This has been a crazy week or two and I let November 4th pass without mentioning that it was the birthday of Will Rogers. A lot of the younger generation(s) don’t remember, or know much about Will Rogers. In case you fall into that category, Will Rogers was an American humorist that was born in the Cherokee Nation — in what would become Oklahoma.
If you’ve read this blog over the years, you know that I joke about there being two famous people from Maysville, Oklahoma — me and Wiley Post. Wiley Post was famous for a number of reasons as was Will Rogers — two men from Oklahoma who broke free from their ordinary background and became prominent figures of their time. Wiley Post and Will Rogers were long time friends.
As I said, Will Rogers was born in the Cherokee Nation, that later became Oklahoma. Will was part Cherokee and he started life on a large ranch in what was then Indian territory. He was taught, by a former slave, how to use a lasso as a tool to work Texas longhorn cattle. He became a rope-trick cowboy and all-around entertainer and his rope tricks eventually led to a career on Broadway and in the movies. He later became a popular broadcaster and syndicated newspaper columnist. He became famous for some of his quotes, like “I don’t make jokes, I just watch the government and report the facts,” and “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
Wiley Post’s parents settled on a farm near Maysville and Wiley fell in love with flying after seeing an air show, or “flying circus” when he was young. He attended a school in Kansas where he learned to fly and supported himself by working in the oil fields in Oklahoma — he referred to that as his day job. It was an accident in the oil fields that cost him his sight in one eye. He used the financial settlement from the accident to buy his first aircraft.
Despite missing an eye, Wiley Post became an exceptional pilot. In 1931, Post and his navigator, Narold Gatty, flew Post’s airplane (Winnie Mae) around the world in just under nine days — breaking the previous record by nearly two weeks. That feat made Wiley Post famous around the world. Then in 1933, he flew around the world again. This time not only did he do it solo, he also broke his own record.
Other than being famous, Wiley Post and Will Rogers seemed like very different people, but as I mentioned, the two had been friends for a long time. It was that friendship that led to them taking a fateful flight together….
Wiley Post was planning an investigative tour of Alaska and Russia to see about creating a mail/passenger route from the United States to Russia. He was originally going to take his wife, Mae, and aviatrix Faye Gillis Wells — however, at the last minute, Wells dropped out.
As a replacement, Post asked Rogers to join (and help fund) the trip. Rogers agreed and was very excited about the adventure. So excited, in fact, that Post’s wife decided not to join the two on the excursion, opting to go back home to Oklahoma rather than endure the harsh camping and hunting trips the two men had planned.
During the trip, on August 15, 1935, Wiley Post and Will Rogers, took off in a Lockheed hybrid airplane from Point Barrow, Alaska — the engine stalled just after take-off and they crashed 15 miles outside of Point Barrow. Both Post and Rogers died instantly. The deaths of the two great men, who had brought hope and lightheartedness during the dark days of the Great Depression was a shocking loss to the nation.
So here’s to two (three if you count me) famous Okies….
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