Oral History: Shelly Quinn

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Transcript:

Buddy Johnson: This morning is Tuesday, July 31, 2007.  We are in the downtown library in the Oklahoma Room to talk about as part of the Oklahoma Voices Program and we are here today with Shelly Quinn.  And Shelly is going to share with us her family story, and Shelly, can you tell us where you were born and when? 

SQ: Yes, thank you Buddy, and thank you for having me with your Oklahoma Voices project. I really appreciate the opportunity to be part of such a special project for Oklahoma.  I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico; however, I moved here to Oklahoma when I was two so I basically grew up here in Oklahoma City in north Oklahoma City.  

BJ: Who were your parents? 

SQ: My parents were Joseph Jerome Quinn Jr. and Audria Elaine McNett. 

BJ:  Okay.  Did they grow up in Oklahoma City too? 

SQ: Let’s see.  I am not sure. My mom grew up in and around the Colorado area, Denver, and my father did grow up in Oklahoma City.  He went to John Carroll and then he went to Regis College in Colorado and Regis high school as well as college.   

BJ: And is that is likely where he met your mother? 

SQ: Yes, that is where he met my mother, yes, and then he went on into the navy after that. 

BJ:  Okay.  Do you have any siblings? 

SQ: Yes, I do.  Joseph Jerome, Well let’s start with the eldest.  My eldest sister is Kathleen Teresa and then myself and I have two younger brothers, Joseph Jerome Quinn III and David Robert Gerard. 

BJ:  Now, did you know your grandparents? 

SQ: Yes. I did. 

BJ: Who were your grandparents? 

SQ: My grandparents were Joseph Jerome Quinn and Isabelle who is part of my Shelly Isabelle Quinn who is my godmother as well.  And then my grandfather who we referred to of course as papa.  And then nana, Isabelle Moffat, Isabelle Ross Moffat.    

BJ:  Okay, and then these were your father’s parents? 

SQ: Yes.   

BJ:  And did you know your mother’s family? 

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SQ: You know, I knew my mother’s father very briefly, and I remember I did get to meet him one time and I did not have the opportunity to meet my grandmother on my mother’s side.  She died unfortunately when my mom was young.   

BJ: And now your Quinn grandparents, did they live in Oklahoma City? 

SQ: They did.  They lived in Oklahoma City. They moved to 818 which we refer to as the home.  They had moved here I believe in the late 20s, but they moved into 818 in 1932.  And that was when it was a smaller home than it is now. 

BJ: What neighborhood was that in?  Do you know the? 

SQ: I believe they refer to it as the Ross Main. It is south Crown Heights here in Oklahoma City.  

BJ: Okay.  Do you know how did they get to Oklahoma? 

SQ: You know that is a real good question.  I wish I had a great story to tell you, but I don’t know specifically and someone in my family is going to kick my rear end when they hear that. 

BJ:  Do you know where they came from? 

SQ: Well, yes.  I do know that I am five-eighths Irish so I am of Irish descent certainly.  And Scottish.  My nana was Scottish and English and kind of a little bit of the Scandinavian in there as well.  I don’t know specifically how.  

BJ: Were they born in America? 

SQ: I do believe so.  I think so, yes. 

BJ:  Do you know did they come from the east coast then or what? 

SQ: Yes, I do believe they came from the east coast.  My grandfather was the editor and wrote a column for an Oklahoma paper, the Southwest Courier, and he refers to in the paper a lot of times in his column about the easterners and the southerners and so I think at that time, and this would have been in the early 30s and 40s and then on into the 50s of course, he did refer to a lot of . . . 

BJ: So he was kind aware of the sectional differences. 

SQ: Yes. Very much so. 

BJ:   And so he wrote for the Southwest Courier and that is a Catholic newspaper, I believe, an official paper, I think. 

SQ: Yes. So that is the official Catholic paper. 

BJ:  So he was the first one to come to Oklahoma City then of your family.  

SQ: I believe so, yes.   

BJ: So what did you know about him? You knew him, I guess.  Did you know him? 

SQ: I did.  I knew him briefly.  I remember being in the playpen at 818 and I remember he seemed so big and I remember sitting on his lap and he smoked a pipe.  I will always remember the smell of that pipe and he was a very gentle, a very quiet man.  And that is pretty much all I remember.  He passed away in 1963. I was born in 1957.  So . . . 

BJ:  So you just slightly remember him? 

SQ: Yes.   

BJ:  Did your dad talk about him a lot?   

SQ: He did. 

BJ:  So how was their relationship? 

SQ: Now daddy went to school. He did go to John Carroll, but he went away to high school, so, but I remember reading one of papa’s columns about saying goodbye to his son that is getting ready to get on a train because at that time, and I think my father’s love of trains may have come from the fact that he traveled a lot by train.  That was their mode of transportation at the time and daddy loved trains and papa wrote an article in one of his columns about how his first son goes away to college, or goes away to high school, excuse me, and it was real touching.  And so I think, so he talks about that, but daddy was kind of very shy, much like I think papa was.  He was very shy and very quiet.  He kind of spoke when spoken to and I left home because I left Oklahoma City at the age of 19 and it wasn’t one of those things we just talked about until later, until later.  

BJ: And so, was that common in your family at least for people to go away to high school? 

SQ: Yes.  My aunt Jackie went away to a private school and I believe Aunt Porgie did too.  Aunt Jackie went, I believe, to Notre Dame.  Some went east coast.  They all pretty much were.  It was a strong Catholic education. 

BJ: And all your family, your grandparents I guess pretty much believed very strongly in a good education? 

SQ: Yes.  They did. A good education.  A higher education.  My aunt spoke fluent, she studied French and spoke fluent French and Spanish and she went on to learn the Taos Indian language.  She did her doctorate degree while teaching Indians at the Taos pueblo.  Taos, Santa Fe and all of that area all was always a vacation spot, certainly for us growing up, but as well for the family.  We called it the Taos house.  It was a vacation home.  I know that my grandmother went every August and we always went in August, the last two weeks of August.  I think it probably began because of the heat.  

BJ: Right.   

