Veto put Memorial back in hands of Oklahomans
Breaking ground
Sallie Rogers McSpadden, a sister of Will Rogers, turned the first spade of dirt at the groundbreaking for the Will Rogers Memorial on April 21, 1938. Others present were from left), Dr. Jesse C. Bushyhead, a cousin of Rogers and member of the state and national Will Rogers Memorial Commissions; John Duncan Forsyth, architect of the Memorial; H. E. Chandler of Miami, a member of the state commission; John H. Kane of Bartlesville; contractor W. R. Grimshaw of Tulsa; Robert H. Sibley of Pryor, state commission member; and Morton R. Harrison, Claremore hotelier and secretary of the state commission.
Influential friends of Will Rogers conceived the idea of a memorial to the beloved Oklahoman soon after his August 15, 1935 death.
When President Franklin Roosevelt vetoed a $2 million bill for a federally-funded memorial to Will Rogers, Oklahoma Gov. E.W. Marland, despite the raging 1930s depression, gained $185,000 in state funding to build the memorial in Claremore, the place Will called home and on the hill where he said he wanted to retire.
Marland appointed the first Will Rogers Memorial Commission May 8, 1937.
In January 1937, Will’s sister, Sallie McSapadden of Chelsea, said she “doubted” if she would see a Memorial in her lifetime and went so far as to doubt it would be in her children’s lifetime.
But before her brother’s birthday rolled around in the next year, she had turned the earth and her daughter would be the first curator.
Will’s widow, Betty, donated the 20 acres; purchased by Will in 1911, to the state of Oklahoma with the provision a memorial would be built.
She wanted the building to reflect the personality of Will Rogers — an open, comfortable, ranch-style building. The style reflects the personality of the native Oklahoman and his love of the southwest.
Architect John Duncan Forsyth, who had designed Gov. Marland’s Ponca City mansion, was chosen to design the Memorial. W. R. Grimshaw Company of Tulsa, using mules and skilled craftsmen, worked diligently to complete the building in less than a year.
Ground was broke in a steady downpour as about 50 old friends and admirers watched Will’s sister, Sallie Rogers McSpadden, lift the first spade of earth on April 21, 1938.
Built of earth-colored limestone quarried at the Newton Foster place, west of Catoosa; master stonemasons placed each stone with care.
Dominating the entry of the Memorial is a foyer, 46 feet tall with floors of split slate from Maine and Vermont with the heroic bronze of Will Rogers by Jo Davidson. Inscribed on the bronze are the words of Will Rogers, “I never met a man I didn’t like.”
The tomb and sunken garden were built in 1944 and paid for by friends of Will Rogers. At the far end of the garden on a raised dais is a marble sarcophagus. Beneath the simple sarcophagus is a sealed room, which contains crypts for members of the immediate Rogers family. The bodies of Will and Betty, their sons, Freddie and Jim; daughter, Mary; and Jim’s wife, Astrea, are entombed in the family burial site.
On a raised base at the south end of the garden is the equestrian bronze of Will Rogers by Electra Waggoner.
On Nov. 4, 1982, a second wing was dedicated — 44 years after the museum was built. A research library and archives available to scholars and students are a valuable resource of the Museum, which continually strives to perpetuate the spirit and memory of Will Rogers. A Vista Room with windows facing the southeast encompasses a magnificent view of the Verdigris Valley.