December 26, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in the chaotic weeks following Hurricane Katrina, John Rogers never planned to become Santa; he simply found himself in a position to help and chose to act. What followed was an unexpected Christmas for children who had lost their homes, their routines, and nearly everything familiar.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
And we returned to our American stories. Every year around Christmas,
countless people dress up as Santa Claus, donning the red costume,
just to spread some joy to kids eagerly anticipating good times. Today,
our own Monty Montgomery brings us the story of a
man who does just that.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Take it away. Monty John Rogers of McDonald County, Missouri
plays Santa at his local VFW. But it wasn't something
he set out to do.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
The Santa Claus they had died and they asked me
if I would do it for them, and that's how
it all got started. It's been eighteen years now.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Actually it's now twenty one years since this was recorded
in twenty eighteen. Twenty one years of going to hospitals
to talk to sick kids, twenty one years of providing
some joy to kids whose parents are deployed overseas. But
what did this Santa do when he wasn't being Santa.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I was an operating engineer. I run heavy equipment. I
worked a lot in Springfield, Kansas City branchon, Fayetteville, Mississippi, Arkansas.
Little Rock. Yeah. I was on a road a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
And it was during his day job that he would
meet a man who would lead him into one of
his most memorable moments of Santa.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
I helped build a low store in Marion, Mississippi, which
is and I stayed in Jackson, Mississippi, and one of
my I ran a motor grader down there, and he
was called my great checker. He was one on the
ground that would tell me how much dirt to put
in or how much to take out. And so I
called ourselves Tonne on the lone Ranger. I was down
(02:10):
there almost seven eight months, and he knew that I
did Santa Claus because they was getting it was that
time of the year down there, and of course the
closer to Christmas, everybody that sees me they realized that
some reason I got the hair and I got the
glasses and the beard. So I portray Santa to them.
And so that's how we got to know each other.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And welcome back.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
We continue to have this incredible surge coming up through
Mobile Bay, and.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Right of course, we are in storm alert here at
the Weather Channel, and good reason for it.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Hurricane Katrina still a major hurricane affecting parts of the
Lower Mississippi Valley, and we want to get the bottom
line and Katrina came through, and I'd been back here
probably oh a year or two at least, and he
called me and he told me what had happened down there,
and he wanted to know if I would come down
there and be Santa Claus for at his church because
(03:02):
everybody down there had lost everything they had. And I said, absolutely.
I need a list of all the children from a
baby up to thirteen. I said, I'm cutting the date
off at thirteen, and I said, I need a list
of all the children, male and female, and I want
one major gift that they would like to have. And
(03:22):
I collaborated with his sister because he was working down
on the coach helping clean up from Hurricane Katrina. And
so she sent me the letter with all the children's
names and their ages and what they wanted. And there
were forty four kids on the list. So when I
(03:44):
got that, I said, oh my, now what am I
going to do? So I went around town and just
talked to everybody that I knew and told them what
I was going to do and would they care to
give me some money? And some did and some didn't,
and I didn't know. I just went on my merry
way and then so I've got the money and now
(04:05):
I'm going Okay, Now I got to go shopping, and
I go, man, this is going to be So I
knew a school teacher by the name of Marsha Harlan
who worked out at the golf course. And I've played
a lot of golf all my life, and I said, Marsha,
I need help. I'm in over my head. I can't
by all these presidents and wrap them all and get
them all ready to go. And so I think she
(04:26):
got It was a teen group and I don't know.
I think they were the Honor Society. I don't remember
now it's been a while, but there were about ten
or twelve of them and we met at the golf
course and I gave them the list and I give
them the money, and I said, you go to Walmart.
I've got to run to Jopping. I've got to go
to Toys r Us. Come back to the golf course.
