Pioneer Woman to be featured on 'Oklahomans' TV special
BY RITA SHERROW World Television Writer
Sunday, December 16, 2012
12/16/12 at 4:27 AM
Watch a video Catch a glimpse of the Drummonds.
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Drummond book signing at Steve’s.
When "accidental country girl" Ree Drummond meets up with Tulsa's Becky Dixon who was raised on the Lowry Lynn Ranch near Nowata, it's less of an interview and more like two friends sharing common ground.
Drummond, the Food Network's uber-popular "The Pioneer Woman," is one of four native sons and daughters interviewed on a new edition of "Oklahomans," airing at 8 p.m. Wednesday on KOTV, channel 6.
Choosing Drummond for the show was a no-brainer, said Dixon, president of Taylor Communications and host of the special.
"I have known about her for a long time," said Dixon in a phone interview. "I grew up in a very similar situation. I grew up on a ranch in Nowata County, 15 miles from any town, on a gravel road so I have personal experience of living the kind of life she is living ...
"People just love her. I love her self-deprecating humor. I think that was one of the things that attracted people at first. We've all been in the kind of situations she has but not all are able to laugh at themselves. She can."
Drummond, viewers will find out on the show, is not a person who sits around contemplating her success.
She's too busy being a mom, a rancher's wife and then photographer, best-selling author of two cookbooks, two children's books and a memoir, award-winning Internet blogger ( tulsaworld.com/thepioneerwoman) with 20 million page views per month who home-schools four country kids and whose world is also populated by cowboys, horses, cattle, cats and the basset hounds Charlie and Walter.
She tells Dixon she likes her life the way it is and doesn't have long-term professional goals. Her aspirations for her career right now are "staying in my pajamas and watching marathons of reality shows."
The native of Bartlesville grew up in the city by a golf course and met her husband Ladd while returning home for a holiday visit before moving from California, where she graduated from college, to Chicago, Dixon said.
"If she had not gone to that smoky bar with her friends and ended up meeting Marlboro man (her husband Ladd Drummond), and not moving to Chicago, all of this wouldn't have happened," Dixson said.
"Imagine starting out just sending some photos and funny stories to your family members online and how it just exploded. There was no 'Aha' or big 'Oprah' moment but just a steady growth for her blog and then her recipe sharing and that attracted more people.
"She told me she thinks her readers are both those who have similar lives to her own but also women in big metropolitan areas who yearn for a simpler life and a less congested place to live."
Drummond, who married rancher Ladd Drummond in 1996 and began blogging in 2006, is a perfect fit for "Oklahomans," which has been profiling the state's talented sons and daughters since 1991, said Dixon, a University of Tulsa graduate who worked for ABC's Wide World of Sports and as an anchor for Tulsa's KTUL, channel 8.
"She grew up here. And now, certainly along with 'August: Osage County,' is putting the ranch on the national radar and also putting Oklahoma ranch life - which had never received the exposure certainly that she has given it - on the radar.
"I also think that what she has been able to do to build this multimedia empire from an isolated ranch in Osage County shows that there are no limits geographically to what you can do.
"When I started my career at ABC, you had to be in New York or Los Angeles to get anywhere and she has torn down those barriers. ... The thing I love about the story is that 20 years ago, a woman living on a ranch in the middle of nowhere couldn't build that kind of empire. She would just be living on a ranch in Osage County, raising her children and feeding cowboys."
And things could get busier for Drummond. Columbia Pictures optioned the rights to her book, "The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels," her memoir. Rumor has it Reese Witherspoon is interested in playing Ree.
And, there's one more tie between subject and interviewer, Dixon added.
"Her ranch competes in the Oklahoma ranch rodeo (Oklahoma Cattleman's Range Roundup in Oklahoma City) every year and my family's does too.
"And her family always beats us."
'Oklahomans' to hear music and Thunder
Wednesday's hour-long "Oklahomans" will feature Becky Dixon interviewing "Pioneer Woman" Ree Drummond, KWTV's Kelly Ogle interviewing OKC Thunder forward Kevin Durant, KWTV anchor Amanda Taylor talking to country music star Vince Gill and KOTV anchor Terry Hood interviewing One Republic's Ryan Tedder, a Tulsa native.
‘OKLAHOMANS’
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday
Where: KOTV, channel 6
Original Print Headline: Pioneer Okies
Rita Sherrow 918-581-8360
rita.sherrow@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
Ree Drummond greets Walter the basset hound on Food Network's "Pioneer Woman." Her dogs have become stars themselves with her popular children's books. Courtesy
“Pioneer Woman” Ree Drummond (left) will join Becky Dixon for
“Oklahomans” on Wednesday. Courtesy
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