‘Okie’ OKd by Caltrans : But State Rejects Freeway Sign Over Image of Girl

The dust bowl has been stirred once again in the feud between highway officials in Sacramento and the owner of the Okie Girl restaurant at the northern edge of Los Angeles County.

Caltrans administrators have approved the word Okie for freeway directional signs at the Golden State Freeway’s Frazier Park off-ramp after deciding that it is not derogatory.

But officials now object to the girl part of Okie Girl--at least a drawing of a shorts-and-straw-hat-clad girl used as part of the barbecue eatery’s logo.

The state has again rejected restaurant operator Mary Lynn Rasmussen’s sign application, this time citing a Caltrans policy against depicting the human form on “motorist services” signs that display logos of restaurants, motels and gas stations along isolated stretches of Interstate 5.

Oklahoma-born Rasmussen, who drew the sketch herself, said her next step will be to draw up a lawsuit against Caltrans.

“This has gone on long enough,” she said.

Rasmussen said she has sought permission for a year to have her restaurant logo attached to three freeway signs 75 miles north of Los Angeles. She charged that officials dragged their feet on her request, even when an earlier application contained a version of the logo without the sketch of the girl.

Caltrans officials finally admitted her permit was being turned down because of fears the word Okie was a slur against migrant workers who fled Oklahoma’s Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s and relocated in the San Joaquin Valley.

But Rasmussen argued that the term has become a source of pride to Oklahomans. In the last month, her own stubborn stand has made her something of a folk hero in Oklahoma, where the dispute has repeatedly been front-page news.

This week, self-styled Oklahoma historian and humorist Jack Parker traveled to Frazier Park to deliver a personal letter of support from Oklahoma Gov. David Walters.

“I do not think you could have chosen a better name than ‘Okie Girl,’ ” Walters wrote.

“Contrary to what some may believe, the word ‘Okie’ has come to symbolize the strong work ethic, character and resiliency associated with the thousands of Oklahomans, who, when desperate times demanded dramatic action, picked themselves up by the bootstraps and built new lives for their families.”

Rasmussen said she invited Caltrans officials to Parker’s luncheon in hopes of a showdown. But transportation administrators dismissed it as “the hoedown at the Okie corral.”

“I would have relished the opportunity to go down there, even if I would have been the one barbecued,” said George Hartwell, a Caltrans spokesman. “But traveling to a luncheon could have been viewed as an inappropriate use of state funds.”

Hartwell said Caltrans dropped its objection to “Okie” because Rasmussen “has fired the flames of public opinion all across America on the coals of her restaurant.”

“We’ve certainly felt the heat here in Sacramento,” he said.