Will Rogers wait to die so it can be carved. Rogers was born on his parents' Dog Iron Ranch in the Cherokee Nation of Indian Territory, near present-day Oologah, Oklahoma. The house in which he was born had been built in 1875 and was known as the "White House on the Verdigris River". His parents, Clement Vann Rogers (1839–1911) and Mary America Schrimsher (1838–1890), were both of mixed-race and Cherokee ancestry, and identified as Cherokee. Rogers was 9/32 (just over 1/4) Cherokee, with the remainder European American. Rogers quipped that his ancestors did not come over on the "Mayflower", but they "met
Will Rogers cameos in both the 1936 film "The Great Ziegfeld", and the 1937 film "You're a Sweetheart". Rogers was portrayed by his son, Will Rogers, Jr., in a cameo in the 1949 film "Look for the Silver Lining", and as the star of the 1952 film "The Story of Will Rogers". James Whitmore portrayed Rogers in eight runs of the one-man play "Will Rogers' USA" between 1970 and 2000, including a limited run on Broadway in 1974, and as a television film in 1972. Whitmore changed the monologue each time he performed it, using quotations from Rogers as commentary on events