BS: Who is Venita Cravens?

Subject: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: michaelr
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 01:50 AM

Don Firth posted this quote in the "Brave New World" thread:

"When small men cast long shadows, the sun is going down." -- Venita Cravens

I've found the quotation repeated in dozens of webpages, but no information on the author anywhere. Who can tell us about Ms Craven?

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 02:40 AM

I did a search at ancestry.com and the only thing that came up was a Venita Cravens listed as a "wife" on the 1930 census Oklahoma, Seminole County, Wewoka Township. No idea if it is the same person, but it is an unusual name, so may be?

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: michaelr
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 05:17 PM

Not so unusual, actually. Many of the sites that came up when I googled the name appeared to be genealogy-related, with numerous instances of both the given and family names.

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 05:28 PM

Well, I meant the two names together, as one, so to speak. I, too, say a lot of genealogy references to each name, apart from the other. I hope someone will be able to shed some light on who she was.

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: Amos
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 05:40 PM

It's a new stop-smoking program theme song, roughly translated as "Oh Come All Ye Addicts"....

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 09:16 PM

It's probably not related but there's a town called Venita in Oklahoma. Not far from Big Cabin.

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: Padre
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 09:27 PM

She wrote the Christmas carol, "Venita adoremus...."

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: michaelr
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 11:09 PM

Amos -- what are you smoking?

Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 12:24 AM

It certainly appears that Venita Cravens said this one cool thing and promptly dissapeared off of the face of the earth. She apparently did nothing before saying it, and did nothing after saying it. Her whole existence has slipped through the cracks with the exception of an eleven-word quotation. Maybe she was an alien.

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: Amos
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 01:38 AM

MIchaelR:

Actually, I am no longer smoking anything at all! Fifteen days straight.

No small feat, I assure you, after forty years.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 03:17 PM

Not a clue. I remembered the quote and I wanted to make sure I got it right--having found that if you misquote something, the next twenty posts will be Mudcatters and Guests smugly pointing it out to you. Like mamy, I learned this the hard way. I put the part of it I was sure of into google's "Advanced Search" and a whole list of stuff popped up. When I posted it, I credited it as the web sites I found it on did. Who Venita Cravens is, I have no idea. I thought it was a good quote, though. Apt.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: michaelr
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 09:58 PM

Yes it is, Don. Very Zen.

Amos -- good luck! I know quitting is tough, I've had lots of experience.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: jeffp
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 08:04 AM

GOOD LUCK, AMOS!!!!!!!

It's coming up on 2 years for me and I don't regret it one bit.

You can do it, guy!

jeffp

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: GUEST,Scott Foster, Honolulu
Date: 13 Jul 07 - 03:55 PM

I was Googling "Venita Cravens" and here I am. The Venita Cravens I knew in Oklahoma City during the 1950s-'60s was my Jr. high school buddy Cleve's mother. Venita was one of the country's more-successful impresarios during the period. She booked everything from My Fair Lady to Elvis, Brenda Lee and Ricky Nelson. She was also a close friend of Ginger Rogers (who was also from Oklahoma), Carol Channing (Hello Dolly, etc.), Lauren Bacall and May Boren Axton (Hoyt's mother also from Oklahoma) who wrote Heartbreak Hotel. Venita Cravens and May Boren Axton together in the same room was a real hoot as both were VERY crusty, strong women with ribald senses of humor who had made it to the top in (then) a man's business world. The town in Oklahoma (Venita) is not related. - Scott Foster, Honolulu

Subject: RE: BS: Who is Venita Cravens?
From: Alice
Date: 14 Jul 07 - 09:21 AM

Wow, the interesting answers that pop up on Mudcat. Thanks for posting, Scott.