2017 Hometown Hero Sandi Byerly

Hometown Hero Award Recipients

  • 2024 - Tirita Montross

  • 2023 - Debbie Nobles

  • 2022 - Andy Flores

  • 2021 - Mary Sue Overbey

  • 2019 - Ruth Ellen Henry

  • 2018 - Jack Younger

  • 2017 - Sandi Byerly

  • 2016 - David Ward

  • 2015 - Cynthia "Cindy" Phillips

  • 2014 - Patty Dixon

  • 2013 - Mike Burdge

  • 2012 - Richard Lorton

  • 2011 - George Paden

  • 2010 - Ramona Ellison

  • 2009 - John Rudy

  • 2008 - Jim Palmer

  • 2007 - Howard Smith

  • 2006 - Joe Williams

  • 2005 - Gerrie Holladay

  • 2004 - Jerry Hanner

  • 2003 - Dr. Dan Moore

  • 2002 - Bill Brown

  • 2001 - Norma Coble

  • 2000 - Tot M. Brown

  • 1999 - Ruth Leib

  • 1997 - Rev. Bill E. Weaver

  • 1996 - Bessie Crawford Zackery

  • 1995 - Montie Box

  • 1994 - Erwin D. Phillips

  • 1993 - George W. Hilsheimer

  • 1992 - Dr. Wendell A. Sharpton

  • 1991 - Ed Dubie

  • 1990 - Dale Morrow

  • 1989 - None

  • 1988 - Mary Ward

Dale C. Morrow

b. April 6, 1912. d. April 9, 2007. 

Longtime Sand Springs businessman and former City Mayor Dale Morrow was awarded the Hometown Hero Award in 1991.

Morrow was born in Durant, Oklahoma and married Dorothy Ellen Chaffin in 1938. He served in the Army during World War II and attained the rank of first sergeant. The Morrows moved to Sand Springs in 1946. In 1954 he partnered with Claude Gill to open Morrow-Gill Lumber, where he worked until retiring at the age of 90. Morrow Road, where the store was located til it closed in 2015, was named for Morrow in the late 1970s.

Morrow served on City Council from 1963 to 1976 and was mayor from 1969 to 1972. He helped the City change to a Council-Manager form of government in 1969, and helped adopt the first city-wide sales tax.

He presided over the Oklahoma Lumberman's Association from 1967 to 1968, was awarded the John Hess Award in 2003, and served as a deacon and chairman of the building committee at Broadway Baptist Church, where he attended for more than sixty years. He was a Mason and a Rotarian for more than half a century.

Morrow passed away in 2007 at the age of 95. He had five children, six grandchildren, and thirteen great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 56 years.