THE AMBASSADOR

When I die, my epitaph, or whatever you call those signs on gravestones is going to read: "I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn't like." I am proud of that, I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved and when you come 'round to my grave you'll find me sitting there proudly reading it.

In the spring of 1926, the popular magazine Saturday Evening Post sent Rogers to Europe to write a series of articles as a "Self-Made Diplomat to His President". It was on this trip that he began to earn the title "Good Will Ambassador " or "American Ambassador to the World".
Will Rogers would talk with many of the greatest dignitaries of Europe and "get their angle" so that he could report it to the folks back home. Included were meetings with the King of Spain, the Prince of Wales, and then dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini.

At home, Rogers, spoke out often about Washington's refusal to acknowledge the extent to which the populace was suffering from the Depression. In 1931, paying his own expenses, Rogers organized a tour to 50 different cities to assist the Red Cross's efforts to feed the hungry,....nor did he forget the situation of Native Americans. As, a Cherokee indian, he said, "I am a Cherokee and it's the proudest little possession I ever hope to have".

He and Charles Lindbergh were invited on a goodwill mission to Mexico by Ambassador Dwight Morrow in 1927. Upon Lindbergh's arrival in Mexico, Will commented, "In France and America they like to tore up the plane to carry away souvenirs. Here hundreds took it up on their shoulders and carried it to the hanger. Here instead of being bombarded with ticker tape the streets were two inches thick with flowers". This meeting with Lindbergh in Mexico served to increase Will's interest in flying.

Will began to write more and more about the development of aviation in this country. By describing his experiences as he flew from country to country, he was able to inform the citizens back home to the need for more governmental support for the development of commercial and military aviation in the U.S. In the United States, Rogers often traveled by U.S. mail carriers with a stack of mail bags on his lap...once sticking postage stamps on himself so he could fly as air mail. Called the Patron Saint of Aviation, Gen. Dolittle recalled, "he was our only spokesman". For his service to aviation, Will Rogers was inducted into the "Aviation Hall of Fame" in 1977.