Larry Larkin Column

It was during the return to Claremore on Tuesday from an afternoon trip to Muskogee when I received a telephone call from my father.

"Have you seen the paper?" he asked. "Clem McSpadden died last night."

Dad had driven his golf cart down to get the mail and the newspaper. That's when he saw Clem's picture and the headline on the front page of the Progress. Like countless others learning of Clem's death, many long-ago memories came flooding back for my father, Bill Larkin.

Hearing many of those recollections over the next day or two, I wanted to share them. The following are my dad's words.

"Seeing the news in the paper about Clem, I now realize how an uncle of mine felt 73 years ago when he learned of Will Rogers' death. As an 11-year-old, I couldn't understand why he was taking it so hard.

"Uncle Rodney, my dad's brother, was a huge fan of Will Rogers. If Will said it, Rodney believed it. Living in Tulsa, he would ride the train to Claremore to take radium baths on the top floor of the Will Rogers Hotel. One day, he was going out the front door just as Will was coming it.

"He said Will stepped back and Will stuck his arm out to shake hands. He added they then stood on the sidewalk talking for several minutes. My dad and a third brother would later claim Rodney didn't wash that hand for several weeks afterwards.

"I don't know if that was true or not, but knowing Rodney was a plumber, I hope that wasn't the case.

"Anyway, Dad and I were visiting Rodney and my grandmother at their Tulsa home. We were all sitting on the front porch when the newspaper arrived. Rodney went down the steps to get it.

"Even now, I can hear him telling us Will Rogers and Wiley Post had died in an airplane crash. He had tears in his eyes.

"Hearing about Clem had the same effect on me.

"My first meeting with Clem McSpadden goes back to the time I was 16 years old and he was 14, I guess. At that time, Collinsville held Sunday rodeos for the local cowboys. Clem was in the roping events going against adults. And he would win more times than not.