I lived in Claremore, Oklahoma until I was almost seven years old. We lived in a little starter home about two blocks from HoBo Discount Foods, the grocery store that my father managed. We were also right across the street from the school where I attended elementary and half of first grade (the old Westside Elementary, for anyone reading this that is a…Claremorite? Claremorean? Citizen of Claremore.)
The very first field trip I ever took was a trip to the Will Rogers Memorial Museum. We walked half a mile up the hill and learned all about Oklahoma’s Favorite Son. I can’t say that it had a huge impact on my young mind (maybe it did, actually) but I’ve really always known who Will was. I’ve always looked for a Will Rogers connection whenever I’ve traveled.
Fast forward…quite a few years. In 2014, I had just started to explore Route 66. I hadn’t seen much of it outside of Oklahoma yet, in fact. But a woman in Tulsa saw something that I didn’t. She saw a connection and a passion that was unfolding through my photography. Janet Tinkler Youngblood was the mother of one of my good friends. I knew her in passing, but we started to bump into each other at local events.
Janet and I got to talking about Will Rogers and her work with the museum in Claremore. She lobbied to get some of my photography included in a 2015 video vignette highlighting Route 66 as the Will Rogers Highway. (Michael Wallis is in that video; I remember being stoked to have something in a project he was also involved in. I had no idea I would get to meet him in person about a month after that video was published.) She welcomed me into a different crowd and introduced me to a ton of people, including Will Rogers’ great-granddaughter Jennifer. Aside from my own mother and my girlfriend (now wife) Samantha, she was my biggest advocate.
Janet passed away in 2018 at only 62 years of age. It was devastating. I still think about her, especially lately. I can’t work on anything Will Rogers related without thinking about those early days and what else we might’ve gotten up to if she was still here. A project we’ve just launched at the Oklahoma Route 66 Association is one I’m really proud of and one I know she’d be first in line to support.
More than two years ago, I had an idea. I’d heard of Flat Stanley and I had taken my own Flat Golden Driller and Flat Buck Atom with me on road trips. The 2026 Centennial of Route 66 already felt impossibly close and I thought: what better way to keep Will Rogers in the conversation than send out a ton of little cartoon Wills for people to enjoy on their own travels? Sam thought it was a great idea and that’s all I needed to get going.
I reached out to the leadership at the Memorial Museum in Claremore – they were all-in. I also reached out to Jennifer Rogers, who was also immediately excited. It was really important to me that Will’s Cherokee heritage be represented in some kind of way. I reached out to a local artisan friend, who put me in touch with Tom Farris who designed him. I engaged with the Will Rogers Ranch in California to connect the road from the Prairie to the Pacific. It all started coming together!
Then, as tends to happen with such projects, timelines extended. People got busy. Sponsorships fell through. Art was tweaked. Distribution had to be sorted out. The Centennial wasn’t until 2026, so we had plenty of time, right?
Well, time goes faster than you think. But earlier this year, the final pieces fell into place. We had a few prototypes printed and I handed them out to Board Members. I took a few to Claremore to show the leadership there and guests kept asking where they could get their own. Even when we went to Hammett House right after the museum for dinner, another customer came up to me and said she’d seen me up at the museum and asked if I had an extra Will. I was so sad that I did not.
On Tuesday, August 19th, I carried several life-size standees of Flat Will into the Association office and separated out several thousand hand-held Wills for three pickup locations: the Anna Mitchell Cultural Center in Vinita, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and of course the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore. Although the ranch in California suffered a tragic fire earlier this year, we’re still talking to folks out there about a sensible way to keep that connection alive while things get sorted.
Now, Flat Will is out in the world. I’m really excited to see if he’s as popular as I hope he will be. At the very least, it’s getting people talking about Will Rogers and learning about this unique figure in American cultural history. I hope it brings as many smiles to travelers as it has to me.
To learn more (or to order one for mail delivery) check out rogers66.com. And while you’re on the road with Flat Will, think of the people that support you and thank them, if you can. Think about what your support means to other people, too; it may be more impactful than you think.
Rhys' Pieces 
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