August 1, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, The GAR Cemetery in Miami, Oklahoma, doesn’t look like much at first. But among the weathered headstones are the stories of Union and Confederate veterans, British pilots, rodeo stars, and forgotten locals who lived big lives before fading from memory. Nancy Bro has spent years documenting them—making sure their names, and the histories behind them, aren’t lost.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we return to our American stories. Up next, a
story from Nancy Brow. Nancy is the office manager of
the Gar Cemetery in Miama, Oklahoma, one of the earliest
cemeteries in northeast Oklahoma. Many would think that the cemetery
would be the end of the story, but it's just
(00:31):
merely one bookend of a much larger collection of stories
from unique individuals. Let's get into the story. Here's Nancy.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
My name is Nancy Brow.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I am the Gaar Cemetery's office manager and I started
this job in October of twenty twelve.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
GAR stands for.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Grand Army of the Republic is an organization that was
created after the Civil War and their main goal was
to have a cemetery location for their comrades, to have
a place for their soldiers and their families to be buried.
Since then, the cemetery has been handed over basically to
(01:21):
the city of Miama. The GAAR organization, Grand Army of
the Republic, was a Union organization, and this cemetery is
unique in the fact that we have both Union and
Confederate soldiers buried within this cemetery. And I believe the
(01:45):
reason for that is the fact that the city became
the owners of the cemetery and we allowed anyone to
be buried here, and we have over twenty two thousand
burials here. We have a gangster, true life gangster that
run with the likes of George Machine, Gun Kelly and others.
(02:06):
We've got an actor that starred on Dwayne Kelton is
his name, starred on gun Smoke and Charlie's Angels. We've
got a wild West bronc writer world known. He went
by Booger Red.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
He's here.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
He had a family owned wild West show, traveled all
over the.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
United States and even the world.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Took a show on the road, and his wife and
children all performed in this Wild West show with him.
His name Booger Red was a nickname that he picked
up when he was younger. A friend of his and
he put some dynamite in a tree and was going
to blow it up. Well, somehow or another, he got
(02:53):
too close to it and some of the tree hit
him in the face. It blew up in his face,
and they put him in the wagon and taking him
off to the doctor. And his friend looked in there
and said, you serer boogered up.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Or something along that line. So it just stuck with him.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
You know. He had some pretty bad scarring on his
face from it, so everybody called him booger Red for
that reason. Samuel Privett was his actual name, but it
has his real name and then it has booger read
on his marker. The cemetery manager at the time had
did a fundraiser and earned money to have a marker
(03:36):
put on his grave, and they did a ceremony to commemorate.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
That several years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
It was probably in twenty eleventh that they did them.
One of the more prominent burials that we have is
John Bieber. He was the second chief to the Quapa Indians.
By second, I mean in relevance, for an example, to
(04:04):
vice president of the tribe. So he originally he was
a minor. He was very wealthy, and he originally was
buried on their Indian property out in the country, and
the family ordered a life sized statue of him to
(04:26):
be placed at his burial site. But during the time
in which he passed away, I believe in the early thirties,
the roads out there were all unpaved and dirt roads
and very hilly, and the trucking company that brought the
statue could.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Not make it up those hills.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
So the family made the decision to disinter him from
their family allotment and bring him into gar cemetery, therefore
setting his statue up here within our cemetery grounds. So
we have a treasure trove of history here that we
(05:07):
are always very eager to share. We also have a
ceremony generally in the fall that we honor fifteen fallen
British cadets. They were stationed here during World War Two
(05:30):
to be trained to become pilots. So the name of
the base was British Flying Training School Number three in Miami, Oklahoma.
Now there were over two thousand of those cadets that
flowed through here. Some of them washed out, obviously, but
(05:50):
there were over twelve hundred of them that actually earned
their wings and went on to the war. Some survived
the war and ended up having families, and obviously many
of them didn't make it.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Through the war.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
But during their training session here during the years of
nineteen forty one to nineteen forty five, there were fifteen
cadets that lost their lives in training accidents. It was
the understanding and the agreement with the different countries that
if they did perish here in United States soil, that
(06:30):
they would be interred here and not transferred back home.
