Born: 1947 Ohio connection: Birth Lorain Terry Anderson is a retired journalist and former foreign correspondent in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He served as Chief Middle East Correspondent for the Associated Press and has worked as a newspaper editor, television and radio reporter, and documentary producer. Anderson is the author of the best-selling memoir, …
Read More Terry AndersonBorn: May 29, 1906Died: January 1987 Ohio connection: Birth Mount Vernon Delano Ames was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, on May 29, 1906. He was the son of Benjamin and Isabel Cooper (nee Kirk) Ames. Delano’s father was a prominent businessman in Knox County, but moved the family to New Mexico in 1917. As a young …
Read More Delano AmesBorn: November 7, 1929Died: January 15, 2010 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Author, classical singer, and critic Raoul Abdul was once an editorial assistant to Langston Hughes. Abdul was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Hamid who was born in Calcutta, India and Beatrice (Shreve) Abdul. Abdul attended John Hay High School and later earned a diploma …
Read More Raoul AbdulBorn: January 25, 1914Died: July 9, 1998 Ohio connection: Birth Bellefontaine Mixing the pathos of surrealism with the impishness of cartoons, James Flora was the master of hand-drawn album cover art before the record industry’s switch to photographic covers in 1956. In the 1940s, Flora was one of the first artists to design and illustrate album covers, thereby …
Read More James FloraBorn: 1948 Ohio connection: Resident Kent Poet, editor, and educator, Maggie Anderson was born in New York City to a mother from Pennsylvania and a father from West Virginia. Anderson has described a childhood of “moving around a lot” but visiting West Virginia every summer. The family moved to West Virginia when Anderson was thirteen …
Read More Maggie AndersonBorn: October 17, 1947Died: April 29, 2019 Ohio connection: Resident Columbus Lee Kittredge Abbott, writer and educator, was a professor of English for more than three decades, teaching at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio for twelve years before transferring to Ohio State University (OSU) in 1989 where he taught until his retirement in 2012. …
Read More Lee K. AbbottBorn: January 20, 1855Died: December 23, 1914 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Alfred Henry Lewis, the son of Isaac J. Lewis (a carpenter), was born January 20, 1855, in Cleveland, Ohio. In February 1876 when he was 21 years old, Lewis was licensed to practice law, making him one of the youngest men to be admitted to the bar …
Read More Alfred Henry LewisBorn: May 3, 1907Died: January 16, 1987 Ohio connection: Birth Rockford, Mercer County Harvey Earl Wilson, son of Arthur Earl and Cloe (Huffman) Wilson, was born in 1907 in Rockford, Ohio, in Mercer County. A budding career as a news reporter began while he was in high school when he worked as a sportswriter for …
Read More Earl WilsonBorn: June 3, 1886Died: June 22, 1947 Ohio connection: Birth St. Mary’s Jim Tully was a colorful character, boxer, and American writer has been described as a “hobo novelist.” He achieved both critical and commercial success during the 1920s and 1930s, and Tully biographers Paul J. Bauer and Mark Dawidziak described him as “the greatest …
Read More Jim Tully(Sorche Nic Leodhas) Born: May 20, 1898Died: November 14, 1969 Ohio connection: Birth Youngstown Born Leclaire Gowans on May 20, 1898, in Youngstown, Ohio, to Louis P. and Anna Gowans. Leclaire Alger wrote most of her books under the Gaelic pen-name Sorche Nic Leodhas (pronounced approximately like “sorsha nick leoh-as”), which means “Claire, daughter of Louis.” Writing under …
Read More Leclaire Alger