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Tulsa Founders Chorus, 1992 - Eddie Wright, Jr. Director

 
Reserve Training Center.
A new feature that year, after impromptu sessions of singing and the traditional afterglow, was a brunch, open to the public, held at the Petroleum Club the next day. In February the chorus, directed by Fred Craig, appeared in Tulsa's Seventh Annual Parade of Quartets while the 1950 International Champions, the Buffalo Bills headlined the show.
President John Loots, along with "Choc" Phillips, got the Chapters High School Quartet contest off the ground. "The Melody Lads", Okmulgee, Okia.; "Four Flatters", Will Rogers High School; "T-Town Foghorns", Central High School; the "Four Knights of Note", Sand Springs High School; the "Quarter Notes", Immanuel Baptist Church of Tulsa; and the "Gay Blades", Pryor High School competed that year. The chorus sang and THE POLICE QUARTET, FLYING L and BURT'S PLENTY AIRES warbled sweet music for entertainment. The SOONER-AIRES (Don Enmeier, Max Simms, Jr., Bob Jones and Dick Galloway), a new 1954 quartet, was formed.

1955- President: John W. Loots
Howard RInkel and Lloyd Zumwalfs brain child brought an estimated 4,000 persons out to donate a pint of blood in order to attend the Second Annual "Artery Party". Each person received two free tickets in exchange for a pint of blood donated to the Red Cross. John Loots became the 1955 music director, after Fred Craig resigned, and the 140 men held meetings at the Mayo hotel. Past President's Parties came into being for barbershopping fun and the GAYNOTES (Howard Rinkel, lead; Morris Rector, bass; John Loots, bari; and Larrv Stayer, tenor) took second place at the 1956 Southwestern District contest in El Paso, Texas.

1956- President: R. E. Jones
The chorus, directed by Leo Cornwell, was meeting at the Mayo hotel.

  1957- President: Lloyd Zumwalt
Music director Morris Rector led the Tulsa chapter in taking third at the Southwestern District contest in Oklahoma City with twenty-two men on the risers. THE GAYNOTES were designated as "Tulsa Ambassadors of Good Will".

1958- President: Charlie Holmes
The GAYNOTES, with Harold Jones at tenor captured International Gold.

1959- President: John Dutton
led members the next two years claiming quartets such as THE GAYNOTES, THE FOUR O'CLOCKS (Howard Langston, tenor; Charles Holmes, lead; Bob Jones, ban; and John Jones, bass) and THE BARBERSHARPERS, 1958 novice quartet winners, (Dale Radford, tenor; John Dutton, lead; Dean Radle, bari; and John Jones, bass).

1960- President: Wally Gaston and Dale Radford
Morris Rector, bass singer with THE GAYNOTES, joined the troupe of the 1960 "Music Man", but this didn't stop the chapter members from putting on an outstanding district contest. Light poles in downtown Tulsa were gaily decorated like barber poles, welcome signs hung everywhere and sky writers wrote "Welcome SPEBSQSA" in the clear blue skies as Mayor James Maxwell proclaimed South Cincinnati Avenue from Third to Seventh Streets as "Harmony Lane" during the annual convention.
Mo promised a free drink to anyone who upon arrival could sing all four parts of the tag he wrote. Twenty six quartets sang and downed in the marathon afterglow and the 1960 Tulsa chapter chorus became The Founders Chorus. The quartet THE MILLIONAIRES (Los Wildman, bass; Charlie Bowles, bari; Jack Savage, lead; and Church Adams, tenor) came into being.

 
 

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