Sandburg students learn about namesake’s friend

Good luck
Fourth graders from Sandburg School in Tulsa, hoping for good luck, rub the toe of the Will Rogers statue in the Will Rogers Memorial Museum. Their principal (right), Barbara Henhorne Burke, is the granddaughter of N.G. Henthorne, chairman of the Will Rogers Memorial Commission when the museum was built in 1938.

 

Scavenger hunt
Tulsa Sandburg School fourth graders identify Sarah, the Rogers family pet calf, in a photo in the Will Rogers Memorial Museum Heritage Gallery. That is one of the questions on a scavenger hunt.

 

 

Tulsa’s Sandburg School fourth graders finished a unit of study in history about Will Rogers with a visit to the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore. Students were already aware Carl Sandburg, their school namesake, was a friend of Will Rogers.

When Will was killed in 1935, Sandburg said, “Will Rogers was one of those rare individuals, a public figure you could call with ease, without embarrassment, a beloved man.” That comment plays on a continuous video in the crash scene room at the Memorial.

It was also a chance for Sandburg Principal Barbara Henthorne Burke to share her memories of the Memorial and Will Rogers. Her grandfather, N.G. Henthorne was chairman of the Will Rogers Memorial Commission when the museum was built and opened in 1938. He remained on the Commission until his death in 1962 and served 20 years as chairman.

She visited the museum with her family as a child and brought her son here when he was doing a report on Will Rogers for school.

Sandburg, who died in 1967, was an internationally recognized author, perhaps best known for his poetry.