September 25, 2019 at 07:54PM
Welcome back. In Pawhuska nowadays along Kihekah Street Ree Drummond is the talk of the town but back on June 23, 1976 there was another person that all the locals were talking about.
Cyndi Kinney was going to be a junior in high school at the time. Her dream of being on the pom squad had come true, she'd met a nice boy and she had a part-time job at her aunt's laundromat which gave her some spending money so life was grand.
Early that morning on June 23, as usual she had gone to the laundromat before school to work for a couple of hours before her pom squad teammate Terri Surritte came by to pick her up for practice at the school. At 5'6" and 95 pounds Cyndi was the smallest girl on the squad but when the petite brown-haired girl with the big brown eyes got in front of a crowd people remembered her.
Well liked in school, this all-American girl was the last person in the world to cause the kind of commotion that occurred when Terri got to the laundromat a little after 8 a.m. to pick Cyndi up and couldn't find her.
Terri made a quick drive through town and still no Cyndi. Everyone at pom practice was worried because it wasn't like Cyndi to disappear without a word. Then at 9 a.m. her hysterical aunt contacted the police and before long the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations had been called in. Eventually they would spend thousands of hours working on the case, spreading her high school photo around and chasing down dead-end leads. At the school hundreds of kids formed a human chain and searched the countryside. Four different psychics were consulted and still no leads.
It's the strangest missing persons case of former Osage County D.A. Bill Hall's long career and it remains unsolved today or does it? A purse, her pom-pom and a half-eaten donut was all the cops had to go on but now 43 years later they may have identified a suspect in Cyndi's disappearance.
I'll call it "The Case of the Missing Cheerleader." Stay with me, there's more to come about this true story later but up in Dewey there's a gathering of people this weekend for a different kind of event and I plan on being there. The famous Dewey Hotel and Museum is the first place I chose for a book signing some four years ago and with "Footprints in the Dew" still on the best seller list I was asked if I would come back and autograph books there on Saturday. What an honor. Five dollars from every book sale will benefit the hotel.
On Friday the Dewey High School Alumni Reunion kicks off and as an alum I'll be attending those events too. If you're a Dewey graduate you might just think about coming.
Western Heritage Days takes place during this weekend as well with two days of great family fun including a big breakfast on Saturday morning at the fairgrounds sponsored by the fire department, a Wild West show out at Marilyn and Ken Tate's Prairie Song on Sunday, a longhorn cattle drive right down the Main Street of Dewey, a parade, professional boxing, food and lots of music. The Dewey volunteers along with the Alumni Association have it all this year and most events are free and open to everyone.
Hope to see ya there or till next time I'll see ya down the road…
Welcome back. In Pawhuska nowadays along Kihekah Street Ree Drummond is the talk of the town but back on June 23, 1976 there was another person that all the locals were talking about.
Cyndi Kinney was going to be a junior in high school at the time. Her dream of being on the pom squad had come true, she'd met a nice boy and she had a part-time job at her aunt's laundromat which gave her some spending money so life was grand.
Early that morning on June 23, as usual she had gone to the laundromat before school to work for a couple of hours before her pom squad teammate Terri Surritte came by to pick her up for practice at the school. At 5'6" and 95 pounds Cyndi was the smallest girl on the squad but when the petite brown-haired girl with the big brown eyes got in front of a crowd people remembered her.
Well liked in school, this all-American girl was the last person in the world to cause the kind of commotion that occurred when Terri got to the laundromat a little after 8 a.m. to pick Cyndi up and couldn't find her.
Terri made a quick drive through town and still no Cyndi. Everyone at pom practice was worried because it wasn't like Cyndi to disappear without a word. Then at 9 a.m. her hysterical aunt contacted the police and before long the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations had been called in. Eventually they would spend thousands of hours working on the case, spreading her high school photo around and chasing down dead-end leads. At the school hundreds of kids formed a human chain and searched the countryside. Four different psychics were consulted and still no leads.
It's the strangest missing persons case of former Osage County D.A. Bill Hall's long career and it remains unsolved today or does it? A purse, her pom-pom and a half-eaten donut was all the cops had to go on but now 43 years later they may have identified a suspect in Cyndi's disappearance.
I'll call it "The Case of the Missing Cheerleader." Stay with me, there's more to come about this true story later but up in Dewey there's a gathering of people this weekend for a different kind of event and I plan on being there. The famous Dewey Hotel and Museum is the first place I chose for a book signing some four years ago and with "Footprints in the Dew" still on the best seller list I was asked if I would come back and autograph books there on Saturday. What an honor. Five dollars from every book sale will benefit the hotel.
On Friday the Dewey High School Alumni Reunion kicks off and as an alum I'll be attending those events too. If you're a Dewey graduate you might just think about coming.
Western Heritage Days takes place during this weekend as well with two days of great family fun including a big breakfast on Saturday morning at the fairgrounds sponsored by the fire department, a Wild West show out at Marilyn and Ken Tate's Prairie Song on Sunday, a longhorn cattle drive right down the Main Street of Dewey, a parade, professional boxing, food and lots of music. The Dewey volunteers along with the Alumni Association have it all this year and most events are free and open to everyone.
Hope to see ya there or till next time I'll see ya down the road…