Born Mary Tomlinson in Boggstown, Indiana, Main attended Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, and adopted a stage name to avoid embarrassing her father, Samuel J. Tomlinson (married to Jennie L. McGaughey), who was a minister. She worked in vaudeville on the Chautauqua and Orpheum circuits, and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her first film was A House Divided in 1931.

Main began playing upper class dowagers, but was ultimately typecast in abrasive, domineering, salty roles, for which her distinct voice was well suited. She repeated her stage role in Dead End in the 1937 film version, and was subsequently cast repeatedly as the mother of gangsters. She again transferred a strong stage performance, as a dude ranch operator in The Women, to film in 1939. She made six films with Wallace Beery in the 1940s including Barnacle Bill (1941), Jackass Mail (1942), and Bad Bascomb (1946).

Perhaps her most famous role is that of "Ma Kettle", which she first played in The Egg and I in 1947 opposite Percy Kilbride as "Pa Kettle". She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the part, and portrayed the character in nine more Ma and Pa Kettle films. • Marjorie Main Books • Marjorie Main Movies

Born in Gary, Indiana, McCracken's earliest musical experiences were singing in his church choir as a child. While he was in the US Navy during World War II, he sang in the Blue Jacket Choir. He studied music at Columbia University and with Elsa Seyfert in Konstanz, Germany.

McCracken made his professional opera debut in 1952 with the Central City Opera in Colorado as Rodolfo in Puccini's "La bohème." He sang minor roles at the Metropolitan Opera from 1953 to 1957, while he was still a student. In 1957, he moved to Europe and made his debut at the Vienna State Opera. He had great success with the Zürich Opera. • James McCracken Books

Song book contains music, lyrics, and guitar chords for John Cougar Mellencamp songs: Big Daddy of Them All; To Live; Martha Say; Theo and Weird Henry; Jackie Brown; Pop Singer; Void in My Heart; Mansions in Heaven; Sometimes a Great Notion; Country Gentleman; J.S.'s Question  • John Mellencamp Website • John Mellencamp Discography • John Cougar Mellencamp Books

His parents were Hulen (sometimes “Hulings”) Miller and Margaret Witt who married January 3, 1836 in Union County, Indiana. Most family researchers give his birth date as September 8, 1837 and his birthplace as Liberty, Union County, Indiana. The Miller family was probably of German extraction, and may have attended the Four Mile German Baptist, or Dunkard, Church in Union County, IN, where people named Miller, Witt, Fahl, and Petry (family names) were founding members. While a young boy, the Miller family moved to Oregon and settled in the Willamette Valley, establishing a farm in what would become Lane County. Accounts differ, giving the family’s move to Oregon as early as 1842, but it was probably between 1850 and 1852.

Miller's exploits included a variety of occupations, including mining-camp cook (who came down with scurvy from only eating what he cooked), lawyer and a judge, newspaper writer, Pony Express rider, and horse thief. As a young man, he moved to northern California during the California Gold Rush years, and had a variety of adventures, including spending a year living in a Native American village, and being wounded in a battle with Native Americans. • Joaquin Miller Books

Born and raised in Evansville, Indiana, Osborn went on to study at Yale. He made his debut in 1928 with the play Hotbed. In 1930, he found success on Broadway with The Vinegar Tree. His 1939 original comedic play, Morning's at Seven became one of Osborn's most enduring original works. It has been presented on television, but never filmed. Revived in 1980, it would be hailed by Harold Clurman as "one of the best American comedies."

Another popular, more frequently revived Osborn play is the 1938 On Borrowed Time, which was made into a famous MGM film starring Lionel Barrymore, Cedric Hardwicke and Bobs Watson. • Paul Osborn Books

Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, to a wealthy Baptist family; his maternal grandfather, James Omar "J.O." Cole, was a coal and timber speculator who dominated his daughter's family. His mother started Porter in musical training at an early age; he learned the violin at age six, the piano at eight, and he wrote his first operetta (with help from his mother) at 10. Porter's mother, Kate, recognized and supported her son's talents. She changed his legal birth year from 1891 to 1893 to make him appear more precocious. Porter's grandfather J.O. Cole wanted the boy to become a lawyer, and with that career in mind, sent him to Worcester Academy in 1905 (where he became class valedictorian) and then Yale University beginning in 1909. • Cole Porter Books • Cole Porter Discography

Pyle was born on a tenant farm near Dana, Indiana. When he was almost 18 years old, he joined the United States Navy Reserve. World War I ended soon after, so Pyle only served for three months.

