The Will Rogers Memorial Museum, Claremore, Oklahoma, USA

The Rogers Family tomb.

I had not heard about Will Rogers back in 2005 when I was invited to visit relatives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But before leaving for the United States, I checked out various sights in the Tulsa area and was therefore not surprised when my relatives took me to the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore in Oologah county.

I enjoyed the museum and later I also read a biography about Rogers, «Never met a man I didn’t like. The Life and Writings of Will Rogers» by Joseph H. Carter (New York: Avon Books, 1991). The book was even signed by the author!

How should one describe Will Rogers in a few words? «Cherokee cowboy, actor, comedian, columnist, radio personality, speaker and humorist» - Joseph H.Carter’s introduction chapter sums it up well. You can read more about the life of Will Rogers at the website of the Memorial Museum.

However, as I am interested in genealogy, I’d like to share a few details about his ancestry. Rogers «was a Cherokee by heritage, but Irish and Scottish by higher percentages of pedigree». «My ancestors didn’t come over on the Mayflower, but they met the boat», he once said. William Penn Adair Rogers was born on 4 November 1879 on a ranch in Indian territory near what was later to become Oolagah*) as the eight child of Clement Vann Rogers (1839-1911) and Mary America Schrimsher (1838-1890). Clem’s father Robert Rogers belonged to the Blind Savannah Clan of the Cherokee Nation, while Clem’s mother Sallie Vann was of the Wolf Clan of the Cherokee. Under Cherokee law, Clem adopted his mother’s Wolf clan.

Will’s maternal grandfather was Dutch, which explains Mary’s maiden name, while the maternal grandmother was equally Welsh and Cherokee, belonging to the Paint Clan. Will was thus «nine thirty-seconds Cherokee Indian and became number 11,384 on the Cherokee Nation rolls». His wife Betty Blake (1879-1944) of Silver Springs, Arkansas, was the seventh child of James Blake and Amelia Crowder, said to be of English ancestry. Or just «Southern», as Carter’s book adds. Will and Betty had four children, of whom Will Rogers, Jr. (1911-1993) was a Democratic US Representative from California from 3 January 1943 to 23 May 1944. He later became a successful actor.

Will Rogers died in a plane crash in Alaska on 15 August 1935. His body was in 1944 moved from California to the tomb at the Memorial Museum, which was opened in 1938. Interred in the family tomb are besides Will and Betty also their son James Blake «Jim» Rogers (1915-2000), Jim’s wife Astrea Kemmler Rogers (1917-1987), Will and Betty’s youngest son Fred Stone Rogers (1918-1920) as well as their only daughter Mary Amelia Rogers Brook (1913-1989). Will Rogers, Jr. is buried at Tubac Cemetery in Tubac, Santa Cruz county, Arizona.

Will Rogers made several trips abroad, and during his third around the world trip he visited Norway in September 1934. In a telegram dated 7 September he writes: «You’ve heard of Norway’s beautiful fjords, high-walled canyons of water that run back for miles into the land. I took a small seaplane and flew over them for hours. Landed on their lakes and chased herds of reindeer through the snow in the plane. Minnesota can well be proud of its Fatherland. It’s wonderful and substantial. Skol.»

On his «great flight down from Norway» Will wrote 2 days later that «These Danes took nothing but a pig and common sense enough to stay out of war for fifty years. Today they, along with Sweden, Norway and Finland, are an example to the world of how to live neighborly and tend to your own business. There’s lots to be learned from these Scandinavians.»

The year before, he commented on Ruth Bryan Owen’s (1885-1954) appointment as US Ambassador to Denmark: «Ruth Bryan Owen is going as Ambassadoress to Denmark, or Sweden or Norway, or one of those. (Americans will never become civilized enough to tell a Swede from a Dane, or a Norwegian from a Swede. I know the difference means a lot to them, but it just means another tall blonde to us.) Well anyhow, Roosevelt is trading Ruth to that party for Greta Garbo and it’s the only bad trade he has made since he got in. Ruth’s got it on her any way you jump. Those three countries we have always thought a lot of (even if we don’t know ‘em apart). They built up our great Northwest , and when we sent the talented daughter of our Great Commoner we are giving ‘em the best we got.»

* According to the Wikipedia article about Will Rogers, based on writings by the Oololagh Lake Leader, he usually «claimed Claremore as his birthplace, «because nobody but an Indian can pronounce 'Oologah».»

Sources and references

• Will Rogers’ Daily Telegrams. Volume 4. The Roosevelt Years 1933-1935, Stillwater, OK: Oklahoma State University Press, 1979 (Revised online edition by Will Rogers Memorial Museums, 2008), pp. 11-12 and 193.
• Wikipedia
• Joseph H. Carter. Never Met a Man I did’t like. The Life and Writings of Will Rogers, New York: Avon Books, 1991
• The Will Rogers Memorial Museums Official Website

Updated on Friday 23 April 2010 at 08.45.

Gala dinner for Princess Ira of Fürstenberg

Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine of Serbia hosted on Saturday 17 April 2010 at the White Palace in Belgrade a gala dinner party for HSH Princess Ira of Fürstenberg on the occasion of her 70th birthday, cf. the press release of 18 April 2010.