SQ: Because of the heat here in Oklahoma and I just don’t know how my grandmother could have done the cooking and no air conditioning and that was a small house and there were times when I remember I talked to my mom and asked her about what were some of her best memories and she said without a doubt the family dinners, and she went on to explain.  I said, Mom, gosh.  She said, yeah, there would be six to eight people. Uncle Dan, my Aunt Porgie and then her husband, my uncle Dan, my mom and my dad and Uncle Wendell, that would be the youngest.  He is ten years younger than my dad.  My dad was the oldest.  And then Jackie, my Aunt Jackie, and sometimes Wayne, her husband, and so there were quite a few people and nana would always have big roast beef or leg of lamb and she would be in that hot kitchen and she cooked it all herself and went with a fan, and the kitchen is not real big.  Living there right now I can tell you that kitchen really isn’t that big.  

BJ:  I wonder how we got, how we survived the summer heat. 

SQ: I know.  It is just amazing. 

BJ: So.  Your father had gone away to high school and I guess stayed in Denver for college then and I am guessing by his age he probably was eligible for service in World War II. 

SQ: Yes.  He was. 

BJ:  Did he talk to you about that? 

Page BreakSQ: He did.  Later on he talked to me about that.  When I would come home I tried to spend my Christmases. I was working in Los Angeles at the time and I would always come back at Christmas and so we had such a short time together.  It wasn’t until a little bit later that I found things that he had at 818, when I found his navy uniforms that were there, and when I found his diary and pictures of his ships, and we started talking.  Gosh, I must have been, I was well into my late 30s and probably 40s and close to my dad’s retirement and we had more time, we spent more time together then and he would tell me stories and he still had his sailor cap and I just loved to hear about . . .   

BJ: What kind of work was his service like?  Was he in the combat ships or where? 

SQ: Well, in fact I have at home a picture of his ship and I brought it along today and his diary and the first entry was in 1945, Buddy,  December 3.  It was on the USS General M.L Hershey.  It says it left San Francisco today at 3.40 p.m.  Just a few navy troops aboard.  Weather was cloudy and rainy.  Outside the Golden Gate sea was rough.  By 5 p.m. sea very rough and wind blowing hard.  Went on watch.  Copied for 20 minutes. Became seasick and had to go below and the story goes on to tell about a horrible storm that they were involved in just outside of San Francisco and for two days the ship really rocked and they had to go down board and he writes so descriptively.  It is just really interesting. 

BJ: So he was just really a journalist. 

SQ: Yes, he was really just a journalist at heart just like his father, my grandfather.  My grandfather was a journalist as well and was a publisher. He published two books, Wolfmen and Spangles.   

BJ:  Were these novels or what were they? 

SQ: They were a conglomeration of short stories that were a collection of short stories based in and around Oklahoma and had a lot to do with Indians and early days in Taos and were very interesting.   

BJ:  Have you seen copies of those and have you read them? 

SQ: I have. I actually have two of the originals. 

BJ:  So what do you think of his writing? 

SQ: It is a little dark for me.  It is very well written and very descriptive. He is so good with words and when I read his columns, having studied journalism myself, I hope that someday I will be able to write as well as he did.   

BJ:  How do you feel?  Do you feel like you get a sense of with any, I write some so I you know, you do find yourself taking some license obviously.  How autobiographical do you think his writing was in the Courier or in his editorials? 

SQ: Very much so. 

BJ:  I mean do you feel like that even though you didn’t know him personally, do you feel like you have a sense of him? 

SQ: Actually, very much so. The column would start out with just kind of one liners and jokes and then it would go on to tell a story and this one is see, my sister was born in 1953, so this was written in 1953, and this is a part of his column.  It says after 32 years we print the first pictures of the family. We are a part of it.  This is the first time we have ever seen photos in this column, perhaps the last.  We skipped all of our children, but these two grandkids are just too nice to let pass by.  Now, let’s take this first one.  This is our first grandchild.  This is my cousin.  She is as fat as an Alberta peach in Oklahoma sunshine but she’s awfully ignorant actually. I am not sure what that means.  She doesn’t know anything about Korea, the United Nations or even Santa Claus, just gurgles and coos and depends upon everyone to wait on her, but friends lean over the crib and say she looks like who and whom, and ain’t she cute, and then it goes on and on, and then it talks about my sister.  And there was one born within the same week, a smiling little cherub. She has to be Irish and she looks as if she doesn’t have a care in the world and doesn’t.  She’s got those before and after ears, and there he was referring to his own ears, and I believe they were either fore and aft and again she doesn’t seem to care; in fact, she doesn’t care about anything except snoozing and drinking milk and then it goes on to the fact that all we know is that we spent a lot of money on them; in fact, 40 cents apiece for their rattles and toys, and I get such a kick out of that, 40 cents apiece. 

BJ:  So he really enjoyed having his grandkids around? 

SQ: He did. 

BJ:  You can tell that. 

SQ:  And I think that is when you are talking about my memories early.  I think that is one of the memories that I know my sister mentioned as well that one of her memories was nana’s cooking and coming in and smelling the food and just always, you know it was like a home, a real home to everyone. 

BJ:  How often did you visit?  You moved from Albuquerque very young?  

SQ: Very young. In fact, I don’t even remember Albuquerque.  We moved when I was two.  My sister was I guess five, and we moved out to 102nd Street and at that time nana and papa were both still alive and that was when 102nd Street, in fact, that was north.  We were far north and in fact Memorial Road was still a dirt road.  It wasn’t paved.  We had field mice in our backyard and Edmond was just a very small town and a long ways away, and now I am sentimental enough that I like to drive by the house on 102nd and it is so small.  It seemed so big growing up there, and now it just looks so small. 

BJ:  Wow. Are those the ones that are off of Western? 

SQ: Yeah, between Penn and Western.  And we used to walk over to Meeker’s farm and get fresh milk.  We would go through the creek and I believe, in fact, the last time I drove by they have segmented a lot of what was the farm into little homes, but the original farm house is still there and that around and just around 102nd and Western Village School is there and there is still a lot of land there that I believe is owned by an oil company and I understand he gets quite a few offers on it so that would be considered now I think what would be the Village. 

