The Famous People of Gage County

Research and compiling of the information below was done by E.A. Kral in cooperation with the Gage County Historical Society. Duplicate files of the Kral collection are housed at the Gage County Museum, 2nd and Court Streets, Beatrice NE  68310. These files are open to researchers. The following are distinguished  persons who were born or resided in Gage County, Nebraska since 1854.

Hollywood film star Robert Taylor (1911-1969) appeared in over 80 films from 1934-1969. He set a Hollywood record for longest contract with one studio (24 years with MGM), narrated two Academy award winning feature length documentaries in 1944 and 1948, and was co-recipient of 1954 Golden Globe as world's favorite.   He was born in Filley and graduated from Beatrice High School in 1929.  Many of his boyhood homes in Beatrice still stand. He attended Doane College at Crete for two years, and then graduated from Pomona College, Claremont, California in 1933.  The Robert Taylor Memorial Highway, located east of Beatrice on US Highway 136 to Filley, was dedicated in 1994. The Gage County Museum houses a special Robert Taylor Exhibit. Consult Jane Ellen Wayne, The Life of Robert Taylor (Robson, 1973, 1987) and The Beatrice Daily Sun, October 8, 1993, a 48-page supplement, and Nebraska History, Vol. 75 (Winter 1994) 280-291 and American National Biography, Vol. 21 (1999) 404-405.

 
Clara Bewick Colby (1846-1916) was the editor of the Woman's Tribune in Beatrice between 1883-86 before moving the newspaper to Washington, D.C. She was an active woman's suffragette with friends such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Her husband, General Leonard Colby, was a lawyer, Nebraska Senator, county judge, and a General with the Nebraska National Guard. When the National Guard was sent to help bury the dead after the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1891, Colby brought back to Beatrice a Sioux Indian infant known as Lost Bird. The 1995 book Lost Bird of Wounded Knee by Renee Samson Flood recounts the life of the Colbys and their adopted child, Lost Bird. Consult American National Biography, Vol. 5 (1999) 194-195 and Encyclopedia of the Great Plains (University of Nebraska Press, Fall 2004).                      

 Harold Lloyd (1893-1971), famous silent screen actor and director, was born at Burchard and lived in Beatrice  for two years. His first acting experience was in Beatrice at the old Paddock Opera House in "Macbeth" in 1904.  In an interview with Mr. Lloyd in 1949, he remembered selling popcorn in the local saloons and practicing his acrobatic skills on the beams of a foundation near downtown. He was chased away numerous times by the police. Today, this same building houses the Beatrice Police Department. He was regarded as one of the great comedians of silent films in the 1920's, famous for wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a straw hat. During his career that extended from 1912 to 1947, he acted in over 200 films and produced a dozen more. Recipient of an honorary Academy Award in 1952 for lifetime achievement, he was featured on the cover of Time, July 25, 1949 and October 15, 1990. He also lived in Humboldt, Pawnee City, and Omaha before moving to California. Consult Current Biography (1949) 357-359 and Omaha World Herald, April 11, 1993, pp. E-1, E-7, American National Biography, Vol. 13 (Oxford University Press, 1999)  787-788  and Lincoln Journal Star, May 11, 2003, pp. F-1, F-6.

James "Wild Bill" Hickok (1837-1876) was tried for murder in Beatrice for killing David McCandles at Rock Creek Station. Hickok started his notorious career in 1861 at Rock Creek Station, southwest of Beatrice in what is now known as Jefferson County. At his trial in Beatrice he was acquitted after pleading self-defense. He served in the Civil War after the Rock Creek incident. Later he performed for two years in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and gambled in card games. Click on Rock Creek Station for more information on Wild Bill Hickok and David McCandles. Consult Joseph G. Rosa, They Called Him Wild Bill: The Life and Adventures of James Butler Hickok (University of Oklahoma Press, 1964) and American National Biography, Vol. 10 (Oxford University Press, 1999) 741-742.

