Will Rogers formed lifelong ties to Vinita by attending school there at Worcester Academy in 1889 and at Willie-Hasell College in 1894 and 1895. In 1934, he returned for a Willie-Hasell College reunion and spoke at Old Settlers Day, urging friends to have a rodeo the next year and promising to come back. American Legion Post 40 organized a rodeo for September 1935, but Will Rogers and Wiley Post were killed in a plane crash on August 15, 1935. The event then became the Will Rogers Memorial Rodeo and has continued annually in Vinita. One of Will Rogers's many quotes was, "I never met a man I didn't like." U.S. Highway 66 opened on November 11, 1925, and was renamed Will Rogers Highway in 1936.