After the war, Pyle attended Indiana University, traveled to the Orient with fraternity brothers of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and edited the student newspaper—but he did not graduate. Instead, with a semester left to graduate, Pyle accepted a job at a paper in LaPorte, Indiana. He worked there three months before moving to Washington, D.C. A tabloid newspaper, The Washington Daily News, founded in 1921, had hired Pyle as a reporter. All of the editors were young, including Editor-in-Chief John M. Gleissner (one of Warren G. Harding's drinking buddies), Lee G. Miller (author of An Ernie Pyle Album - Indiana to Ie Shima), Charles M. Egan, Willis "June" Thornton, and Paul McCrea. Pyle was named managing editor of the Washington Daily News, and served in that post for three years, all the while fretting that he was unable to do any writing. • Ernest Taylor Pyle Books

Quayle was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Martha Corinne Pulliam and James Cline Quayle. He has often been incorrectly referred to as James Danforth Quayle III. In his memoirs, he points out that his birth name was simply James Danforth Quayle. The name Quayle originates from the Isle of Man.

His maternal grandfather, Eugene C. Pulliam, was a wealthy and influential publishing magnate who founded Central Newspapers, Inc., owner of over a dozen major newspapers such as The Arizona Republic and The Indianapolis Star. James C. Quayle moved his family to Arizona in 1955 to run a branch of the family's publishing empire. While the Quayle family was very wealthy , Dan Quayle was less so; his total net worth by the time of his election in 1988 was less than a million dollars. • J. Danforth Quayle Books

James Whitcomb Riley was born on October 7, 1847, in Greenfield, Indiana, to local attorney Reuben A. Riley and his wife, Elizabeth (Marine) Riley, in a small cabin. His parents named him after James Whitcomb, the governor of Indiana. James Whitcomb Riley was their third child. He lived on the same property until he was 21. Riley was influenced by many of the visitors to his father's home. In particular, he was able to pick up the cadence and character of the dialect of central Indiana and the travelers along the old National Road, which came through in the many poems he went on to write. One particular visitor was Mary Alice Smith, who eventually stayed on to live with the Rileys. Mary Alice (Allie) Smith influenced Riley's poem Little Orphant Annie, which was originally to be called Little Orphant Allie but a typesetter's error changed the name of the poem. • James Whitcomb Riley Books

He was born in Richmond, Indiana and received his early education in Chicago at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, the American Conservatory and then Northwestern University. Later, Rorem moved on to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and finally the Juilliard School in New York City.

During the time he lived in Morocco and Paris (1949-57), his song texts came from several languages.

In 1969 he published his Paris Diary, which, with his later diaries, has brought him some notoriety, as he is honest about his and others' sexuality, describing his relationships with Leonard Bernstein, Noel Coward, Samuel Barber, and Virgil Thomson, and outing several others (Aldrich and Wotherspoon, eds., 2001). Rorem has written extensively about music as well. These essays are collected in anthologies such as Setting the Tone, Music From the Inside Out, and Music and People. His prose is much admired, not least for its barbed observations about such prominent musicians as Pierre Boulez. Rorem has composed in a chromatic tonal idiom throughout his career, and he is not hesitant to attack the orthodoxies of the avant-garde. • Ned Rorem Books • Ned Rorem Discography

Born in Vincennes, Indiana, Skelton was the son of a Ryan Crabtree clown named Joe who died in 1913 shortly before the birth of his son, Kevin Kountz. Skelton got one of his earliest tastes of show business with the same circus as a teenager. Before that, he caught the show business bug at 10 years of age from entertainer Ed Wynn, who spotted him selling newspapers in front of the Pantheon Theatre, in Vincennes. After buying every newspaper Skelton had, Wynn took him backstage and introduced him to members of the show with which he was traveling. By age 15, Skelton had hit the road full-time as an entertainer, working everywhere from medicine shows and vaudeville to burlesque, showboats, minstrel shows and circuses. While performing in Kansas City, in 1930, Skelton met and married his first wife, Edna Stillwell. The couple divorced 13 years later, but Stillwell remained one of his chief writers. • Red Skelton Books • Red Skelton Films

The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century

Stout was born in Noblesville, Indiana, but shortly after that his Quaker parents, John Wallace Stout and Lucetta Elizabeth Todhunter Stout, moved their family (nine children in all) to Kansas.

His father was a teacher who encouraged his son to read, and Rex had read the entire Bible twice by the time he was four years old. He was the state spelling bee champion at age 13. Stout attended Topeka High School, Kansas, and the University of Kansas, Lawrence. His sister, Ruth Stout, also authored several books on no-work gardening and some social commentaries. • Rex Stout Books

Booth Tarkington was the son of John S. Tarkington and Elizabeth Booth Tarkington, and named after his maternal uncle Newton Booth, then the governor of California. Tarkington was also related to Chicago Mayor James Hutchinson Woodworth (1848-1850).

