OU SCHOLARSHIP HONORS HEAVENER WOMAN

NORMAN – When University of Oklahoma alumnus Mike Wofford and his wife, Carol, were considering creating an endowed leadership scholarship for the Second Century Scholarship Campaign in the OU College of Arts and Sciences, they were offered the opportunity to name the scholarship. Many donors name scholarships after themselves. However, it did not take Mike and Carol long to suggest that the scholarship should honor Mike’s mother, Ruth Wilson Sanford, of Heavener, instead.

The Ruth Wilson Sanford Lifetime of Leadership Scholarship will benefit a student in the OU College of Arts and Sciences’ Leadership Scholars Program. The leadership development program supports high academic achieving students who also have demonstrated a commitment to leadership in school or to their communities.

Mike, who now lives with his wife in Anchorage, Alaska, and works as a manager for ConocoPhillips, says his 92-year-old mother has led two separate lives – the first devoted to her children but marred by the untimely deaths of her two husbands and the second, which began once her children had grown.

“My mother’s family was among the first white residents in their part of Indian Territory, and Mom was born on the family cotton farm north of Heavener. With the coming of the farming depression in 1925, she was only able to finish ninth grade,” Wofford said. “When her first husband died only six months into their marriage, she worked on the farm until it no longer supported the entire family. She then worked out of state in various low-wage jobs typical of the time. 

“She remarried around the time of Pearl Harbor, and during the war, she and my dad moved around the country while he served in a number of defense jobs. They settled back in Oklahoma when the war ended,” Wofford said.

Tragedy struck again in the early 1960s when Sanford’s second husband was killed in a car accident, leaving her to raise her elementary-age sons as a single mother. As her children left home, Sanford had the opportunity to blossom.

"At age 52,” Wofford said, “she founded and operated with her sister a successful retail business in Heavener called Fun Fashions. After she sold the business and retired, she realized her lifelong ambition of learning to paint. Her paintings of early 20th century rural life in LeFlore County were very popular in the area.”

Sanford painted until she lost her eyesight. Age and blindness, though, have not stopped Sanford. She became even more active in her community and has been writing the weekly “My Hometown” column for the Heavener Ledger newspaper since her mid-80s. Today, she dictates her column to the newspaper from the Heavener Nursing Home, where she lives. 

 She also is the author of a book about the role of her extended family in the development and history of Sugarloaf County, Indian Territory, known since statehood as LeFlore County. Her extensive historical writings about the Choctaw Nation led to Choctaw Chief Gregory Pyle naming Sanford an honorary member of the tribe.

“We decided to name this scholarship after my mother to honor her business and personal leadership activities, which largely began only in the second half of her long life,” Wofford said. “Perhaps her life’s example will encourage OU students to dedicate themselves to a lifetime of interest in and service to their communities.”

The College of Arts and Sciences is OU’s oldest and largest college, with more than 8,300 students in 27 degree-granting departments and programs. The Second Century Scholarship Campaign is an effort to create more than 100 new scholarships for students in the college before the end of 2007, Oklahoma’s centennial year. For additional information regarding the Second Century Scholarship Campaign, contact Von Allen, director of development, at (405) 325-3724 or vonallen@ou.edu.