BJ:  I didn’t know the farmhouse was still there. 

SQ: Yeah, the farmhouse is still there.  It looks a bit out of place because of all of the homes there.  They kind of built around it, but there is the old Meeker farmhouse. 

BJ: So you would walk over there and get dairy, produce or whatever? 

SQ: Yes.  We would walk over there and it would just be dairy in the old milk cans and then . . . 

BJ:  What would you do if you were somewhat isolated then. How did you, I guess you had a car of course, but how much of the city did you experience at that time? 

SQ: Oh, pretty much so.  Yes, pretty much so. But I think at that time Oklahoma City was kind of its own entity and we didn’t go much farther then. I think at that time Daddy was teaching school and I believe he was teaching economics He went to Regis where he obtained his bachelor’s from Regis in economics and went on, yeah, he went on to get his master’s in teaching from what was then Central State University, which now is UCO. 

BJ: UCO? 

SQ: Yes, UCO, right.  And he did get his master’s there and his love of teaching and after economics he went on driving and went on to teach driver’s ed in Guthrie and don’t we all remember our driver’s ed teacher and he was one of the favorites. He, remember I said he was patient?  He had the patience of a saint. He must have to be.  He would tell stories, but always get Christmas cards from all the students and that was kind of neat too.  So, yes, we kind of just went to and from school.  We went to St. Eugene’s and I had my first communion there in St. Eugene’s and lo and behold what did I find up in the attic at 818.  One of the memorabilia was my beanie that we had to wear. The beanie was what we wore to daily mass.  That matched our uniform.  I think a veil would be more appropriate, the lace covering my head, and then the little rosary from my rosary that I got at my first communion. My sister’s was pink and mine was blue.  And of course, my mother, Elaine. She is living in the Village now and she has plenty of memorabilia as well. 

BJ: Is she in the same, she is not still at 102nd Street.  Is she in the Village? 

SQ: She is there, very close to the library there.  She is very much a metropolitan library lover. 

BJ:  Great. 

SQ: And takes much advantage of that and the YMCA is right there as well and . . . 

BJ:  If I can jump just back a minute. I want to find out more about your grandmother, Isabelle.  You said that you remembered her cooking the large dinners and all of that.  How long did she live into your memory or did you?  

SQ: Very much so.  Papa died in 1963, and then David, my youngest brother, was born in 1967, so David didn’t really have the opportunity to meet papa, but I am sure he has fond, fond memories of nana.  I remember nana a lot at 818 but even more so at the Taos house.  I spent, well we all as kids, spent two weeks at the Taos house and then climbing Wheeler Peak and telling stories about Mammy and Mammy’s grave and that was the ghost and that we would always tell Mammy’s grave stories and just scare each other to death as kids and then my cousin, Mark, Jackie’s son.  He was like a brother.  I called him Marco Polo. He goes by Quinn now. That is his first name now.  Mark Quinn McCarty.  He goes by Quinn and he was Jackie’s only child and he has very fond memories of 818 because Jackie did a lot of traveling and so he has Granny Belle, he knew nana as Granny Belle, and there were a lot of summers that I spent with Mark.  Just he and I. We were really just big Taos lovers.   In fact, my first trip to California was with Mark.  Marco Polo, my Marco.  So we were real close. He is now living in Hawaii.   

BJ:  Okay. Is the Taos house still in the family?   

SQ: The Taos house.  The Taos lot. Now the house next to the Taos house.  The Taos house was bought and we have cried the sentimental, but those that are sentimental, and that would be my brother, Joseph Jerome Quinn III.  Brother Joey, we call him, and he owns the lot next to the Taos house and the people that own the Taos house want to buy the lot, and Joey owns the lot and he wants to buy the Taos house.  So. 

BJ: Two irresistible forces? 

SQ: Two irresistible forces are definitely at work there.  But we still have very, very fond memories. 

BJ:  So in all the extended family would go there again I guess in August? 

SQ: Very much so.  In fact, Aunt Porgie and Uncle Dan.  They have a condo in Santa Fe.  They are also Santa Fe lovers if you will. Just all that whole area of New Mexico, northern New Mexico.  And their daughter, Danny Sue, has a condo right there in the same community as well as my Uncle Wendell who lives on Isabelle Street in Santa Fe.  I just love that.  

BJ: Sentimental? 

SQ: Yes, we are all sentimental.   

BJ: Let’s catch up very quickly with your aunts and uncles.  Were any of them special to you or colorful? 

SQ: They were.  Oh, Aunt Jackie was very colorful.  Very well known.  In fact, in the article I was reading you, the column, let’s see.  At the very end it says but perhaps in referring to both Danny Sue and my sister, Kathleen, and the fact that they were born in October ten days from each other, but perhaps one would take after Aunt Jackie, singing, dancing, playing and by that he means Aunt Jackie who played the guitar.  She cut her own album and she had a single poncho clause that she sang and produced, wrote, all in Spanish, and just the cutest takeoff of Santa Claus is Coming to Town and a gorgeous album, and she spoke fluent French and Spanish and sang and danced all through Albuquerque, was very well known.  Very well known.  Jackie. 

BJ: Was she kind of based there? 

SQ: Yes.  Jackie McCarty in Santa Fe and she had a condominium.  Her first husband died, passed away and she remarried John McCarty.  John was my mentor.  He was the Vice-President of Frito Lay-Pepsico in Dallas and had two sons.  His son, Stephen Chris McCarty, one playing for the Steve Miller band, and one wrote music for the Steve Miller band, so my uncle was involved in the Fly Like an Eagle both the album and the tour.  And so we have a very musical family, a musical group, and they then went into their own business, McCarty Family Music, and have written and produced there and then of course had a beautiful home in Santa Fe that included a music studio.  So colorful would mean them and of course, Aunt Porgie, Aunt Porgie is very colorful and she is a shutterbug and as am I and speaks fluent French.  She up until this year she and Uncle Dan went to Paris every year. She loved Paris.  She loves Paris.  She hasn’t been able to go due to her health the past two years I believe.  That and skiing.  I have a picture of she and Uncle Dan on I believe it was his 83rd birthday or her 83rd birthday.  They are both 85 now and I think it is 85.  I am not exactly sure, somewhere around 85.    

