OKLAHOMA CITY – The late Jim Glover, a Comanche County farmer/rancher who rose through the ranks of the state Legislature to become second-in-command in the House of Representatives, is commemorated in a 2.5-mile section of highway near his hometown of Elgin.
Senate Bill 624, approved by the Legislature and signed by Governor Stitt last May, designates SH-17 between the eastern city limits of Elgin and the intersection of NE Miller Road as “Speaker Pro Tempore Jim R. Glover Memorial Highway.”
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation installed signs along the route in the eastbound and westbound rights-of-way.
A dedication ceremony “hasn’t been planned, to our knowledge,” Cody Boyd of ODOT’s Strategic Communications Division told Southwest Ledger on January 28. “It’s typically up to the legislator who requested the designation to plan the dedication with the family of the honoree and/or a community group that sponsored the sign. ODOT assists if asked.”
The SH-17 designation was proposed by state Sen. Chris Kidd, R-Waurika, and was incorporated into Senate Bill 624, a 19-page bill that contained 56 sections naming various bridges and highways throughout Oklahoma in someone’s honor. Kidd and state Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, R-Elgin, co-authored the measure.
Glover represented House District 65 in the state Legislature for 26 years, from 1977 to 2002, and was the Speaker Pro Tempore for eight years: January 1989 to November 1996. In 1997 the Legislature bestowed upon him the permanent title of Speaker Pro Tempore Emeritus.
Glover died from cancer on October 11, 2020, at the age of 74. His funeral was held in the Elgin school gymnasium.