Among the guests were:

HSH Prince Sebastian of Fürstenberg (brother)
HSH Princess Elisabetta of Fürstenberg (latter’s wife)
HSH Princess Virginia of Fürstenberg, Mrs. Polenghi (their daughter)
HSH Prince Hubertus of Fürstenberg (*)
HH Prince Amyn Aga Khan
HSH Prince Pierre of Arenberg
HSH Beatrice of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
HSH Princess Gunilla of Bismarck
Prince Carlo Giovanelli
Princess Laure de Baeauvau Craon
Princess Marina Pignatelli
Baroness Januaria Piromallo
Count and Countess Schönburg
Count Carl Anton Goess Saurau
Countess Marcella del Majno
Count Marco Camerana
Count Rudy Brescia
Countess Beatrice von Hardenberg de Borbon
Baroness Estelle Mentzingen
Baroness Helen de Ludinghausen
Lord and Lady Powell
Senator Mario D’Urso (Italy)
Clemens Koja, Ambassador of Austria with wife
Armando Varricchio, Ambassador of Italy with wife
Mary Bruce Warlick, Ambassador of the United States
Nils Krister Bringeus, Ambassador of Sweden
Mercedes Felicitas Ruiz Zapata, Ambassador of Mexico
Igor Jovovic, Ambassador of Montenegro with wife

(*) I wonder if it was actually Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Princess Virginia (Ira) of Fürstenberg is the oldest child of Prince Tassilo of Fürstenberg (1903-1989), by his first wife Claire Agnelli (b. 1920). Princess Ira was born in Rome on 18 April 1940. She married first Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1924-2003) in 1955 (divorced 1960) and secondly in 1961 (divorced 1964) Francisco Pignatari (1916-1977).

As happened to Queen Margrethe II of Denmark's celebrations, several guests invited to Princess Ira's party had to cancel due to the closed airspace.

Updated on Sunday 18 April 2010 at 18.50.

King Harald cancels attendance in President Kaczynski's funeral

Most of Europe's airspace has been closed for security reasons due to the volcanic ash spread from Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland. This has made it difficult for many state leaders to attend the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski in Krakow on Sunday 18 April 2010.

King Harald V of Norway, Norway's foreign secretary Jonas Gahr Støre, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, President Barack Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy are among the many state leaders who have cancelled their trip to Poland.

The state funeral of Lech Kaczynski will begin with a mass at the St. Mary's Basilica. Later the bodies will be interred in the crypt of Wawel Cathedral, a decision that has sparked many protests. Many feel that the controversial President Kaczynski should not be regarded as equal to Jozef Pilsudski (1867-1935), architect of Polish independence and Chief of State 1918-1922, or to the many Polish kings who are laid to rest in the crypt.

Maybe one should not focus too much on the president himself, but on the institution of the presidency. I find it appropriate that all heads of state who have expressed a wish to be buried in the crypt at Wawel should have their wish respected. It was the family of President Kaczynski who had requested that he should be buried in the crypt, so in accepting the request maybe a precedence has now been set.

The family of President Ryszard Kaczorowski (1919-2010), who also died in the plane crash at Smolensk, Russia, was also offered the honor, but declined. His funeral will take place on Monday 19 April 2010 in Warsaw.

Sources and references

• BBC News 18 April 2010
• VG Nett 18 April 2010
• The Guardian 14 April 201
• Official Website of the President of Poland
  

Nacogdoches, Texas, USA

Antonio Gil y Barbo (1729-1809), founder of Spanish Nacogdoches, Texas.

The City Hall in Nacogdoches, Texas, built at the site of the first home in Texas owned by General Sam Houston (1793-1863), among others the 1st and 3rd President of the Republic of Texas.

First United Methodist Church.

The Sterne-Hoya Museum and Library.

For more information about the city of Nacogdoches, see the official website. See also my photo article about the Oak Grove Cemetery.

Oak Grove Cemetery, Nacogdoches, Texas, USA

Most inscriptions are easy enough to read. But the sign reads: Oak Grove Cemetery. Oldest Dated Grave: 1837. Buried here are: Thomas J. Rusk, Charles Stanfield Taylor, John S. Roberts, William S. Clark, Kelsey Harris Douglass, Captain Hayden Arnold, Haden Edwards, Edward Jefferson Star [sic!], Adolphus Sterne, John Forbes, Frost Thorne, Dr. Robert A. Irion, Thomas Young Bufford, David Rusk, Elias E. Hamilton.

Grave of Thomas Jefferson Rusk (1808-1857).

The Oak Grove Cemetery can be found east of downtown Nacogdoches in Nacogdoches County, Texas. The map will tell you where the oldest town in Texas is situated.

It was never my intention to visit Nacogdoches in the first place. I had stayed the night outside Shreveport, Louisiana and decided to take a smaller road to College Station and the George Bush Presidential Library & Museum. Somehow the highway I was driving on (either 43 or 315, I don't remember, this was in 2005) just "disappeared" (I hadn't got a GPS at the time) and I ended up on highway 59 down to Nacogdoches instead. But it was really a nice "detour"!

