Introducing Kyle Lawson, Mayor Of The Town Of Gene Autry

Mayor Kyle Lawson with Idabel Mayor Tina Foshee-Thomas and the
New Director of the Oklahoma Municipal League Mike Fina

August 31, 2017

By Christy Christoffersen

Kyle Lawson is the Mayor of the Town of Gene Autry. He is excited that the town chose him to mold their future because he loves his community. You can feel this when you speak to him and his fun and enthusiastic spirit is contagious. Community development is his top priority as mayor. His goal is to improve the infrastructure of Gene Autry.  He wants the town council and town clerk to “live, breathe, and eat infrastructure!”

As Mayor, Lawson has big plans for his Town. “I want to develop a park and sidewalks throughout the town. We want to develop a community garden and encourage health and wellness. We have a lot in the works for infrastructure and we are currently working diligently on funding for that.” The biggest challenge facing Gene Autry is financing. Lawson says, “When you say the word ‘government’ there is a huge price tag associated with it and never enough money to pay for everything we want to do.”

Lawson was born in Tucson, AZ in the early morning of July 6th, 1986. His dad was a rancher and they lived on the White House Ranch south of Tucson near his grandparents,  “so it was either The Weather Channel or The Western Channel growing up.” After high school, Lawson enlisted in the Army as a 97E Human Indigence Collector for Military Intelligence. After the army, Lawson studied business at College of the Ozarks.  Afterwards, he returned to Southern Arizona to work for Congressman Jim Kolbe both in his Tucson office and in his D.C. office.  He moved to Oklahoma in 2010 to be near his family who had all moved here while he was away in the army. Lawson was elected as mayor in a special election after over $300,000 went missing under the previous administration. Since his election he states “since then, we have brought the town back from financial ruin.”

Today, visitors to the town should head over to the Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum where they have events such as the “National Day of the Cowboy” event and the “Cowboy Way Fest” music festival and much more.  “The museum houses the world’s largest collection of vintage cowboys in entertainment memorabilia from the 1920’s to the present day.” “Visitors to the museum learn about the Cowboy way of life, enjoy past memories while creating new ones” as well as the history of the town. Lawson says if you haven’t seen the museum, you should!

The town is now a small rural community of mostly a retired population.  Lawson loves that “it’s mostly quiet and very relaxed. If there is an issue, we work as a community to resolve it. The citizens support one another.” Not all the people of Gene Autry are retired. Lawson tells us “there is a family (Byers Family Farm) who have developed a farm to table meal program and deliver produce and eggs to customers year-round.” And then there’s the local legend “Ole Jimmy Brock” who has lived in Gene Autry his whole 86 years and has a deep love for his community. You can read his rich history on the Daily Ardmoreite website. The Brock family even has their own corner in the Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum!

The Town of Gene Autry was founded in July 1883 as the town of Lou, after one of the founder’s wife. She threatened to kill him in his sleep if he didn’t change the name so it was quickly renamed Dresden. In 1885 it was changed to Berwyn at the request of the railroad. In September of 1942 the name was changed to Gene Autry at the request of the famous cowboy actor who hoped to build a massive rodeo in the town. Unfortunately, in December of that year, Pearl Harbor was bombed and Autry left to fight in the war efforts and never returned to the town to start his rodeo circuit. You can read more of the life of the “Singing Cowboy” Gene Autry on the Wikipedia website.