Gage County Famous People Continued

Samuel Avery (1865-1936), educator and administrator, was chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1909 to 1927 (except for nine months in 1918 when he was assistant chairman of the chemical committee of the national council of defense in Washington, D.C.), the longest tenure of any UNL chancellor to date; during Avery's Administration, enrollment grew from 3,611 to 11,848, several colleges and schools were established, and seven major buildings were erected, including Memorial Stadium; born at LaMoille, Illinois, he lived at Crete, and earned degrees from Doane College in 1887 and the University of Nebraska in 1892 and 1894 and Heidelberg University in 1896; after teaching chemistry at Beatrice High School during the 1892-93 school year, he was professor of chemistry at UNL from 1896 to 1909 (except for two years at Idaho) and from 1927 to 1935. Consult Robert N. Manley, Centennial History of the University of Nebraska, Vol 1 (1969) and R. McLaran Sawyer, Vol 2 (1973) and Sunday World Herald Magazine, June 18, 1936, pp. A-1, A-8 and New York Times, January 26, 1936, Sec. 2, p. 8.

Alice Coleman Batchelder (1874-1948), arts administrator and pianist, founded in 1904 the Coleman Chamber Music Concert Series in Pasadena, California, which is considered the oldest enduring chamber music series in the nation. She had studied compositions and took piano lessons in Europe, then taught privately in California and initiated the development of music programs for school-aged children; her efforts resulted in attracting talented musicians to California and encouraging new talent among ensemble performers. Born in Beatrice, Nebraska in 1874, where her father had established the Beatrice Express, she relocated with her family to Washington, D.C. in 1876 when her father sold his newspaper interests and became secretary for U.S. Senator Algernon S. Paddock. Consult Hugh Dobbs, History of Gage County, Nebraska (Western Publishing, 1918) 245-247 and American National Biography, Vol. 2 (Oxford University Press, 1999) 322.

Harold R. Bohlman (1893-1979), orthopedic surgeon, introduced vitallium as a substance to replace injured bones and joints, and specialized in the fields of traumatic surgery, pathology and surgery, and hip and knee surgery at hospitals in the Baltimore, Maryland area. A graduate of John Hopkins Medical School in 1923, he performed the first total hip joint replacement using vitallium on September 28, 1940 at Columbia, South Carolina. Born near Adams, he lived and attended rural school near Pickrell, graduated from Beatrice High School in 1914, and from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa in 1919 after becoming a pilot in the U.S. Air Service during World War I. Consult Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol. 25 (July 1943) 688-692 and Lincoln Star obituary, April 6, 1979, p. 23.

Edwin Booth (1906-1996), writer, published almost 50 western novels, with 38 of them printed in foreign editions. He also contributed several short stories to anthologies and served as an officer for Western Writers of America. Born in Beatrice, he and his family also lived at Norfolk and Lincoln before moving to Iowa and then Colorado, where he studied engineering at Colorado College. After holding jobs as a prairie dog exterminator on New Mexico ranches and office manager of a wholesale grocery firm in California, he started his own accounting business and published his first novel in 1956. Consult Contemporary Authors-New Revision Series, Vol. 63 (Gale, 1998) 39-40.

Margaret E. Brewster (1912-1999), military officer and realtor, was among the first 200 women officers selected for entry in the regular U.S. Army in 1948, inaugurating a physical training program and serving in several high leadership positions at military bases in Germany and the United States before retiring in 1965 to become a professional realtor in San Antonio, Texas. Earlier, she joined the Women Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II, served in Southeast Asia and Germany, graduated from Officer Cadet School, then was placed on ready reserve after the war ended before being recalled to active duty in 1948. Born in Beatrice, Nebraska, in 1912, where she graduated from high school in 1930, and knew future movie star Robert Taylor, she earned degrees from the Universities of Missouri and Michigan, and was an instructor of physical education at four different colleges. Recipient of several awards, including the Legion of Merit, she was interred at Arlington National Cemetery. Consult Beatrice Times, November 5, 1948, p. 1 and obituary in Washington Post, August 22, 1999, p. C-6 as well as the Beatrice Daily Sun, August 18, 1999, p. A-5.

