Jerry McClanahan wins top honor at Will Rogers Awards

Longtime author and artist Jerry McClanahan won the prestigious Will Rogers Award during the Will Rogers Awards Evening on Saturday night during the Tri-State Route 66 International Festival at Downstream Casino Resort in Quapaw, Okla.

McClanahan, who has researched Route 66 since the early 1980s, has written several magazine articles about obscure Mother Road alignments and, most recently, published the “Route 66 EZ Guide for Travelers.” McClanahan, who lives in Chandler, Okla., also has gained acclaim for his colorful and realistic paintings of scenes along Route 66.

McClanahan said he was “flabbergasted” for earning Route 66’s top annual honor. “I don’t know what I’d do with my life without Route 66,” he said after receiving the trophy from master of ceremonies Jim Conkle.

Melvena Heisch of the Oklahoma State Historical Preservation Office received the Cyrus Avery Award for outstanding Route 66 preservation. Heisch has become known as a tireless advocate and defender of Route 66 properties over the years. Giving her the award was Joy Avery, granddaughter of the late Cyrus “Father of Route 66” Avery of Tulsa.

Marty and Geri Bilecki of Illinois won the Lifetime Achievement Award. The Bileckis have served as Illinois Route 66 volunteers since 1997, including greeting and guiding international tourists near the eastern beginning of the road, at the Joliet Welcome Center.,

Gary Turner won Person of the Year for being an enthusiastic ambassador to Route 66 tourists at his re-created Gay Parita Sinclair gas station west of Halltown, Mo. Turner also got the biggest laugh of the night while accepting his award for saying that he and his wife had been “married for 49 years, and we were never even related.”

POPS of Arcadia, Okla., was given the Business of the Year honor. Labeled as an “instant icon” on Route 66 since it opened in 2007, the convenience store and restaurant that’s graced by a 66-foot LED pop bottle quickly became a major tourist attraction (and has sold more than 1 million bottles of soda) because of its “aggressive marketing, unique experience and pizzazz,” Conkle said. No one from POPS was there to accept the award, but it will be presented to POPS general manager Marty Doepke at a later date.

The 66 to Cali souvenir shack on the Santa Monica Pier won New Business of the Year. 66 to Cali was the first Route 66-related business established on the pier, which has become a traditional end of the journey for westbound Route 66 travelers. Owner Dan Rice and his fiance Jessica were unable because of a prior commitment of greeting a tour group. However, in an e-mailed message read by Conkle, Dan Rice gave credit to his father Don for taking him on his first Route 66 trip in 1985 and instilling the values of hard work, integrity and kindness. Don Rice, who was visibly moved, accepted the award on his son’s behalf.

Bob Gehl, a longtime volunteer for the Route 66 Association of Missouri, won the Founders Award. Accepting the award on his behalf was previous Route 66 Festival award winner Jane Dippel of St. Louis.

Mike Easterling, a writer for Urban Tulsa weekly newspaper, earned the Wallis Award for writing and journalism for his article about the fledgling Route 66 Alliance and its efforts to set up alternative fuel stations along the Mother Road.

Dean “Crazy Legs” Walker, a longtime volunteer for Kansas Route 66, won Ambassador of the Year.

The first Bob Waldmire Artists of the Year honor was posthumously given to Bob Waldmire, a noted Route 66 artist who died of cancer in December.

In his annual “State of the Road” speech, famed “Route 66: The Mother Road” author Michael Wallis received one of the biggest moments of applause when he briefly paid tribute to Waldmire. In his growly baritone, Wallis also touched on the need of more compromise between historical roads and the interstates, high-speed rail, alternative-energy transportation, and for travelers to be more open-minded and flexible instead of being constricted by time and familiarity.

Rick Freeland, an officer with the Route 66 Alliance, said the organization finally gained its 501(c)3 nonprofit status from the IRS about five months ago. He hoped the organization’s fundraising efforts and its “green highway” alt-fuels initiative would be set by late summer. Already, he said, General Motors, Tesla, Nissan and the Pickens Plan have expressed interest in the program.

Freeland also gave a donation to Shelby Rigg, a recent high-school graduate and volunteer at 4 Women on the Route in Galena, Kan., to her Route 66: Young Roadies group. Rigg wants to get more people her age to become interested in the Mother Road, and has set up a Facebook page for it.

The next international Route 66 festival will be hosted by Amarillo, Texas, on June 9-12, 2011 — the first time the Lone Star State has held it since the first in 1996. In 2012, the festival host will be Santa Monica, Calif.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Larry Courtney and Bob and Phyllis Abbott received special Kansas Historic Route 66 Awards for their efforts and contributions to the Mother Road in Kansas. Kansas Route 66ers Carolyn Pendleton and Renee Charles presented the awards. Conkle noted: “This is why volunteers aren’t paid — it’s not because they’re worthless; it’s because they’re priceless.”