Gaylord, himself, earned a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a master's degree from Harvard.

He served in the military during World War II, entering service as a private and leaving as a captain. For two years, his duties involved guarding the Panama Canal.
Photo: May 16, 1945: Edward L. Gaylord is a "brand new flying cadet" in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

 

 

Edward L. Gaylord was born May 28, 1919, to E.K. and Inez Gaylord.

Oklahoma City was just a frontier town in 1903 when E.K. Gaylord helped form The Oklahoma Publishing Co. and took up the challenge of building The Oklahoman into a first-rate newspaper.

The newspaper grew with the town and had become a thriving metropolitan daily by 1974, when E.K. Gaylord died at the age of 101.

After his father's death, Edward L. Gaylord took over the reins of The Oklahoman.

He combined a thorough knowledge of the news business with a keen interest in technology and took great pride in his ability to buy struggling radio and television stations across the country and turn them into profitable business ventures.

Gaylord once described his best business deal as buying a money-losing independent television station in Dallas-Fort Worth, turning it into a money-maker, and then selling it several years later for 500 times the original purchase price.

"I got a kick out of that," he said.

Gaylord was equally adept at turning around struggling civic ventures.

The State Fair of Oklahoma was on the brink of financial collapse in 1961 when Gaylord took over as president. Gaylord turned the fair's fortunes around and within 10 years it was one of the most profitable and successful state fairs in the country.

The job Gaylord did in resurrecting the State Fair was once described by longtime friend Paul B. Strasbaugh as "but a microcosm of his total contributions to this city, state and nation."

"Edward L. Gaylord is the most important business and civic leader in the last half of this century for Oklahoma City," Strasbaugh said during the 1998 unveiling of a Gaylord statue at the fairgrounds.

"His father, E.K. Gaylord, occupied that position for the first half," Strasbaugh quietly added.

In acquiring radio and television stations, Gaylord learned a lot about the entertainment business. As he did so, he saw a growing need for good, clean family entertainment.

Gaylord started fulfilling that need in the late 1970s when he formed Gaylord Production Co. in Los Angeles and began offering such syndicated series as the "Glen Campbell Show" and "Hee Haw," starring Roy Clark and Buck Owens.

His expansion into the entertainment business took a giant leap in 1983. That's when he paid $240 million to purchase the giant Opryland complex in Nashville, Tenn. Included in the deal were The Nashville Network (TNN), Country Music Television (CMT) and CMT Europe cable networks, the Opryland Hotel, the Opryland Theme Park, Opryland Music Group and the showboat General Jackson.

To speed up growth and development of his entertainment ventures, Gaylord created Gaylord Entertainment Co. as a publicly traded entity in 1991. Most of Gaylord's entertainment properties were placed under the Gaylord Entertainment Co. umbrella.

In 1997, Gaylord Entertainment Co. sold its TNN and CMT cable networks to CBS Corp. for more than a billion dollars. The company later closed Opryland Theme Park and replaced it with Opry Mills, a $200 million entertainment-retail complex located in Nashville.

The company also began building Opryland-type hotels in other states.

As Gaylord became increasingly involved in the operation of Nashville business ventures, he also became increasingly involved in helping that city grow.

His company's investment in the Nashville Predators, a National Hockey League team, is just one of many commitments Gaylord made to help revitalize and improve the quality of life in Nashville.

Meanwhile, Gaylord's commitment to Oklahoma City never wavered.

As chairman of Oklahoma Industries Authority for more than 30 years, Gaylord played an active role in helping bring more than 100,000 jobs and $1 billion in facilities to the Oklahoma City area, including the General Motors automobile manufacturing plant.

When it appeared Oklahoma City might lose its minor league baseball team, Gaylord stepped up and his company purchased a majority interest in the Oklahoma RedHawks to keep the team local.

A lover of the Old West, Gaylord contributed greatly to Oklahoma City's National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum to make it one of the finest western art museums in the world.

And concerned about his employees, Gaylord built a new 12-story office building for The Oklahoman. Dedicated in 1991, the building is regarded as one of the finest newspaper facilities in the world.

Friends, however, have said Gaylord's greatest legacy may not be the buildings he built or the businesses he started, but the four children he and his wife raised to have the same commitment to their community that Gaylord and his father had.

Gaylord was preceded in death by his wife, Thelma, his parents, a sister, Edith Kinney Gaylord, and a grandson, Jimmy Everest.

 

 

He is survived by four children and their spouses: Christy Everest and her husband Jim; Louise Bennett and her husband Clayton I., all of Oklahoma City; E.K. Gaylord II and his wife Natalie, of Edmond; Mary McClean and her husband Jeff, of Simpsonville, KY; and nine grandchildren, Tricia Everest, Mary Everest, Mollie Bennett, Christy Bennett, Graham Bennett, E.L. Gaylord II, E.K. Gaylord III, Donald Grant Gaylord and Nicholas Hunt Gaylord. He also is survived by a sister, Virginia Neely of Cashiers, N.C.