The Mabelle

Mabelle Kennedy, for whom the house is named, came to Oklahoma in 1891 in a covered wagon with her parents. They had been warned of the risks but years later she said, "It was a delightful trip ... It was a picnic to me and I was sorry when it was over." The family eventually settled in Ralston, which was "... as big as any town in Oklahoma at that time."

After schooling at Oakland College she met her future husband, Edmund Kennedy, a young Kansas City banker. After their marriage they moved to Pawhuska, where he bought the National Bank of Commerce in 1909. Mabelle raised five children, but her husband died in 1936 leaving her the bank and five Osage County ranches. She had no commercial experience but, undeterred, she studied banking and ranch management to learn business methods.

Mabelle served as mayor of Pawhuska and held various political and administrative posts, for example as a delegate to four national Democratic conventions. She served on President Truman's inaugural committee, and he appointed her Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, the second woman to hold such a position, and later appointed her to a goodwill commission to Brazil.

In 1974 she was honored with a "Mabelle Kennedy" day in Oklahoma. In 1980, when Mabelle received the fourth annual Pioneer Woman Award, Governor George Nigh said she was "... highly deserving and a natural recipient because of her true pioneer heritage and lifelong civic involvement."

She explained that she had been named May Belle after two aunts, but at school she couldn't write the "y" correctly. Her mother, believing she should have a voice in how she was named, assured her, "From now on, you are Mabelle."

Mabelle was "deeply touched" in 1975 when a new road was named the Mabelle Kennedy Highway, ending a 23-year struggle to improve links between Ponca City and Pawhuska. "I prayed to live long enough to see this highway finished," she said, "I'm going to live to enjoy it."

Mabelle Kennedy died in 1981 at the age of 93.