Husband of Florence Opal (Powell) Gray
AND
Elsie (Jones) Fletcher Gray
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"The nation's first commercially successful Western string band wasled b y Otto Gray (1884-1967), who was born in South Dakota and grewup south east of Stillwater, Oklahoma, on a farm homesteaded by hisparents. Wit h his wife, Mommie (born Florence Opal Powell, inKansas), his son Owen , and a changing cast of cowboy musicians, Grayformed a group that tra veled the vaudeville and radio circuitthroughout the Midwest and North east from 1926 to 1936, attractinglarge audiences wherever they played .
The cowboy band began in Ripley, Oklahoma, on May 7, 1925, when agroup o f Ripley's old-time fiddlers and Roosevelt Rough Rider BillyMcGinty (1 871-1961) played over KFRU (later KVOO) radio in Bristow.The broadcast b y what was subsequently known as Billy McGinty'sCowboy Band was the fi rst in the nation by a Western band. It drew anenthusiastic response f rom listeners throughout the Southwest.
McGinty soon turned over management of the band to his friend OttoGray , who had developed skills in roping by working as a cowboy andperform ing in Wild West shows. With Gray as the manager and trickroper and Mo mmie as the female singer, the band prospered. Gray readwhat may have b een the first radio commercial on KVOO when headvertised hosiery for a s ponsor on February 24, 1926.
Otto Gray and His Oklahoma Cowboys traveled in specially builtautomobi les outfitted with loudspeakers, cowcatchers, and steerhorns. Their sl ogan was "On the Air Everywhere," and their broadcastsover the NBC and C BS radio networks drew thousands of letters. Theband also made short f ilms and more than a dozen records. They werethe first to record the f olk music classic "Midnight Special" and thefirst country and western g roup to appear on the cover of Billboardmagazine.
Otto Gray's success inspired imitators, and, in spite of his threatsof l awsuits, other cowboy bands began to appear on vaudeville. By themid-1 930s the act was no longer unique, and the changing times weremaking i t harder for Gray to find bookings. He retired from showbusiness in 19 36 after a pioneering career that had helped to set thestage for the d evelopment of country and western music as we know ittoday."
