The 55th Annual Fall Meet of the Chrysler 300 Club International was held at the Osage Casino Hotel in Bartlesville, Oklahoma from September 30th to October 4, 2026. Meet hosts were Marnie and Rob Kern. About 48 members and guests attended.
Bartlesville and the surrounding Osage territory of Northeast Oklahoma is rich in the history of the oil boom days and also currently the home to the ConocoPhillips World Headquarters and site of the ConocoPhillips Research facility. Twenty-two miles west of Bartlesville is Pawhuska, Oklahoma where the Food Network chef Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman, has her Mercantile store, Event center and Hotel. These areas were the focus of our meet agenda. Some club members arrived a day early and explored nearby Tulsa and Wichita and Independence Kansas.
Thursday, October 1st had us driving to Woolaroc, the summer ranch of Frank and
Jane Phillips which is now a wild animal
preserve and home to the Frank Phillips Museum housing his various Indian artifacts, weapons, Phillips 66 history exhibits and other very interesting displays regarding the heritage of the area and how the Phillips family interacted with the Osage Indian tribe. We all enjoyed a delicious lunch and gathering point at the Prairie Dunes Cafe at Woolaroc. Later that afternoon we journeyed back to Bartlesville and toured the home of Frank and Jane Phillips on Cherokee Street.
Thursday evening the club business meeting was conducted by President John Begian in the hospitality room at the host hotel. See business meeting write up by Brian Frank.
Friday saw us driving again in beautiful weather and enjoying the fascinating scenery of the Osage territory enroute to Pawhuska. We all convened at the Mercantile Store of the Pioneer Woman. We had plenty of time to shop and walk the Main Street of Pawhuska and all its historic venues and shops. We enjoyed a fabulous lunch at the Mercantile Event Center Cafe and afterwards those who desired obtained directions to drive to the Lodge on the Drummond Ranch and tour where The Pioneer Woman cooking show is filmed.
Friday evening was spent with Marnie and Rob Kern conducting the 20th
Celebration Edition of LETTER CAR JEOPARDY! There were three rounds of answers, each with a Single Barrel session and a Double Barrel session and Final Jeopardy answer.
Nine contestants that were club members participated and won cash prizes! Round one had Don Coady finishing third, John Lazenby second, and Brian Frank taking first place! Round two had Ron Klinczar coming in third, Gary Runkle second, and Carl Bilter sweeping the field in first place! Round three entertained us with Mark Artall taking third place, Kurt Brueske second, and Mark Obermann winning first place! Many thanks to Meg and George Hagerty and Kelly LeBlanc who served as scorekeepers.
Saturday we had our car show at the Bartlesville CDJR dealership. Sales manager Mario Llamas rolled out the red carpet for the Club in promoting the meet in the community, moving inventory in the lot for our event to be held, and arranging a food vendor truck to be on the premises to serve delicious smoked BBQ renderings! He also parked two new Hurricane 550HP Dodge Chargers in our show area for perusal. Letter cars were represented by Bill Allen and his C300, Mark Artall and Rob Kern with their Cs, a friend of Jeff Bailey from the Bartlesville area came with an E coupe who showed interest in joining the club, Noel Hastalis with his F, Kirk Smith with his G from Texas, Spanky Cox with his H, Jamie Hyde with his K, and Jeff Bailey with his L. At the end of the show John Begian presented a special Meet plaque to Mario Llamas in appreciation of the dealership hosting our car show. Kelly LeBlanc organized and hosted a pre-banquet gathering for all the 300 Club wives in attendance in the hospitality suite. She served refreshments and beverages and had door prizes of mini cactus flowers potted in 3 stacked miniature car tires along with care instructions and where they were presented! Kudos to Kelly for her initiative in doing this!
The Awards banquet was held Saturday evening at the host hotel which was delightful! The food was scrumptious and the spirits were high! John Begian presided over the awards ceremony which had plaques presented to the top five Letter cars which were, Jeff Bailey’s L, Jamie Hyde’s K, Mark Artall’s C, Bill Allen’s C300, and Kirk Smith’s G. The Meet Host award went to Noel Hastalis’ F. John presented the meet host plaque to Rob Kern and conducted an auction of several model cars donated by Brian Frank and Jeff Bailey, and bolts of cloth with a pattern of Chrysler vehicles, a 300C Restoration guide and ’57 service manual donated by George Terry. Money raised benefited the club.
Many thanks are extended to John Begian for designing the dash plaques and award plaques and arranging for them to be produced, Noel Hastalis for handling all the registration details and creating the attendee name tags, Dawn Hyde for coordinating the car show People’s Choice voting and tallying, and Kelly LeBlanc for hosting a gathering for the 300 Club Ladies!
After breakfast on Sunday we all went our ways until we meet again in Canandaigua, New York for the Spring 2027 Meet hosted by Jamie & Dawn Hyde and Dave & Sandi Domaire!
Rob & Marnie Kern
