The Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum reopened its doors on Friday after being closed for over a year.

Throughout the day, a trickle of visitors, some from out of state, ventured through the building looking at the exhibits that placed a spotlight on the Singing Cowboy and other movie stars from years ago.

“We worked hard to get that door open and now we have to work to make it stay open,” Gene Autry Oklahoma Historical Society Board Member Glenn Smith said. “If I can get it open two days a week going forward, it is a success for me. And at that point, we can start finetuning things.

“With my board, we have some great ideas and if stuff come through, I have got one person on the board that has some access to maybe getting us some grant money and some help.”

Picking up the pieces

Smith said there were two issues that had to be resolved for the museum to reopen after it closed in March 2024. The first was reorganizing a board. The board consists of five people and four were needed to join Smith.

There were issues with the museum’s 501©3 status that had to be resolved and it took some time to straighten it out. After that task was completed, Smith said a board needed to be put in place.

“I had to round up some people that were interested in being on the board, which I finally got that done,” he said. “In fact, I have a pretty good crew right now.”

Smith was the board’s sole remaining member as the others had dropped off one by one. For a museum that is dependent on volunteer labor, that can spell doom.

“We were kind of stuck,” Smith said.

Four people were identified and joined Smith on the board, giving the museum a pathway forward to reopening. One of the board members is a 90-year-old gentleman from Frisco, Texas of whom Smith said he knows everything there is to know about Gene Autry.

The board began to meet and decided to reopen the museum. Smith said the board wanted to open five days a week, but he stressed that baby steps were needed, and the museum should open only on Fridays and Saturday to start off with.

“It all kind of started coming together in October,” he said. “We have had some meetings and made the decision we were going to try and open in April. We chose only two days a week so that we can figure out if we are going to get the help. I still work and I can’t be here all the time.”

Ups and downs

Smith joined the museum board in 2019. By that time, the museum had gone through some changes. Elvin Sweeten and Willie Johnston turned the former school into a museum in 1990. Smith said there was a big change in 2015, and the museum was closed for two years. It was reopened in 2017 but only lasted a year before it closed again.

At that point, Smith said WA and Dan McClain led an effort to reopen the museum and put a board together. Smith said he was called and asked if he would be interested in joining.

“At that time, when I came on, we had a four-person board, which is fine,” he said. “We operated like that for quite some time. Then, one of the guys quit and that dropped us down to a three-person board, which you need three to be a quorum, so we were right on the edge.”

Smith said it was tough, and it got even tougher when another board member, who lived in Oklahoma City left the board.

“And then W.A.’s brother, he couldn’t be with the city anymore because his health wasn’t very good,” Smith said. “So W.A. took that over and he couldn’t be on the city as the treasurer and be on the board here too. That left me.”

Smith said he thought about letting the museum run its course. He didn’t know what would happen and contacted a friend who had connections with the Cowboy Hall of Fame, and they were not interested in the museum.

As a non-profit museum, the displays cannot be sold, only donated. He contacted several museums, including one on the east coast that might have been an option but felt that moving everything would have been a hassle.

“I said, ‘You know, I really hate to lose this gem,’” he said. “This is a diamond in the rough, really. It is out in an area where nobody really knows about it. As you see, there is a lot of history here.”

After speaking with his wife, Smith said they opted to address the non-profit status and replace the board, which took over a year-and-a-half.

A lot to offer

The Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum is much more than just Gene Autry. It is a celebration of the old western movies that people grew up in in the 1930’s into the 1980’s.

“This is Gene Autry the town, not Gene Autry the person,” he said. “Because of that, we have a lot of locals represented in here from families that went years back.”

On the first day it reopened, Smith welcomed visitors that included people from Ohio and South Carolina. He said it is not uncommon to draw people from outside of Oklahoma.

“I don’t necessarily get a lot of people coming through,” he said. “But of the people that do come through, I want to say 50% of them are from out of state. They are travelling and have heard about it and want to come by.”

Smith said he has also opened it up to people who have called and made the request in the past year and a half.

Smith was joined by some of the board members Friday and the others on Saturday as they got their feet wet in learning how the museum operates.

“We are talking about having a grand opening June or July,” he said. “If we do, we would like to have a couple of bands. I know a couple of local singers and the guy that is on the board, he knows some singers. Just something small, not a big deal.”

Smith said there might also be a bean supper during the grand opening to raise some money. The main focus is on people and, if everything pans out, a focus on funds to make some improvements.

“If I see we are going to have the support to stay open, then we will start doing some of that stuff,” he said. “I am kind of gun shy, because since 2019, I have gone through a lot of stuff here. It has been a rollercoaster. We are coming out of the valley up to the top of the hill and I am just kind of wanting to see where we go.”