Parade lineup reflects Will’s acting career

Circle G 4-H has been a regular winner of the theme float in the annual Will Rogers Days Parade.

 

Lights, Camera Action … It’s Hollywood! That’s the theme of the annual Will Rogers Days Parade Saturday, Nov. 6. Grand parade marshals will be Glorea and Cleora Robb, twins who played with Will in the 1933 movie “Mr. Skitch.”

About 100 entries have been received for the 4 p.m. parade from the Claremore Expo Center down Will Rogers Boulevard through Claremore, according to Mary Klassen, parade chairman for Claremore Reveille Rotary.

There will be floats, bands, classic and antique cars, marching units and specialty entries.

Will Rogers Ropers, volunteers at Will Rogers Memorial, will have two floats, led by Randall Reeder, associate professor at Ohio State and Will Rogers interpreter, speaker and author. Ropers will ride on two horse-drawn wagons owned by Chelsea area farmer-rancher E.J. Snider. Oologah-Talala fourth graders, who performed at the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch birthday party and for Children’s Day at the Museum, will march along side the floats.

Miss Cherokee Nation Brooke Hudson, Cherokee Chief Chad Smith and Mrs. Smith, Deputy Chief Joe Grayson and Rogers County council representative Cara Cowan-Watts will be on a Cherokee Nation float. Other Cherokee Nation officials and candidates for office in the next election will also be in the parade as well as Washington County Cherokee Association.

Indian Women’s Pocahontas Club plans to have several units.

Dozens of antique and classic cars, especially Fords, will roll down the streets as well as antique tractors.

Circle G 4-H will return to try to retain their history of having the float that best portrays the theme. Other clubs and organizations with floats will include Rogers County Literacy Council, Claremore M.O.M.S. Club, Will Rogers Girl Scouts, Rogers County Blue Starr Mothers, Claremore Restoration Church of God and St. Paul Episcopal Church.

J.M. Davis Gun Museum will have a float along with a number of commercial entries.

Will Rogers Roundup Club, which has bore the name of Will Rogers most of the years since his death, will have a riding unit and the riding clubs’ Pony Express Riders.