Books presented to Tulsa school named for Will Rogers

Preserving the times
Tulsa Will Rogers High School Librarian Carrie Fleharty (from left); Marlyn Baker of Claremore, member of the school’s first graduating class; Lyda Wilbur, assistant principal in charge of the Freshman Academy; and Steve Gragert, Will Rogers Museums director, talk about preserving the wit and wisdom of Will Rogers as part of the schools tradition. Wilbur is interested in an immersion program to acquaint new students with the heritage of the man, for whom the school is named.

 

 

Will Rogers High School was one of the first Will Rogers namesakes after his death in 1935. This year the school is marking the 70th anniversary of the opening with monthly open houses.

After Will Rogers Memorial staff, Friends of Will Rogers members and Ropers (docents) attended an open house, Memorial librarian Carol Low put together a collection of Will‘s published writings and other Will Rogers’ books to add to the school’s library collection.

 

Will Rogers at the library
Marilyn Reeson Baker (center), member of the first graduating class of Tulsa Will Rogers High School, accompanied Will Rogers Memorial Museums Director Steve Gragert to the high school for a presentation of Will Rogers’ books to add to the library’s collection. Librarian Carrie Fleharty said the school named for him treasures Will Rogers books in the famous Oklahomans’ section. WRHS opened in 1939, shortly after the opening of the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore. The art deco design and iron light fixtures are the same as when Mrs. Baker entered the school for the first time.

 

When Steve Gragert, executive director of Will Rogers Memorial Museums, made the presentation to librarian Carrie Fleharty and school officials, a Claremore woman who was in the first graduating class of Will Rogers High, joined him.

Marilynn Reeson (Mrs. Paul) Baker, who delighted in flipping through the Roper annual to find her graduation photo, was making her first visit to her alma mater since graduation. After the book presentation, Mrs. Baker and her daughter, Reville Clausing, were escorted on a tour of the school, which remains in the pristine art deco style and condition of its opening.

It was appropriate for Mrs. Baker, who raised her family in Claremore, to share in the presentation. In addition to her connection to Will Rogers High School, she was a member of Claremore Book Club, when the club founded Friends of the Library for another Will namesake, Will Rogers Library in Claremore.

 

Treasures
Tulsa Will Rogers High School Librarian Carrie Fleharty shows Steve Gragert the protective cover over one of the earlier Will Rogers books in the school library collection. The Library has P.J. O’Brien’s “Ambassador of Good Will, Prince of Wit and Wisdom, the first book about Will written after his Aug. 15, 1935 death.’

 

In addition to some of the older books by and about Will Rogers, Gragert presented Fleharty with one of the most recent and best documented, Ben Yagoda’s “Biography of Will Rogers.” It is one of the books that was required reading for docents in training for the first docent class.

Lyda Wilbur, an assistant principal at the high school and director for the Freshman Academy at Will Rogers High, said she wants to plan an immersion visit to the Claremore Memorial and Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch to acquaint students with their namesake.

Dr. Raymond Knight, longtime principal of the high school was a member of the Will Rogers Memorial Commission and was chairman at the time of his death in 1978.

Rogers are regulars in the November Will Rogers Days Parade.