Evening star., 1936-11-17
OF ROGERS
MAY WE'D COUPLE
Home Town Is Agog Over
Engagement to Mary
PiCkford.
Ey the Associated Press.


OLATHE, Kans, November IL
All the folks in Olathe Qndian for
beautifully were goggle-eyed today over
| the announcement that the home
town boy, Charles Buddy Rogers,
will marry Mary Pickford.
The $500 townspeople haven't been
50 excited since the big fuss over the
water plant back in 1881.
Surely" said everybody from
Mayor Don Ashlock to Fire Chief v.
J. Prather. They'll marry here"
Father May Perform Ceremony.
Isn't Olathe the "marryingest"
place in these parts? And who made
it so? None other than Buddy's
father, stocky Probate Judge Bert
Rogers.
Perhaps, they conjectured, the we'd
ding will be in the two-story white
frame home of the Rogers family out
on North Kansas avenue. There
couples go early and late to be wed.
And every night the porch light burns
until midnight just in case
vi ONCCLlCo1b
will take Buddy as her third husband
in the famed "cupid's room" of the
gray-haired Judge Rogers office on
the first floor Of the aging red brick
johnson County court house. There
couples have come in such numbers
from Kansas City, 20 miles to the
northeast, that man. call the town
''Kansas City's Gretna Green"
1--WE Buddy's promise that when
he marries I'll tie the knot" Judge
Rogers told those who besiegeu him
by telephone, grabbed his hand in
passing on the street and f1ocked to
his Offices to share in the animated
talk.
All the hullabaloo left him little
time for his work, but even while Mrs.
Rogers was packing last night for a
plane trip to visit Mary Pickford and
Buddy in California he managed 10
perform couple or marriages.
Scene Of Raid.
Buddy was born 80 years ago in this
town, which numbers among its other
bids for recognition the fact that the
guerrilla leader, Quantrill, killed six
persons here in bloody raid Septem-
Der 6, 1862. and that the late John P.
st. John, father of national prohibi-
tion," once lived here A garage now
stands on the site of the house where
Buddy was born, only half a block
from the present Rogers home.
The folks feel certain Buddy's first
visit here with Mary will be as infor-
NAL and casual as his many in the
past since he gained t., as mo-
ton picture actor and orchestra
. leader. On his last visit he drove UP
in front of his fathers Office and
waved him out. They hurried home,
shouting to old friends along the way,
donned old clothes and went out to
their 160-acre farm. Buddy owns
half Of it and always does some work
on 1t. Olathe residents believe he
will take Mary out to see it and to
look at his polo pony. On that last
visit he told his father he planned to
build a Summer cottage" there.
May Witness Weddings.
More than likely, Buddy will escort
Mary to his fathers office to witness
some weddings. Buddy has been q
witness at dozens of them, has auto
graphed the licenses. His picture Is
on the wall Of the Office room, along
with those Of Cupids.
How do the townspeople regard the
romance?
THE consensus here is that it is a
fine match" Judge Rogers beamed.
No doubt the folks will try to be as
quietly informal when Mary arrives as
they are on Buddy's visits. But in the
end. the wiseacres predict, they'll
probably loose such a cheer as will
shame the whistles of passing trains.
And back in '32 those whistles sound
ed so loud and long that 800 protested
to the city fathers.