Glenn L. Martin was born in Macksburg, Iowa, on January 17th, 1886. At the age of two Martin's family moved to Kansas so that his father could run a wheat farm. By age six, he became interested in kites, but at first his friends made fun of box-kites he built. When the kites flew well, people paid him twenty-five cents to build one for them. He turned his mother's kitchen into a "factory" to produce more kites. Martin also began using sails on everything from ice skates to wagons, and even his bicycle to move faster with less effort.

As he grew up, he became fascinated with the Wright brothers' airplane. In 1909 he decided to build one himself, but it was destroyed on the first test flight. For his next effort, Martin used silk and bamboo in the aircraft's construction. This airplane made a short flight. Martin was often assisted by his mother Minta Martin in the building of his first few airplanes.

In 1912 Glenn L. Martin built an airplane factory in an old Methodist church in Los Angeles, California. To make money to finance this business, he began to stunt fly at fairs and local airfields.  • Glenn L. Martin Books

Maxwell is credited with the introduction of the scavenger hunt and treasure hunt for use as party games in the modern era ). She appeared in the 1943 film, Stage Door Canteen, alongside Judith Anderson, Tallulah Bankhead, Katharine Cornell, Lynn Fontanne, Helen Hayes, Gertrude Lawrence, Alfred Lunt, Lord Menuhin, and Cornelia Otis Skinner.

Elsa Maxwell took credit for introducing Rita Hayworth to Prince Aly Khan in the summer of 1948. In 1953, Maxwell published a single issue of her magazine, Elsa Maxwell's Cafι Society, which had a portrait of Zsa Zsa Gabor on the cover. Anne Edwards' biography of Maria Callas (Callas, 2001) and Peter Evans biography of Aristotle Onassis both claim that Maxwell introduced Callas to Onassis. Edwards also claims that Maxwell was a lesbian who tried to seduce Callas. Callas biographer Stelios Galatopoulos produced love letters from Maxwell written to Callas, who was less than receptive.. • Elsa Maxwell Books

F.L. Maytag eventually took sole control of the firm and renamed it the Maytag Company. As Maytag grew, F.L. forayed into other businesses. In the 1910s, F.L. left the day-to-day company operation in the hands of sons Elmer Henry Maytag and Lewis Bergman Maytag, to concentrate on other business areas including new innovations of a washing machine with a gas powered motor branded as the Multi-Motor and a washing machine with an agitator that forced the water through the clothes branded as the Gyrafoam. These inventions proved extremely valuable as by 1927, Maytag was producing more than twice the washers of its nearest competition and had outperformed the industry with growth doubling for five consecutive years. • Fred Maytag Books

For the past five years, music biographer Richard Grudens, author of "The Spirit of Bob Hope," "Bing Crosby - Crooner of the Century," and "Jerry Vale - A Singer's Life," combed through countless files, books and newsletters, past chronicles, films, vintage record liners, radio program interviews, radio shows, photo files, and "V" discs, as well as his own personal interviews with Tex Beneke, Patty Andrews, Ray Anthony, Larry O'Brien, Kathryn Crosby, Artie Shaw, Beryl Davis, Willard Alexander, Buddy Morrow, Wynne Miller, George Simon, Johnny Mince, Zeke Zarchy, Billy May, Bobby Hackett, Connie Haines, Kay Starr, Harry James, Roy Belcher, Jack Ellsworth, Ben Grisafi, Chris Valenti, Al Monroe, Nick Hilscher, and includes Swiss disc jockey Max Wirz's interviews with bandleaders around the world: including Wil Salden, Ray McVay and John Miller, to bring forward true accounts of the world's most famous orchestra and its prolific leader, Glenn Miller. • Glen Miller Website • Glen Miller Discography • Glenn Miller Books

Hilliard had a respectable film career as a solo performer, apart from the band. RKO Radio Pictures signed her to a one-year contract in 1936, and she appeared in three feature films, the most famous being the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical Follow the Fleet. She was very much in demand during the World War II years for leading roles in escapist musicals, comedies, and mysteries.

In Ozzie Nelson's book, he wrote that Harriet was quite popular during the short time at RKO and they wanted her to continue her solo film career, but decided that it was more important for her to continue with the band and subsequent radio show. • No Books • Harriet Nelson Films

Pusey was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa to John and Rosa Pusey.[4] He was educated at Harvard University (B.A., 1928, M.A., 1932, Ph.D., 1937), where he studied first English literature and then ancient history.

Pusey's first teaching post after graduating was at Riverdale Country School. He progressed to Lawrence College, then to Scripps College, and later to Wesleyan University. He served as president of Lawrence College (1944–1953), and later as the 24th president of Harvard University (1953–1971).

Pusey vigorously opposed McCarthyism in the 1950s and supported the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. His clashes with Joseph McCarthy were especially significant because Pusey's position at Lawrence College placed him near the senator's hometown (Appleton, Wisconsin) and amid the political power base of the conservative Fox Valley. As president of the college, Pusey held the community's respect, and his vocal criticisms of McCarthy resounded loudly in the area. He was, on the other hand, a deeply religious man and a somewhat traditionalist scholar, and he was appalled by the student radicalism that raged in American universities in the late 1960s. • Nathan M. Pusey Books

Rabe was born in Dubuque, Iowa, the son of Ruth (nιe McCormick), a department store worker, and William Rabe, a teacher and meat packer. He attended Roman Catholic schools in Dubuque, and graduated from Loras College, a small Catholic liberal-arts college located there. He began graduate studies in theater at Villanova University, but dropped out and was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1965. He served until 1967, spending his last eleven months of service in Vietnam.

Rabe has been married to actress Jill Clayburgh since 1979, with whom he has two children , one of whom is actress Lily Rabe. Rabe also has a son, Jason Rabe, from his first marriage.