BJ:  Snow skiing? 

SQ: Yes.  And the Santa Fe ski basin.  And just the cutest picture of them all bundled up there at age 83 and 85 or right in their mid 80s.  So I am so proud of them.  They just loved picnics and fishing and their grandkids as well.  My cousin, Jeff, has twins, twin sons, and then Ashley who is very much taking that.  She is a brilliant, brilliant singer, an opera singer.  I have had the opportunity to meet them.  Jeff is a very well known surgeon.  He is known throughout the country for his technique in spinal surgery so . . .  

BJ: Well, that is quite a record for you know for Joseph Senior to have given the public . . . 

SQ: And my brother I am very proud of.  Joseph Jerome Quinn III.  That would be Joey that is down in Dallas.  He married a beautiful woman by the name of Shelly, so there are two Shelly Quinns now.  She is Michelle actually.   And Joey picked a great woman.  They met in college.  Joey played football at McGuinness. We all graduated from McGuinness, myself, my older sister, and then Joey and my youngest brother, David, and Joey played football, and then he played football for Southwest University, Southwestern, and Shelly was on a basketball scholarship so they met there and then both of them went on to vet school, so both of them are veterinarians down in Sunnyville, Texas, just outside of Dallas and they have three beautiful children.  That would be my niece, Jillian, and my two nephews, Clay that just graduated and he is on his way to OU, his first year.  He will be a freshman.  And Jill who is still in high school and little Josh man.   

BJ: So you are all still pretty close with all of your nieces and nephews?   

SQ: Yes. 

BJ:  So then so you guys, you kids, all went to, well you mentioned St. Eugene’s earlier.  Did you go to school there, too or did you go to Carroll?   

SQ: I mentioned that my father went to John Carroll. I went to St. Eugene’s.   My sister went to St. Eugene’s.  I believe that my brothers, Joey and David, went to St. Eugene’s as well.   

BJ:  What was that like?   

SQ: Very parochial.   

BJ:  I know that most Catholic schools have changed. So did you go, was it a little more strict like we always see?   

SQ: Yes.  I was there when it was very strict.  I remember in second grade Sister Marilyn and when I got in trouble which I did.  I seemed to be a little bit of a talker at times. I would have to stand in a corner and I remember that some of the guys in our class got their ears tweaked if they weren’t good, and sister would take the ruler and pound it on our desk and we did go to church every day, single file, and there again I would forget my beanie and I would have a Kleenex bobby pinned to my head every time I forgot my beanie.  And then I was a Girl Scout or a Brownie, and there again more memorabilia.  I found my Girl Scout junior scout book and my, oh what would you call it? 

BJ:  Oh, the sash? 

SQ: Oh, yes, the sash.  Thank you.  The sash with all of the badges on and a good girl scout I was ten years old and I had quite a few patches. 

BJ:  How long did you stay with Girl Scouts? 

SQ: I stayed with Girl Scouts, gosh, all through camp, all through I think up and through junior high.  I went to Hoover Junior High so pretty much as long as you could.  I always really loved Girl Scouts, summer camp and was a troop leader. 

BJ:  Okay.  So, did you, I guess you said you went to Hoover, so was that your only public school? That was the middle school.   

SQ: Yes. That was the middle school. I do believe I went to Western Village.  I kind of bounced around a little bit.    

BJ:  What was it like at McGuinness? That would have been the early to mid 70s?  

SQ: Yes, it was the early to mid 70s. I started there my freshman year and it was I think like any freshman, trying to fit in, and seeing a lot of friends that I hadn’t seen because I wanted to go to Herbert Hoover because I wanted to see how public school was.  I had a disagreement with my parents but I was able to go there, but then I got to see a lot of my same friends from St. Eugene’s so that was kind of neat and . . . 

BJ:  Now were at any given time how many Quinn kids were there at the same time? 

SQ: Two of us.  When I was a senior Joey was a freshman.  And this was my little brother, Joe, and he was extremely and still is very good looking so Shelly Quinn wasn’t, oh, you are Joe Quinn’s sister, and that was . . .  

BJ: Joe Quinn’ sister. 

SQ: Yes, and even my mother, oh, you are Joe Quinn’s sister and my brother, David himself was extremely good looking and I think he let David hold his own very well now.   

BJ:  His brother paved the way? 

SQ: His brother very much paved the way. 

BJ: So what was your . . . ? 

SQ:  Joey was very much tall, dark and handsome, and David is definitely dark and handsome.  That part is definitely … 

BJ: So you were just a way to get an introduction to your brothers and that is . . . 

SQ: Yes. Exactly.  And Joey played football so our house was always toilet papered and ra ra McGuiness and that was kind of neat and I think very fun for him. But it was fun watching him play ball.  It was real, real neat.  I graduated in the class of 1975 from McGuinness and then I didn’t go my very first year after McGuinness.  I did go to OSU for one semester, but I, once again the gypsy. I didn’t want to stay in one place very long. And I had dreams of heading west. 

BJ:  Did you have a lot of people, you know, oh they in varying degrees looked down on Oklahoma City or Oklahoma, you know, and want to shake the dust and you know it is fairly normal I imagine no matter where you come from, but did you or were you just wanting to go, just get out of Oklahoma City or was it, I mean, how did you feel about your town? 

SQ: Oh, no. I loved Oklahoma.  I just specifically wanted to go to California.  I wanted to be a California girl.  I wanted to be like the models on all of the magazines that I had seen. I wanted to work in television and I figured I could be like Mary Hart on Entertainment Tonight and I was going to do all the research and . . .  

BJ:  Who had worked here.   

SQ: Yes, and I was, I just thought I could do it and I had had a touch of California.  I mentioned my cousin and I when we were in Taos one summer. He had this old Volkswagen van and we told our grandmother that we were going to, I think that we were going to climb Wheeler Peak, whatever it was, and we didn’t lie often, and I am sure nana knew when we were gone just a little bit longer than we were supposed to be gone because we decided to go to California.  And we went to San Diego in his van.  Something was wrong and my cousin who I loved dearly and who was I think so ahead of the times in certain things like wind power.  He was talking about wind power 15 or 20 years ago.  And he knew about aerodynamics.  So here we are young and in the late 70s driving a VW van and he had thought this was going to make us go faster.  He figured we were aerodynamically going to put pieces of cardboard along the sides to try to get us back to Taos faster so granny that wouldn’t be mad.  So I had had a touch of California and seeing the life of southern California and I just fell in love at that point and that was my dream.   

