Avard has always been a small modest town with few residents. Part of the town’s history is its old High School gymnasium where Vina Rae's is now located. Back in its day many years ago, several basketball games were played in this historical gym. The team was known as the Avard Buffalo's which earned several trophies over the years.

In the 50's the teams coach was Mr. Dee Reynolds. He and his kind young wife Ann where married less than a year and lived just southeast of town. Ann was an attractive college student attending North West Oklahoma State University (NWOSU) in Alva. On the afternoon of March 13, 1956 she was on her way home from the university when a devastating tragedy struck poor Ann down.

In horror local farmers found Ann’s car still in tall flames that day along the dirt road which lead to her home. she lay dead across the front seat with one leg burned off at the knee. Investigators commented that the fire was so intense they where unable to re-create it at a later date. This fiery tragedy charred poor Ann's body and everything around her. Detectives uncovered evidence and determined there had been a struggle outside of the car which led them to believe she had been incapacitated or even murdered away from the vehicle then placed inside to make it look like an accident. The case remains unsolved with authorities and continues to be an important part of local folklore.

Over several years, Nan and coworker Deb had been experiencing sounds, smells and just plain weird sensations in the now all but dormant Avard high school gym. Raps on the walls, footsteps, odors of wood or wire burning, feelings of being watched and shadows darting from the corner of the eye. They attributed most of this to the age of the building. Windy days really made the gym come alive with odd sounds but after being in the building as long as they had they could distinguish and identify what sound came from where. The paranormal part of it never really crossed their minds till things began to escalate to the point that the disturbance could no longer be ignored.

On Memorial week-end of 2002 Nan Wheatley and her Mother were in the cafe by themselves. Nan had just left the room for about 5 min. when her mother called to out to her in a panicked voice. Nan could tell by her mothers tone that something was terribly wrong. When Nan went to check on her she was caught completely off guard. “Her mother had no color in her face. Nan commented; “The only facial features I could see were her eyes. With complete conviction she confessed to have just seen had just seen a real ghost. It all happened so fast that she wasn't sure if the ghost (a woman) was headless or just didn't have a face. The apparition came through the wall in the form of an orb (See one description of an Orb below) and then materialized. The apparition floated towards mom but stopped about 2 ft. away then turned and disappeared into another wall. We left in a hurry as mom was scared beyond words.”

Above: One of the leading theories concerning what orbs are and the one that I lean towards the most is that they are not the spirit at all.   The orb is the energy being transferred from a source (i.e. power lines, heat energy, batteries, people, etc) to the spirit so they can manifest.

Nan didn't have a computer at the time but a friend looked up ghosts on the web. Up popped info about teams in Okla. that travel extensively to investigate this type of paranormal activity. Equipped with an abundance of equipment, the research team of EERIE traveled to Avard. EERIE is an Enid,Ok based research group lead by Tammy Wilson. She and her fellow "ghostbusters" conducted an extensive investigation hoping to provide some scientific findings. During the process, the Wheatley’s learned several things about the paranormal that far surpass the movie goer’s perspective of a haunting. After learning a little more about the paranormal from Tammy and the team from EERIE Nan continue to do some research on her own. Over time and several more sightings Nan became a firm believer that we are not alone and that in some extreme circumstances apparitions and other phenomenon’s can be seen and more importantly caught on audio, video and digital camera.  Nan didn't even know what an orb was until all was explained to her. Now she was scared to enter the building alone which she didn't for almost a year. Everything was making sense now. She guessed they should have known something strange was going on after Deb saw a woman dressed in green sitting at one of the grill tables. When Deb turned around to grab her order pad and then turned back around for the woman's order the lady had vanished. At the time, they had a cow bell fastened to the entry door of the café so they could hear people entering the building. This bell never rang and the woman in green was nowhere to be seen.

Now that there was some evidence of an apparition the big question remained, who was it? Nan had always heard that Ann Reynolds the coach’s young wife was wearing green when she was murdered. She also had a blown up photo of an orb she captured in the main hallway. It shows a man's face, wearing glasses, and above the head the word "boo" is written. About 3 days prior to this capture Nan and her friends lost a very good friend. This was his stomping ground and he would always come in, as quiet as a big man can, and say the word "boo" to us. locals believe this photo to be their old friend. On another occasion Nan was in the hallway taking random pictures and decided to try and get a shot looking in to the grill through the French doors. When she loaded the floppy disc into her computer to see if I had anything worthwhile the photo of the French doors came up. Nan commented; I sat in my chair and could do nothing but gasp. Standing inside the grill looking back at me through the glass panes stood "boo". Only this time his features weren't skeletal as it looks like he's wearing his overalls. I've shown this pic to about all of Stan's friends and they all say there is no denying that this is the one and only Stanley Stoner. I have so many stories and pictures that I could share with you all about all that has happened in that building but would take many many pages. So why not stop in sometime and see the photo's on the wall and I can tell some tales that will raise the hair on the back of your neck!

To the left; you will find Ann behind the lattice.

Ann Reynolds in 1956

Nan also book overnight haunted stay-overs. Sat. nights only with a minimum of 5 people and maximum of 10. For $20.00 per person you can have the run of the place all night long. Naturally you can't have lights on as this would take the fun out of it. You would need a camera with lots of film and fresh batteries (ghosts munch on battery energy), a tape recorder, camcorder with night vision and any other form of equipment that might capture and image or sound. But be advised, Nan is NOT responsible for accidents. Keep in mind that she has had guests be touched and that can start a domino effect.

To Date, Vina Rae's hauntings have been written about in 2  books. The Titles are (1) Encyclopedia of Haunted Places by Jeff Belanger. (2) When the Ghost Screams by Leslie Rule. Click on these books for a better discription and ordering information. To View OklatravelNet and the video of these sitings Click Here