Famous People of Iowa

Bess Streeter was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa. After graduating from Iowa State Normal School, she taught school at several locations in the west, later returning to Cedar Falls to earn an advanced degree in education. A writer since early childhood, she won a writing contest at age fourteen and another at seventeen.

In 1906, she married Charles Aldrich. They moved to Elmwood, Nebraska, where Charles, Bess, her widowed mother, and family friends invested and purchased a bank. They had four children--Mary, Robert, Charles and James.

Aldrich began writing more regularly in 1911 when the Ladies' Home Journal advertised a fiction contest, which she entered and won. She went on to become one of the highest-paid women writers of the period. Her stories often concerned Midwestern pioneer history and were very popular with teenage girls and young women.

Aldrich's first novel, Mother Mason, was published in 1924. When Charles died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1925, Aldrich took up writing as a means of supporting her family. She was the author of about 200 short stories and thirteen novels, including Miss Bishop. The latter novel was made into a movie Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941), which starred Martha Scott and Edmund Gwenn and premiered in Lincoln, Nebraska. • Bess Streeter Aldrich Books

A native of Davenport, Iowa, Beiderbecke taught himself to play cornet largely by ear, leading him to adopt a non-standard fingering that some critics have connected to his original sound. He first recorded with the Midwestern jazz ensemble the Wolverines in 1924, after which he played briefly for the Detroit-based Jean Goldkette Orchestra before joining Frankie "Tram" Trumbauer for an extended gig at the Arcadia Ballroom in St. Louis, Missouri. Beiderbecke and Trumbauer both joined Goldkette in 1926. The band toured widely and famously played a set opposite Fletcher Henderson at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City in October 1926. The following year, Trumbauer and Beiderbecke left Detroit to join the best-known and most prestigious dance orchestra in the country: the New York–based Paul Whiteman Orchestra. • Bix Beiderbecke Books • Bix Beiderbecke Discography

Borlaug received his Ph.D. in plant pathology and genetics from the University of Minnesota in 1942. He took up an agricultural research position in Mexico, where he developed semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties.

During the mid-20th century, Borlaug led the introduction of these high-yielding varieties combined with modern agricultural production techniques to Mexico, Pakistan, and India. As a result, Mexico became a net exporter of wheat by 1963. Between 1965 and 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan and India, greatly improving the food security in those nations. These collective increases in yield have been labeled the Green Revolution, and Borlaug is often credited with saving over a billion people worldwide from starvation. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food supply • Norman Borlaug Books

Carothers was a group leader at the DuPont Experimental Station laboratory, near Wilmington, Delaware, where most polymer research was done.[2] Carothers was a brilliant organic chemist who, in addition to first developing nylon, also helped lay the groundwork for Neoprene. After receiving his Ph.D, he taught at several universities before he was hired by DuPont to work on fundamental research.

He married the former Helen Sweetman on February 21, 1936. Carothers had been troubled by periods of mental depression since his youth. Despite his success with Nylon, he felt that he had not accomplished much and had run out of ideas. His unhappiness was compounded by the death of his favorite sister, and on April 29, 1937, he checked into a Philadelphia hotel room and died after drinking a cocktail of lemon juice laced with potassium cyanide.[3] His daughter, Jane, was born seven months later on November 27, 1937. • Wallace Hume Carothers Books

Why yet another Carson biography? Carson refuses to be interviewed (he's going to write his own book), so earlier efforts (by Paul Corkery, Carson: The Unauthorized Biography , LJ 9/15/87; and Ronald Smith, Johnny Carson , LJ 12/87) have suffered as biographers have had to rely on published material and interviews with friends and ex-wives. However, interest in Carson remains high, and though Leamer also had to rely on interviews (over 700) with others, his book is the closest thing to "definitive" until Johnny writes his own. The private Carson who emerges, cold and retiring, doesn't much resemble the public outgoing, clownish Carson. The life is all here; wives and relationships are explored. This is neither a flattering puff piece or Carson-bashing. The exhaustive research has culminated in a revealing and entertaining account. But despite how well done this is, we'll have to wait for Carson's book for the whole story.• Johnny Carson Books • Johnny Carson Films & TV

He was involved in several patent lawsuits and he spent a substantial part of his income from his inventions on the legal bills. He had four marriages and 25 companies, he was defrauded by business partners, and he was once indicted for mail fraud, but was later acquitted.

He typically signed his name "Lee de Forest."

He was a charter member of the Institute of Radio Engineers, one of the two predecessors of the IEEE (the other was the American Institute of Electrical Engineers). • Lee DeForest Books

Estes was born in Centerville, Iowa, the son of Ruth Jeter Estes and Simon Estes. His father was a coal-miner and his grandfather was a former slave who had been sold at auction for $500. Named for his father, Estes was called 'Billy' within his family circle to avoid confusion when addressing the two. One of five children, Estes has three sisters and a younger brother. His family was heavily involved in their local Baptist church, and his earliest musical experiences were had there. He remained active with church musical activities and participated in school music programs throughout his youth. • Simon Estes Books • Simon Estes Discography

Frawley was born to Michael A. Frawley and Mary E. Brady in Burlington, Iowa.  As a young boy, Bill (as he was commonly called), attended Roman Catholic school and sang with the St. Paul's Church choir. As he got older, he loved playing bit roles in local theater productions, as well as performing in amateur shows. A career in show business seemed within reach, however; his mother, a deeply religious woman, frowned upon the idea.

