The first John Steinbeck Awards Evening was scheduled for May , 1995 in Oklahoma City . The bombing of the Murrah building on April 19 put an end to those plans . The Federation suffered significant financial loss as a result , and it was not until October 1998 that a John Steinbeck Awards Evening took place ; this time in Kingman , Arizona . From that year on , the evenings were produced annually in one Route 66 community after another until the last one in San Bernardino , California in September 2005 . By that time , Route 66 communities were vying to have the evenings and they would build three-day , communitywide Route 66 celebrations around them . Shortly after that last event , Mary Lou Knudson suffered a debilitating stroke and died three years later . She had been the one who managed the myriad of details involved in producing the large events
bombing of the Murrah building
Oklahoma City bombing
National Historic Route 66 Federation