Tulsa World: Hotelier's services set for Wednesday

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Hotelier's services set for Wednesday

CIVIC LEADER
John Burch Mayo: Laying claim to one of downtown Tulsa's landmarks, the Mayo Hotel, he was a trustee for Philbrook and the Philharmonic.

By Staff Reports
Published: 5/31/2009 2:52 AM
Last Modified: 5/31/2009 5:06 AM

John Burch Mayo, son of the Mayo Hotel's founder and himself the retired executive vice president and manager of the hotel, died Friday. He was 90.

A service is set for 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Memorial Park Cemetery Chapel under the direction of Stanley's Funeral Home.

Mayo was born in Tulsa in 1919. He graduated from Cascia Hall and Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., where he studied hotel management and was a member of Chi Phi fraternity.

Mayo and his first wife, Luanne, were married in 1941. They had a daughter, who died as an infant. They divorced in 1942.

In 1948, he married Allene Oliphant in Tulsa. She died in 2002.

During World War II, Mayo served as an intelligence officer on the Third Army staff of Gen. George Patton in England, France and Germany.

Through the G.I. Bill of Rights and a lend-lease program with France, he attended the National Conservatory of Music in Paris. A baritone, he studied voice and sang in operas and in solo performances in many Tulsa-area venues over the years.

Mayo's first job was as a runner for the First National Bank. Later, he became executive vice president and manager of the Mayo Hotel and vice president of Mayos' Inc.

His father, John D. Mayo, had moved to Tulsa along with his brother, Cass A. Mayo, from Clifton Hill, Mo., in 1903.The brothers broke ground on the 600-room Mayo Hotel in 1926. The family also acquired numerous real estate properties and a furniture company.

The

hotel became a downtown landmarks. Its 17th-floor Crystal Ballroom was often the site of glamorous parties, hosting presidents and celebrities such as John F. Kennedy, Will Rogers, J. Paul Getty, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, John Wayne and Richard Nixon.

The Mayo Hotel closed in 1981 and is currently being renovated. The project will include a hotel on the first nine floors and residential apartments on the upper nine floors.

Mayo was elected to the Chamber of Commerce in 1947 and became a part of its executive committee in 1950.

At age 39, he became one of the youngest presidents of the chamber.

In 1978, he was named a trustee of the Southwestern Art Association, the governing body of Philbrook Art Center. Believing that music was a "vital civic force," Mayo was president of the Tulsa Philharmonic and remained involved with the orchestra for more than three decades.

He also had been a member of First Presbyterian Church and Southern Hills Country Club.

Survivors include his sister, Margery Feagin Bird; two sons, John Daniel Mayo II and Peter Mayo, all of Tulsa, and three grandchildren. By Staff Reports

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