Dr. Doug Watson, the “official Will Rogers” of the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore, will present his nationally-known portrayal of Oklahoma’s favorite son in a special show at McAlester Public Library Thursday, May 9.
Watson will present a program in character as Rogers, and will answer questions from the audience about current topics, using his extensive knowledge of Rogers’s works. The show begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Whiteacre Room.
Watson is a retired English professor from Oklahoma Baptist University, where he taught poetry, American literature, Western and world civilization, children’s literature, classical literature and composition. During the 1988-89 school year, he was a Fulbright lecturer in Nigeria, West Africa. He was been a frequent presenter at the library’s Let’s Talk About It, Oklahoma book series.
He has been involved in historical characterization since 1991, traveling with the Great Plains Chautauqua as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Stephen Crane from 1991-97. He has performed as Will Rogers more than 500 times nationwide since 1997, in schools, theaters, libraries, retirement centers and Chautauqua series.
“Having done a pessimist and a cynic, I have thoroughly enjoyed being tied to a humorist like Will Rogers,” Watson said. “It’s a great joy to help people laugh, and it feels good to speak words that seem like common sense wisdom, even today.
“I know you don’t have to like the characters you portray in Chautauqua, but when you do, it transforms the relationship you have with the character, the history, and perhaps the audience as well.”
Since 2005, the professor has worked for the Will Rogers Memorial Museums, presenting “Will Rogers in Schools” in and beyond Oklahoma. He was born and reared in the Texas Panhandle, and is at home in the small towns of the Great Plains. He attended Baylor, West Texas State (Now West Texas A&M), Middlebury College and Texas Tech. His wife Kay is a retired public school English teacher and master gardener. Their daughter works for a San Diego music publisher and studies music therapy at Kansas University.
Watson enjoys fly-fishing, gardening and working for the international development organization World Neighbors, on whose board he serves. In the past year he has become interested in the policies of food and food security. But, he says, given a choice, he prefer to be on the golf course.
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