From December, 2004 issue of MetroFamily

Do your Christmas guests consume 2500 pounds of mashed potatoes, 2500 pounds of green beans, and 3000 pounds of turkey? They do at the annual Red Andrews Christmas Dinner—a 62-year-old Oklahoma tradition which provides a free holiday meal to anyone in need. Although 7000 guests enjoyed last year’s dinner, few remember the man behind it. Red Andrews was an Oklahoman whose legacy endures.

A Man Called Red
Ernest R. Andrews, nicknamed Red for his Irish copper hair, was born in Houston in 1900. When his family of 13 moved to a farm in Edmond, this independent teenager stayed behind in a Houston boys’ home operated by family friends. The experience of living with wayward and impoverished boys marked him for life. “My whole heart is with boys because I’ll never forget those days,” he once said. He spent his life providing for others in need.
 
Although he had a reputation for being “onery” and a street fighter, young Red would also bring home hungry friends for dinner. He became a barefoot newsboy at the age of eight and worked his way into a journalism career which brought him to the Tulsa World and to the state of Oklahoma.
 
He began working as a wrestling and boxing promoter. Over the years, thousands of Oklahomans flocked to his boxing matches at the legendary Stockyards Coliseum. Grown men remember sneaking into his boxing tournaments as boys. According to Red’s niece, Betty McCord, people said, “We thought we were sneaking in to watch the wrestling and boxing—all the big sports events—but Red just ordered everybody to keep their eyes turned the other way.”
 
He served his country in both World Wars, and while in the Marines during WWII, made friends with movie star Tyrone Powers. After the war, he embarked on a new adventure—running for office in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Red served for 20 years, from 1952 to 1972. Never afraid of controversy, he successfully lobbied to repeal alcohol restrictions at a time when the issue was politically volatile. McCord recalls, “Bootleggers were flourishing, so Red wrote bills that didn’t hurt them or us. He passed all the best liquor laws in the state.” But his greatest legacy lies elsewhere.
 
The First Dinner
Red began having Christmas dinners in Tulsa in 1928, then brought them to Oklahoma City when he moved. But the Red Andrews Christmas Dinner we know today started after the war, in the hot summer of 1945. Betty McCord tells the story. “A young man named Cotton was the foreman of all the boys, ages 14 to 16, who worked at the Stockyard Coliseum parking cars. He [Cotton] left something at home, so Uncle Ernest asked me to take him to get it. Cotton lived behind the Coliseum in a bunch of mud shacks called Mulligan Flats. When I got there, I about fainted. His house was one small room with a mud floor. His mother was the sweetest thing you ever saw and the floor was as clean as could be, but how can you keep [a mud floor] clean? It was so hot, and his mother had bacon cooling in the window because they had no refrigeration.”
 
McCord told her uncle about the living conditions, and after driving through the area, Red and his wife Jean decided to restart their tradition. They invited all the boys and their families, about 100 people, to a dinner that Christmas of 1945. The menu consisted of ham, beans, and potatoes, cooked in large iron vats, and hot rolls. It was such a success Red did it again the next year, and the next. And it has continued on for 62 years.
 
Though uncertain finances, last minute roadblocks, and rapid growth sometimes threatened the tradition, every year Oklahomans have experienced the same joyous celebration of Christmas. McCord declares, “Red said to never let anybody change it, and we never have.” And he never turned anyone away. One Christmas a woman in a fur coat was seen waiting in line for food. A volunteer asked Red to kick her out. “If you had a fur coat, would you be eating here?” he asked the volunteer. “That woman needs something, or she wouldn’t be coming to our dinner. Don’t ever question anybody who comes in here. This is where the needed and the needy come together.”
 
An Enduring Legacy
The street fighter turned philanthropist died in 1977, but his spirit of generosity lives on. McCord took over the Christmas dinners and coordinates the event each year, along with a generous helping of extended family. Her son, Red’s great-nephew, does more than supervise the massive food preparation. He started his own holiday tradition, now in its fifth year, in Lamar, Oklahoma. He uses surplus food donations to prepare a meal for farm families who are down on their luck.
 
Although many may never have heard of Red Andrews, some will never forget him. McCord says, “He was my very favorite person, and he was a lot of people’s friend.”
 
How To Help the Red Andrews Christmas Dinner
The dinner will be held on Christmas Day at the Cox Convention Center in OKC, (corner of Reno and Robinson). They need new, unwrapped toys for children and clothing (gloves, hats, socks, etc.) for adults. Gifts will be collected at 63rd & MacArthur next to the Post Office or at any Taco Mayo in the Metro area. Monetary donations may be mailed to PO Box 18894, Oklahoma City, OK  73154.

UPDATED FOR 2007, thanks to a current board member: Volunteers are needed on Christmas Day starting at 9am. To help, simply show up at the south side of the Cox Convention Center on Christmas morning by 9:00 am.  The dinner usually runs until 2 or 3 in the afternoon.  Volunteers are needed more urgently around 11:30 or noon as the early arrivers begin to drift off.

Ben Davis has a passion for the stories which define humanity. He is a proud graduate of Baylor Univeristy's Professional Writing Program and a frequent contributor to MetroFamily Magazine.