Author, Musicologist & Folklorist: Guy W. Logsdon of Oklahoma

Revised Ebook Edition

By: Stan Paregien

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

This new book, Author, Musicologist & Folklorist: Guy W. Logsdon of Oklahoma, (Revised Ebook Edition), tells the compelling story of the life and career of Dr. Guy W. Logsdon of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was a modern renaissance man with credentials and wide experiences as an educator, a musicologist, an author, a historian, a storyteller, and as a musician and singer.

Guy W. Logsdon grew up in Ada, OK. He graduated from Ada High School, from East Central State University, and worked in two of the family businesses in Ada ( a furniture store and a Western wear store) before becoming the owner of the former Stall Photography Studio.

He went on to earn a doctorate in Education at the University of Oklahoma. He became the Director of the Library at the University of Tulsa, then later added Professor of Folklore to his title. Dr. Logsdon became the leading authority on Woody Guthrie's life and music, on Western swing music and two of its principal performers (Bob Wills and Johnnie Lee Wills), and an expert on traditional (and bawdy) cowboy music.

His long list of publications includes such books as Woody's Road with Woody Guthrie's only living sibling, Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon (2012); and with Marvin E. Kroeker, Logsdon wrote, Ada, Oklahoma, Queen City of the Chickasaw Nation: A Pictorial History (1998). With co-writers Mary Rogers and William Jacobson, Logsdon wrote, Saddle Serenaders (1995). By himself he wrote, The University of Tulsa: A History, 1882-1972 (1977) and “The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing” and Other Songs Cowboys Sing (1989).

Among Guy W. Logsdon's honors included being the historical consultant for the 1976 movie "Bound for Glory" on the life of Woody Guthrie. He was the coordinator of Oklahoma's Diamond Jubilee Celebration (75th anniversary) in Washington, D.C. He wrote 23 articles in Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, the online publication of the Oklahoma Historical Society. In 1999, he won the “Westerners International Co-Founders Award” from the Western History Association for his book, “The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing” and Other Songs Cowboys Sing.

He was one of the founders of the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada in 1985. In 1982, Dr. Logsdon was the founder and director of the Oklahoma Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Oklahoma City. In 1997, he won two coveted awards -- the "American Cowboy Culture Award" from the National Cowboy Symposium & Celebration (Lubbock, TX) for his contributions to Western music . . . and the "Will Rogers Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Academy of Western Artists (Dallas, TX).

On April 22, 2006, he won the prestigious "Chester A. Reynolds Award" (included a beautiful Wrangler bronze statue) from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Center. Then on Friday, April 13, 2007, Guy W. Logsdon was inducted into the hall of fame of the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City.

Dr. Logsdon died on February 5, 2018. His very talented wife and fellow-educator and entertainer, Phyllis Evelyn (Landers) Logsdon, Ed.D., died on August 12, 2021. At his death, they were in their 64th year of marriage.