Robert C. Brewster, diplomat and consultant, was a foreign affairs analyst with the U.S. Department of State and a foreign service officer from 1948 to 1981 during which time he served in several high leadership positions in Washington, D.C., Paraguay, and Ecuador; as U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador from 1973 to 1976 he proposed a solution to the long-standing "tuna wars" between the two nations, secured assent of Washington authorities to it, and successfully negotiated Ecuador's agreement; earlier as director of personnel at the Department of State he inaugurated and directed the first effective system to adjudicate employee grievances. After his retirement as Inspector General of the Department of State he served as consultant to several prestigious organizations in the Washington, D.C. area, and founded and led a non-profit corporation that has raised thousands of dollars to support a local public library. Born in Beatrice, Nebraska, in 1921, where he graduated from high school in 1939, he graduated from the University of Washington in 1943, and after military service he attended the National University of Mexico and studied at Columbia and George Washington Universities. Consult Beatrice Times, July 30, 1947, p. 3 and New York Times, February 18, 1975, p. 2 and Who's Who in America, Vol. 1 (2003) 595.

Glenn W. Burton, agronomist and research geneticist, was born in 1910 at Clatonia. Burton developed Coastal and other improved Bermuda grasses, resulting in improved hay and pasture for livestock production and in improved lawns, golf courses, and playing fields worldwide. He authored or co-authored over 675 papers and book chapters, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975, and awarded the National Medal of Science in 1982. His family moved to Red Willow County when he was a young boy, and in 1932 he graduated from the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. After receiving his doctorate degree at Rutgers University in 1936, he spent his career at Coastal Plain Experiment Station at the University of Georgia at  Tifton. Consult Omaha World Herald Magazine, February 3, 1957, p. G-5 and Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists, Vol. 1 (Gale, 1995) 283-284.

Berlin Guy Chamberlin (1894-1967) , professional football player and coach, was a participant in the forerunner to the National Football League and in the NFL from 1919 to 1928. As head coach for six seasons  with Canton, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Chicago, his record was 58 wins, 14 losses, and 5 ties, with a winning percentage of .780 and four NFL championships. He was inducted in the NFF College Football Hall of Fame in 1962 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965. Born near Blue Springs, he graduated from Blue Springs High School in 1911, attended Nebraska Wesleyan from 1911 to 1913, and then the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1913 to1916, where he distinguished himself as a football player. The UNL Athletic Department has annually awarded a senior Cornhusker player with the Guy Chamberlin Trophy since 1967. Consult Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Football (Greenwood Press, 1987) 102-103 and American National Biography, Vol. 4 (Oxford University Press, 1999) 638. Gage County Museum Exhibit contains Chamberlin artifacts and extended files available.

James P. Collman (1932-    ), chemist, researcher and educator, is known for discovering how certain metal-bearing enzymes control essential biological functions (for example, during respiration, electrons extracted from food are used to transform oxygen from air into water, creating energy to heat the body and operate the muscles and brains of every air-breathing organism) and for inventing artificial enzymes that imitate "the real thing"; has published over 330 scientific papers and three books, including Naturally Dangerous: Surprising Facts About Food, Health and the Environment (University Science Books, 2001), a book intended for the general public; has lectured worldwide by invitation, and more than 40 of his students at Stanford University occupy teaching positions at colleges worldwide, with 12 more founding small companies; former postdoctoral student K. Barry Sharpless won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; elected to National Academy of Sciences in 1975. Born in Beatrice, where he graduated from high school in 1950, he graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with bachelor and master's degrees in 1954 and 1956. A grandson of the former U.S. Senator Algernon Paddock, Prof. Collman was inducted in the Beatrice Educational Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1999. Consult Beatrice Daily Sun, December 7, 1966,  p.18 and Chemical and Engineering News, December 17, 2001, p. 28, Who's Who in America, Vol. 1 (2003) 1008.

James W. Crabtree (1864-1945), educator, author, and administrator, served as secretary of the National Education Association from 1917 to 1935 during which time membership grew from less than 10,000 to more than 200,000, the association's headquarters opened in Washington, DC, publication of the NEA Journal began, and services were expanded; secretary of the U.S. President Herbert Hoover's Advisory Committee on education and the World Federation of Education Association. Born in Scioto County, Ohio, he graduated from Peru Normal School in 1887, then was a school administrator in Nebraska until 1910, including positions at Ashland, Lincoln and principal of Beatrice High in 1896-97 and president of Peru Normal from 1904 to 1910, with his bachelor and master's degrees from the University of Nebraska in 1908. Consult New York Times obituary, June 11, 1945, p. 15 and Biographical Dictionary of American Educators, Vol. 1 (Greenwood Press, 1978) 324-325.