Tarkington first attended Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, but completed his secondary education at Phillips Exeter Academy, a boarding school on the East Coast. Tarkington attended Purdue University for two years, was a member of the university's Morley Eating Club, and then transferred to Princeton University for another two years, but never officially graduated from either. Booth Tarkington made substantial donations to Purdue for the building of an all-men's residence hall, which the university named Tarkington Hall, in his honor. It also awarded him an honorary degree • Booth Tarkington Books

Tharp was born in Portland, Indiana and was named for Twila Thornburg, the "Pig Princess" of the 89th Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana. Tharp's family (including younger sister Twanette, twin brothers Stanley and Stanford, mother Lecile and father William) moved to Rialto, California in 1951, where her parents opened a drive-in movie theater on the corner of Acacia and Foothill, the major east-west artery in Rialto and the path of Route 66. During this period she worked at the drive-in, studied at the Vera Lynn School of Dance and attended Pacific High School in San Bernardino. Tharp admitted that in her early years she had no time for social life because of the need to work in her spare time since the age of 8 years old

Tharp attended Pomona College in California, but transferred to Barnard College in New York City. It was in New York that she studied with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. She graduated from Barnard with a degree in art history in 1963 and joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company. From 1965 to 1970 she explored and developed her ideas and in 1971 she formed her own company, called Twyla Tharp Dance. • Twyla Tharp Books

Forrest Meredith Tucker was born in Plainfield, Indiana, a son of Forrest A. Tucker and his wife Doris Heringlake. He began his performing career at age 14 at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, pushing the big wicker tourist chairs by day and singing "Throw Money" at night. After his family moved to Washington, D.C., Tucker attracted the attention of Jimmy Lake, the owner of the Old Gayety Burlesque Theater, by winning its Saturday night amateur contest on consecutive weeks. After his second win, Tucker was hired full time as master of ceremonies at the theatre. However, his initial employment there was short-lived; it was soon discovered that Tucker was underage. Lying about his age, Tucker then joined the United States Army cavalry. He was stationed at Fort Myer in Virginia, but was discharged when his age became known. He returned to work at the Old Gayety after his 18th birthday. • Forrest Tucker Books • Forrest Tucker Movies

Urey was born in Walkerton, Indiana to Reverend Samuel Clayton Urey and Cora Rebecca Riensehl. After briefly teaching in rural schools, Urey earned a degree in zoology from the University of Montana and a Ph.D. in chemistry, studying thermodynamics under Gilbert N. Lewis at the University of California at Berkeley.

At Berkeley, Urey was influenced by the work of physicist Raymond T. Birge and soon joined Niels Bohr in Copenhagen to work on atomic structure at the Institute for Theoretical Physics. On his return to the U.S. and between 1924 and 1928, he taught at The Johns Hopkins University as 'Associate in Chemistry', and then at Columbia where he assembled a team of associates that included Rudolph Schoenheimer, David Rittenberg and T. I. Taylor. • Harold C. Urey Books

Born in Marion, Indiana, he received a LL.B. from the Cincinnati Law School in 1881. After three years private practice in Marion, he moved to the Wyoming Territory where he served as city attorney of Cheyenne, Wyoming, a member of the territorial legislature, as chief judge of the territorial court. Upon statehood, he again took up private practice including much work for the Union Pacific and other railroads. From 1896 to 1900 he served in Washington, D.C. as an assistant attorney general, working in the Department of Interior. He was also a professor at the Columbian University School of Law (now The George Washington University Law School) from 1897 to 1903. • Willis Van Devanter Books

West went to Whittier College in the 1920s. There she helped found the Palmer Society, in 1921.

Much of her work concerns Indiana Quakers. Although she was born in Vernon, Indiana she left the state at the age of six when her family moved to California. Asked about this in an interview, she said, "I write about Indiana because knowing little about it, I can create it." Comparing herself to other authors that created fictional universes, she remarked:

"Roth wrote The Breast. Would you ask him how he could do this since he had never been a breast? Adams wrote Watership Down. Would you ask him how he could do this since he admitted his rabbit knowledge came from a book about rabbits? ... And those hobbits!... I am a bigger risk-taker than these others. The Hoosiers can contradict me. No rabbit, hobbit, or breast has been known to speak up in reply to their exploiters."

Although Willkie won more votes in the 1940 presidential election (22.3 million votes) than any previous Republican candidate, he lost the popular vote 27 million to 22 million and the Electoral College vote to Franklin D. Roosevelt by 449 to 82, carrying ten states. He then joined Roosevelt's team as a roving ambassador, allowing him to promote a "One World" form of internationalism. He never held any political office.

Born Lewis Wendell Willkie in Elwood, Indiana, he was the son of Herman Willkie, a German immigrant from Aschersleben, and Henrietta Trisch. His parents were lawyers in Elwood, and Henrietta was one of the first women to be admitted to the bar in Indiana. Although his first name was Lewis, at home and among friends in Elwood he was called by his middle name, Wendell. When an Army error in 1917 transposed his first and middle names, Willkie did not correct it as he preferred the new version; he would thereafter spell his name as Wendell Lewis Willkie. • Wendell Willkie Books