CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Enid educator, retired AF veteran announced as 'grand lighting marshal' for downtown Christmas tree

Enid News & Eagle - 11/16/2021

Nov. 16—A longtime Enid school administrator and retired Air Force veteran will flip the switch next week to light the country's largest fresh cut Christmas tree.

Eisenhower Elementary School Principal Lyntel Murphy will be the "grand lighting marshal" of the Christ Tree at the tree's lighting ceremony near downtown during Enid Lights Up the Plains on Nov. 26, the team organizing The One announced Tuesday.

During the ceremony, at 7:30 p.m., Murphy will switch on the 20,000 lights hanging from the 140-foot fir tree, which also will be decorated with 10,000 ornaments over the next week where it sits on Park Avenue between Grand and Independence.

"Dr. Murphy was selected as the inaugural Grand Lighting Marshal because her life epitomizes a love of Christ and dedication to the service of others," Kyle Williams, one of the major title sponsors of The One event series, said in a statement.

Murphy has been an educator for 26 years. She became principal of Eisenhower in 2012, having retired from the Air Force in 1994 after 17 years of service. She has an AS/BS in aeronautics, a master of education in curriculum and instruction, and a doctorate in education. She and her husband of 40 years, Craig, attend church at Pentecostals of Enid.

Murphy said the ceremony reminded her of the annual tree-lighting at Vance Air Force Base, where the school is located. Each year, she said the base asks an Eisenhower child whose parent is deployed to light the tree.

She said Williams, whom she'd never met, called her over fall break asking her to do the same.

"I just though it sounded like it'd be a lot of fun," Murphy told the News & Eagle on Tuesday. "But the meaning is so much deeper than that, I think, than just the lighting of the tree."

She said during the practice on Monday, everyone talked about how maybe the lighting pulls everyone together, "at that moment in time."

"People give more at Christmas, they take care of each other more at Christmas — things we should be doing more year-round — but this time of year just tugs more on the heart strings," Murphy said.

Enid Public Schools Superintendent Darrell Floyd lauded the news in a statement Tuesday.

"Dr. Murphy is an outstanding educator and administrator. This is such a great honor for Dr. Murphy and an honor for Enid Public Schools," Floyd said.

The kickoff ceremony will begin at 7 p.m. following the Christmas Lights parade around the downtown square. Fireworks also will shoot off at 7:30.

The One event series will run until Jan. 6, 2022, featuring dozens of Christmas-themed events such as concerts, markets and church services.

Ewald is copy editor and city/education reporter for the Enid News & Eagle.

Have a question about this story? Do you see something we missed? Send an email to aewald@enidnews.com.

___

(c)2021 the Enid News & Eagle (Enid, Okla.)

Visit the Enid News & Eagle (Enid, Okla.) at www.enidnews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.