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William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers (November 4 1879 – August 15 1935) was a Cherokee-American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer and actor.
Known as Oklahoma's favorite son, Rogers was born to a prominent Indian Territory family and learned to ride horses and use a lariat so well that he was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for throwing three ropes at once—one around the neck of a horse, another around the horse's rider, and a third around all four legs of the horse. He ultimately traveled around the world three times, made 71 movies (50 silent films and 21 "talkies"), wrote more than 4,000 nationally-syndicated newspaper columns, and became a world-famous figure.
By the mid-1930s, Rogers was adored by the American people, and was the top-paid movie star in Hollywood at the time. On an around-the-world trip with aviator Wiley Post, Rogers died when their small airplane crashed near Barrow, Alaska Territory in 1935.
Will Rogers (December 12, 1898 - August 3, 1983) was a United States Representative from Oklahoma.
Born on a farm near Bessie, Oklahoma Territory, Rogers attended the public schools and Southwestern Teachers College in Weatherford, Oklahoma. He then attended Central Teachers College in Edmond, Oklahoma, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1926 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929. He continued his education at the University of Oklahoma in Norman and received a Master of Science degree in 1930.
Rogers began his career as an educator by teaching in the public schools of Bessie, Oklahoma from 1917 to 1919. He then became the principal of the public schools in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and held that position until 1923. He was the superintendent of schools in several Oklahoma school districts from 1923 to 1932.
Rogers was elected as a Democrat to the 73rd and four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1933-January 3, 1943). He served as chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs in the 74th through 77th Congresses. While serving as a Representative at-large, he was an unsuccessful candidate for nomination in 1941 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Sam C. Massingale in the seventh district for the 77th Congress. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1942.
Rogers was admitted to the Oklahoma bar in 1942. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination of Secretary of State of Oklahoma in 1943. He was employed by the Department of the Interior from 1943 to 1945. He served as assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. in 1946 and 1947. He worked as a hearing examiner at the Department of Agriculture from May 1947 until his retirement in 1968.
Following his retirement, Rogers engaged in building and real estate management. He was a resident of McLean, Virginia, until his death on August 3, 1983 in Falls Church, Virginia. He was cremated and his ashes were interred at National Memorial Park in Falls Church.
World-famous, widely popular American humorist of the vaudeville stage and of silent and sound films, Will Rogers graduated from military school, but his first real job was in the livestock business in Argentina, of all places. He transported pack animals across the South Atlantic from Buenos Aires to South Africa for use in the Boer War (1899-1902). He stayed in Johannesburg for a short while, appearing there in Wild West shows where he drew upon his expertise with horse and lasso. Returning to America, he brought his talents to vaudeville and by 1917 was a Ziegfeld Follies star. Over the years he gradually blended into his act his unique style of topical, iconoclastic humor, in which he speared the efforts of the powerful to trample the rights of the common man, while twirling his lariat and perhaps chewing on a blade of straw. Although appearing in many silents, he reached his motion-picture zenith with the arrival of sound. Now mass audiences could hear his rural twang as he delivered his homespun philosophy on behalf of Everyman. The appeal and weight of his words carried such weight with the average citizen that he was even nominated for governor of Oklahoma (which he declined).




