Hannibal B. Johnson was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2021

Hannibal B. Johnson, Esq., a graduate of Harvard Law School, is an attorney, author, consultant, and college professor. Johnson’s consulting work focuses primarily on diversity and inclusion, nonprofit leadership, and human relations issues.

Johnson has also served as an adjunct professor at The University of Tulsa College of Law (legal writing; legal ethics), Oklahoma State University (leadership and group dynamics; business law [MBA Program]), and the University of Oklahoma (ethics; cultural diversity; race & reason; The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot; nonprofit leadership & management).

Johnson’s past leadership roles include stints as chair of the board of directors of The Community Leadership Association, Leadership Tulsa, the Metropolitan Tulsa Urban League, the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, the Foundation for Tulsa Schools, and the Rotary Club of Tulsa. He is currently a member of the Tulsa Community Foundation and Zarrow Commemoration Fund boards. 

Johnson is an alumnus of Leadership Tulsa, Leadership Oklahoma, and the “Connecting Communities” Fellowship Program in Richmond, Virginia. He served on the Oklahoma Advisory Council to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and presently serves on the 400 Years of African American History Commission and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission.

Johnson’s books include: Images of America: Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District; Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District; Up From the Ashes: A Story About Community; Acres of Aspiration: The All-Black Towns in Oklahoma; Mama Used To Say: Wit & Wisdom From The Heart & Soul; No Place Like Home: A Story About an All-Black, All-American Town; IncogNegro: Poetic Reflections on Race & Diversity in America; Apartheid in Indian Country?: Seeing Red Over Black Disenfranchisement; The Sawners of Chandler: A Pioneering Power Couple in Pre-Civil Rights Oklahoma; and Black Wall Street 100: An American City Grapples with its Historical Racial Trauma. Johnson’s play, Big Mama Speaks: A Tulsa Race Riot Survivor’s Story, has been performed at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Philbrook Museum of Art, and at the Just Governance for Human Security Conference in Caux, Switzerland.

He has received a plethora of honors and awards for his work and community service.  

Jake Henry Jr. was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2021

Jake Henry Jr. wrapped up more than five decades in the healthcare field when he retired after 19 years as President and Chief Executive Officer at Saint Francis Health System at the end of June.

He did not set out to pursue a career in healthcare. An early love for reading mentored by an aunt who was a teacher focused the native Texan’s sights on education, aspiring to teach at the college level.  Various experiences in his teen and young adult years, however, kept him in the healthcare field.  He was an orderly during his junior and senior years of high school in Sweetwater. When he was later drafted into the U.S. Army, he became a helicopter medic because of his hospital experience.  He served several years, including Vietnam War service, and was twice decorated with the U.S. Army Commendation Medal with “V” device, awarded for valor.

Completing his service in 1968, he attended the University of North Texas for one semester, and then returned to the drilling rig as a roughneck, a job he worked after high school. Meeting his wife of 52 years, Kathy, on a blind date in 1969 changed his life trajectory.

They both completed their undergraduate degrees at Texas Tech, and Henry went on to complete a master of science degree in Health Care Administration at Trinity University.  At the age of 30, he became President and Chief Executive Officer of the Angelo Community Hospital in 1977.  In 1980, he joined Lubbock General Hospital, the primary teaching hospital for Texas Tech University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Center, as Chief Executive Officer. Henry then spent 11 years with the St. Joseph Health System in Texas and California, serving in various leadership positions. In 1994 he became President and Chief Executive officer of Saint Francis Hospital in Memphis.  A desire to return to Texas brought Henry to Corpus Christi as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Christus Spohn Health System, the largest provider of health services in South Texas.

Henry then moved to Tulsa in 2002, as President and Chief Executive Officer of Saint Francis Health System, a regional integrated delivery system comprised of Saint Francis Hospital and the Children’s Hospital, Saint Francis Hospital at Broken Arrow, Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital, and the Warren Clinic with sites in 46 locations.  The System is also a 60 percent owner of the Saint Francis Heart Hospital and a 50 percent owner of CommunityCare Health Plan, the largest HMO and the second largest PPO in Oklahoma.

In addition to his leadership duties with Saint Francis Health System have been activities associated with the development and governance of the Community Hospitals Public Trust Authority, the Tulsa Area United Way and the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce.  Henry is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Toni Garner was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2021

Antoinette Marie Garner, simply known to everyone as Toni, was born in Tulsa in 1956. The daughter of a Cherokee educator and a first-generation Lebanese homemaker, Toni always
knew she wanted to be a florist. Having grown up with flower shops on both sides of the family, she learned the ins and outs of the trade from her grandmother and her aunt, and it felt only natural to her to continue their legacy. After she graduated from Northeastern State University, she opened Toni’s Flowers & Gifts in 1983 and has been in business ever since.

Toni has served in many leadership roles, including as President of the Oklahoma State Florist Association, President of the Ozark Florist Association, and as a member of the Society of American Florists, where she was on the Government Relations Committee and the Retail Council, lobbying in Washington DC for research funding, and many causes benefitting the national floral industry.

In 2005, Toni was one of a hundred floral designers invited to do the inaugural flowers for George W. Bush’s second term. Locally, she has served as an Honorary Chairman of both the Red Ribbon Gala, and the Tulsa Girls Art School, and has been honored by the University of Tulsa’s Newman Center as well. She was a board member of Tulsa Cares, along with her dear friend, the late Charles Faudree, whom she often collaborated with, including designing and publishing a book together, titled Country French Florals and Interiors.