The main reason why they came to the United States
to train is because their airways were.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
So horribly dangerous.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
They were getting shot down before they could even learn
to take off basically, and the majority of the cadets
that came over here hadn't even driven a car yet,
but they learned to fly the airplane. So the whole
experience for them was unfathomable when you stop and think
about it. That is why we have fifteen British cadets
(07:09):
that we honor here every year. We just recently have
a couple of years ago were able to obtain photographs
of all of the fifteen cadets that are buried here.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And that was tough.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
That was really a tough situation to acquire and it
took me many years. Like I said, I started here
in twenty twelve and we just got it.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
A couple of years ago.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
So we have a group photograph of every course that
came through except for group number two, and I'm still
looking for it. But not all of the pictures had
the people's names below them. Number one didn't, so I
had to ask one of the ex cadets that was
in his nineties to help me figure out which one
(07:53):
it was because he was one of the upper officers
in his group, so it was pretty easy to figure
him out, but it took me forever to get that done.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Fortunately, no one in.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Group two lost their life, so I didn't have to
find anybody in that course, but just pinpointing who they
are because you know a lot of them they had
the same last name, there's only one initial. It was
just time consuming and the pictures aren't that great, but
we do have them, so I mean, I do get
(08:25):
family members that do come here, but they don't always
come to the office, which breaks my heart because I
don't get to see them. Once those stories are forgotten
or the people that know those stories have passed, they're
gone forever and no one can get them back. And
(08:48):
it's so important to share your information and write it down.
You know, we believe that every single person has their
life legacy, they have their story. We are on a
mission to find those stories in those legacies and to
keep everyone's legacies alive.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And a special thanks to Monty Montgomery for the post
production work. Chad Strayli for the pre production and Katrina
Hine for collecting this audio. And a special thanks to
Nancy Brow, the office manager of the Gaar Cemetery in Miama, Oklahoma.
And she is dead right. We've got to keep our
(09:34):
memories and our legacies alive. That is what we do
here on our American Stories, each and every day. More
to come here on our American Story
And we return to our American stories. Up next, a
story from Nancy Brow. Nancy is the office manager of
the Gar Cemetery in Miama, Oklahoma, one of the earliest
cemeteries in northeast Oklahoma. Many would think that the cemetery
would be the end of the story, but it's just
(00:31):
merely one bookend of a much larger collection of stories
from unique individuals. Let's get into the story. Here's Nancy.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
My name is Nancy Brow.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I am the Gaar Cemetery's office manager and I started
this job in October of twenty twelve.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
GAR stands for.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Grand Army of the Republic is an organization that was
created after the Civil War and their main goal was
to have a cemetery location for their comrades, to have
a place for their soldiers and their families to be buried.
Since then, the cemetery has been handed over basically to
(01:21):
the city of Miama. The GAAR organization, Grand Army of
the Republic, was a Union organization, and this cemetery is
unique in the fact that we have both Union and
Confederate soldiers buried within this cemetery. And I believe the
(01:45):
reason for that is the fact that the city became
the owners of the cemetery and we allowed anyone to
be buried here, and we have over twenty two thousand
burials here. We have a gangster, true life gangster that
run with the likes of George Machine, Gun Kelly and others.
(02:06):
We've got an actor that starred on Dwayne Kelton is
his name, starred on gun Smoke and Charlie's Angels. We've
got a wild West bronc writer world known. He went
by Booger Red.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
He's here.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
He had a family owned wild West show, traveled all
over the.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
United States and even the world.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Took a show on the road, and his wife and
children all performed in this Wild West show with him.
