OHIO CONNECTION: Birth/Resident North Olmsted (birth) After meeting former WJW-TV 8 anchor Tana Carli, North Olmsted native Denise Marie Dufala left Dyke College, changed her major to journalism, and enrolled in The Ohio State University. Beginning her sophomore year, Dufala began mailing audition tapes to Virgil Dominic, the general manager of Cleveland’s CBS affiliate WJW-TV8. …
Read More Denise Marie DufalaBorn: April 5, 1935Died: August 22, 2018 Ohio connection: Birth Stark County H. M. Hoover, the pen name of author Helen Mary Hoover, was born in 1935 in Stark County, Ohio. The daughter of Edward Lehr and Sadie (Schandel) Hoover graduated from Louisville High School in 1952 and attended Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. …
Read More H. M. (Helen Mary) HooverBorn: January 30, 1931Died: July 7, 2011 Ohio connection: Resident Bellefontaine Allan W. Eckert was born in Buffalo, New York, and was raised in and around Chicago, Illinois. Eckert was a child with an intense love of nature. “I remember crawling about in the gangways between buildings or in vacant lots, overturning boards and pieces of tin …
Read More Allan W. EckertBorn: 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 Flora(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 AlgerBorn: 1954 Ohio connection: Birth Painesville Elizabeth A. Alder was born in 1954 in Painesville, Ohio. An award-winning author of historical fiction for children and young adults, Alder’s path toward becoming a writer has its roots in dinner table conversations with her father, a gifted storyteller who helped found the Lake County Public Defender’s Office. It …
Read More Elizabeth AlderBorn: 1951 Ohio connection: Birth Cincinnati Karen Ackerman was born in 1951 in Cincinnati, Ohio, she graduated from Woodward High School in 1969. Although she was never inspired to be an author while growing up, Ackerman knew she had stories to tell, or to write. Her books focus on families and the benefits of intergenerational …
Read More Karen AckermanBorn: 1951 Ohio connection: Resident Yellow Springs Author, poet, musician, and educator Jaime Adoff was born in New York City, NY. Adoff, son of acclaimed authors Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff, was raised in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Jaime Adoff received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1990 from Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio, where his focus was …
Read More Jaime AdoffBorn: July 16, 1935 Died: May 7, 2021 Ohio connection: Resident Yellow Springs Poet, anthologist, and biographer, Arnold Adoff was born July 16, 1935, in New York City. He was the son of immigrants from a town near the Polish-Russian border whose family had been decimated by the Holocaust. Growing up in New York City, Adoff …
Read More Arnold AdoffBorn: 1944 Ohio connection: Birth Gallipolis Born in Gallipolis and raised across the river in Wheeling, West Virginia, author, designer and illustrator Jan Adkins describes himself as “an explainer, a storyteller with words and images, an advocate for young minds, a resource for images, and a dinosaur holdout for simplicity and grace in illustration, design …
Read More Jan Adkins