Will Rogers Memorial state agency. Will Rogers was born near Oologah, Oklahoma, where his father had settled. He had originally purchased the land in 1911, a plot containing that overlooks the Tiawah Valley, as the site of his retirement home. The price was reportedly $500 per acre. After his death, it was passed on to members of the Rogers family. Will's widow, Betty Rogers, donated the property in 1937, during the Great Depression, to the state of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma legislature appropriated $200,000 for the construction of a museum honoring Rogers. The original limestone building was designed by John Duncan Forsyth. Groundbreaking occurred
Will Rogers isolationism for the US. According to scholar Peter Rollins (1976), Rogers appeared to be an anchor of stability; his conventional home life and traditional moral code reminded people of a recent past. His newspaper column, which ran from 1922 to 1935, expressed his traditional morality and his belief that political problems were not as serious as they sounded. In his films, Rogers began by playing a simple cowboy; his characters evolved to explore the meaning of innocence in ordinary life. In his last movies, Rogers explores a society fracturing into competing classes from economic pressures. Throughout his career, Rogers was