When Republican Henry Bellmon broke the Democratic stranglehold

Oklahomans had always elected Democrats for the state's top job. But Noble County wheat farmer Henry Bellmon, a World War II Marine, a former state legislator and former head of the Republican Party in Oklahoma, broke that stranglehold in 1962 when he defeated Democrat William P. Atkinson for the governor's office. He also became known as the father of the Republican Party in Oklahoma. "I believe it is safe to proclaim Oklahoma has elected her first Republican governor," Bellmon told a Tulsa World reporter as ballots were being tabulated on...