Governor and her husband, en route from Florida to Halifax, make a stop in Oswego
By Tom and Jerry Caraccioli
In a year featuring political prominence where either an incumbent president will be re-elected or a former president will reassume our nation’s highest office, hardly any move made by a high-profile politician goes unnoticed.
Recently, Oswego’s Eastside Marina played host to a former high-profile United States politician who sailed into town virtually unnoticed for several days.
Hailing from a landlocked state in the middle of the country, the last thing you would think about is boating or seafaring. But not former Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, 69, and her husband Wade Christensen, 69.
The former governor, who served as Oklahoma’s first female lieutenant governor for 12 years and then became the state’s first female governor on Jan. 10, 2011, along with her husband and former Oklahoma First Gentleman Wade Christensen, came into the Port City in late June for several days.
The Sooner State power couple docked their yacht — equipped with radar, sonar, automatic identification system (AIS), VHF radio, GPS, fish finder and chart plotter — in the Eastside Marina en route to the St. Lawrence River to Montreal then Quebec and Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Halifax after traveling the Intercoastal Waterway from Florida.
The yacht uses Furuno Navionics, Bob’s tracks, chart plotter and various third-party apps that also assist with navigation.
In their first-ever foray traveling solo after purchasing “Lady Gov” in August 2023, Fallin and Christensen were trained and equipped to take on the rigors of nautical travel.
“We left Florida on May 7 and have come all the way up to Oswego since then [late June],” Fallin said.
“We went to Fort Ontario and had a tour and read some of the history,” she continued. “One of the things we’ve enjoyed coming up the Intercoastal Waterway — Hudson River, Erie Canal, Oswego River – is reliving the history of the United States and how fascinating it has been to learn about the men and women that came long before us in the 1700s and 1800s from all different countries. Fallin marveled at the thought of these early Americans who fought the wars so that we can enjoy the freedom and independence we have today.
Fallin was born Mary Copeland in Warrensburg, Missouri, before growing up in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, a city of just more than 2,000 citizens in her youth. “Growing up in a very small town in Oklahoma — my dad was the mayor of the town and when he passed away in his 50s, my mother became mayor of the town,” Fallin recalled. “That’s how I eventually got started in politics in my mid-30s.”
She entered politics after working for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department, the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, the Oklahoma Office of Personnel Management, as well as in hotel management and real estate. In 1990, she served as an Oklahoma state representative in District 85.
“I grew up in a town of 2,000 people,” Fallin said while offering advice to young girls, boys and women. “We weren’t wealthy. We were community people that believed in serving others and went to college, graduated, moved to the city of Oklahoma City, which was a big move for me and started working. Gradually, I built my own career and volunteered my time, met people and learned more about the needs of our community and state. By the time I was 35 and a young mother, I was concerned about education. I was in small business, so I was concerned about taxes, rules and regulations and those burdens on small businesspeople. I thought, ‘I can go do something about that.’ I was young and naïve enough to run for office. And it worked out.”
In 2007, Fallin’s national political star began to rise after she was elected to the United States Congress serving the Fifth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. She became the second woman from Oklahoma to serve in that position (Alice Mary Robertson, the first Oklahoma woman elected to the U.S. House, served one two-year term beginning March 1921).
During her four year years in Congress, Fallin served on the executive committee of the National Republican Congressional Committee, as small business chairwoman on the Republican Policy Committee, and as vice-chairwoman of the Congressional Women’s Caucus. Also during that span, she wrote her first bill (H.R. 2397), which enacted an overhaul of federal grants for women’s business centers. She also sat on committees of the U.S. House of Armed Services, Natural Resources, Small Business, and Transportation and Infrastructure.
Even before Fallin entered the political arena, she had her eye on small business. When she got to Washington and then the Oklahoma State House, her advocacy grew even more.
“Before I ran for office, I became interested as a businesswoman in the area of workmen’s compensation, especially the taxes and insurance premiums that small businesses had to pay,” Fallin recalled. “That was an important issue for me and I ended up heading a panel on the Fallin Commission on Workmen’s Compensation Reform back in my lieutenant governor days. It took about 18 months to get a bill passed after a major overhaul of the workmen’s compensation system in the state to protect the injured worker and make it fair.”
In considering the small town of Oswego, Fallin wished she had had more time to spend in the Port City. But what she saw in the Eastside Marina put a smile on her face as she watched the charter captains enjoying one of their finest years ever in Lake Ontario.
“I’ve been watching all the boats coming and going back and forth at all hours of the day and night and I’m sure they’re taking guests out to fish,” Fallin said. “That’s a great business. Of course, tourism is always important to a state. We always try to help the local economies by shopping and going to many, many grocery stores. We don’t have fresh salmon in Oklahoma unless someone ships it frozen.
“Local leadership and community county leadership is so important to these communities because they have their fingers on the pulse about what’s important, especially the businesses and safety. We think about that when we come to communities — is it safe? We check it out. Of course, also having fun things to do tourism-wise, the clean waters, the ability to get through your infrastructure — the canal system and locks. Investing in that infrastructure is incredibly important because these people [tourists] can’t count on your roads and bridges, locks and canals if they are not properly kept up and maintained. Finally, having the right business climate in which people want to come in and invest money, build business and employ people is also key.”
As the sun began to set on Lake Ontario, the former governor and her husband were preparing for their trip to Kingston the following day. She took one final moment to impart some wisdom learned in nearly three decades of public service as a trailblazing politician while also pondering her legacy as the first female governor of Oklahoma
“I hope it inspires young girls and boys, even adults, that if you think you have a contribution to make, or maybe a dream of something you want to do, one person can make a difference,” Fallin said. “My daughter, in her mid-30s with children, told me the other day, ‘You know Mom, one person can’t make a difference.’ I said, ‘Honey, don’t you tell your momma that.’ You can make a difference. One vote can make a difference and it’s important for people to do their civic responsibility. Don’t complain if you don’t want to participate. I learned that at a very young age.”
Tom and Jerry Caraccioli are freelance writers originally from Oswego, who have co-authored two books: “Striking silver: The Untold Story of America’s Forgotten Hockey Team” and “Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.”