June 15 – Frank Reed, an early oilman and lawyer, was born in Chicago into poor circumstances and had to work even as a young child. One of his first jobs was selling newspapers on a street corner in his hometown. He remembered the summer heat baking his bare feet on the concrete sidewalk.
Every now and then the firefighters would open a fire hydrant and let the water run along the curb so the children could cool off in it. Reed put aside his bag of newspapers and lay down on the street, letting the water flow over him. He also fondly remembered joining other children in following the city’s sprinkler carts that brought water to the streets to keep the dust down.
Reed longed to learn to swim, but it was an ambition he never realized. He was always trying to help his family and eventually become a lawyer. After he married his wife Isabelle, the couple moved to Wewoka, Indian Territory in 1905. In addition to his practice as a lawyer, he also speculated in land development. After oil was discovered on some of his tracts, the Reeds became wealthy. In 1917 they moved to Tulsa.
Frank and Isabelle were involved in civic life in Tulsa. He became a member of the Country Club and the Kiwanis. At a Kiwanis meeting, he heard a speech from the Parks Board chairman, who promoted the idea of adding wading pools to Tulsa parks. The idea recalled his childhood on the hot streets of Chicago and inspired Reed.
He and Isabelle helped start a foundation with the goal of building wading pools in parks not just in Tulsa, but throughout the region. He completed the first swimming pool in 1921 in Locust Park near downtown Tulsa. The Reeds built more than 50 more in city parks in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.
The only requirements to receive a wading pool were that it be limited to children under the age of twelve and that it be maintained by the cities that received it. Frank Reed enjoyed seeing the children’s joy in the refreshing water so much that he usually attended the grand opening of each wading pool.
He personally served ice cream cones to each child who attended the opening. For the wading pool in Muskogee, 6,000 children came to the opening event. Reed served 440 gallons of ice cream that day. Handing out those cones earned him the nickname “Summer Santa.”
The Reeds paid for wading pools for the rest of their lives. He died in 1931 and she in 1951. Today, none of the wading pools they built in Oklahoma still exist. They were considered unhealthy and state law required them to be closed or converted into splash pads.
Reach Jonita Mullins at jonita.mullins@gmail.com
