The Ado Annie Story
This is a true story about my Great Grandmother, Annie Abdo, who went from peddling to property ownership - a true example of the American Dream. She was the inspiration for the character of Ado Annie, from the Rogers & Hammerstein Musical, “Oklahoma!”, and of course, the inspiration for the name of my store!
Annie Abdo - A Peddler… A Tulsa Woman
Born in 1859, Annie came from a mountain range called Lebanon.
Annie immigrated to the United States in 1893, leaving her family in Lebanon.
Her brother was living in Chelsea, a small town in Oklahoma… she decided to give it a chance, moving from Claremore to Tahlequah...settling finally in Vinita.
With her instinct for trading and peddling, she managed arrangements with traders to ship to her the finest things such as tapestries, linens and silk as well as table clothes, laces, napkins.
She went door to door by train or on foot, selling her merchandise, carrying heavy suitcases, and she soon had enough money to help her children immigrate to the US. George (my grandpa!), the youngest at 16, followed his siblings and they all met in Vinita.
Annie saw a potential to invest in land. Starting 1889, She started buying some of the best land in Tulsa. She got 3 acres in the middle of the city for $1,000 per acre. She paid it off within 5 years.
Later, the family invested in real estate, farms and raising horses.
Annie was a very quiet person. Although she couldn’t read and write, she kept all the accounts in her head, calculating orders, expenses, selling, profits.
For evidence of selling, she would have the purchaser write in her book his name and what he or she owed and when she returned home, one of her sons would read it for her and she would know whether it was correct or not.
Annie passed away on November 20, 1914.
Her life marked her surrounding and especially a young boy named Lynn Riggs (1899-1954). Riggs was born on a farm near Claremore, Oklahoma and wrote “Syrian Knives” in 1925 and “Green Grow the Lilacs” in 1931; these two plays were based on his Oklahoma memories. The musical “Oklahoma!”, based on Riggs' play, opened on Broadway in 1943, and ran until 1948. Riggs used Annie’s name as one of the characters, Ado Annie.
Great Grandma Annie set an example for generations of Women to come!