Judy Randle was born in 1943 in Shreveport, Louisiana to parents from Minnesota and Iowa. She was the eldest of nine Otterstrom children: six brothers and two sisters. Despite having been born in the South, her cultural roots remained in the Midwest.
Rodger’s maternal family came to Oklahoma in the Run of 1889, arriving in Tulsa in the early days of the last century, while his father’s family was from the hills of Arkansas.
Judy attended Monte Cassino High School and later received a degree in Journalism from the University of Tulsa. Rodger attended public schools and graduated from Will Rogers High School. He attended the University of Oklahoma and the University of Tulsa Law School.
Both Rodger and Judy served in Brazil in the Peace Corps in the 1960’s. Even though they lived in neighboring states they did not meet until after their return to Tulsa. The League of Women Voters, where Judy was a volunteer, brought them together at a meeting in the Central Library where Rodger was a speaker and Judy was manning a League literature table.
The Tulsa City-County Library System continued to figure prominently in their lives. As Mayor, Rodger served on the library’s board. Judy’s service on the library board came after Rodger’s, but it continued for over thirty years. She is a member of the library’s Hall of Fame.
Judy served as a writer and editor at the Tulsa World, eventually becoming the first woman in the paper’s history to edit a general interest section. Later she became the first woman at a Tulsa daily newspaper to serve on an editorial board.
Rodger’s career in public office began with election to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1970. Two years later he moved to the State Senate and remained there until his election as Mayor in 1988. During his first term, Roger led the successful effort to change Tulsa’s form of government from commission structure to mayor-council. He was subsequently elected the first mayor under Tulsa’s new form of municipal government.
Both enjoy travel as well as receiving foreign visitors in their home. Rodger has lectured extensively abroad, including in the United Kingdom, Japan, Mexico, China, Vietnam, Brazil, Spain, Germany, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. Judy gave a U.S. State Department sponsored lecture tour in Mozambique.
Rodger has served nationally as the president of Sister Cities International and is a former president of the Oklahoma Municipal League and a former president of the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals. He currently serves as the British Honorary Consul in Oklahoma, a position he has held for over twenty years.
