Rentiesville’s mayor Mildred Burkhalter, hours after hearing about the horrific news about the slaying of Selby Minner, said, “Everyone here is just in total shock and disbelief of what happened to Selby in our community.”

Because Minner was part of the Rentiesville’s small community, Burkhalter said she knew of Minner’s brother who is alleged to suffer from mental health disorders and she knew that Minner had taken care of him in the past but had to get him out of her home due to issues that she wouldn’t share. However, Burkhalter never thought something like this would happen in their small town with a population of 132.

“Selby served as town trustee on our town board for a couple terms and was always promoting Rentiesville even back when no one knew where that was,” Burkhalter said. “Selby was very beneficial to the council. With her Blues Hall of Fame housed in her building and her little museum she benefitted the history of this town. She and her late husband D.C. Minner had even collected old obituaries from the area and later donated them to the Oklahoma Historical Society so they could archive them and keep official records of the people who lived here.

“D.C. and Selby started the Blues Festival in 1991, the same year I was first elected as mayor of Rentiesville. Though in the beginning you would have to explain where Rentiesville was, 22 miles south of Muskogee or 18 miles from Oktaha, but after the festival became popular, people from all over the United States knew that Rentiesville was the place of the Blues.

“Through all these years Selby worked hard to keep their dream alive and she also promoted our history of being one of thirteen black towns by helping when tours came through. She would let them visit the Down Home Blues Museum and then she would play them some blues too. She was just a selfless person who loved people and her community, and she will be missed terribly by everyone who knew her.”

Selby was also an artist in other ways too. She was a member of the Checotah Art Guild and was one of the artists whose paintings are displayed on a mural inside Checotah Walmart.