Maysville legend keys festive event

By Barry Porterfield

A whole lot of fun centering around a local legend is what Maysville residents are looking forward to with the return of another Wiley Post Festival.

Maysville's seventh annual festival to again feature a host of live music, carnival rides and vendors is set for a three-day run Sept. 11-13.

For local librarian Meredith Marquard the event is even bigger since it's her first to coordinate.

Fortunately for her she wasn't alone. Marquard, who is from Stratford, credits the people of Maysville for coming together and helping her as she worked to everything in place.

“This is all new to me,” she said.

“I had a lot of help from the community. I can't tell you how wonderful they've been.”

Also pitching in to help Marquard has been a very familiar face.

Stepping in to offer her a helping hand has been Samantha Robb — the former Maysville librarian so instrumental in organizing this festival in the past. Robb now works as the director of Main Street Pauls Valley.

As final preparations continue Marquard foresees a big-time festival with plenty of interest coming from all over.

“We're expecting a lot of vendors, about double than in the past,” she said adding that number is around 35. “We've had to close off more streets than we normally have.

“There's also a lot of great entertainers with most never having performed at this festival before.

“There's going to be a lot of new things.”

The festival is scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11 with an outdoor movie featuring Post on the corner of Main and Williams.

The 1935 feature “Air Hawks” will be followed by Roger and Hammerstein's musical “Oklahoma.”

Maysville's First Baptist Church will serve popcorn and drinks during the movies, she said.

The festivities continue the following night at the same site with a kind of 5th quarter after a home football game for the Maysville Warriors. The event also features a carnival until about midnight.

The big day comes Saturday, Sept. 13 as starting at 7 a.m. several local pilots will land their planes at the Grimes Airstrip.

Pilots will be served Post's favorite breakfast — chili made from Mea Post's original recipe.

During the day several aircraft are scheduled to circle around the city.

Music will then begin to fill the air as at 10 a.m. Clancy Davis will take the stage and perform until noon. Davis has opened for such acts as Blake Shelton, Ty England and is a regular at the Oklahoma Opry.

At high noon the streets of Williams will come to life with the Ada Free Rangers western shoot-out show.

With games and food mixed in throughout the day, Meresa Owens will perform at 7:30 p.m. signaling the start of an evening street dance.

Local favorite Rude Mood will later take the stage to keep the fun going.

For Marquard the event has been a true learning experience about not just organizing an event but Post the man.

“I've learned a lot about Wiley Post and what he contributed to aviation.”

She even points out the high school in Maysville offers a history class on Post.