William R. Lighton (1866 - 1923)

William Rheem Lighton (July 13, 1866 - January 25, 1923) was an American writer. He reported on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake for the Boston Evening Transcript, sold stories steadily to magazines, and wrote a few novels, usually romances of rural life, westerns, and historical pieces. Many of his stories featured “Billy Fortune,” a character based on his wife’s cousin, a Wyoming homesteader. With the start of World War I, Lighton’s Billy Fortune stories declined in popularity, but the new business of movies beckoned. Lighton wrote the screenplay for one of Will Rogers' earliest movies, Water, Water Everywhere, with Will Rogers playing Billy Fortune. Although both William Lighton and his son had expectations of more movies, this did not happen.