John T. Woodruff of Springfield was elected as the first president of the U.S. Highway 66 Association. It was organized in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1927. Its purpose was to get U.S. 66 paved from end to end and to promote tourism on the highway. In 1938, Route 66 became the first completely paved United States Numbered Highways in America. Called the “Mother Road”, it stretched from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Coast.