Thursday Night Lecture Series featuring the 1979 Will Rogers Days Parade planners

On Thursday, March 24, the Will Rogers Memorial Museum will have a special panel of guests who were the planners of the Will Rogers Day Parade of 1979. That year, on November 4th, Claremore celebrated the 100th birthday of Will Rogers with a more than 2-hour parade.

Guests Dave Burrows, Jerry Webster, Bill Crutcher, who were young Claremore businessmen in the seventies will talk about the 12-month process of planning the parade, which was one of the largest gatherings in the town’s history. More than four decades later, the panel will share the stage with WRMM Director Tad Jones for this special event.

The panel will reveal some little-known facts about how the parade plans were orchestrated, including the task of stopping train traffic and the closure of all roads leading into the town so that no vehicles entered from four directions. There will also be special memories shared from the perspective of a Claremore policeman who was assigned to traffic control that day, and a Claremore Progress reporter whose husband proposed the parade route, and much more.

For more information, please call 918-341-0719.