Edward K. Gaylord

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Edward King Gaylord (March 5, 1873 - May 30, 1974) was the founder and publisher of the Daily Oklahoman newspaper (now The Oklahoman), as well as a radio and television entrepreneur.

His son, Edward L. Gaylord (May 28, 1919 - April 27, 2003) inherited the Daily Oklahoman and other family assets worth 50 million dollars in 1974. Stanford University educated in business, Edward L. increased the family fortune forty-fold, increasing it to 2 billion dollars at the time of his death in 2003. He also purchased the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. He created The Nashville Network TV Channel, and also the Country Music Television, or CMT.

The Daily Oklahoman newspaper, later named The Oklahoman, remains in the family. Although a respected newspaper during Edward King Gaylord's tenure, it became unabashedly partisan after Edward L. became its publisher; in Oklahoma it was frequently referred to as "The Daily Disappointment," and the Columbia Journalism Review dubbed it "The Worst Newspaper in America" in 1999. Of particular note were the preponderance of front-page stories praising the publisher and an editorial page with what even the newspaper's own reporters and editors acknowledged as extreme religious and political views.

Today the paper is led by Edward's daughter, publisher Christy Gaylord Everest. Mrs. Everest had led a major visual modernizing of the newspaper in recent years. Mrs. Everest is assisted in the operating of the newspaper by her sister, Louise Gaylord Bennett.

The Gaylord family has frequently provided selected philanthropic contributions. They have founded the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, and have given the University of Oklahoma contributions totaling over 50 million dollars in the last three decades, resulting in a large proportion of the buildings on campus being named after one family member or another. They provided seed money for the university's Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication which recently constructed a new facility thanks in a large part to Gaylord donations.