A Moment In Time
As people young and old spent time remembering their years at Phillips University, across town, another less publicized reunion was taking place. This reunion was a celebration, a remembrance and a homecoming rolled into one.Throughout the 1960's and 70's the Hedges family occupied the McCristy-Knox Mansion at 1323 W. Broadway. Family and friends were invited back by the gracious owners, Donald and Shirley Marquardt, to enjoy a surprise 80th birthday party for Ruth Hedges Ipsen, who was in town for the Phillips reunion.
The homecoming included Ruth's three living children, Craig (Arizona), Carroll (California) and Brendan (California). One of the two sons of the late Michael Hedges, Mischa, also attended the celebration and surprise.
The event was kicked off by the arrival of Ruth as well wishers lined the huge porch and sang happy birthday. Attending the event were many of Enid's most well known citizens that have over the years been connected to the Hedges family in one way or another.One special attendee was Enid's own Louisa McCune-Elmore, Oklahoma Today's Editor-in Chief. She had just put together an amazing profile on Michael Hedges for the July/August issue of Oklahoma Today. Be sure and find a copy, it is amazing to think that such a great talent was from Enid, Oklahoma.
The highlight of the celebration was touring the house and seeing the grand job Donald and Shirley Marquardt have done with the mansion. And no tour of the Hedges Mansion would be complete without a trip to the third floor play area where as kids, teenagers and young adults we were given the privilege of signing the circular wall.
It had been over 30 years since I had signed my name multiple times on the now famous wall. We were allowed to spend time reading the wall and I took as many photos as I could of the names of friends I have not seen since. Fortunately over the years, no owner has yet covered the names of the dozens and dozens of Enid residents that spent time at the Hedges home.The mid-seventies was my coming of age period and seeing the Hedges family, the Mansion and the wall brought back fond memories and reminded me of why I loved growing up in Enid, Oklahoma.
These are a few pictures of the third floor wall. Many of the signatures have started to fade a bit but many look as good today as the day they were written.
More photos
If you have photos of the wall or party please send them in. Email here.



















1 Comments:
Great post. I loved that article in Oklahoma Today as well. I miss Michael Hedges and even did a post over at Red Dirt Reporter today. What a great talent he was!
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