Inaugural Impressions
Jessica Grimm Turner (1914–81)
Jessica Everelda Grimm was born in Clear Lake, Iowa, on November 9, 1914, to Elmer and Jessica Sutter (also spelled Soutar). She had one brother, one sister, and an older half-brother. Jessica first met Roy Joseph Turner as a child when his stepmother married Jessica’s uncle. Little else is recorded of Jessica’s life until August 1937, when she married Roy. They adopted twins: Roy William (Bill) and Betty.
Roy worked as a salesman before enlisting in the US Army during World War I. He resumed a career in business after the war. He lost almost everything by speculating in Florida real estate but recouped enough of his losses from oil royalties to establish the Hereford Heaven Ranch near Sulphur, Oklahoma, in 1933. He started his political career in 1939 by winning a seat on the Oklahoma City School Board and was elected governor in 1946.
Jessica was equally comfortable on the ranch or in the Governor’s Mansion. Indeed, the couple frequently left the mansion for the ranch on the weekends during his term in office. She was active in the American Hereford Association, where her husband served on the board of directors and as president, and the Oklahoma Cowbelles. She served on the American Legion Auxiliary and the Library Board of Oklahoma City. She also attended Crown Heights United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City.
Roy remained active in the oil and cattle industries after leaving office in 1951. He sold his oil interests to longtime business partner Forrest Harper in 1955. In 1963, he sold Hereford Heaven Ranch to Winthrop Rockefeller. The couple moved to a suite in the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City. Jessica died on March 2, 1981. She is buried alongside her husband, who died in 1973, at Rose Hill Burial Park in Oklahoma City.
Jessica Grimm Turner
(2012.201.B1301.0190, Oklahoma Publishing Company Photography Collection, OHS)