Harold T. Davis (1892-1974), distinguished educator, was a mathematician who taught for  half a century at several universities and authored or co-authored more than 70 publications on a variety of topics, including several books in the field of mathematics. He was considered a notable by American Men of Science, 7th ed (1944). Born in Beatrice, he earned his bachelor's degree from Colorado College in 1915, a master's degree from Harvard University in 1919, and a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin in 1926. Consult Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph obituary, November 18, 1974 and Who Was Who in America, Vol. 6 (1976).

Charles B. Dempster (1853-1933), co-founder of Dempster Mill Manufacturing,  became renowned for the production of windmills used worldwide and the first practical and efficient 2-row cultivator. By his death in 1933, the firm had grown to include 250 employees, over $1 million in gross sales, and offices in several states. Since then, the company has diversified to include electrical water systems, steel tanks, water well pumps, fertilizer spreaders and sprayers and recycling  trailers, and towers with annual revenues of $10 million at the turn of the 21st century. Consult National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 41 (1956) 280-281 and Lincoln Journal Star, November 21, 2002, pp C-1, C-4.

Stephen E. Epler (1909-1997) was the  founder of Portland State University in Oregon in 1946 and served as a top administrator of three California community colleges. He was known as the originator of six-man football in 1934 at Chester, Nebraska, which by the 1950's was played by more than 2,500 small secondary schools nationwide. Born at Brooklyn, Iowa , he earned his bachelor's degree from Cotner College in Lincoln in 1932 and a master's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln shortly afterward. After teaching at Beatrice and Chester, he earned a doctorate from Columbia University in New York City, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and held various college administrative positions on the West Coast for the remainder of his career. Consult Time, October 11, 1937, p. 43 and July 29, 1946, pp. 51-52 and Lincoln Journal Star obituary, July 15, 1997, pp. C-1, C-3.

Horace C. Filley (1878-1973) was a professor of farm economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1911-1949 where he developed, about 1924, the first course of cooperative marketing offered at any college in the nation and served farm organizations and the farm industry statewide. Born at Filley, he attended the local schools and Peru State Normal, graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1903, then was a school administrator in Nebraska before earning a master's degree from UNL in 1911, and later a doctorate from the University of Minnesota in 1934. He was inducted in the Nebraska Hall of Agricultural Achievement in 1957 and a building on the UNL East Campus was named after him. Consult Omaha World Herald Magazine, October 22, 1950, p. C-21 and National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 57 (1977) 692.

Daniel H. Freeman, (1926-1908), farmer and stockman, was the first to file a claim under the Homestead Act of January 1, 1863. His land was selected in 1939 as the site of the Homestead National Monument of America. Born in Preble County, Ohio, he was in Nebraska on special duty for the U.S. Army when he filed his application for 160 acres of land northwest of Beatrice. Consult Portrait and Biographical Album of Gage County, Nebraska (Chapman Brothers, 1888) pp. 521-523  and Reader's Digest, January 1946, pp. 109-113 and Nebraska History, Vol. 43 (March 1962) 1-27.

Thomas J. Hargrave (1891-1962) was president and chairman of the board of Eastman Kodak Company for two decades, during which time color film was introduced in 1942 for use in similar cameras and company sales expanded by 80 percent with addition of chemicals and plastics to its world-leading production of cameras and photographic supplies. He was featured in a November 23, 1946 Business Week cover story. Born in Wymore, he attended the local schools, graduated from  the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1912, and earned a law degree from Harvard University three years later. Consult Current Biography (1949) 247-248 and National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 49 (1966) 4-6.

Paul Henderson III (1939-    ), journalist and private investigator, has had a long career as a reporter in which he received numerous awards, including the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for local investigative reporting at the Seattle Times. Born in Washington D.C., he lived in Beatrice, where he attended elementary school,  and graduated from high school in 1957 from Wentworth Military Academy in Missouri and its Junior College in 1959 from Wentworth Military Academy in Missouri. After three years in the military service, he continued his education at Creighton and Omaha Universities, and began his journalistic career at Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha. Consult Contemporary Authors, Vol. 144 (Gale, July 9, 1994) 192.

