Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame to add 12 members, including 3 with ties to The Oklahoman

The Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame announced 12 new members to be inducted in a ceremony this spring.

The new members include 10 longtime journalists, a First Amendment attorney and a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

"The seven men and five women being honored this year represent the best in journalism from a number of different areas and in their service to journalism," said Hall of Fame director Joe Hight in a news release. "The decisions become harder every year because of the quality of journalists and individuals who have served Oklahoma and this country."

This year's Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame inductees include Mary Cecile Carter, Richard M. Crum, Galen Culver, Tom Gilbert, Mark Hanebutt, Blaise Labbe, Anne Nelson, Penny Owen, John Perry, Christy Brunken Wheeland, Suzan Shown Harjo and Robert D. Nelon.

Mary Cecile Carter

Mary Carter has been in the world of journalism since she was 15 years old, holding multiple positions at the Tecumseh Countywide News and later, the Shawnee News-Star while on her breaks from attending the University of Kansas.

She spent 20 years working at The Dallas Morning News, where she was a member of the team that received the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. Carter was the founding senior producer of CNNHealth.com and also has worked for WebMD and NBCNews.com.

Richard M. Crum

Richard Crum spent 25 years as a writer and editor for National Geographic, and freelanced for several publications including The Daily Oklahoman, Navy Times, The Wall Street Journal and Harcourt Brace books.

He has won the Department of Defense Newspaper Award, Editor of the Year (1980); three Addy Awards; PRSA Bronze Derrick Award; AAA Award for Excellence in Script Writing; and Distinguished Teaching Certificate, Georgetown

Galen Culver

Galen Culver is a Washington State University grad who started the broadcast franchise "Is This a Great State or What!" at KFOR, which has now produced more than 5,000 stories.

Other career highlights include covering the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building bombing, the Atlanta Olympics, and the May 3, 1999, tornado outbreak.

Tom Gilbert

Tom Gilbert is a pioneering photojournalist who spent 35 years with the Tulsa World, where he was named chief photographer in 1998. In 1996, he became the state's first full-time digital photographer.

In his decades-long career, he has covered national championships, the Oklahoma City bombing and Tulsa's historic floods. He started a beer blog called What the Ale in 2013, covering the changing laws of alcohol and breweries in Oklahoma. He traveled to Venezuela, covering the country's diverse landscape, and Nicaragua after a national disaster.

Mark Hanebutt

Mark Hanebutt worked as a journalist for the Evansville Courier and The Orlando Sentinel before joining the journalism staff at the University of Central Oklahoma in 1987.

He eventually received his law degree from Oklahoma City University in 1998, and has written journalism and media law textbooks used at universities across the country. In 2023, he won the Teacher of the Year Award from the Oklahoma Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Blaise Labbe

Starting his broadcasting career as a studio camera operator in 1984 in Lawton, Labbe is now the regional news director overseeing news operations in 14 markets in six states for Sinclair Broadcast Inc.

Labbe was the first Black news director in Oklahoma City and Kansas City. Under his leadership, KWTV or News9 finished as the No. 1 late newscast in the country eight times. His awards include The Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, four Emmys, two National Award of Excellence from the National Association of Black Journalists, and his stations have won 15 Regional Edward R. Murrows and two National Murrows awards.

Anne Nelson

Anne Nelson was among the first women to graduate from Yale College, the undergraduate branch of Yale University which began accepting female students in 1969, when she graduated in 1976.

From 1980 to 1983 she reported on the wars in Central America for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the BBC, NPR and others. She directed the Committee to Protect Journalists from 1988-1992 and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism’s international program from 1995-2002. She is currently a research scholar at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, and is a recipient of the Livingston Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Penny Owen

Penny Owen began working for The Oklahoman in 1992 after receiving her bachelor's in journalism from UCO. Three years into her career, she found herself on the frontlines covering the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing.

She ultimately covered the trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in Denver and McVeigh’s 2001 execution, as well as several national tragedies. She also spent 20 years as a Navy reservist public affairs officer and as an aide to two admirals, and was deeply involved with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.

John Perry

John Perry spent nine years as a reporter and editor for The Oklahoman before being named its database editor in 2000. He was named Senior Computer Assisted Reporting Fellow at the Center for Public Integrity in 2006, and joined The Atlanta Journal Constitution investigative team in 2008 as a data reporter.

There, he uncovered systematic test score irregularities in Atlanta Public Schools that resulted in racketeering convictions of 24 school officials. He became the technical director of the Constitution's data journalism, which was instrumental in many of the paper's investigations. Perry is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

Christy Brunken Wheeland

Christy Wheeland, a Northern Oklahoma College and Oklahoma State University graduate, started her career as a Logan County News reporter in 1987. From 1988 to 2021, she worked as a reporter then editor for the Coweta American/Wagoner County American-Tribune, where she was proud to chronicle community history in the pages of the local newspaper.

She is now executive director of the Coweta Chamber of Commerce.

Suzan Shown Harjo

Suzan Shown Harjo, who is Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, worked for WBAI-FM, Pacifica Network’s free speech flagship in New York City from 1967 to 1974, where she co-produced Seeing Red, the first national Native issues show. She also served in Washington, D.C., as news director for the American Indian Press Association; executive director for the National Congress of American Indians; political appointee for the Carter Administration; and legislative liaison for the Native American Rights Fund.

She has written for all versions of Indian Country Today and served on boards from Native American Journalists Association to Howard Simons Fund for American Indian Journalists. A founding trustee for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, she was editor/curator of the “Nation to Nation” book and exhibition. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.

Robert D. Nelon

Robert Nelon is an Oklahoma City lawyer who has spent much of his career representing media organizations and their employees on First Amendment and freedom of information issues.

He has represented KFOR, KOCO, KWTV, KOKH, KJRH, KTUL, ABC, CBS, NBCUniversal, AETN, Discovery, and CNN; USA Today, The Oklahoman, Tulsa World and other Oklahoma newspapers; magazine and book publishers; and organizations such as RCFP and IRE. Many of the cases on which he has been counsel have helped shape Oklahoma law.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame to induct 12 new members in 2024