Dave Lieber, Ginnie Graham, and Suzette Martinez Standring. Photo by Cynthia Ballard Borris
Ginnie Graham, columnist and editorial writer for the Tulsa World, accepted the 2018 Will Rogers Humanitarian Award with a Rogers quote that expressed her main goal as a writer.
Rogers said in 1931: “These people that you are asked to aid, why they are not asking for charity, they are naturally asking for a job. But if you can’t give them a job, why the next best thing you can do is see that they have food and the necessities of life.”
Ginnie said: “This sums up what I have been striving for in my career.”
As the first Oklahoman to receive the award, Graham noted that for several years the Tulsa World had run a daily quote from the state’s favorite son. One week a decision was made to substitute a quote from former University of Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer.
“Each day I got to hear the executive editor reassure angry callers that it was ‘just four more days’ or ‘just two more days.’ To this day she swears never to pull the feature of Will Rogers quotes again.”
Rogers was born and raised on a ranch close to Claremore and rose to become the “cowboy philosopher” and multimedia star of the 1920s and early ’30s. He died in a plane crash in Alaska with pioneering aviator Wiley Post on August 15, 1935.
On a recent visit to the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore, Ginnie said she was impressed again with Rogers’ “particular style and perspective.” She said, “Now, he was around the learned, elite, and educated classes as much as he was around working people. But his voice cut through to the working class.”
Referring to another conference speaker, Jerry Springer, she said as he noted about celebrities who run for office, “Rogers certainly had supporters wanting him to run for office. But he had respect enough for government that he knew his role was that of critic and commentator.”
This is the 18th year the National Society of Newspaper Columnists has recognized a writer “whose work has positively affected readers’ lives and produced tangible humanitarian benefits.”
Ginnie Graham’s work calling attention to charitable activities in the Tulsa area and also personally engaging in a number of worthwhile endeavors solidly qualified her to receive the handsome statuette with an engraved brass plate along with a $500 stipend from the Will Rogers Writers Foundation to help enable her to attend the conference. (She has joined the NSNC and plans to be quite active as a member.)
She concluded her remarks by saying: “As a columnist, I want to introduce readers to people they don’t know and may never know. I want them to meet the homeless, pregnant teenager or undocumented immigrant or woman in prison on an unjust sentence. I want them to understand who is living in our community.
“But, just as important, they need to know the people and groups working to help those who are disenfranchised or in need. I want them to see there is a way to help … that there is a way to make this human experience better for everyone.
“Will Rogers understood that, and I’m more than humbled to be accepting this award.”
Ginnie’s mother, Janet Burke, came from Oklahoma to Cincinnati to be present for the award presentation.
For more information about the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award and past honorees, look under Awards at columnists.com.
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Robert Haught
Robert L. Haught is a former NSNC officer and board member who developed the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award program and has served as coordinator since its establishment in 1999.