BJ: Well, now, so back in high school that was what you had already had those ideas and . . . 

SQ: I knew I wanted a college degree, I mean clearly, but . . . 

BJ:  What did you plan on doing, I mean you wanted to be a Mary Hart type person, so did you go into journalism or broadcast, mass media, or what was your major? 

SQ: My major was, well . . .  

BJ:  Well, where did you go after you left OSU, but then . . . 

SQ: I left OSU and didn’t really know exactly where I was going.  I left with one of my roommates and we had decided at the very last moment that we were going even.  We thought we would be able to stay in an apartment our first year at OSU, and it was required that to stay in a dorm room and we had waited until the last moment so we ended up in the attic at the jock dorm so that is why we got out of there.   We found we would have to share a bathroom because we thought we would have to follow the rules so that wasn’t the way to go.  So we took, I took my Pontiac, we called it the Petunia Pontiac, loaded her up and much to my parents’ chagrin and Lisa Hardwick.  Lisa had her car and everything we owned pretty much and we headed west and kind of knew, My Uncle Wendell at the time and kind of lived in Huntington Beach, so we were headed that way towards the beach, somewhere right in and around Hollywood and around Uncle Wendell and we landed in Newport Beach, in Laguna Beach and weeks later of course.  But we were very lucky. Talk about our guardian angels being right alongside us.  Two young girls, 19 year olds.  Oh, it scares me to death.  My gosh.  My nephew is 18 now and we were just a year older, but of course you know how you are when you are 18 and 19. 

BJ:  You know everything. 

SQ: You know everything.  Oh, yes. 

BJ:  So did you stay with Uncle Wendell a little while or? 

SQ: No, we didn’t.  We, well it was kind of a little bit of a culture shock needless to say.  I think more so to them and when we opened our mouths and it was like how you all doing?  And we were from Oklahoma and so . . . 

BJ:  Yeah, Okie days had been over for a while and so probably you weren’t used to hearing that?  So then you ended up going to college in LA? 

SQ: I did not in LA, in fact in Fullerton, California, California State University.  I started at Orange Coast College. I was working at the Balboa Bay Club there in Newport and teaching aerobics in the mornings and then I would go to my classes and then work there at night, right on the beach and it was just great.  I was not aware of the kind of money that people had.  I mean I did not grow up a privileged child by any means in terms of the type of people, the clientele of the people.  That was a private club and their children all went to college and they were very affluent and very generous and when they found out that my friend Angie and I were working our way through college they were very, very generous.  Angie’s husband says that sometimes probably even after you graduate you might be surprised that you won’t be making the kind of money that you are making now.  So . . . 

BJ:  Wow. So that was very fortunate. 

SQ: Yes.  Very, very fortunate.  God has been by my side all along the way. 

BJ:  So then journalism was your major? 

SQ: Yes, journalism was my major.  It was communications in general, journalism, radio, TV, film and public relations, so I just kind of went from a real, I knew it would be public relations, journalism and then in the end I started taking more television, broadcast journalism, television film and I fell in love with that.   

BJ: LA would be the next direction you would go? 

SQ: Yes, that would be the next. 

BJ:  So where did you land right out of college? 

SQ: Well, right out of college I put in some applications into the Hollywood area.  I had made the phone calls to the people that I knew trying to do everything that I had learned.  I did my internship with Cal State Fullerton for the soap opera General Hospital, so I got my feet in the door in that particular area and I was very privileged to have gotten that.  I felt very fortunate.  

BJ:  So that was sort of the apex of that? 

SQ: Very much so.  That was in the Luke and Lora area and fortunately for me that was during the Luke and Lora wedding. So I was there for the wedding in and of itself and I learned all about television, how it was shot and how the scenes were shot and the enormous amount of dialogue that had to be memorized just on a daily basis and the pressure and the real five, four, three, two, one, you’re on.  And you need to know your lines.  So that was a great experience.  But in trying to go from there it was very hard to go into a market the size of Los Angeles.  It was extremely difficult and I needed to, I was told one of the ones I needed to start in a small market and at that point in time I learned that what better a small market or smaller market that then the market in which I was familiar with and that would be back at home, Oklahoma City.  And so I came back.  I put in some applications here in Oklahoma City and was accepted as a production assistant at Channel 4 which is now News 4.  At that time it was KTVY and at the same time a position was open, or actually I think I started, I kind of got my foot in the door at KATT radio here, KATT, Rock 100, and got my foot in the door there so I was working for both radio TV and was fortunate, and I consider myself very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Linda Cavanaugh and Bella Shaw and Bella and I worked together again later, and of course, Bob Junior, Bob Barry Junior. We used to go to church and we used to see each other in church occasionally at Christ the King, and . . . 

BJ:  So did you do PA then or just? 

SQ: Yes.  The PA at Channel 4, Ben and Butch McCain very early in the morning. So I remember the McCains. 

BJ:  Yes, I remember very early in the morning.  So you were putting on the newscast then?   

SQ: Yes.  I actually assisted and if you remember the McCain brothers they generally would have a guest on and I would meet with the guest and work the teleprompter and help make sure they got their scripts out on time, pretty much a PA, an overall PA position.  And then often I worked my way into the afternoon and the evenings.  If I had worked the noon shift, I tried to get a little better experience writing and so I learned a little bit. 

BJ:  So you covered everything? 

SQ: Yes, I covered everything. Brad was there with In Your Corner, and Mary Ann who is now the news director, I understand at KTBY, she was working with Brad In Your Corner and Bob Barry Senior was fun, always with a smile on his face.  I don’t think he could be that . . . 

BJ:  Was he really always as jovial as he seemed? 

SQ: He always was.  I don’t think you could make him mad and what is more fun than to see him and Linda just fun it up with each other on the air. 

