Alabama town hosts Will Rogers’ event

Will everywhere
Everyone you looked in Guntersville during the Will Rogers Heritage Festival, there was Will.

 

Family visit
Kem Rogers, grandson of Will Rogers, meets the youngster who played his father, Jim, in the Guntersville theatre production of the “Will Rogers Follies.”

 

Guntersville, Ala., honored Will Rogers as they celebrated the second annual four-day Guntersville Will Rogers Heritage Festival.

History records that John Gunter was probably the first white man to settle in Guntersville. A Scotsman, he came from the Carolinas in1785 as a trader. He settled on the banks of the Tennessee River and married the daughter of a Cherokee chief, who was the grandfather of Will Rogers’ mother, Mary America Schrimsher.

The large Gunter family produced some of the most instrumental leaders in Cherokee affairs, medicine and cultural life of America.

The Guntersville Will Rogers Heritage Festival is a cooperative effort funded by the City of Guntersville with help from private investors and an NEA Grant secured by the Mountain Valley Arts Council. A non-profit event, all city sponsored events were free of charge.

Headlining this year’s festival was Larry Gatlin and The Gatlin Brothers for a Saturday night performance. Larry Gatlin starred in “The Will Rogers Follies” on Broadway and on the road.

 

Will Rogers Parade
Steve Gragert, Will Rogers Museums director, and Kem Rogers, Will Rogers’ grandson, were parade marshals of the Will Rogers Heritage Festival in Guntersville, Ala.

 

Kem Rogers, grandson of Will Rogers, and great-great-great grandson of John Gunter, returned for the celebration of fun, family vents. He was joined by Steve Gragert, Will Rogers Museums executive director. They rode in a Saturday morning parade.

The museum has helped Festival planners to assure an authentic representation of events and lifestyles of the Will Rogers era, 1879-1935.

The 2007 first-year festival was chosen by the Alabama Tourism Guide as a “Top Ten Event for the month of June” and also honored for having a “litter-free event”.

 

Gatlin Brothers
The Gatlin Brothers headlined the guest performers at the Guntersville, Ala., Will Rogers Heritage Festival. Larry (middle) played Will Rogers in the award-winning “Will Rogers Follies” on Broadway and on the road.

 

Activities were highlighted by:

Guntersville Airport events to include experimental aircraft, aerobatics and airplane rides;

Guntersville Museum: Will Rogers exhibit with articles from Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore;

Whole Backstage Community Theater: Seven performances of “Will Rogers Follies;” and

UCAN Cherokee Indians: Intertribal pow-wow with hands-on activities for children, authentic Indian food, dances, drumming and vendors

There was a farmers market with cooking demonstrations, wine tasting, flower arranging; children’s activities, equestrian events and historical walking tours.

 

Western arts
Johnny Lonestar, who stars in Branson production as a trick roper and rider and whip cracker, was a guest performer at the Will Rogers Heritage Festival along with Gene McFall, a Will Rogers interpreter, formerly of Claremore.

 

Entertainment during the Festival included a return engagement of “The Witty World of Will Rogers,” featuring Gene McFall, Will Rogers interpreter; Johnny Lonestar, roper and entertainer from Branson, Mo., (he will do a cameo performance during the Whole Backstage “Follies” performance); Alabama fast draw championship; chuckwagon, exposing today’s youth to life on the trail drive; small stage entertainment of bluegrass, rock, country and gospel music.

Guntersville, about 30 minutes from Huntsville, is situated on a peninsula surrounded by 69,000 acres of Lake Guntersville, at the southernmost point of the Tennessee River, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.