Posted with permission from The Tulsa World.
By RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer
Will Rogers famously said he never met a man he didn't like, which may explain why men -- and women -- are still partial to ol' Will after all these years.
The great humorist never really lived in the state of Oklahoma -- he was born in the Cherokee Nation and by 1907 was a regular on the vaudeville circuit -- but he remains, far and away, Oklahomans' favorite son.
Almost 60 percent of the 752 people surveyed April 27-30 for the Oklahoma Poll named Rogers as their "favorite Oklahoman of all time." Athlete Jim Thorpe was a very distant second at 9 percent.
Steven Gragert, director of the Will Rogers Museums in Claremore and near Oologah, said Rogers is so well-remembered in part because his name is on so many things, from the state's largest commercial airport in Oklahoma City to the horse racing track near Claremore.
But the affection for Rogers is rooted in something much deeper.
"It's not just popularity, but people's connection to the man," Gragert said. "Oklahomans feel a connection to Will Rogers. They feel he is one of theirs, that he spoke for them."
Whether wearing the cowboy duds of his early career or the rumpled suits of later years, Rogers' wide grin and mischievous twinkle projected an irresistible amiability. At the time of his death in 1935, Rogers was the nation's No. 1 newspaper columnist, radio personality and box office attraction.
And, as the 110,000 visitors a year to the Will Rogers Memorial discover, much of what Rogers said and wrote still rings true.
"Some of the favorite places in the museum are places where we've posted his sayings," Gragert said. "The other day we had a group from India who got a great laugh about the one, 'The thing about my jokes is that they don't hurt anybody . . . With Congress, every time they make a joke it's a law. And every time they make a law it's a joke.' "
Rogers' remark that he was "not a member of any organized party; I am a Democrat" got chuckles from both parties and apparently still does. He was just as popular among Republicans as Democrats and conservatives as liberals in the recent poll.
His popularity, in fact, was fairly universal. Respondents in the Tulsa and non-metro areas were slightly more likely to name him as their favorite Oklahoman than those in metro Oklahoma City, though, and younger respondents were less likely to identify Rogers as their favorite Oklahoman.
That raises the question of whether memory of Rogers is fading.
Doug Watson, an Oklahoma Baptist University professor who makes Will Rogers presentations to schoolchildren in affiliation with the museum, has noticed a change in his audiences.
"Ten years ago, I would get people who said they had seen Will on stage or remembered the plane crash when he was killed," Watson said. "Now I don't get that first response, and only occasionally hear from someone who says they remember the crash.
"The generation that knew Will and thought of him as one of them passed to the next generation. In some cases, it even went on to the next generation. It's hard to see that now."
The fact that Rogers lost most of the younger votes to Thorpe, his contemporary, may suggest younger Oklahomans are still aware of their heritage.
Responses to six other centennial-related questions in the survey suggests Oklahomans have a pretty good idea what this year is the 100th anniversary of and what the state's name means. But, they otherwise have trouble separating their fruits from their vegetables and their Boomers from their Sooners.
Forty-three percent confused the Boomers with the Sooners, who literally jumped the gun that started the 1889 Land Run in order to stake claims ahead of the pack.
Eighty-four percent knew this is Oklahoma's statehood centennial, not the centennial of the first land run or the discovery of oil in the state.
More than three-fourths knew "Oklahoma" means "Land of the Red People" in Choctaw.
But when asked "Who were the Boomers?", only 34 percent correctly identified the group that campaigned -- or "boomed" -- for the opening of the Unassigned Lands in what is now central Oklahoma.
Only a third could identify the state motto -- "Labor Conquers All Things" -- while 35 percent went with "Liberty and Prosperity." Thirteen percent said "Beat Texas," although poll consultant Al Soltow suggested that response was just another way of saying "Don't know."
"If you add that to those who said they didn't know, you get about a one-third split for each answer, which is what you would have from just choosing randomly," said Soltow, vice president for research at the University of Tulsa.
And then there was the case of the state fruit.
Thirty-eight percent correctly identified the strawberry as the state fruit, but 39 percent named the watermelon. This, apparently, resulted from confusion about the watermelon recently being named the state vegetable, although it is a fruit.