John S. Gammill's love of fine art surely dawned in red dirt where scarcely any could ever be found.

He grew up in southwestern Oklahoma, between Devol and Randlett, in the 1920s and Dirty '30s of the Dust Bowl.

He would become an insurance salesman, but his folks, Carson Boone and Cora, once a schoolteacher, farmed cotton and raised cattle.

Back then, there probably wasn't a painting in the one-room Cedric School he attended, or much else in the way of objets d'art in the Big Pasture, as that stretch along the Red River is known.

That might explain the late Gammill's lifelong fascination with finer things. Once he could afford it, if he saw it and liked it, he bought it.

He wore the near-obsession on his sleeve -- and he displayed it on the walls and shelves of his home and the headquarters of his business empire, Reserve National Insurance Co., which he founded in 1956.

That explains the intricately carved Chinese ivory; the Russian nested babushka dolls; the pewter, porcelain and bronze pieces; and especially, considering the where and when of his upbringing, the Western paintings that, until recently, 15 years after his death, were everywhere in the rambling Reserve National office complex at 6100 NW Grand Blvd.

Gammill was of a different era of business. His art collection and his company's were all but one and the same. That time is finally passing at Reserve National.

Unitrin Inc., the company's Chicago-based owner since 1998, long dubious but tolerant of the art on its walls in Oklahoma City, was always squeamish about having it on the books.

So, with Reserve National moving into a new building, the time for disposing of it has come, said Orin Crossley, Reserve National president.

When Gammill died in 1994, he left his company in possession of about 1,200 paintings and 450 bronze sculptures and other pieces.

Crossley declined to estimate the value of the art collection.

The work represents a few stars such as Salvador Dali, Frederic Remington and Charles Russell, dozens of well-knowns such as Mort Kunstler, Fred Harman, George Phippen and Gerald Farm, and oodles of regional or obscure artists including Lee Dubin, Jose Fuentes de Salamanca and others.

The work ranges from fine-museum quality to pop art.

"Mr. Gammill grew up -- the term 'dirt poor' very much applied to him," said Jean White, secretary, human resources specialist -- and art handler -- for Gammill starting in the late 1970s.

After graduating high school in 1940, Gammill went to work for Cessna Aircraft Co. in Wichita, Kan., but soon enlisted in the Navy.

He served during World War II.

Upon his discharge in 1946, he moved here and sold insurance.

"He loved learning. He was brilliant. He could do anything," White said, pointing to his vision of the need for Medicare supplemental health insurance as the main source of his success and wealth -- and art.

"As he had more money, he bought better pieces. He wanted to show it off," she recalled. "We've got some we've never put out because we just didn't have room."

Some of the collection has been sold to individuals, a few pieces have been donated, but most are being sold through art auctions, Crossley said.

The era is passing, he said, not every painting and sculpture will go. The new Reserve National headquarters, on Britton Road east of Broadway Extension, will have a 12-by-12-foot curio display and some paintings will adorn the new walls.