Long Live
Will Rogers B
Oklahoma legend relived through impersonator By Melanie Wilderman
orn, raised and currently residing in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., 76-year-old Lester Lurk did not have much of a connection with Oklahoma. He and his wife, Leanna, sometimes passed through on road trips to other destinations, but a conversation with some friendly Okie strangers at
a show in Branson in 2008 would change that.
After some banter about farming, the man sitting next to Leanna told Lester, “You know, you look like Will Rogers.” Later, Lester and his wife got out an encyclopedia and looked up the beloved Oklahoma entertainer, known in the 1920s and ‘30s for his mesmerizing trick roping skills and charming humor, but Lester failed to see the resemblance. However, the conversation peaked the Lurks’ interest, and they decided to take a trip to Oklahoma the next year, specifi - cally to the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore.
Museum workers took notice of Lester’s resemblance to the Cherokee cowboy, and the museum’s director at the time left Lester with some parting words. “You sure do look like Will Rogers.” The Lurks enjoyed their trip to Oklahoma and decided to come back. This time they learned of the annual Will Rogers and Wiley Post Fly-in event held in August. When they showed up as tourists to the Fly-in, Lester was met with re- quests to pose for photos due to his famous-looking face. “I was dressed in a John Deere hat, shorts and tennis shoes,” Lester said. “I did not look the part.”
But he must have looked close enough, because by 2011, Lester had been of-
fi cially asked to come to the Fly-in event dressed as Will Rogers, and he has been doing so yearly ever since. The current executive director of the Will Rogers Memorial Museum, Tad
Jones, fi rst met Lester at one of the Fly-in events. “Lester not only looks like Will, but he also has Will’s kind and approachable demeanor. Everyone was friends with Will, and Lester makes everyone feel like a friend too,” Jones said. The Fly-in gig also involves another reenactor, Joe Bacon, a pilot and Will
Thanks to a conversation with a stranger, Lester Lurk realized his uncanny resemblance to an Oklahoma icon. Courtesy photo
Rogers Memorial Museum docent, who portrays famous aviator Wiley Post. The duo has become a crowd favorite as they land in Bacon’s Cessna 172 along with more than 100 other small planes as part of the celebration of Rogers’ and Post’s contributions to aviation. The reenactors take part in photo ops and tell historical stories, including the Alaska trip in summer 1935, which ended with the plane crash that killed both Rogers and Post.
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