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This year’s BSO 2023 Bruce Price Cultural Award recipient is Bettye Williams. Bettye was honored at the Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra Gala on Saturday night at the Bartlesville Community Center.

This award was created to honor those in our community who have, in some demonstrable way, contributed to the culture of the city of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. This award was also created to encourage citizen participation in the Arts, Education and the many aspects of cultural diversity in our city.

ABOUT BETTYE WILLIAMS

Anyone who knows Bettye Williams knows that community service has been her life's work.

Bettye Williams grew up in a family with deep religious beliefs, saying that it was God's will that has shaped her life. In 1955, when she and her husband, Shelton, came to Bartlesville, there were still discriminatory Jim Crow restrictions in housing and employment. African Americans were not allowed to enter white restaurants, including lunch counters at five and dime stores.

The two of them had to live in a house without running water because there were few homes for rent or purchase for African American people in Bartlesville and redlining was still practiced here. They were relegated to living on the west side of town beyond the railroad tracks. They had to bring their water into the house from an outside faucet for their basic hygiene. This alone could have caused extreme bitterness and resentment for most people, but not Bettye Williams.

She thanked God for what she had and immersed herself in the community, doing what she could to make it better, for blacks—and for whites. She helped bring the NAACP to Bartlesville, worked tirelessly with seventeen churches and their affiliates playing a role in the creation of the Concern Center. She was on the board of the West Side Community Center, headed up the Parent Teachers Association at her daughter's school, and was a service member for the Daybreak Rotary Club.

Eventually she would be asked to join Phillips Petroleum company where she worked in their personnel department until her retirement in 1998. Her influence in that company was felt by many and she was given the opportunity to travel to many of the countries where Phillips Petroleum had a presence.

A longtime believer in education, Williams was a mentor for Bartlesville Public Schools' Academic Interest and Mentoring Society (AIMS), where she helped students at Central, Madison Middle School, and the Mid-High to improve their self-esteem and academic performance.

She served on the Washington County Election Board, as well as the Dewey Pilot Club, the Jane Phillips Society, the Oklahoma Junior Miss board of directors, the Salvation Army, and the board of the Agape Mission—all while raising four daughters and holding a full-time job in the personnel department of Phillips Petroleum.

Now as she enters her 90th year, she loves her time with her children and grandchildren, while still maintaining a presence in the community.

For her lifetime of volunteerism to improve the educational, cultural, diversity, and equality of our community, the Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra is proud to present Bettye Williams with the Bruce Price Cultural Award for 2023.