Will Rogers was not just a cowboy. . .
by Doug Watson
The Will Rogers Memorial Museums
Will Rogers was not a simple man who could be summed up by a single “label.” To say that Will
was “just a cowboy,” or a movie star, or a newspaper columnist or a radio humorist who “joked about
all the prominent men” of his time is to miss parts of the truth about him. He was called a “cowboy
philosopher” and a “poet lariat,” but neither is quite right. He was not merely an “Indian cowboy” or a
“roping fool” either, though these labels have been attached. Like a true cowboy, Will respected the
land and its creatures, longed for freedom and adventure, and tried to help the less fortunate. But Will
Rogers was not just a cowboy. Will was all of these, and he was more.
Will was part Cherokee Indian, born in Indian Territory in 1879, years before it became the
state of Oklahoma—and he was proud of it. “My father was “one-quarter Cherokee Indian,” he said,
and “my mother was about three-eighths blood Cherokee.” Some people considered Indians to be
inferior, but Will spoke proudly of his Indian heritage and often mentioned his ties to other prominent
Indian men and women.
His father, Clem Rogers, was in Indian Territory before the Civil War; he was what Will called a
“cowman,” and he had settled on Cherokee tribal grasslands in an area known as the Cooweescoowee.
A descendent of the Cherokee “Old Settlers,” Clem was no simple Westerner either. Before his death
in 1910, he had driven cattle from Texas to Missouri, fought in the Civil War, run a successful ranch
operation, organized and operated a bank, served in the Cherokee legislature and as a tribal judge, and
played an active role in the politics of the emerging state of Oklahoma. As most Oklahomans know,
Rogers County was named for Clem, not for Will.
Will’s mother, Mary America Schrimsher Rogers, descended from Cherokees who traveled the
Trail of Tears, a fact that would have separated her socially from the Old Settlers. She had a better
formal education than Clem, loved music and dance, and was religiously devout. She gave birth to
eight children and witnessed the early death of four of them. Her own death in 1890 was a blow to
ten-year-old Will. “Some say I got my sense of humor from my mother,” he said, “but what I
remember is her love and understanding.”
Born on the ranch, near Oolagah, Will’s early education was irregular. He was “in and out” of
several schools in Indian Territory and watched over by his three older sisters. Finally, Clem sent him
to a military school in Missouri, hoping he might learn some self-discipline, but Will “quit education”
and set out for Texas and a ranch job. Maybe he sought the freedom of the cowboy. What he found
was work on a ranch in the Panhandle and a chance to go along on a cattle drive headed for a rail
connection in Kansas. This was the sort of education he had hoped for.
Will’s several months as a Texas cowboy in 1898 came as the days of the range cattle industry
drew to a close. He found joy in these last days of the “mythic West.” Even near the end of his life, he
recalled his cowboy experiences happily, and he longed to buy and retire to a ranch of his own. After
the sojourn in Texas, Will returned to the Oolagah ranch in Indian Territory and worked for his father,
but he was restless.
After a year of managing Clem’s cattle operation, young Will sought more adventure, and the
restlessness that had led him to Texas soon took him around the world. Will’s international adventure
began when he persuaded a friend to go with him seeking another frontier, this one in South America.
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© Dr. Doug Watson
Will and Dick Parris set off for Argentina, by way of New York and London. Dick grew homesick, and
Will had to admit that South America was not his “promised land,” but his quest led Will to South
Africa and Australia. By the time he returned to the U.S., he had spun ropes in wild West shows as the
“Cherokee Kid,” and he had begun a new life in show business.
Will’s star rose steadily as he performed in wild West shows, vaudeville, and the sophisticated
Ziegfeld Follies in New York City. Spinning ropes and telling gags based on “what I read in the papers,”
he entertained audiences wherever he went. But his “star roping performance,” he said, “was the day
I roped Betty.”
Will had met Betty Blake in Oolagah before he left for Argentina in 1902, but she resisted
wedding bells until 1908. Perhaps she thought to rein him in and settle in Oklahoma, but Betty
followed Will to New York, became his advisor and manager as well as his wife and best friend. They
lived near New York City for more than ten years. Their children were born there; Betty kept the home
and managed their finances while Will performed on stage.
Will first auditioned for a film in 1918. In the next year he signed a movie contract with Samuel
Goldwyn, and the family moved to California. His success in New York had surpassed even his own
hopes, but the chance to go up with the new medium was too strong to deny.
The next few years were filled with a maze of contracts and opportunities, engagements and
journeys. Movies, radio, newspapers, and stage shows—they all wanted a part of Will Rogers. He
could not have been blamed for being ambitious, but he seemed to take his successes in normal stride.
“I’m just an old country boy in the city,” he had told his father earlier, “but I’m eatin’ pretty regular,
and I think it’s because I’ve stayed an old country boy.”
Will found success in this new world of film entertainment, but there were disappointments,
too. Goldwyn didn’t renew the movie contract when it expired, and Will decided to produce his own
films. This was a mistake that left him deeper in debt than he had ever been and required him to
return to New York and work for Ziegfeld for parts of the next several years. The death of their
youngest child, Fred, in 1920 was a stunning blow for Will and Betty. Will had always counted himself
the “luckiest man in the world,” but these losses proved him vulnerable. He worked hard to overcome
the financial losses, and he soon repaired that damage. About the personal grief, he remained silent.
The family did find happiness in California. Will’s success made many good things possible. He
bought a “ranch” in the hills west of Hollywood and built a home there. It was a place to ride the
horses he loved and play with his three children, a refuge from the world of the movie studio and from
his travels around the country and the world. Will had become famous, but he found his greatest
happiness at home, doing simple things with his family and friends.
Perhaps there was always a difference between Will Rogers the man and the performer his
family often called “WR.” But Will’s fans saw little difference between the man and his image, and the
number of fans grew at an astounding rate after the early 1920s. His weekly and daily newspaper
columns were widely published and enthusiastically read across the country. In his twenty-one movies
for Twentieth-Century Fox (“audibles” he called them), Will mostly played himself in the guise of a
character, but the public loved the characters and put Will atop the movie charts. On his weekly radio
show, he mixed personal and political commentary with gags; the programs were not unplanned, but
Will’s remarks were often impromptu and the show was punctuated by an on-air alarm clock, yet
another gag that delighted his fans.
He traveled widely and befriended men of fame and power—presidents, senators,
congressmen, business tycoons, and entertainment personalities—but perhaps the honest-toPage 2 of 3
© Dr. Doug Watson
goodness truth and genius of Will Rogers was his ability to understand and voice the concerns of the
common man, in good times and bad. His written and spoken comments about politics, personalities
and places became the common man’s window on the world. His own life was extraordinary, but
ordinary Americans loved him and considered him one of them.
The foolishness of politicians and celebrities made easy targets for his often-quoted gags, but
the public loved most of all his own folksy movie portrayals and his reminders of the needs of the
unfortunate—the unemployed, the victims of floods and earthquakes and hurricanes, the farmers
displaced by drought and dust and low prices. He crossed the country speaking to them and for them,
raising and contributing money to help them, and they flocked to see and cheer him.
The end of Will’s life came too soon for tens of millions of fans, as well as for those who knew
him most dearly. His death in an airplane crash in 1935 was mourned by the nation. His words and
image had become a part of the American scene, and they have remained so. His simple advice, “get
yourself a few laughs, do the best you can, and live honest,” became a motto for many. His wellknown quips like “All I know is what I read in the papers” and “I never met a man I didn’t like” continue
to live on.
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© Dr. Doug Watson