Everybody Needs A Crazy Old Aunt Dorthy
by M. E. Wagner - Everybody Needs A Crazy Old Aunt Dorthy. She was a unique individual down to the spelling of her name with only one 'O'. This is why a friend and I made bumper stickers with that saying just in time for her second attempt at the State Representative seat in 1992(0). Ever since I knew her, she was extremely independent. Whatever she needed or wanted she could get.
She bought a cabin near Durango, CO and Vallecito Lake. This is before the town became a huge tourist attraction. In the 80s, she had a yellow Jeep and would take my cousins on holiday driving the back roads looking for deer in the afternoon. I was lucky enough to go to the cabin in the summer of 1987 after returning from my Spanish club trip to Mexico right before she sold it to move back to Alva. We promised her we would someday get her back to the cabin... She spent her last moments in the cabin.
She was always very generous to her kids. She didn't have kids of her own, but she would claim everyone as hers. She would even have pictures in her billfold and show off 'her kids' to everyone she met and her law school classmates. She attended Oklahoma State University but was a huge OU Football fan.
I don't know what she was like during school, but she told me that she used to sit in the back of the classroom when she went to law school and the dare the professors to call on her. And she would be ready.
She went back to school and graduated from law school at 40. This was not uncommon. It seemed that Dorthy had to be doing something. If she saw something that was wrong, she did everything in her power to make it right. After law school, she wanted to make a difference where she grew up. She gathered her posse and collected enough signatures to put herself on the ballot for State Representative in 1988. She used her voice to get people engaged in politics and started local discussions. She was a natural on the radio and became a local celebrity at local events throughout NW Oklahoma campaigning. I traveled with her to many of them including a David Boren campaign rally near Tulsa where she interviewed the candidates for a local radio station. After the event, we went to an Italian place to eat. Right before we left, a waitress dropped a plate of pasta on my shoulder. Craziest things can happen with C.O.A.D.
Dorthy hired someone to paint her campaign signs during her first campaign in 1988 on 4x4, 4x8, and 2x4 plywood. The signs would come back to the West Lakes office where her younger sister, Linda, and campaign staff would touch them up and add more stars to her dynamite logo. We even created a 5' dynamite out of plywood and red covering. There were painted red and black stars exploding out of the top hanging off of 1/8" metal wire. This was taken around to rodeos, parades, and caravans knocking on doors to get out the vote. She borrowed her mom's red pickup and mounted the dynamite on top of the roof. She even pulled a manure spreader behind the pickup filled with her kids and candy at parades. She loved popcorn and we would always be making popcorn for rallys and campaing staff.
She may not of won, but she came very close. Everyone that she met on the campaign trail whether a supporter or opponent would remember Dorthy McGill and the difference that she made in their life. What do you remember?
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