{"id":18981,"date":"2021-02-11T22:54:35","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T22:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theoklahomaeagle.net\/?p=18981"},"modified":"2021-02-11T22:54:35","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T22:54:35","slug":"former-sen-maxine-horner-remembered-as-extraordinary-public-servant-due-to-the-high-risk-of-covid-the-family-will-not-have-a-public-tribute-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/2021\/02\/11\/former-sen-maxine-horner-remembered-as-extraordinary-public-servant-due-to-the-high-risk-of-covid-the-family-will-not-have-a-public-tribute-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Sen. Maxine Horner Remembered As \u2018Extraordinary Public Servant\u2019 (Due to the high risk of COVID, the family will not have a public tribute)"},"content":{"rendered":"

www.nondoc.com<\/a>
\nBy Tres Savage<\/a>
\n 
\n\"\"
\n 
\n 
\nFormer Sen. Maxine Horner, who was one of the first two Black women to serve in the Oklahoma State Senate, died Sunday at age 88. Horner represented State Senate District 11 in Tulsa from 1987 until 2005, championing education causes and issues of equity.
\nEven after she left the Legislature, Horner advocated for greater awareness and recognition of the Tulsa Race Massacre, recently chairing a committee that oversaw the search for unmarked graves of its victims.
\nThis afternoon, Rep. Regina Goodwin (D-Tulsa<\/a>) spoke about Horner on the House floor and asked that her colleagues pray for the Horner family.
\n\u201cIf we could be half of the diplomat, half of the statesman she was, we would be a lot better off in this body,\u201d Goodwin said. \u201cIf you\u2019ve heard of Oklahoma\u2019s Promise, it was because of Sen. Maxine Horner. If you\u2019ve heard of the Greenwood Cultural Center, it was because of Sen. Maxine Horner and at that time Rep. Don Ross.\u201d
\nRoxanne Blystone, who is now the executive assistant to Sen. Lonnie Paxton (R-Tuttle<\/a>), previously worked as an assistant for both Ross and Horner.
\n\u201cShe was just a gracious, elegant lady. Always kept her poise,\u201d Blystone said Monday when she learned of Horner\u2019s passing. \u201cI can just always remember her keeping her cool. She was gracious to everybody.\u201d
\nDonna Garlick, another longtime executive assistant in the State Senate, echoed those remarks.
\n\u201cShe was just a wonderful lady. I remember Sen. Maxine Horner very fondly,\u201d Garlick said. \u201cShe was a gracious lady and did so much for her district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horner \u2018would bring out the best in people\u2019<\/h3>\n

Former Sen. Jabar Shumate (D-Tulsa) also praised Horner in a statement to NonDoc.
\n\u201cOklahoma lost an extraordinary public servant in the passing of Sen. Maxine Horner. She was a skilled legislator who would bring out the best in people in order to accomplish meaningful change,\u201d Shumate said. \u201cAlways mindful of the need to equip people with the ability to discover their purpose, her groundbreaking legislation gave those without access an education and those without training the support they needed to get a job. I am because she was \u2014 committed to opening doors for countless ordinary people who couldn\u2019t help themselves.\u201d
\nShumate was referring to Horner\u2019s legislation creating the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program (OHLAP), also known as Oklahoma\u2019s Promise<\/a>. The collegiate scholarship program is open to Oklahoma students of low and middle-income families who maintain a certain GPA.
\n\u201cShe was a strong advocate for so many things,\u201d recalled former Senate President Pro Tempore Stratton Taylor (D-Claremore). \u201cShe was the driving force behind the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in Tulsa along with efforts to revitalize the Greenwood area. She was also just a very strong advocate for a lot of different progressive positions, women\u2019s rights issues, and she also just carried herself with such grace.\u201d
\nHorner served as Democratic Caucus chairperson from 1995 to 2003 while Taylor led the Senate.
\n\u201cI always remember when she would chair a Democratic Caucus, and there were a bunch of us in there and we were usually eating sandwiches or something,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cShe always had the best manners of us. The rest of us needed to go to some kind of manners school, and Sen. Horner was always so regal even in that part of her life. She was a strong voice for all of Tulsa and especially north Tulsa.\u201d
\nHorner was the first woman and the first Black person to serve as Senate Democratic Caucus chairperson, which Taylor emphasized as significant.
\n\u201cI relied on her a lot to help manage difficult issues through the caucus,\u201d he said. \u201cThe caucus chair is, for lack of a better word, the pro tem\u2019s leadership position to help manage the caucus and help produce consensus out of the caucus and to keep order in the caucus and to help round up votes when the caucus was split.\u201d
\nTaylor recalled that one of Horner\u2019s grandchildren, Corey Tisdale, spent significant time with her at the State Capitol. When she was inducted into the Oklahoma Women\u2019s Hall of Fame, Taylor said he remembered how Tisdale referenced her position as caucus chairwoman.
\n\u201cThere she was managing a caucus which, at the time, that was comprised of a significant number of rural white men,\u201d Taylor said.
\nFormer Sen. Kenneth Corn (D-Howe) also served alongside Horner, who termed out of the Legislature after the 2004 session.
\n\u201cSen. Horner served the people of north Tulsa and the state with dignity and grace. While a gentle lady, she was a strong force to be reckoned with when it came to fighting for the people she represented,\u201d Corn said. \u201cIt was her efforts that gave Oklahoma the Jazz Hall of Fame. She helped to push Oklahoma forward in advancing civil rights and recognizing the painful and ugly history of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Her contributions to Oklahoma are tremendous.\u201d
\nFormer Sen. Jim Dunlap (R-Bartlesville) served with Horner and is now a lobbyist at the State Capitol.
\n\u201cSen. Maxine Horner was a wonderful person and a great servant to Oklahoma,\u201d Dunlap said. \u201cShe moved the needle as to race relations, and I will remember her as a very sharp and gentle person. I am proud to have served with her in the Oklahoma State Senate.\u201d
\nAnita Arnold, the director of BLAC, Inc., noted Horner\u2019s friendship over the years.
\n\u201cI am so sorry to learn of Sen. Horner\u2019s passing. I worked with Sen. Horner while I served on the 1988 National Democratic Site Selection Committee for the 1988 convention in Atlanta and on many state and local projects,\u201d Arnold said. \u201cShe was am outstanding state legislator. Most importantly, she was my friend.\u201d
\nDue to the high risk of COVID, the family will not have a public tribute. A full public tribute will be announced at a later date.<\/em><\/strong>
\n(Update<\/strong>: This article was updated at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8, to include comment from Dunlap. It was updated again at 5:10 p.m. to include a quote from Arnold.<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

www.nondoc.com By Tres Savage       Former Sen. Maxine Horner, who was one of the first two Black women to serve in the Oklahoma State Senate, died Sunday at age 88. Horner represented State Senate District 11 in Tulsa from 1987 until 2005, championing education causes and issues of equity. Even after she left…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,116,103,117,104,113,106],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-18981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-faith","category-featured","category-juneteenth","category-local","category-regional","category-tulsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18981"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=18981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}