Part V, Oklahoma City during the 1940s: Oh! What a Beautiful Morning

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Sep 2, 2003 by Journal Record staff

The Civil Aviation Administration established the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center as a centralized training and logistics facility with approximately 350 employees.

Gerald Cox launched E.V. Cox Construction. It got into tilt-up wall construction in 1969, where it became a market leader.

The C.R. Anthony Co. recorded its first $1 million-revenue store, in McAllen, Texas.

John Bozalis joined the architectural firm of Leonard H. Bailey. Three years later, Bob Roloff came aboard Bailey and Bozalis as an apprentice. Together they designed prominent buildings across Oklahoma City and the state, from the Will Rogers and Sequoyah buildings in the state Capitol complex to the "golden dome" and Citizen's Tower, the Myriad Convention Center, the Petroleum Club Building and Leadership Square. The firm adopted the name Bozalis and Roloff in the '70s.

Gene Wade won ownership of the Cattlemen's Cafe in a craps game with Hank Frey. He sold the operation in 1990.

The Oklahoma Farm Bureau Mutual Casualty Co. got its start, insuring automobiles. As the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co., its staff of 275 in Oklahoma City, 335 statewide offers property and casualty insurance.

Bill and Anna Faye Brown paid $8,000 for a small bakery at 1410 N. Robinson Ave. in Oklahoma City. That shop became famous locally as Brown's Bakery.

John B. Papahronis opened The Lunch Box Restaurant.

Hank Cusack returned from the war to buy out his brother Bill, taking over the meat purveying company Cusack Wholesale Meats. "I was a Navy cook on the Saratoga aircraft carrier during the war," recalled Hank. "I liked the food business, and I wanted to build it. We did about $150,000 my first year, when hamburger was selling for 17 cents a pound and rolled roasts were selling for 28 cents a pound." Four of his sons would help him carry the firm through the century, becoming an industry leader along the way.

Clifford Wilcox started selling records at his radio repair shop. This quickly blossomed into the Wilcox Record Shop, which for four decades was a metro leader in music retailing. "We used every square inch of space for inventory," recalled Wilcox. "I always felt it was important to have the merchandise available when a customer wanted it. Some people said I had a lot of dead stock. But if a customer came into my store and found a record he had been wanting for five years, that customer came back. The word got around that 'Wilcox has it.' That's the best advertising you can have."

Marie Henderson was asked to sing at Louis's 29 Club, 2929 SW 29th St. That launched the career of "Itty Bitty Marie," an Oklahoma City legend in the nightclub business.

Jacque P. Gray became dean of the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine, only to discover the school had been on unpublished tact probation for a decade. That jolted state and city leaders to reinvest in the complex over the next several decades, making it an economic center for Oklahoma City.

The organization 40 et 8 of Oklahoma started the Spastic Paralysis Institute for children with cerebral palsy. Becoming a state agency two years later, it went through five names in its history before settling on the J.D. McCarty Center for Children with Developmental Disabilities. It is the only hospital of its kind in the state.