The lariat : Friends of Will newsletter, 01/2013, v.5 no.2

              J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 3 V O L U M E 5 , I S S U E 2
IN THIS ISSUE:
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
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Editor: Pat Reeder, Public Relations
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The Lariat F R I E N D S O F W I L L N E W S L E T T E R
“Some people spend a lifetime juggling
with words, with not an idea in a carload.”
— Daily Telegrams, March 14, 1933
• Career takes new turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
• Curator’s Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
• Remembering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
• Director’s Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
• Annual Will Rogers Days touches many. . . 4
• Commissioner honored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
• Resolutions honoring Jim and Coke . . . . . 6
• Andy Hogan plays Nashville. . . . . . . . . . . 6
• Art and Essay Contest launched . . . . . . . . 8
All the World’s a Stage and Will Rogers will be
center stage in 2013, the 75th anniversary year of the
opening of the Will Rogers Memorial Museum.
The Museum and the Will Rogers Days celebra-tion,
Nov. 1-4, have been named one of American Bus
Association’s Top 100 Events for the year. The Mu-seum
opened Nov. 4, 1938, three years after Will
Rogers’ death in an Alaska plane crash. Will Rogers
Days has been an annual event since the opening.
Annually, travel tour coaches and big yellow
school buses bring thousands of visitors to the Will
Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore and the
Birthplace Ranch near Oologah.
Julie Luna, Museum events coordinator and store
director, attended the national ABA convention in
Charlotte, N.C., in early January to promote Claremore as a year-round destination, with special emphasis
on the anniversary of the opening and special events planned.
She said more than 125 tour buses and 98 school buses visited in 2012 with 81 different events uti-lizing
museum facilities. Different bus lines, including Destination America, Cosmos, and Trafalgar, were
responsible for almost 5,000 visitors.
Luna had pre-appointments in Charlotte with many touring companies, some with as many as 300
buses crisscrossing the United States.
“Icing on the cake,” she said. “In an opening ceremony, Will Rogers was quoted.”
Will Rogers: All the World’s a Stage is the theme for this year’s Will Rogers Days, Nov. 1-4, to include
Children’s Day, Night at the Museum, a car show, birthday party at the Birthplace Ranch, and parade
through downtown Claremore. Indian Women’s Pocahontas Club will host a tribute to Will
they have held each year since the Museum opened.
Luna and Steve Gragert, Museum executive director, said Will Rogers Days interactive
events will include “Will Rogers on Stage” in the person of Will Rogers interpreters,
world champion trick ropers, Cherokee storytellers, and music. Oologah-Talala
fourth graders will present an original musical, produced and directed by teacher
Kim Grazier.
Will Rogers Days:
an ABA Top 100 Event
Julie Luna and NASCAR Cup Driver Michael Waltrip at
ABA convention