Will determined to buy “hill”
W.E. Sunday
Will Rogers friend and real estate agent W.E. Sunday arranged purchase of the land now home of Will Rogers Memorial. Sunday's daughter, Willa Beth (Mrs. J.C) lives in Claremore.
“Darn your lazy soul, don’t you let that get away from me!”
That was the message from Will Rogers to W.E. Sunday, a friend and real estate agent who arranged the sale of the 20-acre plot given the state of Oklahoma for the Will Rogers Memorial.
Mrs. James J. Boling (her husband was a Claremore physician and director of the Claremore First National Bank) purchased the land in early May 1909 from Ella Talbert. An article in the May 8, 1909 Claremore Progress reported that Mrs. Boling has purchased the property on Talbert Hill, just west of the city and east of Third Street. A street about to be opened would make it a “nice distance” from the main business part of town.
Dr. and Mrs.Boling intended to build a home on the property. High with a rolling east slope, the property gave a nice view of the city, Looking down main street and surrounding country there was just enough trees, a spring of water and draw through one corner to give it a rustic appearance, water to supply a fish pond. Add to this stone right on the ground for building — and joining the electric light and gas and water mains.
Sunday, in a clipping from Will Rogers’ scrapbook, recalled Mrs. Boling initially asked $8,500 for the plot that was valued at $1,000. Sunday thought he could get it for less, but Rogers wanted it desperately when he admonished Sunday to not let it get away.
Sunday telephoned Mrs. Boling and pretended Rogers did not really want the land and was about to leave by train for New York.
Worried she was about to lose the sale, Mrs. Boling countered with $7,500.
Sunday still thought it was too much and told Will to offer $6,500. “For God’s sake, offer it,” Rogers said. Mrs. Boling agreed and the sale was made. A warranty deed transferring the land to Rogers was dated October 23, 1911.
When he visited the property with his friend, Sunday asked him why he wanted it so much.
He replied, “Oh, some of these days, I’ll come back here and build a home where I can sit and look down on all you Claremore folks.”
Betty Blake Rogers deeded one of the most desirable unimproved pieces of property near Claremore to the state of Oklahoma, specifically for building the Memorial to contain the library and museum dedicated to preserving the legacy of Will Rogers.
Sunday participated in the Museum opening. Claremore girls in a Follies number included the Sunday’s daughter, Willa Beth (Mrs. J.C.) Cooper of Claremore and the late Maxine Davis, Zella Mae Thurman, Dorothy Kight, Sally Dean, Mercedes Bentz and Jean DuPriest (Tanner).
Sunday was one of the few people on hand when Will’s body was brought back in 1944. At Betty’s request, it was very private and after the museum closed at 6 p.m.
Ewing Halsell, a schoolmate and friend, Lew Wentz and Jimmy and Astrea Rogers, accompanied the body. Mrs. Rogers was ill at the time.
A few months later, in 1945, she died and was buried with her husband and young son, Freddie, in the Memorial crypt. Their daughter, Mary, and Jimmy and Astrea have since been entombed here.
Halsell, Wentz, John Mabee and Frank and Waite Phillips donated crypt construction.
(Note: Some Information taken from Volume 3 of “Papers of Will Rogers.” Talbert Hill, still called that by a lot of old-timers, is now Blue Starr Drive; Third Street, or the main street, is Will Rogers Boulevard. Boling Street is the name of the street on the east side of the Memorial, which runs north to the water tower and south to Will Rogers Boulevard. Until the 1970s, a member of the Boling family lived on Boling, which then ran south of Will Rogers to the Rogers County Fairgrounds. Their house was on property just south of the Brady Street-Highway 20 curve.)