Tulsa Opera program honors important benefactors
On Tuesday, October 10, 2023, Tulsa Opera will induct a new member into the Tulsa Opera Hall of Fame. Longtime Tulsa humanitarian Peggy Helmerich will be granted the honor during the first Tulsa Opera President’s Council dinner of the season.
“The Helmerich family, led by matriarch Peggy Helmerich, has been a friend of Tulsa Opera for decades, helping to catapult our company from its small start to its current status as one of the top regional opera companies in the United States,” says Tulsa Opera Board President Steve Walton. “Mrs. Helmerich’s unselfish devotion to opera in Tulsa is a major reason our company still stands as a leader in Oklahoma’s arts scene seventy-five years after our formation.”
Mrs. Helmerich was born in Mississippi and graduated with a degree in speech from Northwestern University. She became a Hollywood starlet in the 1940s, then moved to Tulsa with her husband Walter Helmerich III in 1951 and immediately set to work benefiting the community that became her adopted home. The Helmerich Foundation, founded in 1965, contributes to charities in the fields of community development, higher education, health services, museums, and the performing arts. The Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, established in 1985, honors internationally acclaimed authors who have written a distinguished body of work and made a major contribution to the field of literature and letters.
The honor will be conferred to Mrs. Helmerich at the Tulsa Opera President’s Council dinner, October 10 at Southern Hills Country Club. The public is invited to attend. Guest tickets to the black-tie event are $500 per person and include dinner and drinks, live performances from international opera stars, and the Tulsa Opera Hall of Fame ceremony.
To purchase tickets to the event or a full membership in the Tulsa Opera President’s Council, please visit TulsaOpera.com/Presidents-Council or call (918) 582-3769. The deadline to purchase guest tickets is October 2.