Betty Ridge

Betty Ridge is an author, journalist and storyteller who spent 35 years writing for three small or medium sized newspapers in northeastern Oklahoma. She covered crime, government, personalities, and politics. She went from murder scenes to an execution at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Whether covering a routine county commissioner meeting or a crisis in someone’s life, her observation and attention to details gave her insight into the issues affecting her readers’ lives.

She decided in seventh grade she wanted to be a writer, and began writing for school newspapers. She received a bachelor in journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia, went on to earn a Master of Arts in Spanish, then began her professional career at the Pryor Jeffersonian, a top Oklahoma weekly. She then wrote for the Muskogee Daily Phoenix and the Tahlequah Daily Press. Her work has earned awards from the Associated Press, Oklahoma Press Association, Oklahoma Education Association and the Gannett Co.