Jo Prout

Age and/or Generation: 
68  (a World War II baby)

Current Job(s): 
Executive Director, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Cherokee Country, Tahlequah, since March, 2002

Former Job(s): 
Executive Director, Tahlequah Area Chamber of Commerce. 1990-1999
Executive Director, YWCA of Palm Beach County, Florida, 1980-1989
Secondary Teacher (8th grade American History), Florida, 1966-1970

Education and/or Training: 
I am a proud, positive product of public education in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, New York, and Alabama. 

BA in American Studies from Wesleyan College (for women), Macon, Georgia.

I am a graduate of Leadership Oklahoma, Class VII; a graduate of the Oklahoma Institute for Non-profit Leadership; and a graduate of the State Chamber Executive Leadership Program.

From 1991 through 2004 I served on six Tahlequah non-profit boards of directors for different lengths of time, serving as secretary or president several times.

Greatest Professional Accomplishment:  
This is difficult to answer because I have been a catalyst for change and improvement in each place I served as a non-profit administrator; however, I would probably say my greatest accomplishments came while I was at the Chamber of Commerce. 

As the director of the Tahlequah Area Chamber of Commerce from 1990 - 1999, I was pleased to improve the image of the Chamber and restore public confidence in the Chamber by adding 18 new programs and services to the program of work, including Shop Tahlequah First, Legislative Focus,    Leadership Tahlequah (the program of which I'm most proud), and Illinois River BalloonFest.  Chamber membership increased by 120 members, the annual operating budget increased from $51,000 to $121,000, media coverage throughout the area boosted tourism revenue in the county, and Tahlequah sales tax revenues increased annually. The physical offices of the Chamber, which had been located in the Cherokee Capitol on the square for many years, were moved to their present location at the corner of Delaware St. and Water Ave. in 1994 after negotiations with Bank IV to make a gift of the building to the Chamber.

My work at CASA of Cherokee Country has also been most gratifying.  When I was hired as the director of CASA in early 2002, the program was operating on a part-time basis, there was $300 in the bank, and fund raising activities consisted of yard sales.  Although the program was six years old, very few individuals in the community knew about CASA and its mission to train volunteers to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children in Cherokee County District Court, Adair County District Court, and Cherokee Nation Tribal Court.  Today, after continuous efforts to keep CASA's name in front of area residents through newspapers articles, radio advertising, and community-wide fund raising events, CASA is a full-time program and is a much more familiar name in the community; an endowment exists in the amount of $95,000, and a reserve account exists in the amount of $25,000.  CASA of Cherokee Country has trained hundreds of men and women who have been advocates for hundreds of young victims of abuse and neglect.  The recruitment and retention of volunteer child advocates continues to be the greatest challenge of my position along with identifying, acquiring, and maintaining sufficient operating revenue.

Areas of Expertise: 
Leadership, public speaking, board training, non-profit management, publicity/promotion, organization and implementation of special events.

Hometown: 
Born in Muskogee, OK, the first of two daughters, while father was flying bomber missions in the Pacific Theater during World War II. 

Other Towns of Residence: 
In 1945, at war's end, my parents began the nomadic life required of a career Air Force officer's family, moving roughly every three years to a new post.  Our family lived in the following locations:  Victoria, Texas; Muskogee, OK; Columbus, Ohio; Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York; Montgomery, Alabama.  My parents also lived in Paris, France; southern England; Belleville, Illinois; Misawa, Japan; and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

During my college years my parents lived in Paris,France, and at Mildenhall Air Force Base, England, so I flew to Europe for summer visits.  As a young bride, I was fortunate to spend time in Japan with my parents, enjoying, among many other things, the 1970 World's Fair.

Family: 
Parents:  My father, John W. Bogan, was born in Wapanucka, Oklahoma, in 1920, the third of 14 children born to George and Lula Bogan.  Daddy earned a BS in Economics from Oklahoma A & M (now Oklahoma State University) in Stillwater.  Although my father's mother was Choctaw, his family was never interested in the Native American bloodline, and consequently, no one knows the Choctaw blood quantum.

My mother, Nannie M. Vann, was born on Cherokee allotment land along the Canadian River in the Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, area, in 1919, fourth of five children born to Frank and Polly Vann.  Mother earned a BS in Home Economics at Oklahoma A & M where she and my father met and fell in love.  My mother's parents were both Cherokee citizens registered on the Dawes Rolls.  My maternal grandfather was a direct descendant of James Vann, a Cherokee chief and plantation owner in Spring Hill, Georgia. The Chief Vann House is a Georgia Historic Site on the National Register of Historic Places.  My Cherokee blood quantum is 5/32.

My parents married following graduation from Oklahoma A & M in 1942, and when they came out of a matinee movie one afternoon in Muskogee and heard the newspaper boy calling out that the United States had declared war on Japan, my father swung my mother up in the air and said, "Honey, I'm gonna' learn to fly an airplane!"  And he did. 

