Shortly after sunset on Jan. 7, Jennifer Rogers received a 14-second video message at her home in Claremore, Oklahoma. The sky in the video was orange with smoke. A friend’s voice, steady but grave, delivered the blow: “OK, Jenn, it’s in the park. No doubt.”
The park was Will Rogers State Historic Park in Pacific Palisades, California — the location of the lovely two-story ranch house of Jennifer’s great-grandfather, Will Rogers, the renowned humorist, actor, and author. It was the final home he had occupied before his untimely death in 1935.
Jennifer turned off her phone and cried.
That night, the Palisades blaze swept through the historic home, destroying the 31-room mansion and the adjacent white-and-green stable with its stately rotunda. More than 200 trees planted at Rogers’ request nearly a century ago were so badly damaged that they, too, are being removed.
Four months later, a large portion of the park remains closed. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is processing burned vegetation and concrete on-site, and the charred skeleton of the home remains untouched. For Jennifer Rogers, for the countless people who cherish the memory of Will Rogers, there is one prevailing question: What now?
The Legacy of Will Rogers
In the early 20th century, Will Rogers was one of the most beloved figures in America. A Hollywood movie actor, political satirist, newspaper columnist, and cowboy, he criticized the world using humor — always with a lasso in hand and a disarming humor that hid a sharp mind. His influence came to characterize the political commentary of the time and remains firmly embedded in American cultural history.
He and his wife Betty eventually
