"Your character can be formed just as I'm molding this clay into an object," he would add as he started the wheel spinning and began to shape the clay into a bowl or a vase or some other object of beauty. "A person without character is just as useless as a hunk of clay."

Frank, a youth leader at First Methodist Church in Sapulpa, traveled thousands of miles at his own expense in Oklahoma and several other states, beginning in the 1950s, to speak to church groups and youth organizations, using his specially built potter's wheel for his pulpit to demonstrate what it means to be clay in the master's hands.

It was a part of Frank's devotion to God and an expression of his love for the good earth -- clay -- that he had turned into a pottery business, which became known internationally and attracted thousands of visitors to Sapulpa each year.

Frank was born into poverty in Chicago. He sold newspapers on street corners when he was 5, played trombone in The Salvation Army band and worked his

He came to Oklahoma in 1927 shortly after his graduation and established a ceramics department at the University of Oklahoma. He left the school in 1933 to open Frank Potteries in Norman.

He renamed the business Frankoma a year later to incorporate both his surname and the last three letters of Oklahoma. The business struggled; pottery was received poorly in those Depression years and business leaders offered little help for a merchant not devoted to the college crowd.

"Norman didn't particularly want us," Frank's wife, Grace Lee Frank, told a reporter in 1983, 10 years after her husband died. "John was so in love with his work that he thought everybody was crazy for it. But they weren't. His biggest ambition was to create beautiful things that the average person could afford."

The Sapulpa Chamber of Commerce enticed Frank to move there, and the Franks set up shop in a former tavern. They built a production plant nearby on land provided by the chamber.

For years, Frank used clay found near Ada but later worked with clay found in Sapulpa.

The move gave Frank the support he needed for his business and provided a valuable asset for Sapulpa. Thousands of tourists driving along U.S. 66 stopped at the plant to shop for and buy pottery.

The 1942 creation of a line of Southwestern dinnerware featuring the common wagon wheel helped spread the word about the Frankoma name. That design was the company's signature line for years, and in 1947, Frank sent a set of wagon wheel dishes to every governor in the United States.

Frankoma later produced several other lines of dinnerware in many colors.

Frank was named the Oklahoma Small Businessman of the year in 1968 and 1969 and the United States Small Businessman of the Year in 1971. He also had been recognized as the outstanding board member of the International Youth for Christ organization and was the chairman of the Youth for Christ group in Tulsa.

Frank received the national award at a "John Frank Day," but he made it clear that it wasn't just his honor. "This is not John Frank Day; it's Sapulpa Day," he declared.

Frank praised Sapulpans for their support, using a couple of examples. "When I came here, I needed a car. I had no credit," he said. But a loan company employee told him: "You look good to me. I'll just take your signature."

He told of a similar situation in regard to buying lumber for the building he wanted to place next to his converted bar. "Order what you want" and pay later, he was told.

The firm prospered, and by the mid-1950s the Franks were able to move into a house designed by the famed architect Bruce Goff. It featured Frankoma tile.

Frank retired in 1973, turning the business over to his daughter Joniece because of his health and to gain time to design a 10-plate series, "Teen-Agers of the Bible." But he died a few months later with only the first design finished. Joniece completed the series.

Another Frank daughter, Donna, detailed the involvement of her father and family in civic, religious and social causes in her book, "Clay in the Master's Hands."

Frank had been a member of the Sapulpa City Commission, the library board and the Oklahoma Bicentennial Committee. He also was an honorary chief of the Creek Nation.

Frankoma Pottery survived a fire in 1983 but was sold in 1991 and closed in early 2005.

It gained new life a few months later when it was bought by Det and Crystal Merryman. It now has 40 employees and has created Oklahoma Centennial pottery.

Photographic research by Rachele Vaughan

Gene Curtis 581-8304
gene.curtis@tulsaworld.com

Gene Curtis is a former managing editor of the Tulsa World.