When I was three years old my sister, Linda, nicknamed Cooki, was born.  Cooki's sophomore year in college was spent living with a French family while she attended the American University in Paris.  Cooki was killed at age 19 in an automobile accident in England that nearly took the life of my mother, as well.  They were driving from Mildenhall Air Force Base to Stratford-on-Avon to see one last Shakespearean play before returning to the States.  An oversized British tank transporter was traveling toward the base, and swung wide to make a curve on the narrow, two-lane road, crashing headlong into the Peugeot my mother was driving.  Taken for dead, both Mother and Cooki were transported to a nearby hospital.  A candy striper was sent to the morgue to take information off the medical bracelet placed on Mother's wrist in the ambulance and was startled to realize she could feel a pulse.  Mother required extensive surgeries through several months, but lived a long, full life, passing away in 2011 at age 92.

My parents moved back to their home state of Oklahoma when my father retired from the Air Force, finding a lovely home on property just outside of Tahlequah. Eight years later my father died of a rare disease at age 64.  No doctors in Tahlequah nor at the VA Hospital in Muskogee could figure out what was wrong as he began to lose muscle control.  Following a stroke, he was hospitalized at Tahlequah City Hospital and the VA Hospitalin Muskogee for four months.  Upon his death, an autopsy was performed which revealed that Daddy died of Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease, a slow-acting human strain of mad cow disease, very likely contracted by eating tainted beef while fighting in the Pacific Theater during World War II. 

Marriage & Children:
When I graduated from Wesleyan College in 1966, I was a certified secondary teacher.  My first teaching position was at a junior high school in a paper mill town, Springfield, Florida, a bedroom community to Panama City, Florida.  My take-home check each month was $250 and I had plenty of money to put gas in my Volkswagen Beetle, pay rent on an apartment, buy food and clothes! 

At the end of that first year of teaching, I married, and my husband and I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida.  The marriage lasted only a short time, but brought me a lively, chubby baby boy, Kyle.  When Kyle was 18 months old, we were divorced.  Then Hedley Prout and I married in 1973 and shared a full, exciting life together for 32 years.  He was an architect of great skill who traveled throughout south Florida to manage large projects such as schools, condominiums, hospitals, etc. 

A young lady who lived next door to us when Kyle was a youngster became Kyle's regular babysitter.  She was living with an aunt because her mother had died a year earlier.  She was soon spending more and more time with our family, learning to cook and participating in family activities.  When she was 17, Bern (short for Bernadette) moved into our lives on a permanent basis.  Our family has been deeply enriched by her becoming a family member.  She attended and graduated from my alma mater, Wesleyan College, spent four years in the U.S. Navy, and settled in Atlanta, Georgia.  Hedley and I formally adopted Bern when she was 42 years old, after Hedley began experiencing serious health problems and we were all concerned that there might come a time that she would be denied access to him if he were hospitalized unless she was a family member.


I was hired as the director of the Tahlequah Area Chamber of Commerce and we moved from West Palm Beach to Tahlequah in summer, 1990.

We learned that Hedley was suffering from congestive heart failure in 2001; in 2003 he suffered a massive stroke that required extensive rehabilitation.  He died of a heart attack in 2005 as he and Bern and I were preparing to watch a movie on television.

Kyle, an independent insurance agent, is married and living in Tahlequah.  He and wife, Sherry, have three sons:  Erik, age 18; Zack, age 8; and Kyler, age 7.  I do love being Gramma Jo!

Hobbies: 
Reading, needlework, plants, cats (I have three: Simon Sez, Miss Java, and Gus-Gus)

The Role of Mentors in My Life:
There have been many strong women pass through my life who have inspired and encouraged me, but a couple stand out:  In college, my history professor and student advisor, Dr. Leah Strong, convinced me that although recognition comes easily to some, we owe it to ourselves and others to strive harder, stretch farther, and produce more, that the adage "To whom much is given, much is expected" is an inescapable daily challenge; my mother's sister, my dear Aunt Coowee, reminded me often of the strength of our Cherokee ancestry and pushed me to embrace that legacy. 

The most powerful mentor in my life was my mother, who, until her death, was the wind beneath my wings as I encountered challenging experiences, painful experiences, rewarding experiences.  She mentored not only through words, but by example, exhibiting a never-give-up attitude despite disabling physical difficulties.  She was my bright star, a shining example of graciousness coupled with strength, demonstrating the courage to stand and face a problem rather than run from it, turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to malicious, hurtful words and behaviors, and calmly and lovingly refusing to compromise her principles.  I shall forever be grateful for her love and support that held me up as I achieved goals that often appeared beyond my reach.   

Favorite Quotation:
"All that is necessary for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing." 
 -  Edmund Burke