gas and soon disappeared out of sight going east on Albert Pike Highway. The shooting soon brough out hundreds of people who went to the scene to render whatever assistance they could. No arrests have been made it is said.