Will Rogers’ father honored

The Associated Press

Oologah August 18, 2008 05:37 pm

— (AP) — An event held annually to commemorate the memory of two famous Oklahomans instead focused on one of their fathers.
During the annual Will Rogers-Wiley Post Fly-In, held at the Will Rogers Birthplace near Oologah, a stone memorial marker was dedicated on Sunday to Rogers’ father, Clement Vann Rogers.
Rogers family member Doris “Coke” Lane Meyer noted that Rogers County was named not for Will Rogers, the famed Oklahoma humorist, but for Clement Rogers.
Known as “Clem,” the elder Rogers was a Cherokee Indian representative on a commission that helped write the Oklahoma Constitution. Steve Gragert, the director of the Will Rogers Memorial Museums, said the site of the annual Fly-In would not exist if it had not been for Clem Rogers.
“So many people have been confused and think our county was named for Will, but it was his dad,” said the 88-year-old Lane Meyer, who is Will Rogers’ grandniece. “This monument means a lot to have it here to help people realize that this was the home place and for people to realize why we’re Rogers County.”