Lynn Riggs Memorial Park
Located on The Grounds of The Old Will Rogers Library in
Claremore, OK
Click on the photos below to enlarge
 Historic Town Marker |
 Statue of Lynn Riggs |
 A Plaque on the Grounds |
 The Park Grounds |
 Water Fountain |
 Gazebo |
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The Lynn Riggs Memorial Museum
Admission is Free
Monday thru Friday 9am-noon & 1-4pm
Weekends & Major Holidays Closed
Groups by appointment any day
(918) 627-2716
The museum is located in the south annex of 121 N. Weenonah in Claremore, Oklahoma 74017-7032.It's a neat little museum well worth the visit. Come by and give it a look-see for yourself.
A view inside the museum. The dress was the one worn by Shirley Jones in the musical "Oklahoma". The surrey driven by Gordon McRae and Shirley Jones in the movie. A little history about Lynn Riggs. A portrait of Lynn Riggs inside the museum. A photograph of the original members of the Lynn Riggs Committee, one of them being my Grandmother, Ocie Mayberry. A public relations shot with Shirley Jones and some Claremore folks. Boy, oh, boy was she ever gorgeous! Another view inside the museum. A plaque signifying what the surrey was used for in the movie. Memorabilia along the north wall of the museum.
Lynn Riggs
Lynn Riggs was the author of Green Grow the Lilacs originally produced by the Theatre Guild in 1931 and later used by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II as the basis for their musical OKLAHOMA! When originally done, Lilacs had a New York run of 64 performances, while its musical adaptation had an original Broadway run of 2,202 performances.
Riggs' first play to receive a New York production was The Big Lake which was presented by the American Laboratory Theatre. As a result, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and spent a year in France, where he wrote Lilacs.
Born in Claremore, OK, Riggs studied for three years at the University of Oklahoma. As a youth, he did various jobs including singing in a musical film house. He later moved to New York where he worked as a proofreader and clerked for Macy's department store and the American Express Company.
Riggs also wrote such plays as The Lonesome West, The Cream in the Well, Laughter from a Cloud, Russet Mantle and Borned in Texas.My grandfather, John Ovid Mayberry, had Lynn Riggs as an English professor while he was attending Oklahoma University back in 1926. He asked my grandfather to write about apple pie, making it as descriptive as possible so as to try and convey what it tasted like to a person who had never eaten any.
Just a little bit of family history my dad passed on to me.
Please visit the official Lynn Riggs site owned and maintained by the family of Lynn Riggs
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