5 Westerners who changed America
Wayne, Cody, Rogers, Reagan, and Roosevelt.
They were the Western kind.
They helped define the American kind.

It’s long been established that the Western traits of character evolved as an out-growth of earlier American traits of character. We think of the spirit of the Revolutionists, of the ideals of the founding fathers, of Daniel Boone and the first great forays into the interior. We know and understand these traits of theirs as distinctively American and as influential through our present day.

Not as much has been said, however, of the idea that the Western spirit, though a product of that older progression, nonetheless altered that progression. Changed it. Redefined it yet again. It’s the idea that Westerners, in making their presence felt back in the East and on a wider stage of American affairs, kicked something back, something that entered into the national character. Something that was not there previously.

It’s a different America that confronted the world after its Western experience. And the West continues to shape the American character.

In support of that idea, and in celebration of it, we consider the lives of five whom we believe made a difference in what it means to be American. These five—William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Theodore Roosevelt, Will Rogers, Ronald Reagan, and John Wayne—were some who loomed large and left their world different from the way they entered it.

We encountered many interesting asides in compiling this account. Some of these were connections between two or more of the five figures. Sometimes these were just revealing details.
Author Dale L. Walker, who wrote the piece on Theodore Roosevelt, shared this note: “At 11 p.m. on January 5, 1919, Roosevelt told his valet, James Amos, ‘Please put out the light,’ went to bed. and died about five hours later of a pulmonary embolism. The light had gone out and even his enemies noticed the darkness when they learned he was gone.”

Of his admirers, William Allen White, the great editor of the Emporia, Kan., Gazette, summed up the effect T.R. had on their lives: “He poured into my heart such visions, such ideals, such hopes... as I never dreamed men had.”

Walker also remarked: “I’ve always loved the connection between the two men I wrote about. Theodore Roosevelt met Cody on several occasions, in both the West and back east, and wrote this: ‘Buffalo Bill was one of those men, steel-thewed and iron-nerved, whose daring progress opened the West to settlement and civilization. His name, like that of Kit Carson, will always be associated with old adventure and pioneer days of hazard and hardship... ’ ”

Joe Carter, Emeritus Director of the Will Rogers Memorial Museums, Claremore, Okla., shared these thoughts:

“Selecting the five renaissance men of the American West no doubt was formidable. The selection has irony.

“Will Rogers sought to join Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders but was judged too young. Will named a favorite horse “Teddy” in his honor. The nation’s 26th president later caught Will’s act. In his writings, Will Rogers made reference to Roosevelt at least 48 times.

“Ronald Reagan was first considered in the starring role of Republic Picture’s The Story of Will Rogers. Will Rogers, Jr., finally won the part. The 40th president in 1990 was awarded The Will Rogers Communicator Award by the Will Rogers Memorial Commission of Oklahoma, presented by Jim Rogers, Will’s son.

“John Wayne worked sets at 20th Century Fox where Will Rogers starred, then Wayne played. John Ford directed both actors. Ford once said that Judge Priest, starring Will Rogers, was “in fact, my favorite picture of all time.” At the Claremore museum, John Wayne, Ford, and the cast of Stagecoach are exhibited as they admired a statue of Will Rogers.”

Lyn Nofziger, who was a close personal friend, confidant, and advisor to President Reagan, told AC that his former boss “was a genuinely nice man”:
“What always appealed to me about him was that he was a nice man when he got into politics, and unlike so many who get fat heads and act very important, he was still the same nice man when he left the presidency,” Nofziger said. “You could always talk with him, argue, kid, or whatever with him. He never felt that he had gotten better than anyone else.”

Nofziger added one other detail, what he called a very personal note. “The last telephone call he [Reagan] made from the White House, just as he was getting ready to walk out [before the transfer of power to George Bush], was not to any important person, not to Margaret Thatcher or anyone like that. It was to Georgetown University Hospital. There was a young woman there who had suffered a recurrence of cancer. He was phoning to wish her well. That was my daughter.”

And lastly this: As Ronald Reagan himself wrote in 1979 in “Unforgettable John Wayne” (Reader’s Digest): “I saw his [Wayne’s] loyalty in action many times. I remember that when Duke and Jimmy Stewart were on their way to my second inauguration as governor of California they encountered a crowd of demonstrators under the banner of the Vietcong flag. Jimmy had just lost a son in Vietnam. Duke excused himself for a moment and walked into the crowd. In a moment there was no Vietcong flag… ”

<<Top  -  Cody  -  Roosevelt  -  Rogers  -  Reagan  -  Wayne