Together again. The Life of Will Rogers.

Gallery opening
Joined by Peter Hiller, Jo Mora Trust Collection curator, a ribbon was cut Saturday opening the new diorama gallery. Cutting the ribbon to “A View Through the Life of Will Rogers” was Hoytanna Benigar, Will Rogers Roper (docent); Memorial staff members John Little, Jacob Krumwiede, Chris Bruffett. Rick Mobley, and Museum Curator Jennifer Holt; Hiller; and Judy Eagleton, Roper.

 

Celebrating
Lynette Bennett, Tulsa, and Gene Lloyd, Oologah, graduates of Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, and Friends of Will Rogers shared school days memories at the opening of the Jo Mora collection in a new location at the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore. Bennett played Betty Rogers in a one-woman stage show. Lloyd is a Will Rogers Roper (docent).

 

 

“A View Through” the Life of Will Rogers

Jo Mora’s artistic talents varied from painting to sculptures and cartes (maps).

He might be better known in some sectors for the colorful maps peddled to tourist sites by his son, also Jo. In Claremore his dioramas have been one of the most popular of the exhibits in the Will Rogers Memorial Museum since the 1940s.

Thirteen miniatures portraying the life of Will Rogers from his birth and boyhood on the Indian Territory Ranch to the airplane crash that claimed his life have been relocated to a new gallery, which opened to the public Saturday, June 27.

An insight to the talents of Mora and his life was gleaned from Peter Hiller, special guest at the opening. Hiller, from Carmel, Calif., is the curator of the Jo Mora Trust Collection.

Like Will Rogers, Mora was a man of many talents. He was a cartoonist, illustrator, cowboy, painter, muralist, sculptor and author His bas relief was on the front of a Works Progress Administration built high school in King City, Calif.

His most famous works are the Cervantes Monument in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, and the Fr. Serra sarcophagus at the Carmel Mission.

Hiller is devoted to enlightening and educating the public about Jo Mora.

Staff of Will Rogers Memorial Museums, led by Curator Jennifer Holt, prepared the new Claremore galley. For several years, the dioramas have been located throughout the Memorial and at the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch.

Funding assistance came from Cherokee Nation, Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation, Toluca Lake, Calif., and the State of Oklahoma.

 

Roper
Gene Loyd, Will Rogers Museums Roper, was on hand to hear Peter Hill, Jo Mora Trust Collection curator, talk about the artist and share in re-opening the Memorial’s Mora diorama gallery.

 

Gallery team
Members of the Will Rogers Memorial staff responsible for relocating the Jo Mora dioramas in the “A View Through the Life of Will Rogers’ were joined by Peter Hiller, Jo Mora Trust Collection curator and Will Rogers Museums Ropers (docents), for a grand re-opening ribbon cutting. Cutting the ribbon was Roper Hoytanna Benigar, Memorial staff John Little, Jacob Krumwiede, Chris Bruffett, Rick Mobley and Museum Curator Jennifer Holt; Hiller; and Judy Eagleton, Roper.

 

Mora followers
Followers of Jo Mora, especially his cartes (maps) and in particular his map of Yellowstone, came to the Will Rogers Memorial for the grand re-opening of the Mora diorama gallery and special appearance of Peter Hiller, Jo Mora Trust Collection curator.

 

Family visit
Carleen Milam Burger from Oklahoma City was among guests for the grand re-opening of the Will Rogers Memorial Jo Mora diorama collection. Her father, Tom Milam, was Will Rogers’ great-nephew.