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Nationally known writer Tom Perkins Morgan died in Rogers (Benton County). Morgan, whose work appeared in major publications such as Life and the Saturday Evening Post, joined a traveling dramatic company and signed on with a circus. These varied life experiences were the basis of much of his writing. Among his famous characters were J. Fuller Gloom; Gap Johnson and his fourteen children of Rumpus Ridge; Constable Slackputter; and Jig Fiddlin’ of Clapboard Springs. To many in Rogers, he was best known as a successful businessman who operated a newsstand and bookstore downtown. Morgan’s gravestone in the Rogers Cemetery says simply, “Writer, Humorist, Philosopher.”