While family is what inspired her career, family is what sustains it too. Her mother, Olga, worked at the shop for many years, and her nephew, Joe, has been a critical hand there for well over a decade. Though it is her sister Stephanie, who has been by her side since opening day as co-captain, confidante, and friend, who keeps the behind-the-scenes of the enterprise a well-oiled machine. Her long standing employees have become as close as kin too, with several of them having clocked between ten to twenty-five years at Toni’s.

Over the span of 38 years, Toni has given back to countless community organizations, non-profits, museums, and universities, through donating flowers, time, fiscal sponsorships, scholarships, and educational presentations. Even throughout her illustrious career, Toni has remained as humble and generous as ever. In her own words, “It has been a privilege to live and work in Tulsa. We love our community, and our loyal customers, patrons, and friends. Never in my wildest dreams, did I think we would have met such interesting people and still be growing our business nearly forty years later.”

B.C. (Buck Colbert) Franklin was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2021

B.C. (Buck Colbert) Franklin was an attorney, a rancher, a newspaper publisher, a postmaster general and a writer, but he is most notably known for his work defending the survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Franklin was born May 6, 1879 in Homer, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory to David and Millie Franklin. He attended Dawes Academy in Berwyn and Roger Williams University in Nashville, Tennessee. There he met classmate Mollie Parker and they both studied with their mentor, John Hope, for whom they would name their second son.

He followed John Hope to Atlanta Baptist College, which we now know as Morehouse College, where he graduated in 1903. Franklin and Mollie married that year and had four children. They taught and farmed in Springer and Ardmore. From 1904-1907 B.C. apprenticed with Black lawyers in Ardmore and studied the law by correspondence with the Sprague School of Law in Detroit. After scoring second highest, he was admitted to the Oklahoma Bar in December 1907. He practiced law in Ardmore and Rentiesville before moving to Tulsa in early 1921. Franklin established his law practice with I.H. Spears and T.O. Chappelle on Greenwood Avenue.

Franklin survived the 1921 Race Massacre and was interned for several days in Convention Hall, more recently known as the Brady Theater. Following the destruction, he set up a tent in the Greenwood District and began working to defend the rights of massacre victims.

With the passage of a new fire ordinance, the Tulsa City Commission effectively prevented Greenwood residents from re-building. Franklin brought the City of Tulsa and Mayor T.D. Evans to trial, and ultimately won the case, allowing the reconstruction of the Greenwood community. Though efforts were made, Franklin and I. H. Spears unsuccessfully processed the insurance claims of Greenwood’s businesses and homeowners.

Franklin was an engaged member of his community, writing commentary in the papers, and a member of Christ Temple CME. He practiced law in Greenwood until his passing in 1960.

Franklin’s autobiography, My Life and an Era: The Autobiography of Buck Colbert Franklin, was finalized and published after his death by his son, John Hope Franklin, and grandson, John Whittington Franklin.

Tim Colwell was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2021

Award-winning corporate communications professional and Rotarian, Tim Colwell succumbed to Covid-19 in January, 2021, after a valiant three-week battle.

His father was killed in a car accident before he was born. He was raised by his single mother, the postmaster in Livermore, Iowa, a town of 700.

Colwell was the youngest page ever in the Iowa House of Representatives during 8^th grade.  He lived with a family in Des Moines during the week, traveling home on weekends to keep up with school. 

He was President of his senior class of 46 students, and after graduating in 1971, attended Drake University where he earned a B.S. from The School of Journalism in 1975. 

His first position was with the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce.  In 1978, he was lured away from his beloved Iowa to Tulsa by Continental Heritage Press to publish “coffee table” books profiling cities. 

In 1982, Colwell because the first and only public relations director for the City of Faith at Oral Roberts University.  In 1985, he joined Parker Drilling Company as public relations director.  After Parker Drilling relocated to Houston, he and his wife Debbie started Colwell and Colwell, Public Relations and Marketing.  They also founded The Queen of Cards, a humorous greeting card line that achieved nationwide distribution.

They welcomed a son, Matt, in 1985.  Debbie passed away in 2000, leaving him to assume a new role as a single Dad.  In 2010, he married Patty Elmore, quickly embracing her daughters Lauren and Jordan as his own. 

In 2007, Colwell joined Williams in public relations.  In this role, he traveled extensively and managed/mentored a large staff around the country. He retired from Williams in 2018.

Colwell was an Accredited Public Relations professional, and served as the President of the Public Relations Society of American Tulsa Chapter.  He also was a member of the International Association of Business Communicators, and through his career, received numerous awards from both organizations.

He was an adjunct professor at the University of Tulsa teaching public relations, and a volunteer with Reading Partners at Sequoyah Elementary.

Colwell was a board member for the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits from 2014 to 2018, was named Board Member of the Year for 2015- 2016, and received the Moran Award in 2015.  He also was on the board of Gathering Hearts for Honduras.

A proud Rotarian for more than 40 years, he served as the Downtown Tulsa Rotary Club president in 2007.  he co-authored the 100 Years of Rotary book, and co-chaired the Centennial Celebration.

Of all his many roles, his favorite at the time of his passing was to be “PopPop” to grandson, Oaklyn, and granddaughter, Jensen.