08/03/2026
A former Ho**er resident, Gladys Renfro, was a vital contributor to the Stevens County Gas and Historical Museum in Hugoton, Kan. which is the destination for the Ho**er Historical Society's next adventure on Saturday, Aug. 15.
At an early age, Gladys became interested in music. which led to her attending Midwest Christian College in Oklahoma City. While attending, she met Maurice Delbert Renfro of Stevens County, Kansas. On Sept. 20, 1947, in the First Christian Church in Hugoton, Kansas, the Rev. Lloyd Robins united them in marriage.
In 1960, the Christian Church placed Maurice in the congregation in Ho**er, Texas County, Oklahoma. As an added benefit, the church also acquired a pianist as Gladys provided the music for her husband’s services. She also gave private piano and voice lessons to many local and area students.
While the couple lived in Ho**er, Gladys enrolled in Oklahoma Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Oklahoma where Gladys received her bachelor’s degree in music. She began to teach music in elementary schools in Oklahoma and Texas and continued to do so for nearly 14 years.
In 1988, following Maurice’s retirement from the clergy, the couple moved to Hugoton, Kansas. Soon, they became co-curators of the Stevens County Gas and Historical Museum. Following Mkaurice's death on Jan. 2, 1998, Gladys became its sole curator. In addition to her love of history, tending the museum was a family tradition since her father, Everette Curtis Parsley, had served as the museum’s president and director for years.
Once, someone asked her to quantify part of her civic work, she estimated that she had provided the musical accompaniment for over 3000 weddings, funerals, gatherings, and public events. In 2004, as a partial acknowledgement of her value to the Hugoton community and Stevens County, that chapter of Beta Sigma Phi selected her as its woman of the year.
In her 27th year as the curator of the Stevens County Gas and Historical Museum, she became ill. Doctors then relocated her to St. Catherine’s Hospital, in Garden City, Finney County, Kansas, where she died on Sept. 24, 2014.
Gladys was a very likeable and remarkable woman. While she and her husband had no children, they became valuable members of Ho**er and Hugoton and many of those cities’ residents considered them part of their civic family.
