May 26, 2016
By Paragon News Director Paul Joseph –
Elk City’s Pioneer Center has been renamed in honor of a Tony award winning, Broadway star.
In a special meeting on Tuesday, the Elk City School Board officially changed the name of the 964 seat auditorium to honor Elk City native Kelli O’Hara.
School Board President Brandon Storm says only part of the building was renamed.
O’Hara has appeared on Broadway and Off-Broadway in many musicals since making her Broadway debut as a replacement in Jekyll & Hyde in 2000. A six-time Tony Award nominee, her one Tony award was received for Best Lead Actress in a Musical for the 2015 revival of The King and I.
Also renamed at the special meeting was the high school’s ag building in honor of Larry Long, an ag teacher for 49 years, 41 in Elk City. The building is named the Larry Long Agricultural Educational Building.
As for the renaming of the performing arts center building, Storm thinks he knows where the idea came from.
Elk City claims O’Hara, but according to the internet, she graduated from Deer Creek High School and attended Oklahoma City University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Music in vocal performance/opera, studying with Florence Birdwell who also taught Kristin Chenowith, another famous actress and singer from Oklahoma, Broken Arrow, to be exact.
Storm says the idea to rename the center for O’Hara was an easy sell.
Soon after she heard she was being honored with the naming of the performing arts center, O’Hara went to Facebook, where she posted that when she was 5, her parents took her to see actress and singer and former Miss America Susan Powell – also from Elk City – at the Susan Powell auditorium in Elk City.
O’Hara says she had, apparently, fallen asleep and Powell stopped and kissed her as she walked up the aisle. O’Hara says soon after she made a decision to be a singer like Susan.
O’Hara ended the post with this comment: “I am and will always be monumentally honored and grateful to have my name on your art center in the town of my childhood dreams. A little girl’s dream came true today. Mine.”
O’Hara is married to Greg Naughton, son of actor James Naughton. They have two children.
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