Gaylord's daughter,
Edith Kinney Gaylord, enjoyed a storied career as a journalist before devoting her life to charitable giving. In 1982, she founded both
Inasmuch Foundation and
Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation (EEJF) to carry out her giving. In 2014, the corporate entities merged and EEJF became a wholly owned subsidiary of
Inasmuch Foundation. His son,
Edward Gaylord, inherited controlling interest but not complete ownership of
The Daily Oklahoman and other family assets worth $50 million in 1974. Educated in business at
Stanford University, Edward L. increased the family fortune by a factor of forty, to $2 billion at his death in 2003. The younger Gaylord purchased the
Grand Ole Opry in
Nashville, Tennessee. He also created the
cable television channels
The Nashville Network (TNN) and
Country Music Television (CMT).
The Daily Oklahoman newspaper, renamed
The Oklahoman in 2003, remained owned by the Gaylord family until the sale to Anschutz. Although a respected newspaper during E.K. Gaylord's tenure, it became unabashedly
partisan after Edward L. became its publisher; in Oklahoma some critics would satirize the paper as "The Daily Disappointment," and the
Columbia Journalism Review dubbed it "The Worst Newspaper in America" in 1999. From Edward L.'s death until the 2011 sale, the newspaper was led by his daughter
Christy Gaylord Everest. She led a major visual modernizing of the newspaper and was assisted in its operation by her sister, Louise Gaylord Bennett. The Gaylord family have frequently provided selected philanthropic contributions, including major support to the
National Cowboy Hall of Fame in
Oklahoma City, and have given the
University of Oklahoma contributions totaling over $50 million, resulting in a large proportion of the buildings on campus, including
Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, being named after family members. They provided seed money for the university's
Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, which then constructed a new facility thanks in a large part to Gaylord donations. ==References==