Singing Roper

Gene Lloyd, member of the first graduating class of Will Rogers Ropers docents.

 

Gene Lloyd was introduced to Will Rogers as a youngster when he visited the Will Rogers Memorial Museum. “One of the highlights was the diorama room,” he said.

Now, he is one of the Will Rogers Roper docents who share their love of Will and knowledge of the museum with visitors on a daily basis.

Gene has something else to share, his talent on the guitar and love of music. This past Will Rogers Days he played for a sing-along during “Children’s Day at the Museum.”

Music has played an important part of his life since Cub Scout days in Tulsa when he sang in the Cub Scout Chorus. He was in a Boy Scout quartet, then a Barbershop harmony at Wilson Junior High in Tulsa. He is an Eagle Scout with a Bronze Palm for 26 merit badges and was on the Explorer Scout Rifle Team, which visited Oklahoma Military Academy.

The quartet split up when they went to high school. At Will Rogers High School, Gene’s fondness for Will things grew. He was a member of the stage crew and saw “The Will Rogers Story” every year when it was shown to incoming freshmen. “I got to shake hands with Will Rogers Jr. when he appeared at the school,” he said with a grin.

Life took Gene Lloyd from Tulsa to Michigan, where he worked on the first four-door Thunderbird, to Ft. Worth and Houston and Odessa in Texas, and to Missouri. A truck driver, his wife was one of the pioneers in husband-wife team-driving. She later drove her own bobtail, delivering propane.

They moved to Anderson, Mo., where they built their retirement home in the woods atop a hill. After her death in 2002, Lane invited him to Tulsa, where he met the widow of another former classmate, Bill England.

His first outing with Kay was to the Will Rogers Memorial. “We found we shared a love of cowboy art, poetry and songs” and the friendship has prevailed.

He returned to Claremore for the Will Rogers Wild West International convention and competition, until his son, Gene Jr.— they call him Buddy — talked him into selling out in Missouri. He moved to Buddy’s place near Oologah, where they run horses and calves.

He first shared his music in 2008 when he played for the Pocahontas Club celebration at the museum during Will Rogers Days. An appearance at Oologah United Methodist Church and he is now a regular. He also plays at family and senior citizens gatherings.

It was a given when he learned of the Will Rogers Ropers docent training and comfortable in a cowboy hat and boots, he is a regular at greeting visitors to the museum.

Gene is, in fact, at home in cowboy hat and boots. He happens to be an activist against the win-at-all-cost philosophy of organized sports and even refuses to wear a baseball cap. But, he has been known to attend a football game or two. Sons of his daughter, Sobronia Conley of Catoosa, were quarterbacks for the Catoosa football team.