Calling in the Calvary: No longer trapped
Spending almost 30 years on her feet as a Pawhuska nurse finally took its toll on L.J. Collier. The steep stairs at her home were more like a locked gate than a pathway. “She bought a house with stairs that were almost keeping her trapped in the house,” her son Jake Collier said. “We knew [...]
Preordained for the priesthood
When he was just a toddler, Todd Nance stood apart from the other young parishioners at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Hominy. While the other kids climbed over pews, fidgeted and ran around the nave, he was rapt, fascinated by the rites and ceremony administered by Father Jerry Ryan. “Todd would stand there enthralled,” his [...]
Planting in Hominy
Quakers from across Oklahoma converged on Hominy Sunday to plant a tree in front of the Hominy Friends Meetinghouse. The eight foot shumard oak was donated by Norman Friends, the newest Quaker Meeting in Oklahoma. Their Sunday School children had been studying stewardship and the adults wished to support them in making the concept come [...]
Ministerial Alliance, Huskies compete for a cause
The Pawhuska Ministerial Alliance and the Pawhuska Huskies competed during a fundraiser for the alliance Tuesday night. The event raised $1,890 with donations still coming into the group. By Louise Red Corn
Cornerstone Community Church moving from the corner
Barnsdall’s Cornerstone Community Church is building a new church across the street from its current location on Main Street. The new building is next to city hall and going up fast.
Music minister accused of fraud
A former music minister who lived in Barnsdall is accused in civil lawsuits filed in Washington County of bilking his financial clients out of more than $600,000. Larry Joe Dearman, 39, induced clients at The Focus Group Advisors in Bartlesville, where he lately lived, to make unsecured loans or investments in the defunct internet provider [...]
Saint Kateri: She still touches lives
Last month, Marian Cass had some serious bleeding problems. Her doctors were confounded, and the bleeding just wouldn’t stop. Some friends came to visit her at Pawhuska’s Senior Circle to see if she wanted to buy T-shirts for the canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint in the Catholic Church. “She said she [...]
New press yields new look
Whoa! What happened to The Bigheart Times this week? Well, after decades of printing at the Sapulpa Daily Herald, this week we decided to move on and use the press at Muskogee, that’s what. The new press has prompted some major changes, as you can see. We have a TON more color: 12 pages instead [...]
Locals celebrate the canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint
People from across Osage County and even outside Osage County traveled to Pawhuska to celebrate the canonization of the first Native American saint, Kateri Tekakwitha. Tekakwitha, an Algonquin–Mohawk, is also known as Lily of the Mohawks. Tekakwitha professed a vow of virginity until her death at the age of 24. Upon her death, her smallpox scars disappeared. A total of seven saints were [...]
Enter our Halloween costume contest
The Bigheart Times is having a Halloween costume contest this year. There are three categories: Adult Child (Jr High and younger) Group/Business To enter email the photo to info@bighearttimes.com and let us know what category you want to enter, along with full names, ages/grade of those pictured. Send us the photo(s) by 2 p.m. Sun., [...]
Blessed are all God’s critters, even those named Zyble
About 30 people, a pack of dogs, three chickens, a horse and a zebra – yes, a zebra – and some other critters patiently waited outside Pawhuska’s St. Thomas Episcopal Church for their blessing Sunday afternoon. It was just days after the feast day of St. Francis,the patron saint of animals and the environment. While [...]
See you at the pole
Area students and community members gathered around the their local schools’ flag poles Wednesday morning for prayer. Some schools, like Barnsdall, had to cut the morning event short because of the weather. There is usually live music after the prayer. Wednesday evening, church members from around northeast Oklahoma gathered in the gym at Pawhuska High [...]
A homecoming of pastors for Calvary Baptist’s 60th
Sixty years ago, 85 people gathered in the old grocery store to start a new church in Pawhuska. Like other churches, Pawhuska Calvary Baptist has had its ups and downs, grown and shrunk, but it always overcame the times of trouble. “You always have struggles. We’re all human beings,” said Charlie Wadsworth, who has attended [...]
Nazarene hits 75 years
The Pawhuska Church of the Nazarene will be celebrating its 75th anniversary on Sunday, Sept. 23 at 10 a.m. The church is located at 407 E. 8th Street. The special speaker will be Northeast Oklahoma District Superintendent, Dr. H. David McKellips. Dinner will follow the morning service. The Rev. Jim Wilson is the current [...]
Friends church has a bookish mission
A mission challenge to benefit children in an arid region of Kenya was issued by Hominy Friends this past Sunday. During their monthly business meeting, Beth Green-Nagle reported on Vacation Bible School held prior to the Hominy Dances. Beth, Carole Revard and her son Cody had all attended the Friends World Conference in Kenya this [...]
Pastor Hopkins sentenced to 20 years: Blames daughter, investigators for lies, Viet Cong interrogation techniques
Creth Hopkins, a longtime preacher in Pawhuska and elsewhere, was sentenced Wednesday to serve 20 years in prison for child sex abuse. He has been held in the Osage County Jail since his conviction in early April. Since then, the 62-year-old’s health appears to have declined. Handcuffed, he hobbled into the courthouse clutching a cane [...]
“Lust” case ends in plea to abduction, not molestation
A Tulsa man who had been accused of lewdly molesting a 12-year-old girl pleaded no contest Friday to abducting her in order to assault her, and received a 10-year deferred sentence.
Changes afoot at BigheartTimes.com
On Wednesday, The Bigheart Times made an unusual move for a newspaper: We put our website behind a pay wall. It’s also unusual for a weekly newspaper with a two-person newsroom to have a website of our caliber. The new move should please our past e-subscribers, who have been gradually left without access to the [...]
Blessing of builders
You probably didn’t notice, but last week a small army of RVs descended on Pawhuska and parked cheek by jowl for a week at Lynn Baptist Church. “We gang up like gypsies,” said Ed Risenhoover of Hugo, one of the RV-driving angels also known as Baptist Builders. Baptist Builders is a jovial and aging lot [...]
Times takes home awards
The Bigheart Times took home almost a dozen awards Saturday in the Society of Professional Journalists Oklahoma Pro Chapter’s 2011 contest among all newspapers in the state with circulations of 25,000 or under. Photographer Rachel Anne Seymour was given the top award in her field, with the best photographic portfolio, while Publisher Louise Red Corn [...]
Hopkins found guilty in child abuse case
A criminal case that has isolated a young woman from one large part of her family but united her with another ended in the conviction of a Pawhuska preacher Wednesday night, when a six-man, six-woman jury found Creth Dean Hopkins guilty of child sexual abuse and lewd molestation and recommended he serve 20 years in [...]
Jurors spared questionnaire
The child sexual abuse case against a Pawhuska preacher got under way Tuesday with jury selection, almost seven months after a previous attempt to try him was derailed by juror misconduct. More than 200 prospective jurors crammed the courthouse at 9 a.m., and by 6 p.m. a jury had been selected for the final panel [...]
Dumped pets tax good hearts
When a small white-and-gray spotted cat slides across the tile floor of Jonnston’s Vet Clinic like he is practicing for a Michael Jackson dance-off, it’s hard not to laugh. Scooter, as he is known at Jan Johnston’s veterinary clinic, was dumped off after suffering a severe spinal injury that left him paralyzed. He wasn’t expected [...]
Becoming Godly men
Last August, Jeff Wade and Joe Ross started a weekly men’s Bible discussion at Wade’s Saddlery & Cowboy Outfitters in Barnsdall. The Monday Bible talk isn’t just for cowboys though, all men from all backgrounds and all churches are welcome. But you must be a man. The group was started to give men a safe [...]
