LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Will Rogers: Wiley Post
built 646 days ago
Will Rogers was married once, to Betty Blake, from 1908 until his death in 1935. The couple had four children, three boys and a girl. Two of their sons, Will Rogers Jr. and Jimmy Rogers... became actors. Rogers published an autobiography in 1927 oddly titled "There's Not A Bathing Suit In Russia." Tragically, Will Rogers died in an airplane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska, on August 15th, 1935. The plane had been piloted by the world-renowned aviator Wiley Post, who was also a victim.
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(William Penn Adair Rogers), 1879–1935, American humorist, b. Oolagah, Indian Territory (now in Oklahoma). In his youth he worked as a cowboy in Oklahoma, and after traveling over the world, he returned to the United States and worked in vaudeville as a cowboy rope-twirler, joking casually with the audience. He was an immediate success when he joined the Ziegfeld Follies in 1915. Rogers gained a wide audience through motion pictures, books, the radio, and a syndicated newspaper column. His salty comments on the political and social scene made the “cowboy philosopher†widely known. A constant booster of airplane travel, Rogers made several long airplane trips; he was killed with Wiley Post when their plane crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska.
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As the two flew north, Will pecked out stories about Alaska on his typewriter. After flying over the old gold rush areas and Mount McKinley, they landed at a homesteading farm project. Later Rogers reported: "There's a lot of difference between pioneering for gold and pioneering for spinach." Soon Will and Wiley headed north toward Barrow on the Arctic Ocean shore. Their flight route across the Brooks Mountains took them over an unspoiled wilderness of mountain peaks, ice, and fog. In the afternoon Wiley set the plane down on a lagoon.
Rogers established his own ranch and began to travel, especially by airplane. Though not a pilot, he was an enthusiastic spokesman for the emerging aviation industry. He and his friend, the famous aviator Wiley Post, died in a plane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska, on August 15, 1935. In breadth of sympathy, in humor, and in devotion to his country, Will Rogers has been compared to Abraham Lincoln.
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The stockmarket crash of 1929 ignited further Will Rogers’ humanitarian instincts. He watched his old time friends from Oklahoma lose their homes and livelihood and determined that he would somehow help them. He traveled tirelessly, organizing benefits and raising money to help those affected by the depression. He talked personally to Henry Ford and John Rockerfeller and convinced them both to contribute matching funds. He and Wiley Post traveled 151 days and nights, making speeches and raising money. He was the hero of the common man, who adored and loved him.
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Rogers was an aviation buff. He and his friend Wiley Post departed on a round-the-world flight in the summer of 1935. The plane was an experimental craft assembled from various other airplane parts. It crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska, on August 15, 1935, killing both men.
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