BJ: So what did you do for KATT? The morning shows or what? 

SQ: Well, I went in. I met Shelly Dunn and therein lied a little bit of confusion.  Pat and Shelly of a morning.  It was Shelly Dunn, my name being Shelly Quinn and Shelly was the news director and I was interested in news so I worked kind of as her assistant.  I came in through an internship there to get my foot in the door and worked as her assistant and then just helped her in the morning her newscast.  And then got my foot in the door to start an a.m. news show on a Sunday, an hour program, an interview program.  And then went on as a promotions coordinator so I created a position as special projects coordinator later and helped work in conjunction with the promotions director there and worked with the sales staff in helping them do promotions.  Gosh I remember summer in the city. COORS was one of the big sponsors and what is now Bricktown we used to close that off and red-hot summer concert series.  One time we took all of that area which is now Bricktown and took red hots, just tons of red hots all of that area.  We walked in red hots literally.   

BJ:  Wow.  It seems like it was very hot and sticky. 

SQ: Yeah.  Very well put.   

BJ: So who did you encounter when you put on the shows?  Did you interact with any of the bands or anything that was brought in? 

SQ: Not so much. Not so much.  I worked with the zoo, the summer zoo concert series and did a couple of . . . worked backstage.  I remember James Taylor being in town, backstage with James Taylor.  Some were more picky than others.  Some of the bands in terms of what they needed and would expect to have backstage.  And some had higher egos than others. 

BJ:  And that was your job to insure they had what they wanted? 

SQ: Un-huh.  I was one of the persons who . . . 

BJ:  It seems a little stressful.   

SQ: It could get stressful.  Yes. 

BJ:  Are there any unusual ones that you remember that just really stand out? 

SQ: Oh, gosh. Not so much here in Oklahoma City.  Now just that it was a very fun time.   

BJ:  And when you did your interview show on AM, did you interview anybody interesting of just local? 

SQ: It was just pretty much local.  The Oklahoma Tourism Department was always very helpful and I was new and that was always a good interview that I did up on what was the coming attractions in Oklahoma at the time, and it was growing and Oklahoma City was growing at that time and . . . 

BJ: So when did you decide you were ready to make the jump back to LA? 

SQ: I moved back to LA in the late 80s.  I was ready to go.  And I didn’t know exactly how I could get in and I put in applications and decided I was going to go and look into...  There was a radio station KSBR at Saddleback College that had an opening and it wasn’t a lot of money but I could be back in southern California and I thought perhaps I could work on my master’s.  And I was applying for that and working part time and a position for an internship became available at Saddleback right outside the radio station.  It was posted for CNN in Los Angeles, Cable News Network, and immediately I called. It was for a summer internship and I asked them if I could interview and they said yes and I said I could be there the very next day.  They said, okay.  Little did I know the driving distance, driving time and things like that. I was living in Laguna Beach at the time which is on a good day with no traffic about an hour south.  But this was during the week.  It was about a little over two hours one way and I was just exhausted when I finally got there.  But I knew when I walked into a friend I had gone to college with at Cal State Fullerton, when I walked up 6430 Sunset Boulevard and you could see. CNN was at the top.  It was on a corner of the building, and I was going up the stairs nervous as could be and down the stairs walks a very good friend of mine, Lynn.  We had gone to college together.  She is carrying a briefcase and I looked at her.  I said, Lynn.  She said Shelly.  I hadn’t seen her in years.  And I will never forget that and I said I am going to remember this day forever.  I thought to myself this is going to be one of those kinds of memories that I have that I am never going to forget.  And I never have.  And I hadn’t seen her, and I said, well, I said I am going up to interview at CNN and I did. I went up and not only did I interview.  It went very, very well.  I started working that day just kind of to get my feet wet and then the drive home was just horrible in traffic.  405 southbound, bumper to bumper from Los Angeles out of Hollywood.  So I did that for two days and I went in and talked to the executive producer at the time, Jeff Panzer, who I will never forget. He is now with VH-1.  Very high up with VH-1.  And he gave me my break and I said, Jeff.  Number one.  I said if this is a nonpaying internship and I am not just out of college.  I have experience and I can’t afford, I can’t afford just paying for gas coming here and I can’t afford to work for nothing.  And he said well, Shelly, we have vacation relief coming and now again this is in entertainment news which I knew.  I just wanted to get my foot in the door.  I knew nothing about entertainment.  I was hoping to get into sports.    

BJ:  Sports? 

SQ: Yes, sports, but I was willing to take anything they had part time, vacation, fill in available.  It was summer and lucky for me I was prepared and I saId, he said it would be just a little over minimum wage but I would recommend it.  It would be entertainment news.  We could work the hours around your driving schedule and I said great.   

BJ: I think I remember that show.  It was? 

SQ: It was Show Biz Today.  It was bicoastal.  We were live from Los Angeles, from Hollywood and from New York.  And Bill, what was Bill’s last name?  Bill Tush. 

BJ:  Oh, yeah, I remember him. 

SQ: Bill Tush and Lauren Sydney and Bill Tush was in Los Angeles and Bella Shaw, remember back here in Oklahoma City, Bella Shaw worked at Channel 4.  She was in Atlanta and I emailed her on the in-house computer. Bella, this is Shelly.  Do you remember me from Oklahoma City from Channel 4?  I'm at CNN now!  We emailed back and forth and Bella said I want to work in entertainment news and back and forth for about a month.  Lo and behold they had an opening for an anchor. She was anchoring the hard news for CNN out of Atlanta.  So by now I was a full-time production assistant. I moved up very quickly and this was the early days of CNN. Remember CNN went on the air in the 1980. Ted Turner launched CNN in 1980 and this was about 1988 or 1989 so we were still very new, doing a lot of things, setting up everybody kind of setting up interviews, everyone helped themselves to edit and to make sure that during and right before the show it was crazy.  Keep in mind, it was a live show. We had to meet the feed because it was fed from New York.  The packages, the prepackages, the stories were fed on a feed to Atlanta and then it was fed back out live on CNN. It was mixed in Atlanta and fed back out live.  So it all had to do with satellites.  Coordination.  Had a lot of coordination so we,  

Bella really wanted to come to entertainment news. Warren Sitzl was going to be Lauren and Bella to Lauren was in New York. They moved Lauren to Los Angeles to Hollywood. Bella went to New York.  Boo hoo.  Bella wanted to be in Los Angeles where we wanted to be together, and Bella wanted to be in southern California.  Lauren missed  New York so they talked her into flip flopping.  They flip flopped it to and Bella and I got to work together again.  And so that was just before the ten year.  I remember the ten-year party very well.  That was the decade.  The first year, 1990.  Bella and I went to the party together and that was my first time to meet Ted. 