See also the entry for Oak Grove Cemetery at the Cemeteries of Texas website.

Dõme des Invalides, Paris, France

Tomb of Prince Joseph Bonaparte (1868-1844), King of Neaples and Sicily (1806-1808), King of Spain and the Indies (1808-1813), Count of Survilliers from 1815.

Tomb of Marshal Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929).

Tomb of Emperor Napoléon I (1769-1821), Emperor of the French 1804-1814 and 1815.

Grave of Emperor Napoléon's son Napoléon II (1811-1832), from 1818 Duke of Reichstadt.

The church at the Invalides is large and dark and I had problems with taking good pictures with my pocket camera. Later I have discovered that my mobile phone camera usually works better than my pocket camera in such large and dark rooms. I will have to get back to the Invalides another time. If anyone wonders why a picture of the tomb of Prince Jérôme Napoléon (1784-1860), King of Westphalia (1807-1813), is missing, the reason is mentioned above! The chapel with his tomb was partly closed so it was too difficult for me to take a good photo from a distance.
Anyway, the Invalides can be reached among others by metro to La Tour-Maubourg (line 8) or Varenne (line 13). The official website can be found at http://www.lesinvalides.org/.

I visited Paris, France for the second time in October 2009. The photo presentation of the Dõme des Invalides is the last of the many cemeteries and mausoleums I visited during the visit.

Other photo articles of cemeteries in Paris:

• Cimetière de Thiais
• Cimetière de Passy
• Cimetière de Montparnasse
• Cimetière de Père-Lachaise (Part I)
• Cimetière de Père-Lachaise (Part II)

I will probably follow up with presentations of cemeteries in the United States in the near future, before heading back to Europe again. I have of course visited numerous cemeteries in my home country Norway as well, but I will come back to them at a later stage.

Guest list for dinner and dance at Fredensborg Palace

The Danish Royal Court has published the guest list for the dinner and dance at Fredensborg Palace 16th April 2010 on the occation of HM Queen Margrethe's 70th birthday:

Royal guests with spouses/partners and some other relatives and dignitaries (excerpts only)

The Danish Royal Family (with in-laws)

HM Queen Margrethe II
HRH Prince Henrik
HRH Crown Prince Frederik
HRH Crown Princess Mary
HRH Prince Joachim
HRH Princess Marie

HRH Princess Benedikte
HSH Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
HSH Prince Gustav of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
Carina Axelsson
HSH Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
Alexander Johannsmann

HM Queen Anne Marie of the Hellenes
HM King Constantine of the Hellenes
HRH Princess Alexia
Sweden
HM King Carl XVI Gustaf
HM Queen Silvia
HRH Crown Princess Victoria
Daniel Westling
HRH Prince Carl Philip

The Netherlands
HM Queen Beatrix
HRH Prince Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange
HRH Princess Máxima

Norway
HM King Harald
HM Queen Sonja
HRH Crown Prince Haakon
HRH Crown Princess Mette-Marit

Luxembourg
HRH Grand Duke Henri
HRH Grand Duchess Maria Teresa

Iceland
Dorrit Moussaieff (wife of the President)

Members of Prince Henrik’s family
Jean-Baptiste de Laborde de Monpezat (brother)
Gill de Laborde de Monpezat
Etienne de Laborde de Monpezat (brother)
Isabelle de Laborde de Monpezat Guillaume Bardin (nephew)
Laurence Bardin
Francoise Bardin (sister)
Claude Bardin Maurille Beauvillain (sister)
Jacques Beauvillain
Benoit Beauvillain
Laurie Beauvillain

--

Count Carl Johan Bernadotte af Wisborg
Countess Gunnila Bernadotte af Wisborg
Count Michael Bernadotte af Wisborg
Count Bertil Bernadotte af Wisborg
Countess Jill Bernadotte af Wisborg

Dimitri Romanoff
Dorrit Romanoff

HE Count Ingolf of Rosenborg
Countess Sussie of Rosenborg
HE Count Christian of Rosenborg
Countess Anne Dorte of Rosenborg
Count Karin of Rosenborg
Mikael Warberg Desirée af Rosenborg
Hr. Peter Rindom

HSH Prince Wilhelm of Schaumburg-Lippe
HSH Princess Ilona of Schaumburg-Lippe

Other dignitaries
Prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen
Sólrun Jákupsdóttir Rasmussen
Chairman of the Folketing, Thor Pedersen
Ingelise Pedersen
HE President of the Supreme Court, Torben Melchior
Barbara Louise Melchior
Foreign secretary Lene Espersen
Danny Espersen

In addition there were members of the royal court present. According to various media, HM King Juan Carlos and HM Queen Sofia of Spain, HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh as well as King Albert and Queen Paola of the Belgians had to cancel due to transport problems (closed air traffic). The king and queen of Norway came to Fredensborg by car, while Crown Prince Haakon, for a while stuck in London on his way home from Qatar, also used a car in order to get to Denmark in time.

The full guest list can be viewed here.