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The Daily Oklahoman - Oklahoma City Times |
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  1961 Editorial Staff Oklahoma's Orbit Magazine |
In 1961 Ferdie Deering was asked to
assume editorship of Oklahoma's Orbit, a weekly magazine
supplement to the Sunday Oklahoman, which had a circulation of
315,000 at that time. His primary responsibilities were to
direct the editorial staff, purchase articles and photographs
from free lance contributors, make assignments to staff members
of The Oklahoman, and to oversee all phases of layout and
production. The magazine was improved by the use of
rotogravure printing with numerous color photograph
reproductions. Printing was done in Denver, Colorado. This task was in addition to his regular job as Editor and Manager of three Farmer-Stockman magazines, which by then had offices in Oklahoma City, Dallas, and Wichita, Kansas, as well as his weekly Agri-Business column. He remained in this position until late 1969. |
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Editorials
He wrote on a many different topics, but took every opportunity to blast bureaucratic government and socialism, and he encouraged faith, family, freedom and the free enterprise system. Here are a few of examples: Bureaucratic Control Still Growing; Freedom Drowning in a Sea of Laws; 'Big Lie' Ruins Youthful Lives; and Homes, Not Houses, Need Attention.
Some of the files below also include letters he received about the editorial he wrote. While most wrote in support of what he said, not everyone agreed, and some were very rude in their response. A few of the editorials he wrote were reprinted in other publications, such as The Baptist Messenger, and those reprints are also included in the file when available.
It is interesting to see that in some ways we have the some of the same problems today as then, and also how Ferdie could see the 'writing on the wall' and we are now living what he saw coming our way.
To help sort through all of this material, the editorials have been grouped by the topics listed below:
Territorial Tales Column
"In the spring of 1982 I was asked to rejoin
the Editorial Staff of the Oklahoman temporarily to supervise a big
special edition of The Sunday Oklahoman celebrating the 75th Anniversary
of Statehood on November 7. The Specials consisted of seven
sections, each devoted to an aspect of Oklahoma life. My job was
to secure articles and photos, and to handle the production."As an additional project, I decided to write a series of about 150 daily columns prior to Statehood day titled "Territorial Tales." Each featured an anecdote of the period leading up to statehood. These required considerable research into newspaper files, history books, and other sources.
"I enjoyed doing this, along with writing numerous articles for the special sections. Because at that time I was already writing two Editorial Page columns each week which carried my name and also was writing an Agri-Business column for The Sunday Oklahoman, I decided not to use a byline on them." - Ferdie Deering
Other Articles Published at the Oklahoman
| 3/1/1953 | Last 50 Years Good, Now What Can We Do? Push-Button Farming, Planetary Point 4 Ahead | |
| 12/1958 | December Fillers | |
| 1/1959 | January Fillers | |
| 2/1959 | February Fillers | |
| 3/1959 | March Fillers | |
| 4/1959 | April Fillers | |
| 5/1959 | May Fillers | |
| 4/22/1967 | Oklahoma in 2007 |