Osage County

Ensemble or record	Place	Period documented	Evidence
Osage Council House band photograph	Pawhuska	Date unknown, collection covers 1890-1920	(strong evidence)
Shidler High School Big Blue Band	Shidler	1935-1999	(strong evidence)
Shidler Blue Notes stage band	Shidler	Began 1961	(strong evidence)
Henryetta High School Band	Henryetta	1946-1963 under Tony Anderson	(strong evidence)
Other county school and civic bands	Countywide	Requires additional verification	(limited evidence)

Shidler High School Big Blue Band

The Shidler alumni history states that the band tradition began by 1935. Floyd Weger directed a 20-member group that earned second place at the Ark Valley Conference and Northern Oklahoma events and performed for an Odd Fellows and Rebekah convention in Denoya. (strong evidence)

The record then documents Ashley Alexander, Keith Morrison, B. F. Ellis, C. Elton Clelland, Max V. Fox, Jimmie Markle, Steve Williams, Kenneth Smith, James Dean, Charles Garner, Bill Hendricks, Loy Kidwell, Louis Jarrett, Duncan Coons, Kathy Eby, Melissa Agee, and Sheryl Jones as directors or leaders through 1999. (strong evidence)

Shidler bands performed at football games, parades, fairs, school assemblies, Christmas and spring concerts, contests, benefits, and regional events. Membership ranged from about 20 in 1935 to 73 in 1956, with many other years recording groups of 40 to 70 students. (strong evidence)

Pawhuska Council House Band

The Gateway photograph is titled “Band in front of the Osage Council House.” The image is a black-and-white photograph from the Oklahoma Historical Society Photograph Collection, whose holdings generally document Oklahoma scenes between 1890 and 1920. The musicians, director, exact date, and event are not identified. (strong evidence) Photograph record

Henryetta High School Band

Tony Anderson became Henryetta’s bandmaster in 1946 and led the program for 17 years. The documented honors include the first Oklahoma band to perform in the Rose Parade, Oklahoma Honor Band selection in 1957, the 1961 Kennedy Inauguration, Outstanding Band at the 1961 Tri-State Music Festival, and 13 University of Oklahoma Band Day wins in 17 years. (strong evidence) Anderson biography

• 1890-1920: The Oklahoma Historical Society photograph collection includes an unidentified band at the Osage Council House in Pawhuska. The exact date is unknown. (strong evidence)
• 1935: Shidler’s 20-member band, directed by Floyd Weger, earned second-place honors and performed for a fraternal convention. (strong evidence)
• 1945-1946: Ashley Alexander directed the Shidler band. (strong evidence)
• 1947-1948: Keith Morrison directed a 56-member Shidler band. (strong evidence)
• 1949-1955: B. F. Ellis directed Shidler bands of approximately 45 to 61 members, with extensive parade, contest, concert, and honor-band activity. (strong evidence)
• 1946-1963: Tony Anderson led the Henryetta band through major statewide and national appearances. (strong evidence)
• 1956-1960: Shidler continued under C. Elton Clelland, Max V. Fox, Jimmie Markle, and Steve Williams. (strong evidence)
• 1961: Shidler’s Blue Notes stage band began under Steve Williams. (strong evidence)
• 1964-1970: Shidler records describe regional superior ratings, parades, concerts, pep assemblies, and changing directors. (strong evidence)
• 1971-1980: Loy Kidwell and Duncan Coons led the band through contests, parades, concerts, and state competition. (strong evidence)
• 1981-1989: Kathy Eby directed the band, including Tulsa State Fair, OSU Homecoming, Fairfax, Christmas, benefit, and honor-band activity. (strong evidence)
• 1990-1992: Melissa Agee directed Shidler. (strong evidence)
• 1994-1999: Sheryl Jones directed Shidler, with OSU Band Day, honors-band, solo, duet, and state-contest participation documented in 1996. (strong evidence)

Named directors include Floyd Weger, Ashley Alexander, Keith Morrison, B. F. Ellis, C. Elton Clelland, Max V. Fox, Jimmie Markle, Steve Williams, Kenneth Smith, James Dean, Charles Garner, Bill Hendricks, Loy Kidwell, Louis Jarrett, Duncan Coons, Kathy Eby, Melissa Agee, and Sheryl Jones. (strong evidence)

Named Shidler musicians and participants include Joe Rash, Barton Ward, Keith Churchill, Bob Marshall, Sam Harris, Marvin Bookout, Wilma Kephart, Juana Spindle, Peggy Deason, J. D. Parker, Delma Jean Savage, Carrie Stroup, Mary K. Ross, Kim Ellis, Barbara Dozier, Peggy Ellis, Jimmie LaBorde, Connie Vann, Joanne Walker, Judy Hale, Stanley Betzer, Ginger Bonewell, Jacki Thompson, Sue Spiva, Cheryl Mayberry, Kelly Sires, Jessica Emerson, Wanda Johnston, Kevin McConaghy, and Charlie Riff. (strong evidence)

The Pawhuska band photograph has no identified musicians. (strong evidence)

The Shidler record provides the most complete director succession found in this sources reviewed. The Henryetta record independently identifies Tony Anderson as bandmaster from 1946 to 1963. (strong evidence)

