Chickasaw Visitor Center Featured Artist: Mary Ruth Barnes
Learn more about Chickasaw and other First American artists at the Chickasaw Visitor Center in Sulphur, Oklahoma.
Mary Ruth Barnes recently retired as the Director of Estate and Asset Services for Oklahoma, as well as, the Branson, Joplin and Springfield, Missouri markets and the Wichita, Kansas markets of the High Plains division. During her tenure with the American Cancer Society, Mary Ruth has been recognized as the Rookie of the Year in 2011 for Region 1 and National Rookie of the Year for the Planned Giving Business Unit for 2011. She was Top Performer and top in the Nation raising 5.8 million for cancer research in 2012. In 2013, she was top Performer for the High Plains Region again reaching 4.8 million in cancer research. Mary Ruth has overall brought in 35 million dollars in planned gifts for the American Cancer Society.
Mary Ruth is a Chickasaw Dynamic Women and. her watercolors are on display at the Chickasaw Nation Medical Center, the new Artesian Hotel and the Capital offices of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma City. One of her watercolor paintings, “Flight of Hope- Fighting Leukemia” was chosen as part of the cover of the American Cancer Society’s Circle of Life Calendar Journal for cancer education and wellness for American Indian and Alaska Native Communities. Her short story and painting “ The Evil Doer” was published in the Spring of 2015 Journal of the Chickasaw History and Culture magazine. Additionally, three of her award-winning photos and one of her watercolor prints have been selected to be permanently displayed in the new Chickasaw Artesian Hotel in Sulphur, Oklahoma. She was honored in 2015 as one of ten women selected as the Chickasaw Dynamic Woman of the Year. She was also featured in the June issue of the 2015 Distinctly Oklahoma Magazine for her art. In 2016 Allison Fields published a book of twenty Chickasaw woman artisans and Mary Ruth was featured in this book as one of the twenty. She was selected and archived in the Heard Museum as a Native Artist in 2017. In 2022 Barnes was inducted into the Chickasaw Hall of Fame and Capitol Hill High School Hall of Fame. Barnes debut her first novel, Little Bird, an historical fiction in 2022 and was the recipient of two Ippy awards for her historical fiction about Indian
Territory
She is extremely active in her community through Rotary and Business and Professional Women As a member of BPW in Ohio, Colorado and Oklahoma, Mary Ruth received the 2007 “Woman of the Year” award from Ada Business and Professional Women. Mary Ruth recently received her fifty year pin, as a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority. She is a 24-year member of Rotary International and has been on the executive board of the Ada Rotary Club. She has been the past president of Chapter HA and Chapter GJ of PEO in Ada, Oklahoma. She is a current active member of Chapter GJ of Ada, Oklahoma. She was a charter member of Chapter FP of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has been a member of PEO for 45 years. She has been married to her husband Mike for 49 years. Mary Ruth and Mike live on their ranch south of Ada. She has two sons who live in Ada with their families and she has four grandchildren.
The exhibit is free and open to the public.