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Essentials in
History
The world of O.C. Cash
Learn more about our founder and permanent third assistant temporary vice-chairman.
Updated: 1/3/2007 5:09:21 PM
By Ruth Blazina-Joyce, Museum Curator/Archivist
(First printed in The Harmonizer in 1998)
It was a dark and stormy night ... well, okay, not really. But it was rather foggy, a front was moving in, and flights out of Kansas City were canceled. O.C. Cash, a businessman from Tulsa, made his way to the Hotel Muehlebach to pass the time until he could continue his trip. Looking around, he spotted a vaguely familiar face, walked over, and asked the fellow if he could sing tenor. Rupert Hall allowed as he could. After securing a lead and bass, the foursome retired to Rupert’s room and spent the evening harmonizing.
That chance meeting at Kansas City’s Hotel Muehlebach led to the founding of the largest all-male singing society in the world. O.C. decided to go ahead with an idea that had been in the back of his mind for a while: to draw up a list of close-harmony singers in the towns he visited on business. That way, when he had some time on his hands, he could call up three like-minded men and get in a little good singing. He and Rupert agreed to invite some friends to a song-filled meeting when they were both back in Tulsa. They sent out fourteen invitations; twenty-six men showed up on the evening of April 11, 1938. And after that ... well, you have a pretty good idea what happened after that.
But who was this Tulsa tax attorney with a love of close harmony?
The world’s greatest barbershop baritone
O.C. wrote a brief autobiographical sketch in 1947, to aid in the writing of the Society’s 10-year anniversary history book. Here’s a condensed version, in his own words:
“I was born on a farm near Keytesville, Missouri, on February 13, 1892. In the fall of ’97, my dad hitched up our two ponies to a covered wagon, put mother, sister and me in it with all our belongings, and left our little farm. I lived in the small villages of Vinita and Bluejacket, Oklahoma, until I was almost grown.
“My happiest years, it seems to me now, were spent as a kid singing with various quartets, going on hay rides, and attending church socials. I recall the barbershop quartet sessions at the tonsorial parlor, the rehearsals there of the Bluejacket Silver Cornet Band, and discussions of the prowess of our baseball nine. I was educated in backwoods country schools and attended Bacone College. Then I taught country school and edited and published the Bluejacket Weekly News. I began the study of law in a law office at Vinita, and after three or four years was admitted to the practice of law in 1916.
“I had a short hitch in World War One, serving my time as a buck private. I have often wondered why I was not advanced to at least the station of corporal. While most of my comrades were lying around in their quarters with a box of chocolates and a good book, I spent most of my time organizing quartets, and I certainly should have been advanced in rank.
“In December 1919, I married Corinne Downing. We have one daughter, Elizabeth Anne. Since 1920, I have been engaged in tax work for oil companies, being at present tax commissioner of the various Stanolind companies.”
“My hobbies are barbershop harmony, fly fishing, genealogy, and my farm.”
O.C. loved to listen to others singing close harmony and he loved to sing it himself. His daughter Betty Anne recalled, “My dad used to break into ‘oohhhs’ and ‘aahhhs’ because of the harmonics. And would cry. He’d go up to a quartet that he particularly liked, and have them sing a phrase over and over. They’d finish and he’d say, ‘Hot damn, that’s good! Do it again!’”
Members had an open invitation to visit O.C. and harmonize: “I wish more of you fellows, when you are in the vicinity of Tulsa, would drop in for a chat. I am in Room 1142, Stanolind Building, so just come on up, kick the door open, and come on in. We’ll bust a chord or two.”
But O.C. didn’t have to wait for the occasional visitor. He had his own quartet, the Okie Four: “Our bass, Fred Graves, is a reformed operatic singer, J. Frank Rice is just about the sweetest lead this side of heaven, and Bill Downing’s tenor has struck birds dumb with wonder. Modesty forbids me to mention that I myself am the world’s greatest barbershop baritone.”
O.C.’s quartet, the Okie Four, in an ad for Spartan Radio-Phonograph. Left to right (standing): Fred Graves, bass; J. Frank Rice, lead; Bill Downing, tenor; O.C. Cash, baritone.
O.C.’s love of the delicate art of close harmony had its match in his devotion to the delicate art of fly fishing. “Many years ago, I developed such a fondness for fly fishing that I now scorn any other type of angling. In fact, I take so much pleasure in dislodging a fly caught on a lily pad, rock, or submerged limb, that I often deliberately foul a fly just for the enjoyment of retrieving it!”
When he wasn’t hip deep in harmony or a fine trout stream, O.C. indulged in his love of history and genealogy. He spent many long hours poring over courthouse records and in correspondence with researchers, tracing his family history back to the mid-1700s in Virginia. His interest in western history offered a tempting alternative to retirement, as daughter Betty Anne recalled: “He’d always talk about setting up a small law practice. His idea was just to take some little ol’ cases and write his books. He wanted to write on early Oklahoma history, the history of when his family came by wagon into Oklahoma Indian Territory. He was interested in Civil War history. He loved history so.”
Though O.C. and his family lived in town—in fact, he worked with an architect in designing and building their two large Tulsa homes—he also had a ranch outside of town where he loved to ride the range and inspect his herd of Hereford cattle. Almost every weekend not spent barbershopping was spent at the ranch.
Notice that phrase “not spent barbershopping?” As much as anything else, O.C. loved the sociability of barbershopping. And despite his spirited defense of the Society’s fraternal nature, as often as not O.C. coaxed Corinne and Betty Anne into coming with him on his many trips to chapters around the country. It’s that unique blend of close harmony, companionship, family, and fun that is O.C.’s lasting gift to his Society.
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