Bartlesville Radio: The area’s best source for news, weather and sports!

Several dozen carloads of well-wishers drove by the portico at Green Country Village Wednesday to  say “happy birthday” to a pillar of the Bartlesville community.

Charlie Martin turned 100 and celebrated the occasion with his wife, Mary, by his side as a car parade passed by.

After Charlie's discharge from the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1945, he moved to Bartlesville with his wife. Charlie then went to work for Carl Staats as an independent oil production business, and later as a cattle rancher.

Charlie and Mary acquired several oil leases of their own and after thirteen years, they changed their interest to operating the Staats Ranch near Sedan, Kansas, while retaining their oil producing properties. They were active in the Hereford breeding programs, attended world Hereford conferences in Uruguay, New Zealand, Spain, and South Africa. Mary was president of the American Hereford Auxiliary in 1985, and Charlie was president of the American Hereford Association in 1989. They continued living in Bartlesville, while Charlie commuted to his ranch job in Kansas.

They sold their ranch to Bill Kurtis in 1998, and their oil production in 2002. Charlie and Mary had three sons: Charles J. Martin, Jr., Stephen Carl Martin, Robert Lloyd Martin. All three sons graduated from College High School and various colleges in Oklahoma.