Josie Walker Hinds (1873-1984) was ranked as the 379th longest-lived person in the world in validation studies released on September 12, 2002 by scholars affiliated with Gerontology Research Group. She was one of 15 persons with Nebraska connections to reach 110 or above. Born October 6, 1873 at Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, she lived at Odell from 1883 to 1925, where she graduated from high school and married banker Charles N. Hinds. She died on March 30, 1984 in Furnas County, Nebraska at the age of 110 years and 176 days. Consult "Nebraska's Centenarians Age 107 or Above-1867 to 2001," Crete News April 24, 2002 supplement p. S-12 and Crete News October 2, 2002, p. C-1.

Harry Weldon Kees (1914-1955), poet and journalist, compared favorably with poet Edward Arlington Robinson. He published three volumes of poetry, 57 critical reviews in magazines such as Time, and 14 short stories, and engaged in abstract expressionist painting. He was born in Beatrice, where he graduated from high school in 1931. He attended Doane College for two years, one year at the University of Missouri, and his senior year at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he graduated in 1935. Kees disappeared in 1955 with speculation that he might have jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge or perhaps left the country. Consult American National Biography, Vol. 12 (Oxford University Press, 1999) 450-451 and James Reidel, Vanished Act: The Life and Art of Weldon Kees (University of Nebraska Press, 2003).

Charles L. Littel (1885-1966), educator and administrator, was one of the early pioneers of junior colleges in Washington and New Jersey, having served as founder and first superintendent of Centralia College (1925) and credited as co-founder of Yakima Valley (1928) and Grays Harbor (1930) Junior Colleges and founder and first president of Junior College of Bergen County, Teaneck, New Jersey (1933), now a branch of Fairleigh Dickinson University. Born at Bertrand, he graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1912, and served in Nebraska public schools from 1902 to 1922, including superintendent of Blue Springs in 1912-13. Consult New York Times, April 10, 1949, Sec. 4, p. 11 and Who Was Who in America, Vol. 7 (1981) 353.

Ummo F. Luebben (1867-1953), machinist and farmer, was known as inventor of the round hay baler, which he conceived with his brother in 1903, then patented in 1910, which revolutionized the laborious task of haying into a one-man, low-cost operation with a machine that automatically gathered the hay, rolled into a round bale, and ejected it; after he sold manufacturing rights on a royalty basis to Allis Chalmers in 1940, the company developed the basic concept into a new baler named the Roto-Baler, which was introduced to farmers in 1947. Born at Sheboygan, Wisconsin, he lived near Milford and in Lincoln and Omaha, and was associated with his brother in Beatrice from 1908 to 1913. Consult Beatrice Daily Express, April 3 and April 7, 1908, p. 1 and Sunday/ Omaha/ World Herald Magazine, October 3, 1943, p. C-5 and Beatrice Daily Sun, October 20, 1993, pp. A-1, A-2.

Walt Mason (1862-1939), journalist and humorist, was known for publishing verses under the heading "Uncle Walt" while at Emporia Gazette from 1907 to 1920 that appeared in more than two hundred newspapers that had a combined daily circulation of five million. He began his newspaper career at the Emporia Gazette and then wrote for the Lincoln Journal and from 1893 to 1907 for the Beatrice Daily Express before relocating to Emporia, Kansas. He published seven books, almost all collections of his verses. Consult American National Biography, Vol. 14 (Oxford University Press, 1999) 664-666 and Gage County Historical Society, The Quarterly Express, November 2002, pp. 2-3.

Harvey E. Newbranch (1875-1959), journalist and editor, had a 56-year association with the Omaha World Herald, and was recipient of the 1920 Pulitzer Prize for an editorial entitled "Law and the Judge" which opposed race rioters. During his tenure as editor and later as director, the circulation of the newspaper in creased from 35, 226 in 1905 to 241,396 in 1949, and a new World Herald Company building was dedicated by him in 1947. Born in Henry County, Iowa, he later attended public schools in Wymore, where he was editor of the Arbor State at age 16, then graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1896, the same year he became a writer with the Omaha newspaper. Consult National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 44 (1962) 288-289 and  Sunday /Omaha/ World Herald Magazine of the Midlands, April 7, 1985, pp. 6-7.

