Betty Rogers’ nephew
recognizes Russell model

By PAT REEDER CLAREMORE (Okla.) -— Sandy Blake’s eyes widened when he walked into the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore (Okla.) for the first time. There, in a place of prominence — near the entry to the world-class museum — is a Charles Russell model he had played with as a child.       What a surprise for Sandy, an Alturas (Calif.) resident, to see what had been a plaything from his California childhood on display for the world to see.       Just inside the entrance to the museum — dedicated to his famous great-uncle three years after his death Aug. 15, 1935 in an Alaskan plane crash — is a plaster model of a Charles Russell sculpture.       “We played with that when I was a kid,” he gasped. “We used to pack and unpack the pack horse …” Then, rather apologetically, “Nobody said not to.”       His cousin Bette Brandin, granddaughter of Will Rogers and daughter of the late Jim Rogers of Bakersfield, recalled having contests about who could “pack and unpack the fastest.”       When Will Rogers saw “Changing Outfits,” he wanted it but none was available. He commissioned Charles Bell to do a plaster copy. It was in the Will Rogers home and after his wife’s death was in the Jim Rogers home. In the 1990s, the Rogers’ grandchildren gave it to the museum.       A bronze recast is in the museum for patrons to touch and examine.       Blake and his children, Lori Blake-Leighton of Ferndale, W ash., and son Trevor of Alturas, were among W ill Rogers descendants who gathered for a family reunion marking the 125th anniversary of Will’s birth on an Oologah, Indian Territory ranch. Family members participated in celebration events at the ranch and and the Claremore museum.       Born in 1943, James Kay “Sandy” Blake III, was just a toddler when his aunt Betty Blake Rogers died in 1944.       Nicknamed “Sandy,” the same as Betty’s brother, his grandfather, a former railroad conductor, was Will’s tour manager during his lecture tours and managed his Beverly Hills office.       Sandy learned of his grandfather’s history with the railroad from a trial transcript about a shooting incident.       The transcript, he said, tells the tale of “a fight breaking out in a black waiting room. He went in to break it up and someone shot out the lights. Someone stuck a gun in my grandfather’s hand. He shot — hitting a guy in the shoulder. The guy sued, but didn’t win. He (his grandfather) had that gun, a 44-40 with three notches, for years. No one would claim it. No one knew what the notches stood for.”       Sandy remembers going to the Rogers’ Santa Monica ranch. “Dad used to take me to the ranch.” His father worked with Will Rogers’s son, Jim, at Bear Mountain Ranch. It was Sandy’s father who was with Jim Rogers when he learned of Will’s death.       The children of Jim Rogers and James Kay Blake II grew up together, riding and roping and learning the cattle business. After his father went to manage ranches in Fallon. Nevada, Kem worked for him.       Sandy loved the time with the Rogers’ cousins. “Astrea (Jim Rogers wife) taught me to swim,” he said with a smile. She tricked him into swimming. “I would dive, then grab a raft and paddle to the edge. She put a rope on the raft and kept pulling it a away until I swam to the edge.”       His father, who died in 1985 in Florida, ranched with Jim until moving to Nevada when Sandy was about 11. Will had taught his father to rope when he and Jim were growing up.       “They would go to Wills and rope goats all week, then rope calves on the weekend … In 1936, my father was All-Around Champion in California. He was a graduate of Cal-Poly in the 1930s and started the Cal-Poly Rodeo Club. He was also a pretty good trick roper.”       Sandy grew up knowing Montie Montana, Big Boy Williams and Pidge Beery (Noah Beery Jr.) who would come help at roundup time.       “We were watching a movie Pidge was in at Jim’s house. I was crying because Pidge was killed at the end — it was so real, and he was sitting right there beside me,       “Pidge always liked to ride a mule. That was his animal of choice — except for movies.”       Sandy went a movie production at Beery’s ranch. “He (Pidge) was supposed to hop out of a plane and save horses from running off a cliff. The lead horse, a stallion, was acting up. My dad let them use Buttercup my mare. ‘No one will ever know,’ the director said.”       Noah Beery Sr. played with Will Rogers in “David Harum” in 1934.       Sandy remembers “playing hooky and going to watch the filming of ‘Misfits’ so we could get near Marilyn Monroe in her polka dot dress.”       He learned to rope. “I am left handed and had to buy used rope (right hand ropes would twist) until I found out they made left-handed ropes.”       He grew up on ranches with his father. They were working in Nevada for millionaire ranch-owner John McArthur, who had ranches in several states, and preparing to move to one of his Florida ranches when his mother died.       “Dad left and left me in charge (in Nevada).”       Sandy’s career as a cowboy included working ranches and a cattle auction until he started carpentry work. “I found there was more money in carpentry than cowboying. For the past few years he has been working for the city of Alturas public works department.       His children had never met their Rogers’ kin until the reunion in Claremore, which drew about 125 Will Rogers descendants.