Our Good Angel, Kate

Kate Barnard may have shaped the early history of Oklahoma more than any other figure. She convinced the delegates to the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention to create the office of commissioner of charities and corrections, a position with the authority to investigate the conditions of prisons, orphanages, hospitals, and other public institutions. She was elected the first commissioner in 1907, one of the first women in the country to hold statewide elected office. She used her power to advocate on behalf of orphans, the poor, people with disabilities, and the incarcerated. Her crusade for justice on behalf of Indigenous orphans, however, proved to be her undoing. Our guest on this episode is Connie Cronley, author of A Life on Fire: Oklahoma’s Kate Barnard.