BJ:  Oh, yeah.  I was wondering how visible he was?   

SQ: He was fairly visible. He was single at the time and he loved to party.  He was very well known for the fact that he was very social and it was always fun and he had an aura about him.  You know how some people, they just walk in the room and you know that he is there, and Ted very much had that aura about him.  In one of those companies that you work for and you say, Ted.  They know.  Everybody in the corporation knows. And he goes by his first name, and very, very accessible.  Very likeable and very accessible.   

BJ: But you wouldn’t just go up and start talking to him? 

SQ: Oh, I would.  Yep.  I would.  I don’t think my memory is very excellent, oh yeah, I told you that.  Very accessible, but again I was kind of on the public relations.  At that time there was one public relations director. In the, I think it was our first Christmas party that I can remember that there were about 40 of us, the entire, I think the public relations was in Century City and they had one floor. They now of course have the entire building of Turner. It is now owned of course by Time Warner.  And it incorporates so many magazines now and at the time Time Warner, Inc. as well as CNN News headlines and they would cut to the internet and . . .  

BJ:  The building in New York? 

SQ: Oh, and of course the CNN and Larry has his new studios and it is just so . . . 

BJ:  So you remember the gonzo days. 

SQ: I remember the days when we would just be running through the halls editing and trying to make deadlines and . . . 

BJ:  How long was your day, when did your day start, and how long did it last? 

SQ: My day started early.  I met Jeff Panzer.  We would have a conference call with New York and I am an early person because at that time I had moved up into Newport and I think by then I had moved into the marina.  I moved in with Bella into Hollywood Hills.  Prior to her marriage we lived together and oh gosh I had lived in Santa Monica.  I just couldn’t sit still because I wanted to be closer to the bureau.  I loved my job.  I really, really loved my job.  And it was exciting and I took it real seriously and for me it was just a great time in my life.  But it was women hear us roar at that time. It was that era.  And so I gave up a lot. I gave up having a family. CNN was my family.   

BJ: There were a lot of women involved. Usually when you think of the big networks and its news it’s the stately gentlemen and all. CNN had a lot of female anchors and obviously you had Elsa and people like that that were very much like. 

SQ: Yes, Christiane Amanpour. Right. 

BJ:  You could see where they came from. 

SQ: As well as behind the scenes.  I remember Tammy was Larry King’s, one of his first producers and she was very, very good, and she traveled with him and actually I think one of his first heart attacks she was with him and saved his life.  Tammy Haddad.  I think she went on to work as a producer I think for MSNBC or one of the other majors at that time. 

BJ: Who did you besides Bella, who did you remember and enjoying working with, or did you mainly work with her? 

SQ: I mainly worked with Bella.  Larry King was a lot of fun as was Jim Moret.  When Bella left Jim Moret came in and he was just a whole lot of fun.  He had a grand sense of humor and he helped me produce for my 30-year reunion tape for CNN. He helped me produce that as did Larry and while we were interviewing.  At that time we had started with movie premieres.  CNN was covering. In the beginning it was just, this was before entertainment news, it was pretty much CBS, NBC, ABC, Entertainment Tonight and Show Biz Today that got credentialed.  This was before E entertainment and Access Hollywood and all of the others that have come since then, so credentialing wasn’t quite as serious as a project back then and so for my, we ended up covering quite a few premiers, movie premiers and music premiers and I remember at the Batman premier of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman both did a sound bite for me and said hello to Oklahoma to Bishop McGuiness, so I got some of the celebrities and oh, of course, you can imagine coming to my 30 year reunion it was just the neatest, 20 year reunion, excuse me, 20 year reunion.  Right. 

BJ: So do you remember anybody that was particularly fun or difficult to work with, star wise, I mean? 

SQ: Star wise?  Oh, gosh . . . 

BJ:  Were they all pretty . . .? 

SQ: Oh, well, some of them I will have to say that with all the award shows that I covered, the Country Music Awards were just my favorites.  They were so kicked back and no attitude and no, or hardly any ego as opposed to you know, the far end of that on the other spectrum would be my very first interview was with Guns and Roses and I was trying to be quite the journalist and I had my pen and my paper and I was ready to ask all my questions.  I had my notebook ready.  I had my paper.  I had my little suit on. Guns and Roses had been up all night.  I am not sure if you remember the band. 

BJ:  Oh, yeah, I surely do. 

SQ: They were very hard rock.  My knowledge of rock then, my background was not in entertainment.  I learned as I went on.  I had done my research and I could not get them to say much.  Slash I could not really see his face, kind of mumbled most of the time and I had worked  hard at that and it was a rough experience at an early age . . . Gosh, Allen Jackson was a very pleasant interview.  Bob Hope was my favorite.  But I had Bob Hope send a Christmas present every single Christmas and he was not just a favorite of mine, but a favorite of pretty much everyone at CNN.  He was, he had so many events and so many charities and his birthday.  I think everyone had an opportunity because he lived such a long time and each year he did interviews.  He always sent me a Christmas present, myself and others.  It was sent by his publicist and always autographed and always beautiful.  It is something that I have on my credentials from when I covered the Oscars, I mean very blessed to have covered the Oscars and Emmys and ACE awards and the longer I was there it became MTV awards and The American Music Awards which started just to be the Country Music Awards and then came The American Music Awards and The ACE awards and it seemed to be the awards, soap opera awards, soap opera digest awards, but I keep a lot of those in various places around 818, but one of the things I love is autographed by Bob Hope.  It is a crystal ice container, ice bucket container with stainless steel and really elegant. 