After leaving the service, Rabe returned to Villanova, studying writing and earning an M.A. in 1968. During this time, he began work on the play Sticks and Bones, in which the family represents the ugly underbelly of the Nelson family when they are faced with their hopeless son David returning home from Vietnam as a blinded vet.  • David Rabe Books

Reasoner was born in Dakota City, Iowa. He attended West High School in Minneapolis, going on to study journalism at Stanford University and the University of Minnesota. He served in World War II and then resumed his journalism career with The Minneapolis Times. His novel Tell Me About Women, about a fading marriage, was written partly during his WWII service and was first published in 1946.

After going into radio with CBS in 1948, Reasoner worked for the United States Information Agency in the Philippines. When he returned stateside, he went into television and worked at station KEYD (later KMSP) in Minneapolis. Reasoner then moved to New York, where he hosted a morning news program called Calendar on top of doing commentator and special news narration duties. • Harry Reasoner Books

Reed was born Donna Belle Mullenger on a farm near Denison, Iowa, the daughter of Hazel Jane (nιe Shives) and William Richard Mullenger. The eldest of five children, she was raised as a Methodist. After graduating Denison High School, Reed planned to become a teacher, but was unable to pay for college. She decided to move to California to attend Los Angeles City College on the advice of her aunt. While attending college, she performed in various stage productions but had no plans to become an actress. After receiving several offers to screen test for studios, Reed eventually signed with MGM, but insisted on finishing her education first. • Donna Reed Books • Donna Reed Films

Russell was born in Iowa but raised in Chicago. Her parents separated when she was eighteen, and she moved to New York with her mother. She quickly began to perform professionally, singing for Tony Pastor and playing roles in comic opera, including Gilbert and Sullivan works. She married composer Edward Solomon in 1884 and created roles in several of his operas in London, but in 1886 he was arrested for bigamy. Russell was married four times, but her longest relationship was with Diamond Jim Brady, who supported her extravagant lifestyle for four decades.

In 1885, Russell returned to New York and continued to star in operetta and musical theatre. For many years, she was the foremost singer of operettas in America, performing continuously through the end of the nineteenth century. In 1899, she joined the Weber and Fields's Music Hall, where she starred for five years. After 1904, she began to have vocal difficulties and switched to dramatic roles. She later returned to musical roles in vaudeville, however, finally retiring from performing around 1919. In later years, Russell wrote a newspaper column, advocated women's suffrage and was a popular lecturer. • Lillian Russell Books • Lillian Russell Discography

Stegner was born in Lake Mills, Iowa and grew up in Great Falls, Montana, Salt Lake City, Utah and southern Saskatchewan, which he wrote about in his autobiography Wolf Willow. Stegner says he "lived in twenty places in eight states and Canada". While living in Utah, he joined a Boy Scout troop at a Mormon church (although he himself was a Presbyterian) and earned the Eagle Scout award. He received a B.A. at the University of Utah in 1930. He also studied at Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.

"In 1934, Stegner married Mary Stuart Page. For 59 years they shared a 'personal literary partnership of singular facility,' wrote Arthur Schlesinger Jr.", reports a short biography on the San Francisco Public Library Web site by James Hepworth. A son, Page Stegner, is a nature writer and professor emeritus at University of California, Santa Cruz. Page is married to Lynn Stegner, a novelist.  Page edited the 2008 Collected Letters of Wallace Stegner. • Wallace Stegner Books

Born into poverty in Iowa, Sunday spent some years in an orphanage before working at odd jobs and playing for local running and baseball teams. His speed and agility provided him the opportunity to play baseball in the major leagues for eight years, where he was an average hitter and a good fielder known for his base-running.

Converted to evangelical Christianity in the 1880s, Sunday left baseball for the Christian ministry. He gradually developed his skills as a pulpit evangelist in the Midwest and then, during the early 20th century, he became the nation's most famous evangelist with his colloquial sermons and frenetic delivery. Sunday held widely reported campaigns in America's largest cities, and he attracted the largest crowds of any evangelist before the advent of electronic sound systems. He also made a great deal of money and was welcomed into the homes of the wealthy and influential. Sunday was a strong supporter of Prohibition, and his preaching almost certainly played a significant role in the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919. • Billy Sunday Books

James Van Allen was born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. His boyhood home, once maintained as a museum to him, is slated to be demolished soon. The new owner, Lee Pennebaker, has chosen not to demolish the home. It will be donated to the Henry County Heritage Trust, which plans on moving the house next to the old Saunders School which will be the home of the Henry County museum 

James Van Allen graduated as valedictorian of Mount Pleasant Public High School in 1931. • James A. Van Allen Books

According to Pauline Phillips, she came up with the pen name, Abigail Van Buren, by combining the name of a biblical figure, Abigail in the Book of Samuel, with the last name of former U.S. President Martin Van Buren.

The column was syndicated by McNaught Syndicate from 1956 until 1966, when it moved to Universal Press Syndicate. Dear Abby's current syndication company claims the column is known for its "uncommon common sense and youthful perspective". • Abigail Van Buren Books

Williams was born in Wall Lake, Iowa, the son of Jay Emerson and Florence (nιe Finley) Williams. He first performed in a children's choir at the local Presbyterian church. Williams and his three older brothers Bob, Don, and Dick formed the Williams Brothers quartet in the late 1930s, and they performed on radio in the Midwest, first at WHO in Des Moines, Iowa, and later at WLS in Chicago and WLW in Cincinnati. Williams graduated from Western Hills High School in Cincinnati. The Williams Brothers appeared with Bing Crosby on the hit record "Swinging on a Star" (1944). This led to a nightclub act with entertainer Kay Thompson from 1947 to 1951. • Andy Williams Discography • Andy Williams Books •