Rachel Jackson on Will Rogers – the Man and the Highway
A Special Edition of the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club
Produced by Kathleen Holt and Lynn Boitano
with Engineering and Technical Assistance by Ken Davis
Welcome to this special edition of the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club’s celebration of Route 66 – 100 Years on the Mother Road. This iconic road has been called everything from the Mother Road to America’s Main Street to the Will Rogers Highway. Initially named after the humorist in 1936 by the U.S. Highway Commission, it was not until 1952 that the Highway was completely paved and officially dedicated to Will Rogers with the inscription as above.
It is fitting then that we gather today to learn more about Rogers himself as well as the highway dedicated in his name. The following remarks were recorded during a live celebration at Chapterhouse Books on Historic Route 66 in Amarillo on May 2 this year. You’ll note the sounds of traffic along the highway as well as visitors gathering to mark the historic occasion.
We are so pleased to have Rachel Jackson who is not only a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma but is also a distant cousin of Will Rogers. Rachel is an Assistant Professor of Native American Literatures and Rhetorics in the Department of English at the University of Oklahoma.
Her combined research and teaching interests bridge Native American Literatures & Cultural Studies, and Rhetoric and Writing Studies programs. Rachel’s community-engaged projects focus on sustaining Native American languages and cultural literacies and forwarding Indigenous rhetorical and storytelling practices.
Toward that end, she works with tribal leaders and community members across Oklahoma and beyond to develop and implement classes, workshops, and projects, including public digital storytelling workshops, the Kiowa Clemente Course in the Humanities, and kiowatalk.org – a community-engaged online archive of the Kiowa language and culture.
We’d like to thank Rachel Jackson for sharing her insights into her famous cousin Will Rogers’ life, but also for sharing the research of others into this man who, according to many tributes, travelled into the hearts of all.
Before we close, we have more. We’ll listen to Woody Guthrie’s tribute to the Will Rogers Highway and will hear a selection featuring Keith Caradine from the Broadway musical The Will Rogers Follies. In addition, we’ll hear a bit more from Rachel through two of her Radio Readers BookBytes and we will hear from Will Rogers himself from a 1935 recording where he explains “everyone in politics has a plan.”
You’ve been listening to an HPPR Radio Readers Book Club special presentation on Will Rogers celebrating 100 Years on Route 66also known as the Will Rogers Highway.
Produced by Kathleen Holt and Lynn Boitano with engineering and technical assistance from Ken Davis, this feature was made possible in part by generous contributions from Morgan-Williamson Law and the J F Maddox Foundation both of Amarillo.
Credit: Will Rogers audio clip.
https://archive.org/details/RTFM-Harp-940303/
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