George W. Norris  (1861-1944), politician and lawyer, was known as the father of the Tennessee Valley Authority that made electricity available to rural America, and gained approval of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which ended "lame duck" sessions of Congress. During his 40 years as Congressman and Nebraska Senator, he appeared on the cover of Time, January 11, 1937, and was credited with approval of the Unicameral in the Nebraska Legislature in 1934 after the idea was discussed for 20 years. Born at Sandusky, Ohio, he relocated to Nebraska in 1885 to establish a law practice first in Beatrice, then six months later at Beaver City, where he became active in politics in 1892, and then moved to McCook, where he was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1902. In 1957, he was ranked as the greatest senator in American history in a nationwide poll of professional historians and political scientists. Consult Omaha World Herald Magazine, May 14, 1961, pp. 4-5 and Dictionary of American Biography, Sup. 3 (1973) 557-561 and American National Biography, Vol. 16 (1999) 499-501.

Algernon S. Paddock (1830-1897) was a two-term U.S. Senator who in 1891 introduced pure food bill legislation and was later vindicated by passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 with enforcement by a federal organization that became known in 1931 as the Food and Drug Administration. He was a valuable member of the Utah Commission, which was formed to allay the practice of polygamy through governmental process. He was also appointed by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln as secretary of Nebraska Territory from 1861 to 1867, but declined appointment by U.S. President Andrew Johnson in 1868 as governor of Wyoming. Born at Glens Falls, New York, he relocated to Omaha in 1857, where he became a lawyer and an active member of the new community. In 1872, he moved to Beatrice, where he was a businessman and resident the remainder of his life. Consult Beatrice Daily Express, October 18, 1897, p. 1 and Beatrice Daily Sun, June 19, 1925, pp. 1, 8 and Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. 14 (1934) 133.

Arthur S. Pearse (1877-1956), educator and zoologist, was one of the pioneer ecologists who taught at the University of Wisconsin and Duke University from 1912 to 1949, and founded the Marine Laboratory at Beaufort, North Carolina in 1938. He authored more than 150 papers and eight books, including the textbook Animal Ecology in 1926. Born at Crete, he lived in Beatrice, where he graduated from high school in 1895, then earned bachelor and master's degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1900 and 1904. His doctorate was from Harvard University in 1908. Consult his autobiography Adventure...Trying to Be a Zoologist (Duke University, 1952) and National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 47 (1965) 420-421.

Carroll G. Pearse (1858-1948), educator and administrator, was a distinguished superintendent of schools in Nebraska and Wisconsin from 1884 to 1913, president of Milwaukee State Normal School until 1922, and was one of four Nebraskans to date who served as president of the National Education Association (1911-1912). Born at Tabor, Iowa, he graduated from Doane College at Crete in 1884, and was superintendent of schools at Wilber, then Beatrice 1888 to 1895, followed by nine years in Omaha. From 1922 to 1941 he was a sales person with the publishers of Compton's Encyclopedia. Consult his biography by Louise Mears, Life and Times of Midwest Educator Carroll Gardner Pearse (Nebraska State Journal Printing, 1944) and National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 42 (1958) 180-181.

Robert B. Pirie (1905-1990) was an expert in naval aviation and carrier-force operations, serving with distinction during World War II in his supervision of missions on carrier flagships in the Pacific. He was the first head of the aviation department at U.S. Naval Academy, and achieved the rank of vice admiral in 1957.  For four years he was deputy chief of naval operations for the U.S. Department of Navy, and was inducted into the Naval Aviation Hall of Honor at Pensacola, Florida in 1986. Born at Wymore, he graduated from the local high school in 1922, then from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1926. Consult Omaha World Herald Magazine, December 7, 1958, pp. 3, 39 and November 20, 1960, pp. 20-21 and New York Times obituary, January 12, 1990, p. A-25.

