Hon. Vanner LAMB
"From the time he entered upon his career as a lad, Vanner LAMB has always depended upon his own resources and abilities to gain him those things which he has desired in life. With no advantages save a public school education he was content to accept conditions as he found them, to make his own opportunities and to work faithfully and energetically toward the attainment of his ambitions, and gradually has worked upward to a substantial position in the business world, and to the mayoralty of one of the most prosperous and progressive cities of Southeast Oklahoma, Wagoner.
Mayor Lamb was born on a farm in Grant County, Arkansas, November 20, 1872, and is a son of Leroy and Elizabeth (HEADDON) LAMB. His father, a native of Georgia, was brought as a boy to Arkansas by his parents, and in that state met and married Elizabeth HEADDON, who had been born in that state, a daughter of parents who had come from Tennessee. Leroy LAMB was a shoemaker by trade, and followed that vocation at various times, although he also devoted much of his attention to farming and raising stock, and it was on the home farm in Arkansas that Vanner LAMB was reared. He attended the public schools of Grant County until he was fourteen years of age, at which time he went to Malvern, Arkansas, and for three years worked at the trade of shoemaker, associated with his father. His next venture was in railroading, as a mechanic, a capacity in which he was employed for six years, at the end of which time he decided he was ready to embark in business life as the owner of his own establishment, and accordingly, December 7, 1894, came to Wagoner, Oklahoma, where he founded a modest shoemaking shop. Excellent workmanship and fidelity to all engagements contributed to the success of this enterprise, which developed into quite a pretentious retail shoe store, which Mr. LAMB conducted until 1904, at that time disposing of his interest to embark in the hay and grain and real-estate business, with which he has been identified to the present time. In this direction he has rapidly advanced to an acknowledged position of prestige and has large and important interests, which include the ownership of valuable farming land in Wagoner and adjoining counties. From the time of attaining his majority, Mr. LAMB has been a stanch and active democrat, and in recent years has been prominent in civic affairs of Wagoner. After capably serving two terms as a member of the Wagoner City Council, in 1914 he was the choice of his fellow-citizens for the mayoralty, being elected to that office for a term of three years. As in his various other connections, Mayor LAMB has shown himself one who can accomplish things, and under his administration the civic affairs of Wagoner have developed and prospered. He has been prominent in Masonry, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree, and is a Knight Templar and a Shriner.
Mr. Lamb was married in 1897, at Wagoner, to Miss Frank McANNALLY, of this city, daughter of W. H. McANNALLY, the first white settler of Wagoner, who came here from his native state of Alabama, and was married to a native of the Cherokee Nation. To Mr. and Mrs. Lamb there have been born a daughter, Willie, and two sons, S. K. and Charles."