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AUDIO: The 'Oklahoma Observer' Frosty Troy Dead at 83

The Oklahoma Observer

The Oklahoma Observer newspaper announced today the death of its founder, Frosty Troy. Here is the story from the Observer:

Observer Founding Editor Frosty Troy, the diminutive firebrand who became an Oklahoma journalism giant, died early today in Oklahoma City after an extended illness. He was 83.

Services are pending.

Known across Oklahoma for his fiery essays and editorials, Troy called out injustice wherever he saw it, championed public education, and routinely exposed duplicitous and corrupt politicians.

Nationally, he was revered for his Okie eloquence – one of the state’s most sought-after public speakers since Will Rogers, booked by diverse groups ranging from educators and social workers to union laborers and Chambers of Commerce.

The seeds of Troy’s more than half-century career in journalism were sewn in his hometown of McAlester, OK, when a Benedictine sister complimented his stories that appeared in the school paper, The St. John’s Siren.

It was all the encouragement he’d need. As a soldier in the Korean War, he filed dispatches for the McAlester News Capital. He later wrote for the Lawton Constitution, the Muskogee Phoenix and the Tulsa Tribune.

But it was the humble journal of free voices, The Oklahoma Observer, for which he became most famous – a platform from which the liberal, yellow dog Democrat sought to inform and influence generations politically, socially and religiously.

With Troy as editor, the monthly began publishing Oct. 17, 1969, launched by Father John Joyce with a subsidy from the Catholic Archdiocesan Council. When church leaders pulled their support because of his vigorous opposition to the Vietnam War, Father Joyce defiantly sold the publication to Troy and his late wife Helen for $1.

Troy not only was a fixture at the state Capitol where he covered 10 governors and more than five decades of legislatures, but also on the radio – his daily commentaries were carried by stations across the state – and at high school graduations where he was a favorite commencement speaker.

Here a Voices of Oklahoma Interview with Frosty Troy