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

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

C.J. DeLong launched the DeLong Mailing Service in 1948. He sold his interest in the firm to his former general manager, Frank Maschino, in 1989.

In 1948, John E. Rea started Rea Engineering. The civil and environmental engineering firm now operates as Design Engineers under ownership of John Baker, Kevin Williams and Kendall Dillon. It employs 18.

1949

On June 6, after building the state's first television tower, WKY- TV brought daily TV broadcasts to the Oklahoma market, signing on as Channel 4 in Oklahoma City. On Oct. 1, the station aired its first live broadcast of a University of Oklahoma football game, vs. Texas A&M.

Arthur "Fuzzy" Rahill opened a small beer hall at NW 12th and Classen. When liquor laws changed a decade later, Rahill expanded with a restaurant, enjoying several decades of success as a popular big band club. Count Basey, Harry James, Tommy Dorsey Jr. and the Glenn Miller orchestra played at Fuzzy's through the era. He sold the 7,200-square-foot restaurant in 1982.

In 1949, at its Belle Isle plant OG&E installed the nation's first gas turbine used to generate electricity at a power station.

The owners of a small, 19-year-old triangular-shaped building at 2426 N. Classen Blvd. decided in 1949 to sit an extra-large sculpture of a milk bottle atop the roof and renamed the shop the Milk Bottle Grocery. Most often associated with Townley's Dairy through its history, the bottle building was acquired by John Kilpatrick of Kilpatrick Investments in 1971, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. "The milk bottle is an outstanding example of advertising as an overtly outsized sculptural form," said Melvena Heisch, deputy state historic preservation officer.

In 1949, J.A. Buchanan opened a small grocery in a patch of farmland at SW 59th and Western. "We had to move an old farm water tank to build the store," recalled his son, Jack. "There were no homes south of SW 56th Street. My father felt this would be a good opportunity." It launched what became the Buchanan Food Marts chain, which thrived for five decades, until Wal-Mart started selling groceries.