Edmond Life and Leisure - September 26, 2024

Cookies coming to downtown Edmond

Cookies are important in my family. My kids frequently asked their grandmother to make them various kinds of cookies. Kyle even asked my mother to make a giant tray of different kinds of cookies for his birthday party instead of a cake. Even though making all those different kinds of cookies was not easy, she did it. She gave my son, Clark, the nick name “Cookie Monster” for the number of cookies he could eat. Coming this October is an event she would have loved in downtown Edmond.

Tickets are now on sale for the 2024 Twisted Tree Baking Company $2K Cookie Contest to spotlight and celebrate the emerging baking industry in Oklahoma.

Contestants range from professional chef to enthusiastic home baker all highlighting their best cookie using this year’s secret ingredient – candy bits.

This year’s event will be at Venue 102 in Downtown Edmond (94 W 1st St) on October 6th from 4:00-6:00 p.m. Attendees will be able to sample and vote on each of the baker’s cookie creations, enjoy savory snacks prepared by Farmer’s Grain, Evoke’s mobile coffee bar, and decorate and take/eat your own creation at a cookie decorating station for the family. Tickets are $30/each and available for purchase at www.twistedtreebakingcompany.com under “$2k Cookie Contest.”

The inaugural event in 2023 was a sold-out and featured sixteen bakers across Oklahoma competing for a cash prize and bragging rights for the next year for themselves and their bakery.

Twisted Tree has assembled a noteworthy panel of veteran industry judges from around the state to judge cookies on the following criteria: taste, appearance, creativity, and use of special ingredient. Cash prizes will be awarded for the best scores with a total of $2,000 for the purse with first place receiving $1,000, second $500, and third, $250. There will also be a people’s choice award for an additional $250.

Learn more about Ministries of Jesus If you read my column with any regularity, you have read about my love for the Ministries of Jesus program housed on the Henderson Hills grounds at I-35 and 15th street here in Edmond. If you have always wanted to know more about it, here is your chance folks and I would encourage you to do it. You are invited. Take one hour and join MOJ for a tour and time of learning at Ministries of Jesus right here in Edmond. You will hear powerful stories and see how effective integrated healing takes place for physical, emotional and spiritual needs through our in-house services. Munchies will be provided and there will be plenty of time for Q&A. Ministries of Jesus has been one of Edmond's best kept secrets for far too long. These Munch & Learns are a way to get people in and get the word out about the incredible work God is doing here. This will be a 50-minute program, packed full of insight. This event is FREE and offered at various times during the month of October, but registration is required at moj.com.

Here are the dates and times:

Wednesday October 2 at 10:00 a.m.

Thursday October 10 at 12:00 p.m.

Tuesday October 22 at 12:00 p.m.

Wednesday October 23 at 10:00 a.m.

Tuesday October 29 at 5:30 p.m.

I would encourage you to see the work they do for yourself. It is amazing folks and all with private donations. We need more places like this in this country.

Cox Employees Awarding $74,364 to Teachers in 2024 Through Cox Charities Cox is proving to be a good corporate citizen again. Oklahoma City and Edmond area educators can apply through Oct. 1 for up to $10,000 education grants totaling $74,364 through its unique employee-funded giving program known as Cox Charities.

School administrators, teachers, teaching assistants and media specialists (Pre-K through 12th grades) in Oklahoma City, Norman, Edmond, and other Cox serviced areas are invited to apply by visiting the Cox Charities website. The grant funding will be used to support technology and programs that promote and enhance students' academic success and educational experience.

The $74,364 in Cox Communications Education Grants to be awarded for the 2024-25 school year are in addition to $161,122 in Cox Charities Investment grants awarded to Oklahoma City nonprofits in August. Since 2006, Cox Charities has supported schools and nonprofits through employee-funded grants totaling more than $8.6 million. For more information about Cox Charities, visit www.coxcharities.org

“Cox Charities Education Grants and Cox Charities Investment Grants are two big moments each year where our local Cox employees put their money to work in the communities where we live, play and serve our customers,” said Cox Oklahoma City Market Vice President Katy Boren. “These grants are on top of the many Cox-driven efforts to better the communities we call home—from other donations and volunteer events to investing nearly $12 billion in our fiber-powered network over the past 10 years nationwide, to providing Cox’s unique affordable internet programs— Connect2Compete for families with students and ConnectAssist for individual households—which have been used by more than 5 million people across the nation.”

Singer/Songwriter/Actor John David “JD” Souther Passes

Edmond lost a good friend to our community and frequent Tres Amigo’s performer died last week. He helped raise thousands for UCO Jazz Scholarships with his performances at the UCO Jazz Lab through the UCO Foundation. He was a huge fan of what was going on at the Jazz Lab.

John David “JD” Souther, a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee known for his hit collaborations with the Eagles, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, passed away peacefully in his New Mexico home at the age of seventy-eight.

The Detroit, Michigan-born Souther, raised in Amarillo, Texas, was known for his longtime partnership with the Eagles’ Glenn Frey, whom he met in Los Angeles after moving there in the late ‘sixties, briefly forming a band called Longbranch Pennywhistle, with an album recorded for Jimmy Bowen’s Amos Records. That would last through collaborations on some of the Eagles’ biggest hits, including “Best of My Love,” “James Dean,” “New Kid in Town” and “Doolin-Dalton.” He also cowrote “Heartache Tonight,” with Bob Seger, Frey and Don Henley.

Souther was also a successful solo artist, recording his self-titled debut in 1972 before forming The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band with former Byrds member Chris Hillman and Poco’s Richie Furay. A second solo effort, Black Rose, produced by Peter Asher and released in 1976, includes a duet with his one-time girlfriend Linda Ronstadt, “If You Have Crying Eyes.” JD scored his biggest solo hit with “You’re Only Lonely,” from the 1979 album of the same name, peaking at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Other songs penned by Souther include “Run Like a Thief,” for Bonnie Raitt, and several songs for Ronstadt, including “Faithless Love” and “White Rhythm and Blues.” He also recorded several duets with her, among them “Prisoner in Disguise,” “Sometimes You Cannot Win” and “Hearts Against the Wind,” the latter featured in the 1980 film Urban Cowboy. A collaboration with James Taylor, “Her Town Too,” reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

JD contributed as a singer to artists such as Don Henley, Christopher Cross, Dan Fogelberg and Roy Orbison, among many others. He also appeared as an actor in TV’s Thirtysomething, Nashville and Purgatory as well as the films Postcards from the Edge, My Girl 2 and Deadline.

Souther was declared “a principal architect of the Southern California sound and a major influence on a generation of songwriters,” upon his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013. His final original album, Tenderness, was released by Sony Masterworks in 2015, with Uncut magazine describing it as connecting “L.A.’s ‘70s golden age with the Great American Songbook.” An expanded edition of his 1979 album, You are Only Lonely, was released in July Omnivore Recordings, who also released expanded editions of his first three solo records.

Souther is survived by his two sisters, his former wife and her daughter, his beloved dogs Layla and Bob, and by countless friends and colleagues within the music community and beyond.

Donations in JD’s honor can be made to Best Friends Animal Society, an organization that was especially important to him.

Like all recording artists he lives on in his music. Farwell JD, we enjoyed dinners together and shared a drink or two. Thank you for your help with music here in Edmond.

(Ray Hibbard may be reached at ray@edmondpaper.com)

Souther