Will Rogers Museum

[Martin Hash]

On Route 66 in Oklahoma, my wife, Gwynne, and I stopped at the Will Rogers Museum just because we couldn’t pass it without feeling like we’d miss something. Will Rogers died in 1935 so my only knowledge of him was through his quotes:

“I never met a man I didn’t like.”
“Never miss a good chance to shut up.”
“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”
“The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.”
“Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to someone else.”
“Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.”

I vaguely knew he was one of the most famous men in world at the time but I didn’t know why; the museum opened my eyes. Will Rogers is on the same rarefied plane as Teddy Roosevelt, and epitomized the American ideals I was raised with: independence, adventure, accomplishment, optimism & progress. He was a Cherokee citizen, and a true cowboy, starting his entertainment career as a trick roper, leading to Vaudeville, 71 movies, 4000 newspaper columns, and flying around the world 3 times in an age when air travel was primitive and dangerous. In fact, he died in a plane crash in Alaska. Many public buildings are named after him, there’s a famous statue in Washington D.C., and we saw a marble slab of his image at the border of Oklahoma and Texas.

Will Rogers Statue.JPG

Will Rogers Rides the World.JPG

[Smitty-48]

His father Clement Vann Rogers was also a great man, he was kind of like a real deal Josey Wales.

They named the district after him; Rogers County.

Clem Rogers fought under Stand Watie in the Civil War, Watie is another great Cherokee warrior.