Frawley did two years of office work at Union Pacific Railroad in Omaha, Nebraska; he later moved to Chicago and found a job as a court reporter. Shortly thereafter, against his mother's wishes, Frawley landed a singing part in the musical comedy The Flirting Princess. After the news reached his mother, she was greatly dismayed. To appease her, Bill moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to work for another railroad. • William Frawley Books • William Frawley Movies

Gallup is a graduate of The Lawrenceville School and the University of Iowa, where he was a football player and editor of school paper The Daily Iowan. He earned his B.A. in 1923, his M.A. in 1925 and his Ph.D. in 1928.

In 1936, his new organization achieved national recognition by correctly predicting, from the replies of only 5,000 respondents, that Franklin Roosevelt would defeat Alf Landon in the U.S. Presidential election. This was in direct contradiction to the widely respected Literary Digest magazine whose poll based on over two million returned questionnaires predicted that Landon would be the winner. Not only did Gallup get the election right, he correctly predicted the results of the Literary Digest poll as well using a random sample smaller than theirs but chosen to match it.

Twelve years later, his organization had its moment of greatest ignominy, when it predicted that Thomas Dewey would defeat Harry S. Truman in the 1948 election, by five to 15 percentage points. Gallup believed the error was mostly due to ending his polling three weeks before Election Day. In 1958, Gallup grouped all of his polling operations under what became The Gallup Organization. • George H. Gallup Books

As a long time devotee of the sport of wrestling, I found Gotch: An American Hero to be an entertaining trip through the past. Frank Gotch is a truly outstanding sports figure in American history and deserves to have a book written about him by America's top wrestling historian. I highly recommend this book. -- Andre Gibson, International Wrestling Institute & Museum website columnist •

Her novels and plays are committed to developing deep, sympathetic characters, to understanding 'life' in its complexity. Though realism was the medium of her fiction, she was also greatly interested in philosophy and religion. Many of her characters make principled stands.

As part of the Provincetown Players, she arranged for the first ever reading of a play by Eugene O'Neill. • Susan Glaspell Books

Grandy was born in Sioux City, Iowa. He received his bachelor's degree in English from Harvard University in 1970 and is conversant in both French and Arabic. He was a recurring character on the 1970s sitcom Maude, playing the boyfriend of Maude's daughter Carol (played by Adrienne Barbeau). He played the ship's purser Burl "Gopher" Smith for nine years on the American television series The Love Boat. In 1982, while visiting Turkey to film scenes for the show, Grandy suffered severe burns when a balloon filled with hydrogen exploded.  The other members of the cast helped him recover.

Grandy appeared in a number of Match Game episodes in the mid-70s, at first sitting in the male guest star seat in the top row left, then later filling in for Charles Nelson Reilly when he was working on other projects. • Fred Grandy Books .• Fred Grandy Movies

The creator of the 'Ann Landers' pseudonym was Ruth Crowley, a Chicago nurse who had been writing a child-care column for the Sun since 1941. She chose the pseudonym at random — borrowing the surname 'Landers' from a family friend — in order to prevent confusion between her two columns. Unlike Lederer, Rowley kept her identity as Landers secret, even enjoining her children to help her keep it quiet. Crowley took a three-year break from writing the column from 1948 until 1951. After 1951 she continued the column for the Chicago Sun-Times and in syndication (since 1951) to 26 other newspapers until her death, aged 48, on July 20, 1955. Crowley spent a total of nine years writing advice as 'Ann Landers'. • Ann Landers Books

Leachman was a contestant on Season 7 (2008) of Dancing With The Stars, paired with Corky Ballas. At the age of 82, she is the oldest contestant to dance on the series. She was voted off in the sixth round on October 28.

Leachman was the grand marshal for the 2009 New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade and Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, California. She presided over the 120th parade, the theme being "Hats Off to Entertainment", and the 95th Rose Bowl game. • Cloris Leachman Books • Cloris Leachman Movies

Leahy was appointed as Chief of Staff to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 and served in that position throughout World War II, and continued under President Harry S. Truman until finally retiring in 1949. Fleet Admiral Leahy was the first U.S. military officer ever to hold a five-star rank in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Leahy was born in Hampton, Iowa before moving to Ashland, Wisconsin. His education included the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, from which he graduated in 1897.

Midshipman Leahy was assigned to Oregon, then in the Pacific. He was in that battleship when she made her famous dash around Cape Horn in the spring of 1898 to participate in the Battle of Santiago on July 3 during the Spanish-American War. • William D. Leahy Books

Lewis was born in Cleveland, Iowa, the son of Thomas H. Lewis and Ann Watkins Lewis, both of whom had immigrated from Wales. Cleveland was a company town built around a coal mine one mile east of Lucas.[1] Lewis began working in the Big Hill Mine at Lucas as a teenager. He began working around the countryside as a "ten day miner" in the western United States. He moved to Panama, Illinois, and then to Springfield, Illinois, in 1910 with other members of his family. • John L. Lewis Books