At next Checotah Lions Club meeting The Checotah Lions Club will host historian and author Jonita Mullins at their next meeting on Thursday, April 11. Mullins will present highlights of the life of Bass Reeves, the first black U.S. Deputy Marshal, west of the Mississippi. Reeves worked 32 years as a federal peace officer in Indian Territory and became one of Judge Isaac Parker’s most valuable deputies, bringing in some of the most dangerous fugitives of the time. Interesting enough, Judge Parker became known as the “Hanging Judge” because he sentenced numerous convicts to death.

The public is invited to come have lunch at noon in the Fellowship Hall of Checotah’s First United Methodist Church at 419 Gentry and hear some interesting Oklahoma history.