We wrapped the presents and we was done in about
(04:48):
an hour. That I couldn't have done it without the
teens from Neosho High School at the time. So everybody,
everybody that I just ran into was behind me one
hundred percent. They trusted and me and knew that I
was for real, and I really appreciated that.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
This Santa needed a sleigh to carry his gifts down
to the coast of Mississippi, though, and he found it
in his dad's garage.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
I asked him if I could borrow the man because
in that time of year, you know, ten hours on
the road, you can't run into anything, and he said,
well sure, And so as our conversation went on, he said,
can I go with you? And I thought, well, yeah, sure,
I'd love to have somebody go with me. I've made
that trip a dozen times by myself and it's not
that much fun. So I said, under one circumstance, you're
(05:41):
not getting behind the steering wheel. I'm driving this time
because my dad always drove before. He was a driver
for Tri State Motor Transportation when I was a boy,
and he always drove on vacations and stuff. So I said, yeah,
you can go, but you're not touching the steering wheel,
so you can enjoy this trip. So he made fifty
bags at your turkey for all of them down there,
(06:02):
and I smoked a couple of hands. I'm kind of
known this time of here for smoking hands. As well
for other people, and I told her pretty good. The
people in Mississippi didn't even know I was coming. The
only ones that knew I was coming was my friend,
his sister, and the pastor. They were totally shocked. They
were practicing their Christmas girls. I could hear them, but yeah,
(06:25):
they snuck me in through the back in the kitchen
with all the presents and set me all up there
in front of the Christmas tree and everything, and they
just put the Santa hat on that, and they walked
him through the front. And the kids just their eyes
just opened up. They could you know. They knew something
was up, they didn't know what, and they followed him
into the kitchen and in there I sat, and then
(06:47):
all chaos. I can still see it in my mind
as fine as day. The little two or three year
old boy that was standing right there in line first
was jumping up and down, jumping up and down. And
I just had their names on all the trash bags
that were full of the presents, because that's the way
I transported him, and so I just reach and grab
a bag and read their name off, and they'd come
and set off my lap and I'd give it to
(07:08):
them and before I got to that little boy, he
was in chears because he thought he was going to
be left out. It was. It was kind of funny
and sad at the same time. It was something I'll remember.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
All my life because he brought joy to a group
of kids ten hours away from him who he didn't
even know. For John, it gets to the essence of
why he puts on the red suit every year, and
he doesn't want it any other way.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
When I was down in Dallas one time with my
daughter over Christmas, I talked to another Sanda down there
and he said, man, you need to come down here.
I get you a job. You'd make thirty thousand dollars
in a month, easy two three, four hundred dollars to
pop and I'm busy all the time. And I told him, no,
that's you know, I'm not in I don't do them
all scene. I just go world, want to go and
(08:01):
and and where my heart leads me. And uh, that's
why I'm gonna do it. I'm not gonna be I'm
not I'm gonna I'm not a commercial Tanna. I hope
that I make a difference to those children's lives that
I see. I've got several repeat customers. I guess it's
what you want to call and call me every here
and they just say, you haven't retired yet, have you?
And I go, no, I'm still doing it because you're
(08:23):
the best I've ever had. And that's that's what it's
all about. It makes me feel good, it makes them
feel good, and and that's why I do it. It's
the time of giving, and the most important thing you
give is yourself.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
And great work on the production by Monty Montgomery, and
a special thanks to Katrina Hine for bringing us this
story and that pointing story he told about getting down
to the area that was just battered by Hurricane Katrina
and taking care of kids and just volunteering at a
church and driving ten hours with his dad. That's America.
(08:58):
That's that's what Tokeville saw, a great French prison reformer
who came to America in the nineteenth century and saw
Americans doing these beautiful and wonderful, spontaneous things for each other,
forming associations, volunteering. It's the heartbeat of this country. John
Rogers's story as Santas story here on Our American Story
And we returned to our American stories. Every year around Christmas,
countless people dress up as Santa Claus, donning the red costume,
just to spread some joy to kids eagerly anticipating good times. Today,
our own Monty Montgomery brings us the story of a
man who does just that.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Take it away. Monty John Rogers of McDonald County, Missouri
plays Santa at his local VFW. But it wasn't something
he set out to do.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
The Santa Claus they had died and they asked me
if I would do it for them, and that's how
it all got started. It's been eighteen years now.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Actually it's now twenty one years since this was recorded
in twenty eighteen. Twenty one years of going to hospitals
to talk to sick kids, twenty one years of providing
some joy to kids whose parents are deployed overseas. But
what did this Santa do when he wasn't being Santa.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I was an operating engineer. I run heavy equipment. I
worked a lot in Springfield, Kansas City branchon, Fayetteville, Mississippi, Arkansas.
Little Rock. Yeah. I was on a road a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
And it was during his day job that he would
meet a man who would lead him into one of
his most memorable moments of Santa.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
I helped build a low store in Marion, Mississippi, which
is and I stayed in Jackson, Mississippi, and one of
my I ran a motor grader down there, and he
was called my great checker. He was one on the
ground that would tell me how much dirt to put
in or how much to take out. And so I
called ourselves Tonne on the lone Ranger. I was down
(02:10):
there almost seven eight months, and he knew that I
did Santa Claus because they was getting it was that
time of the year down there, and of course the
closer to Christmas, everybody that sees me they realized that
some reason I got the hair and I got the
glasses and the beard. So I portray Santa to them.
And so that's how we got to know each other.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And welcome back.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
We continue to have this incredible surge coming up through
Mobile Bay, and.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Right of course, we are in storm alert here at
the Weather Channel, and good reason for it.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Hurricane Katrina still a major hurricane affecting parts of the
Lower Mississippi Valley, and we want to get the bottom
line and Katrina came through, and I'd been back here
probably oh a year or two at least, and he
called me and he told me what had happened down there,
and he wanted to know if I would come down
there and be Santa Claus for at his church because
(03:02):
everybody down there had lost everything they had. And I said, absolutely.
