Several years ago, Sapulpa Times published a story about Dick Ruhl, the Sapulpa native who left for California to become an animator at Disney during its “golden years” at the Disney Studios.
Ruhl eventually returned to the Sapulpa area, where he first became a milkman, and later had his own show drawing cartoons and advertising Meadow Gold Dairy products. Eventually, Ruhl was hired by General Mills, and he moved to Texas, where he remained until he retired and eventually passed away in 1991.
In September of 2025, Texas resident Cheri Frazier shared her own story of the Sapulpa native.
In the 1980s, Frazier wanted to do some custom Christmas displays in her yard in Coppell, Texas. She owned a store in Dallas, with an art store down the street. When she inquired about a cartoonist, they gave her the number for Dick Ruhl, and she paid him to draw 14 different reindeer that she could cut out and place in her yard for display.
“They were beautiful! Each one is playing with a different toy,” she said. “A couple I asked for, but he came up with the rest!”
The wooden cutouts show the reindeer playing with what could be the toys from Santa’s pack, including roller skates, a bow and arrow, a pogo stick, and more.
Frazier said she won a “most humorous” award in her neighborhood for the display. Ruhl didn’t sign the pieces, but he did tell Frazier that he and his wife drove by to see them and “they loved them,” she said.
Over the years, the display pieces eventually deteriorated, but Frazier, who now lives in New Boston, Texas, decided to recreate them for the holiday season.
“I am now 70 years old,” she said. “I felt it was my last chance to share them.”
Frazier said she had kept the original sketches and enlarged patterns, and that she and her fiancé spent three months cutting them out, painting them, and getting them ready for display. “I love them!” she said.
See the photos Frazier sent below.
