HOOKER—What’s in a name?
The rural town of Hooker in the heart of the Panhandle between Liberal, Kan., and Guymon thrives on its name to bring in tourism. Thousands of visitors drop in to the Hooker Chamber of Commerce gift shop on U.S. 54/U.S. 64 to snag the world-famous Hooker-themed merchandise.
Blazoned on shirts and mugs are phrases such as “All my friends are Hookers,” “Not your typical Hooker,” and “Support your local Hookers.”
The double entendre is hilarious in that, while there is indeed a Hooker Inn down the road, there are not prostitutes walking the streets in this community of less than 1,500 residents.
Hooker is in fact named after its founder John “Hooker” Threlkeld. He came to No Man’s Land in 1873 to rope and ride on local ranches as foreman, founding his own ranch in the late 1880s. A skilled cowboy described as looking like an eagle with his big form, raven hair, and gold-laden teeth, this Kentucky-born man married a Kansan half his age and raised three children.
Three hours from Enid, Hooker was officially platted as a town in 1904 amid the laying of railroad tracks for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway. To counter misconceptions arising from the potential connotation of its name, the community immediately adopted the motto “It’s a location, not a vocation.”
Historically, Hooker suffered from a devastating fire in 1908 that destroyed 42 businesses—two-thirds of its business district—followed by the hardships of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, which prompted federal projects like the nearby Optima Dam in 1944.
In 1978, the Army Corps of Engineers built the adjoining Optima Lake, but it was a doomed recreational venture from the beginning as drought and evaporation impeded water levels. Costing nearly $50M, it was supposed to provide flood control and supply drinking water to the area, all the while attracting millions of campers, water skiers, and anglers. The reservoir never filled to capacity and the park site was abandoned in 2010. Nevertheless, the lakeshore now serves as a federal wildlife refuge, and there are public use areas for hunting or camping (sans water or electricity options).
Like many rural towns in Northwest Oklahoma, Hooker also saw an economic boom from oil and natural gas development in the 1940s and 1950s. Today the wheat, cattle, and hog industries (Hooker is home to one of Seaboard’s facilities like Hennessey) also help keep residents employed.
But tourism continues to be the No. 1 draw.
“This isn’t work,” said Velma Smothermon, who has been managing the chamber’s gift shop since 2005. Her late husband bought the old grocery store building on the main throughfare in 1992 as a place to pacify his first wife’s need to sell her crafts.
So, while the building also houses Hooker’s Chamber of Commerce office aka club meeting space in the back, the front continues to sell local handmade wares alongside the Hooker-themed memorabilia. This includes shirts promoting the local little league team aptly named the Hooker Horny Toads. (Hooker High’s mascot is actually the bulldogs.)
At 95 years old, Smothermon really enjoys coming to work every day because she delights in meeting all the different people from around the globe who stop by, adding with a laugh, “it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble.”
Hooker Chamber of Commerce gift shop is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (580) 652-2809. Check them out online at hookerokcofc.net or on Facebook @hookercofc.
Feeding the community
While Smothermon is hosting world travelers, the Davis family is feeding the locals in downtown Hooker.
On the corner of Broadway and Hooker’s main street called Glaydas (legend has it they misspelled Gladys and just stuck with it) is a family-owned pizzeria that’s been operating for 40 years this June.
Pizza on Broadway opened in 1986 to feed the students from Hooker High on their lunch hour.
Tom and Hattie Davis originally bought the building to run his business in the front part and use the middle part for storage, while tossing pizzas in the back.
The teens would drive over, cram into the small dining space, quickly eat their slices of homemade pizza, and then get back to class. Eventually, walls were removed to accommodate more tables and the pizzeria expanded throughout the whole building by 2014.
“It fills up every day,” Hattie said. Today there are more kids, but they are required by the school to walk the two blocks now rather than drive.
After four decades, the Davises are already seeing the second and even the third generation of students coming in to dine, and the community is more involved in their lives, Hattie said. Hooker has been going to state for football and track in recent years.
“Hooker kids are polite,” Hattie said. “They’re good kids.”
They also eat a lot, chimed in Hattie’s daughter Kaley Martens, who co-owns the pizzeria with her mom. Her dad died in 2003.
“When Mom and Dad opened, we could maybe sell four pizzas a day. Now we start with five pizzas and make at least 30 a day,” Kaley said.
Her brothers, Mark and Micah, along with Micah’s wife Brittney, also assist in the pizzeria as needed.
Kaley kidded her brothers simply come in to give unsolicited advice while they eat lunch, but did note they do serve as the maintenance crew. Her sister-in-law is the salad chef, creating the daily grab-and-go salads that came into existence after COVID-19 shut down the salad bar. It remained a popular option for customers, so they continued doing it.
“All our food is homemade, made fresh every day,” Hattie said, including the pizza dough and sauce. “I kept trying until I got it right.”
While they are open Tuesday through Friday for lunch, the Davises often shut down the pizzeria for ball games out of town and follow the Hooker Public Schools’ calendar—such as closing for Thanksgiving break—since Kaley’s three kiddos with husband Wiley are in grade school, middle school, and high school, respectively.
Pizza on Broadway is open Wednesday evenings simply because “it was the only night not a in a basketball gym,” Kaley said.
The walls throughout the pizzeria are lined with memories, from the signatures by Hooker High alumni to team state championship pictures. There’s even a photo of Hattie’s mom Frances “Fanny” Venneman with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach hanging in the kitchen above the pizza making station.
Hattie explained the wall signing started when Pizza on Broadway hosted a school yearbook signing party one year; “When we opened, it was the thing to do,” she said.
Every time former Hooker students come to visit for the all-school reunion, they look for their names on the wall, Kaley said, adding the oldest classmate to sign graduated in 1929.
While the pizzeria has continuously been open for nearly 40 years, it suffers during the scorching Oklahoma summers. The building served as the original drugstore at the turn of the century when Hooker was starting out, so “it’s pretty old,” Hattie commented, referring to the lack of air circulation.
“There is no real A/C in here so it gets hot in the summer like 110 degrees,” Kaley said, “so we close in July then open back in August when school starts.”
Her family takes the opportunity to go on vacation during that time too. Her boys work in the pizzeria after ball practice and some of Hattie’s other teenage grandchildren pitch in too.
For now, it’s just Hattie and Kaley running the show, but the next generation of Davises may take over Pizza on Broadway someday.
In the meantime, Hattie is grateful her daughter works alongside her.
“Working with Kaley has been a blessing. She does all the stressful work,” she said, giving Kaley a grin. Kaley sighed with a glint in her eye.
“Daytime is crazy,” she said. “Seems like people are inviting every single friend for lunch, so it’s hard to make sure we have enough pizza. It’s a balancing act since the kids only have 20 minutes for lunch.”
But, Kaley added, the bonus of operating a pizzeria that caters to Hooker students is “I get to see my kids every day and check in with them while I’m working.”
Pizza on Broadway, 103 Broadway, is open Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch buffet or off the menu and Wednesday evenings from 4-7 p.m. for call-in orders only. Call (580) 652-3200 for takeout. Follow the pizzeria at Facebook.com/HookerPOB.
My Great Grandpa Garcia and Great Grandma Garcia were from Hooker as well as my late Aunt Ruby and my Aunt Sadie. I believe I still have cousins that still lives in Hooker. My Mother Mary Alice Garcia (maiden name) Medina would tell stories about when she would go stay in Hooker when she was younger.