I need a list of all the children from a
baby up to thirteen. I said, I'm cutting the date
off at thirteen, and I said, I need a list
of all the children, male and female, and I want
one major gift that they would like to have. And
(03:22):
I collaborated with his sister because he was working down
on the coach helping clean up from Hurricane Katrina. And
so she sent me the letter with all the children's
names and their ages and what they wanted. And there
were forty four kids on the list. So when I
(03:44):
got that, I said, oh my, now what am I
going to do? So I went around town and just
talked to everybody that I knew and told them what
I was going to do and would they care to
give me some money? And some did and some didn't,
and I didn't know. I just went on my merry
way and then so I've got the money and now
(04:05):
I'm going Okay, Now I got to go shopping, and
I go, man, this is going to be So I
knew a school teacher by the name of Marsha Harlan
who worked out at the golf course. And I've played
a lot of golf all my life, and I said, Marsha,
I need help. I'm in over my head. I can't
by all these presidents and wrap them all and get
them all ready to go. And so I think she
(04:26):
got It was a teen group and I don't know.
I think they were the Honor Society. I don't remember
now it's been a while, but there were about ten
or twelve of them and we met at the golf
course and I gave them the list and I give
them the money, and I said, you go to Walmart.
I've got to run to Jopping. I've got to go
to Toys r Us. Come back to the golf course.
We wrapped the presents and we was done in about
(04:48):
an hour. That I couldn't have done it without the
teens from Neosho High School at the time. So everybody,
everybody that I just ran into was behind me one
hundred percent. They trusted and me and knew that I
was for real, and I really appreciated that.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
This Santa needed a sleigh to carry his gifts down
to the coast of Mississippi, though, and he found it
in his dad's garage.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
I asked him if I could borrow the man because
in that time of year, you know, ten hours on
the road, you can't run into anything, and he said,
well sure, And so as our conversation went on, he said,
can I go with you? And I thought, well, yeah, sure,
I'd love to have somebody go with me. I've made
that trip a dozen times by myself and it's not
that much fun. So I said, under one circumstance, you're
(05:41):
not getting behind the steering wheel. I'm driving this time
because my dad always drove before. He was a driver
for Tri State Motor Transportation when I was a boy,
and he always drove on vacations and stuff. So I said, yeah,
you can go, but you're not touching the steering wheel,
so you can enjoy this trip. So he made fifty
bags at your turkey for all of them down there,
(06:02):
and I smoked a couple of hands. I'm kind of
known this time of here for smoking hands. As well
for other people, and I told her pretty good. The
people in Mississippi didn't even know I was coming. The
only ones that knew I was coming was my friend,
his sister, and the pastor. They were totally shocked. They
were practicing their Christmas girls. I could hear them, but yeah,
(06:25):
they snuck me in through the back in the kitchen
with all the presents and set me all up there
in front of the Christmas tree and everything, and they
just put the Santa hat on that, and they walked
him through the front. And the kids just their eyes
just opened up. They could you know. They knew something
was up, they didn't know what, and they followed him
into the kitchen and in there I sat, and then
(06:47):
all chaos. I can still see it in my mind
as fine as day. The little two or three year
old boy that was standing right there in line first
was jumping up and down, jumping up and down. And
I just had their names on all the trash bags
that were full of the presents, because that's the way
I transported him, and so I just reach and grab
a bag and read their name off, and they'd come
and set off my lap and I'd give it to
(07:08):
them and before I got to that little boy, he
was in chears because he thought he was going to
be left out. It was. It was kind of funny
and sad at the same time. It was something I'll remember.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
All my life because he brought joy to a group
of kids ten hours away from him who he didn't
even know. For John, it gets to the essence of
why he puts on the red suit every year, and
he doesn't want it any other way.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
When I was down in Dallas one time with my
daughter over Christmas, I talked to another Sanda down there
and he said, man, you need to come down here.
I get you a job. You'd make thirty thousand dollars
in a month, easy two three, four hundred dollars to
pop and I'm busy all the time. And I told him, no,
that's you know, I'm not in I don't do them
all scene. I just go world, want to go and
(08:01):
and and where my heart leads me. And uh, that's
why I'm gonna do it. I'm not gonna be I'm
not I'm gonna I'm not a commercial Tanna. I hope
that I make a difference to those children's lives that
I see. I've got several repeat customers. I guess it's
what you want to call and call me every here
and they just say, you haven't retired yet, have you?
And I go, no, I'm still doing it because you're
(08:23):
the best I've ever had. And that's that's what it's
all about. It makes me feel good, it makes them
feel good, and and that's why I do it. It's
the time of giving, and the most important thing you
give is yourself.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
And great work on the production by Monty Montgomery, and
a special thanks to Katrina Hine for bringing us this
story and that pointing story he told about getting down
to the area that was just battered by Hurricane Katrina
and taking care of kids and just volunteering at a
church and driving ten hours with his dad. That's America.
(08:58):
That's that's what Tokeville saw, a great French prison reformer
who came to America in the nineteenth century and saw
Americans doing these beautiful and wonderful, spontaneous things for each other,
forming associations, volunteering. It's the heartbeat of this country. John
Rogers's story as Santas story here on Our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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