Bridges, Claude Russell (Leon Russell)

CLAUDE RUSSELL BRIDGES (aka Leon Russell) was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, April 2, 1942, and began playing the piano at the age of four. He began his musical career at the age of 14 in the nightclubs of Tulsa and was instrumental in creating the style of music known as the "Tulsa Sound." He took the name Leon Russell from a friend who lent him an ID to get into clubs, where he was legally too young to perform. Upon graduation from Will Rogers in 1959, he moved to Los Angeles where, as a first-call studio musician, he played piano with the Wrecking Crew, an informal name for the top L.A. session musicians of the '60s. He can be heard on many of the most popular songs of that era. He moved back to Tulsa where he opened The Church Studio, home to Shelter Records, bringing top artists to record from 1972-76. He then moved back to Los Angeles and later to suburban Nashville, where he died quietly in his sleep on Nov. 13, 2016, at age 74. He is interred at Memorial Park Cemetery in Tulsa.

This sold-out concert was performed Feb. 9, 2019, at Will Rogers High School.

WILL ROGERS HIGH SCHOOL in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was built during the Great Depression and opened in the fall of 1939. It is named after "Oklahoma's Favorite Son." William Penn Adair Rogers, who was an American stage and film actor, vaudeville performer, cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, radio personality, and social commentator from Oklahoma. He was a Cherokee citizen born in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma), about 30 miles from Tulsa. As an entertainer and humorist, he traveled around the world three times, made 71 films (50 silent films and 21 "talkies"), and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns. By the mid-1930s, Rogers was hugely popular in the United States, its leading political wit and the highest paid of Hollywood film stars. He died in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post when their small airplane crashed in northern Alaska.

Will Rogers High School, an art deco masterpiece, is on the National Register of Historic Places (with historic significance). It has produced many graduates who have distinguished themselves in their careers—of national fame, personal achievement, or social significance. A list of Hall of Fame inductees and their biographies is available at: https://willrogersfoundation.net/.