LEGISLATOR wants Jim Thorpe's body returned to Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A Tulsa lawmaker says he wants state officials to help return athlete Jim Thorpe's remains to Oklahoma. <br><br>Rep. Fred Perry said he plans to send letters to Gov. Frank Keating

Saturday, September 1st 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A Tulsa lawmaker says he wants state officials to help return athlete Jim Thorpe's remains to Oklahoma.

Rep. Fred Perry said he plans to send letters to Gov. Frank Keating and Bob Blackburn, director of the state Historical Society, requesting their help.

Perry said he is asking other legislators to sign his letter.

``When we have a number of state representatives and senators as signatories, I will send the letter and afterward follow up with them personally,'' Perry said.

Thorpe, a member of the Sac & Fox Nation, was born near Prague in 1887. He died in 1953 and is buried in Jim Thorpe, Pa., a town where he never lived.

His widow agreed to have him buried there after two communities merged and adopted his name. Now his family wants his remains returned to Oklahoma.

In the 1912 Olympics, Thorpe became the only person to win the decathlon and pentathlon.