Lynn Riggs Memorial Park and Museum- Family History and Rogers County Oklahoma Highlights

Rogers County History

Lynn Riggs Memorial Park and Museum

Located on The Grounds of The Old Will Rogers Library in Claremore, OK

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 for yourself.

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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