BJ:  I didn’t know he was that, I mean he always seemed like his persona was very jovial, but I didn’t realize . . . 

SQ:  But later in years his wife who was just by his side always by his side and he became a little hard of hearing at the end and she would help with the interview and that was very memorable, and oh, gosh, I think probably of all would be covering the presidential Bill Clinton inauguration.  That was one of my greatest memories of everything that I did there.  I think. 

BJ: The 1993, the first inauguration? 

SQ: The first one, yes, in 1993, and the entertaining aspect of covering a presidential inauguration for me, if you remember Bill Clinton had 14 or 15 different inaugural balls and we had crews at just about each one and it was a producer's challenge to say the least. 

BJ:  Just to find which one to go to? 

SQ: Just to find which one to cover and where.  And knowing that he was going to be playing the saxophone himself often, so that was our focus as with every other news crew.  The competition was heavy.  To make sure that we got that shot, had the video of him playing, which we did, but it was very tense and long nights and . . .  but you get to know someone, other people, other networks.  You become friends with the others that are under the same constraints.  The same time constraints and the same pressures of live news and in those that depend on you for example, we were also responsible for news source and in and of that we had entertainment news feed that we would feed to ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates all over the country.  So we would cover the events there in Hollywood and then we would distribute them across the country.   

BJ:  So, did you, how did you decide to leave all of that behind? 

SQ: It was very, very difficult.  I didn’t really decide. But my father’s health.  He had a heart attack and then I would come back home and I would go back to work and it was back and forth quite a bit and then I took a leave of absence and then an extended leave of absence and then daddy would get better and he had, oh, some surgery and an angioplasty and it was difficult, but in the end it was, my father was more important to me. I was very, very close to my father as well as my mom, but my dad and I had a special bond, and I wanted to spend time with him and prior to his death we were able to take a trip, an east coast trip.  I had always wanted to go to the east coast as did he and he took me and showed me where he was born in Baltimore, Maryland and we did.  It was right during the fall and it was just picturesque and everywhere we looked it was picture perfect, postcard material.  Just incredible in Maine and Vermont and the lighthouses were really, really pretty so that is a trip I will never forget.   

BJ:  That is great.  You were able to catch up and you know really bond, I guess for a final time. 

SQ: Yes.  Very much, very much so.  But still the love of Oklahoma, always coming back, the big, puffy clouds of Oklahoma.  Nothing like it.  And of course, the people. The people are incredible.  I know that I covered, one year I was doing freelance work for CNN and I was here in Oklahoma for the one-year anniversary of the bombing as was Tom Brokaw and others and I  know they had their live shots set up out at the memorial here downtown, and I remember even Tom Brokaw talking about how friendly, I heard him on the air speaking specifically of how friendly the people in Oklahoma are and I think everyone at CNN said the same.   

BJ:  Did you cover that initially in 1995? 

SQ: Yes.   

BJ:  With CNN? 

SQ: I believe we got affiliate coverage with Channel 4.  It had such wide coverage initially.  I was in Hollywood at the time and I heard it in the bureau of course.  We hear it just a tad before the big indulgence.  Again we were you know the first.  CNN was the first 24-hour news coverage so it came across the wires and word got to me immediately because people knew that I was from Oklahoma.  What they didn’t know was that my sister worked for the state and that was all I knew. I knew she worked in a state building, worked in a federal building, so I was panic stricken immediately and I called of course my mom whose number I know off the top of my head and I got through immediately to her, and I said, mom, what happened, what just happened?  And she said I don’t know. Shelly Ann, she calls me Shelly Ann. I don’t know, Shelly Ann. Something just happened and it felt like, it sounded like a sonic boom, but then we could feel it shake and they were starting to say there was Channel 4 was reporting that there was a bombing, and I said, hold on, hold on just a second.  So I said Mom, I am going to run into the control room, so I don’t think my mom had any clue what was going on.  I am running through the halls of CNN. My mom is on the phone, my mom is on the phone.  So I ran into the control room.  I said put on a tape.   I have my mom live, from Oklahoma.  So I did.  I said Mom you are going to be on in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  She had no idea.  I said, okay, mom, can you describe what just happened and how you feel, and she did.  Just until recently she didn’t know that she was one of the first on live international news talking about the Oklahoma City bombing.   

BJ:  Wow.  That is pretty cool.   

SQ: Yeah, yeah.  It sounds then and of course I was here a year later. 

BJ:  For the reunion and the presidential visit and all that? 

SQ: A year later for the bombing. Actually I interviewed Bailey’s mother, so I had been here I believe it was, I had come back and it was when I had the leave of absences, but I always did freelance anytime I could anymore.  Whenever that was.  

BJ:  I think we are almost done, our time is almost done, so what I have overlooked?  What would you like to share. 

SQ: Oh, you are so good, Buddy.  I don’t . . . Gosh, in general how proud I am to be an Oklahoman, how much I love the State of Oklahoma, how much I love 818 and I think in closing the legacy of 818 will continue.  The iris that my grandmother planted still blooms, that she planted back in the 1930s and then I transplanted some of the iris that she planted originally. They still bloom. Her iris and I planted cannas.  I bought just a few from one of my neighbors and they grow and they multiply.  So we have quite a few cannas.  In fact, I wanted to bring one in for you and I took one I thought had to be at least 10 feet tall, but it is about 8 and ¾ feet tall, but it is still tall.  It is tall enough that I can hold my hands and so that and just the fact that I looked up in the dictionary just the Webster defines house as a building that serves as living quarters for one or a few families and that certainly is what 818 is, as well as a natural covering that encourages and protects an animal or a person, which is as well what 818 is.  But for me as Webster defines home, home is a social unit formed by a family living together, a family familiar with a usual setting where home is where the heart is.  And to me 818 is certainly where the heart is for me and for the extended Quinn family.   

BJ:  Great.  We appreciate you sharing that with us. 

SQ:   Well, thank you very much. 

BJ:  It is now part of our collective memory but also of your family’s. 

SQ: Thank you for having me, Buddy.  It has been my pleasure. 

BJ:  Mine too, Thanks.