His name Booger Red was a nickname that he picked
up when he was younger. A friend of his and
he put some dynamite in a tree and was going
to blow it up. Well, somehow or another, he got
(02:53):
too close to it and some of the tree hit
him in the face. It blew up in his face,
and they put him in the wagon and taking him
off to the doctor. And his friend looked in there
and said, you serer boogered up.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Or something along that line. So it just stuck with him.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
You know. He had some pretty bad scarring on his
face from it, so everybody called him booger Red for
that reason. Samuel Privett was his actual name, but it
has his real name and then it has booger read
on his marker. The cemetery manager at the time had
did a fundraiser and earned money to have a marker
(03:36):
put on his grave, and they did a ceremony to commemorate.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
That several years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
It was probably in twenty eleventh that they did them.
One of the more prominent burials that we have is
John Bieber. He was the second chief to the Quapa Indians.
By second, I mean in relevance, for an example, to
(04:04):
vice president of the tribe. So he originally he was
a minor. He was very wealthy, and he originally was
buried on their Indian property out in the country, and
the family ordered a life sized statue of him to
(04:26):
be placed at his burial site. But during the time
in which he passed away, I believe in the early thirties,
the roads out there were all unpaved and dirt roads
and very hilly, and the trucking company that brought the
statue could.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Not make it up those hills.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
So the family made the decision to disinter him from
their family allotment and bring him into gar cemetery, therefore
setting his statue up here within our cemetery grounds. So
we have a treasure trove of history here that we
(05:07):
are always very eager to share. We also have a
ceremony generally in the fall that we honor fifteen fallen
British cadets. They were stationed here during World War Two
(05:30):
to be trained to become pilots. So the name of
the base was British Flying Training School Number three in Miami, Oklahoma.
Now there were over two thousand of those cadets that
flowed through here. Some of them washed out, obviously, but
(05:50):
there were over twelve hundred of them that actually earned
their wings and went on to the war. Some survived
the war and ended up having families, and obviously many
of them didn't make it.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Through the war.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
But during their training session here during the years of
nineteen forty one to nineteen forty five, there were fifteen
cadets that lost their lives in training accidents. It was
the understanding and the agreement with the different countries that
if they did perish here in United States soil, that
(06:30):
they would be interred here and not transferred back home.
The main reason why they came to the United States
to train is because their airways were.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
So horribly dangerous.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
They were getting shot down before they could even learn
to take off basically, and the majority of the cadets
that came over here hadn't even driven a car yet,
but they learned to fly the airplane. So the whole
experience for them was unfathomable when you stop and think
about it. That is why we have fifteen British cadets
(07:09):
that we honor here every year. We just recently have
a couple of years ago were able to obtain photographs
of all of the fifteen cadets that are buried here.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And that was tough.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
That was really a tough situation to acquire and it
took me many years. Like I said, I started here
in twenty twelve and we just got it.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
A couple of years ago.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
So we have a group photograph of every course that
came through except for group number two, and I'm still
looking for it. But not all of the pictures had
the people's names below them. Number one didn't, so I
had to ask one of the ex cadets that was
in his nineties to help me figure out which one
(07:53):
it was because he was one of the upper officers
in his group, so it was pretty easy to figure
him out, but it took me forever to get that done.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Fortunately, no one in.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Group two lost their life, so I didn't have to
find anybody in that course, but just pinpointing who they
are because you know a lot of them they had
the same last name, there's only one initial. It was
just time consuming and the pictures aren't that great, but
we do have them, so I mean, I do get
(08:25):
family members that do come here, but they don't always
come to the office, which breaks my heart because I
don't get to see them. Once those stories are forgotten
or the people that know those stories have passed, they're
gone forever and no one can get them back. And
(08:48):
it's so important to share your information and write it down.
You know, we believe that every single person has their
life legacy, they have their story. We are on a
mission to find those stories in those legacies and to
keep everyone's legacies alive.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And a special thanks to Monty Montgomery for the post
production work. Chad Strayli for the pre production and Katrina
Hine for collecting this audio. And a special thanks to
Nancy Brow, the office manager of the Gaar Cemetery in Miama, Oklahoma.
And she is dead right. We've got to keep our
(09:34):
memories and our legacies alive. That is what we do
here on our American Stories, each and every day. More
to come here on our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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