The director of the Pawhuska Council House band remains unknown. Directors for Hominy, Fairfax, Barnsdall, Pawhuska High School, and other county programs remain incomplete. (limited evidence)

Shidler High School is directly documented as a sustained band institution for 65 years, with marching, concert, pep, stage-band, parade, contest, and honor-band work. The record repeatedly emphasizes discipline, school spirit, community representation, and the educational value of learning an instrument. (strong evidence)

Henryetta High School is documented as a highly successful competitive and ceremonial band under Anderson. (strong evidence)

Pawhuska and Hominy are confirmed school communities in the county, but their historical band programs require systematic yearbook and newspaper review. (moderate evidence) Pawhuska High School record and Hominy High School record

The Pawhuska Council House photograph establishes an unidentified civic or ceremonial band presence at an important Osage governmental site, but the sponsoring organization and event are unknown. (moderate evidence)

Shidler’s bands repeatedly served the surrounding community at fairs, parades, assemblies, concerts, benefits, and civic celebrations. These were school-based rather than separately incorporated adult community bands. (strong evidence)

No separately named adult municipal band was verified in the sources reviewed. (moderate evidence)

The 1935 Shidler band performed for an Odd Fellows and Rebekah convention in Denoya, demonstrating a connection between school-band musicians and fraternal civic events. (strong evidence)

Shidler also performed at an Armistice Day celebration in Caney, Kansas, and at multiple civic parades. (strong evidence)

The Henryetta band’s 1961 Kennedy Inauguration appearance represents a major national ceremonial role. (strong evidence)

The Pawhuska Council House photograph is located in Osage County and depicts a band at an Osage governmental landmark, but the record does not identify the musicians’ community, tribal affiliation, or musical organization. It should not be assigned an Osage or Indigenous identity without further evidence. (strong evidence)

The sources reviewed did not verify a separate African American band or a qualifying Indigenous band organization in the county before 2000. That is an archive gap, not proof of absence. (limited evidence)

Shidler’s records name numerous female musicians, drum majorettes, band queens, and honor-band participants. The 1950 record describes a competitive drum-major or majorette selection process, and later records identify band queens and female directors, including Kathy Eby and Sheryl Jones. (strong evidence)

The Blue Notes stage band, begun in 1961, provides evidence of smaller-ensemble continuity within the school program. (strong evidence)

Documented Shidler events include the Ark Valley Conference, Northern Oklahoma competition, Odd Fellows and Rebekah convention, Osage County Fair, Cherokee Strip parade, Fal-fro-lic parade, Armistice Day celebration, Christmas festival in Hominy, Pawnee parade and festival, Kingfisher festival, Tri-State Festival at Enid, Ponca City regional contest, Tulsa parade, Tulsa State Fair Parade, OSU Homecoming parade, Fairfax Christmas parade, Edmond Homecoming Parade, Perry Parade, district and state contests, benefits, and school concerts. (strong evidence)

Henryetta events include the Rose Parade, Oklahoma Honor Band, Kennedy Inauguration, Tri-State Music Festival, and University of Oklahoma Band Day competition. (strong evidence)

The Pawhuska band photograph places an ensemble before the Osage Council House. (strong evidence)

Shidler’s record documents football fields, school assemblies, community parades, Christmas and spring concert venues, fairs, festivals, and travel infrastructure. New uniforms and instruments were recurring markers of program support. (strong evidence)

The specific early Pawhuska event, rehearsal location, instruments, and sponsor remain unresolved. (limited evidence)

The Gateway’s Oklahoma Digital Newspaper Program is the main newspaper research environment for Osage County. (strong evidence) ODNP

The Shidler alumni history states that its information is taken from yearbooks, making it a useful index to specific annual volumes. Independent verification against original yearbook pages is still recommended. (strong evidence)

Pawhuska yearbooks are available as an online research lead through Ancestry. (moderate evidence) Pawhuska High School yearbooks

• The Pawhuska photograph is direct primary evidence of a band at the Osage Council House, although its date and identity are unknown. (strong evidence)
• The Shidler page is a detailed retrospective based on yearbooks and is strong evidence for the chronology, but original yearbook pages should be obtained where possible. (strong evidence)
• The Tony Anderson biography is a later institutional retrospective with specific dates and honors. Its Henryetta claims are strongly documented leads for primary-source confirmation. (strong evidence)
• General web-search absence is not proof that a band did not exist. (strong evidence)

Osage County has a well-documented school-band tradition centered on Shidler’s Big Blue Band, which remained active across multiple generations from 1935 through 1999. The records show that band participation combined instrumental education, school spirit, public ceremony, competitive performance, travel, community identity, and lifelong musical continuity. (strong evidence)

The Pawhuska Council House photograph adds important early visual evidence, while Henryetta’s Anderson-era band demonstrates that Osage County programs could achieve statewide and national prominence. The main remaining work is to identify the Pawhuska image and fill the county’s school-band gaps through original yearbooks and newspapers. (strong evidence)

• Shidler Big Blue Band history
• Band in front of the Osage Council House
• Tony Anderson biography
• Oklahoma Digital Newspaper Program
• Pawhuska High School yearbooks
• Pawhuska High School directory record
• Hominy High School directory record