Will Rogers

Born in Indian Territory, Wil Rogers’ youthful ambition was to be a cowboy. As a young man he traveled widely leaving the US in 1901 and going to Argentina, South Africa, and Australia as both a cowboy and circus entertainer before returning to the US. His big break came in New York, where he robed a steer from the audience at Madison Square Gardens. From there he went from strength to strength as a vaudevillian, columnist, and movie actor, becoming the voice of the common man. By the 1930’s he had become fascinated with aviation and was working with Wiley Post on an airmail route from the West Coast to Russia, when they died in a plane crash in Alaska.