Born: February 1, 1901Died: May 22, 1967 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland James Langston Hughes was born in 1901 in Joplin, Missouri, the son of James Nathaniel and Carrie Mercer (Langston) Hughes. While he was an infant, his parents separated and he moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where his grandmother raised him. When his grandmother died, he moved …
Read More Langston HughesBorn: 1931 Ohio connection: Resident Cleveland Adrienne Kennedy was born Adrienne Lita Hawkins, daughter of Cornell Wallace and Etta (Haugabrook) Hawkins, in 1931 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She received a B.A. from Ohio State University in 1953, and did graduate work in creative writing at Columbia University, 1954-56. She married …
Read More Adrienne KennedyBorn: February 27, 1925Died: July 6, 2002 Ohio connection: Birth Cincinnati Kenneth Koch, son of Stuart J. and Lillian Amy (Loth) Koch, was born February 27, 1925 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He began writing poetry in his early years, with inspiration from favorites Keats and Shelley. He later served in the United States Army in the …
Read More Kenneth KochBorn: July 14, 1915 Died: February 29, 2004 Ohio connection: Resident Jerome K. Lawrence, son of Samuel and Sarah (Rogen) Lawrence, was born in 1915 in Cleveland, Ohio. He received a B.A. degree from Ohio State University in 1937, and did graduate study at the University of California, Los Angeles, 1939-40. He had a long and …
Read More Jerome K. LawrenceBorn: October 15, 1918 Died: July 8, 1994 Ohio connection: Birth Elyria Robert Edwin Lee, son of Claire Melvin and Elvira (Taft) Lee, was born in 1918 in Elyria, Ohio. He was educated at Northwestern University (1934), Ohio Wesleyan University (1935-37), Western Reserve University (1938), and Drake University (1943-44). He also served in the U.S. Army Air Force, …
Read More Robert Edwin LeeBorn: October 26, 1890Died: September 23, 1981 Ohio connection: Birth Cincinnati Gustav Eckstein, son of Gustav and Emma (Imig) Eckstein, was born in 1890 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received a D.D.S. from the Cincinnati College of Dental Surgery in 1911 and a M.D. from the University of Cincinnati in 1924. He practiced dentistry from 1911 until 1918 and was …
Read More Gustav EcksteinBorn: June 20, 1911 Died: October 23, 1964 Ohio connection: Birth Toledo Edward McMaken Eager was born in 1911 in Toledo, Ohio. He was raised in Toledo, but spent most of the summers of his childhood and youth in rural Indiana, where he developed a love of nature, gardening, and bird-watching. These interests stayed with him the rest …
Read More Eager, Edward McMakenBorn: 1955 Ohio Connection: Born Steubenville Robin Yocum got his first job in the newspaper business as a young child delivering for the Wheeling Intelligencer in the town of Brilliant, Ohio. Growing up the son of a steelworker, he wanted to be a fireman or the second baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He went on …
Read More Yocum, RobinBorn: August 25, 1929 Died: April 11, 2016 Ohio connection: Resident Yellow Springs Suzanne P. Clauser was born and grew up in a suburb near New York City. She attended Indiana University and was graduated in 1951 with a degree in American and British literature. In the same year, she married Charles Clauser, a graduate student finishing a Ph.D. …
Read More Suzanne Phillips ClauserBorn: 1940 Ohio connection: Birth Cincinnati Born in Cincinnati, son of Edmund Valentine II (an engineer) and Delilah Teddlie (a psychologist). Edmund Valentine III White has been regarded as the unofficial spokesman of the social, cultural, and political aspirations of the gay community. A novelist at age five, White has since authored several critically acclaimed fiction …
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