Published: May 15, 2008 12:06 pm         

Teen mayor ready to serve

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — College freshman John Tyler Hammons is assessing his summer plans – attend a retreat, take over as Muskogee’s mayor and then there’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Hammons, 19, drew national attention Tuesday when he was elected Muskogee’s youngest mayor, pulling in nearly 70 percent of the vote over former mayor Hershel McBride. He will be sworn in next Tuesday.

But Hammons was already in the mayor’s office on the second floor of the Municipal Building on Wednesday. He got there about 9 a.m., met with officials — and fielded dozens of calls from the media, he said. They included calls from CBS News, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, USA Today and CNN.

He was a topic of discussion on The View, a national talk show on the ABC network, CBS News and National Public Radio. A headline that Muskogee had elected a 19-year-old mayor was scrolled across the bottom of the screen on ABC’s Good Morning America, along with news from the China earthquake.

One of the calls he received was from a California company wanting to do at least one episode of a reality television show based on his being mayor, Hammons said.

No date has been set for an appearance on the Leno show, but the show’s writers are supposed to call him and get ideas for jokes for the segment, he said.

“We’re still on Cloud Nine,” Hammons said Wednesday afternoon.

But he was also starting to settle into the reality of being at the helm of a city of 40,000 people, with an annual budget of nearly $28 million.

Instead of having a leisurely Saturday morning like other college freshmen on summer break, Hammons will be attending a City Council retreat beginning at 8 a.m.

Immediately after his swearing in, Hammons said he plans to once again thank voters for the confidence they showed in him.

“Then I will get down to business,” he said.



Liz McMahan writes for Muskogee (Okla.) Phoenix.