“Upon learning of Governor Bellmon’s passing today I am very reminiscent of our family’s personal and political ties to the first Republican Governor in state history. Aside from being an honorable and historic leader in our state, he was a good friend to all Oklahomans, including the Lamb family.
“Personally, he and my mother shared the same hometown of Billings, Oklahoma, where my grandfather gave the future governor violin lessons. Governor Bellmon and my dad Norman Lamb were political colleagues, but more than that they were personal friends. My father was in the State Senate during Bellmon’s second term of Governor and witnessed firsthand his dedication to this state. And as an upperclassman at Oklahoma State University, Governor Bellmon served as one of my professors.
“During a time when a drought severely struck Oklahoma’s wheat harvest, I walked the wheat fields of Northwest Oklahoma with Governors Bellmon and Keating as Bellmon showed us the drastic impact the drought had on Oklahoma’s farms.
“Governor Bellmon was the paradigm of an Oklahoman. He worked hard and served others. I join Oklahomans across the state in honoring the memory of a true American hero and a great Oklahoman.”