Eugene M. Rhodes (1869-1934) was a notable Western novelist, publishing almost a dozen books about life in the southwest, emphasizing a romantic past, several of which were serialized in Saturday Evening Post from 1907 to 1926. He also published more than 30 short stories, nearly 50 essays, and almost 50 poems. Born at Tecumseh, he and his family lived in Beatrice from 1871 to 1873, and then moved to Kansas and later to New Mexico, where he became an accomplished horseman and independent rancher. After more than 20 years at Appalachian, New York, he returned to New Mexico. Consult American National Biography, Vol. 18 (1999) 398-399 and Dictionary of Literary Biography: Twentieth Century American Western Writers, 3rd series, Vol. 26 (Gale, 2002) 248-261.

Leona Petsch Schnuelle (1904-1988), teacher and homemaker, was known for creating family recipes, and was grand prize winner in the 1960 Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest for her Dilly Casserole Bread Recipe; based on consumer popularity, her recipe was one of ten inducted in 1999 into the newly established Pillsbury Bake-Off Hall of Fame in a ceremony held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC; contest memorabilia, including cookbooks, were donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History so researchers may study cooking trends in American culture. Born near Hollenberg, Kansas, she taught in Jefferson county, lived near Harbine and Crab Orchard, then lived in Beatrice from 1965 to 1985. Consult obituary in Beatrice Daily Sun, September 28, 1988, p. A-7 and article of May 25, 1999, pp. A-1, A-3 and Omaha World Herald, May 26, 1999, pp. 49-50.

Alexander J. Stoddard (1889-1965) was an innovative leader who chaired the Educational Policies Commission for a decade, advised General Douglas MacArthur in the organization of the Japanese school system after World War II, and was one of the pioneers of the use of television as a teaching device. He was superintendent of schools at Providence, Rhode Island for eight years, Denver, Colorado for two years, Philadelphia for nine years, and Los Angeles for six years. Born at Auburn, Nebraska, he served as principal there for two years, then superintendent at Newman Grove and Havelock, and at Beatrice from 1915 to 1922 before relocating to schools in New York until 1929 when he moved to Providence. A 1910 graduate of Peru State College, he also earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1922. For 45 years he was a public school administrator. Consult Saturday Review, May 20, 1961, pp. 56-57, 71 and New York Times obituary, October 19, 1965, p. 43.

Edward W. Washburn (1881-1934), chemist and educator, was known for isolating the constituents of petroleum more accurately and completely than had been done before, for producing crystals of rubber, and for providing the first method used in preparing "heavy water" in quantity after his colleague Harold C. Urey discovered the isotope of hydrogen called Deuterium. The latter resulted in the new field of atomic chemistry, and awarding of the 1934 Nobel Prize to Urey the same year Washburn died. Washburn was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1932. Born in Beatrice, where he graduated from high school in 1899, he attended the University of Nebraska for one year, and then taught at McCook High School for two years before earning his bachelor's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1905 and his doctorate in 1908. He taught at the University of Illinois until 1922, compiled the International Critical Tables of Numerical Data of Physics, Chemistry and Technology (1926), and then was chief chemist at the National Bureau of Standards at Washington D.C. Consult American National Biography, Vol. 22 (1999) 743-744.

Kenneth S. Wherry  (1892-1951), lawyer, businessman, and politician, was a two-term U.S. Senator known for authoring 1947 legislation that altered previous 1886 law on presidential succession to interpose Speaker of the House and president pro tem of the Senate between the Vice President and members of the cabinet, and for persuading the U.S. Congress in 1951 to approve the constitutional amendment limiting the presidency to two terms. He also advocated the importance of American air force superiority to the nation's security and deterrence to war, and was credited with locating headquarters of Strategic Air Command at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha in 1948. Born at Liberty, he lived in Pawnee City, where he attended school, then graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1914, after which he attended Harvard University for one year, then was a funeral director with offices in Nebraska and Kansas. Consult Current Biography (1946) 634-637 and American National Biography, Vol. 23 (1999) 155-156.

Joseph D. Williams (1926-    ), salesman and corporate executive, devoted a 46-year career to Warner-Lambert, manufacturer and marketer of pharmaceutical, consumer health care, and confectionary products that ranked among the 100 largest industrial companies in the United States before it merged with Pfizer in 2001; as president and CEO from 1979 to 1991, he eliminated non-core business and product lines, increased annual revenues from 2 to 5 billion dollars, and brought scientific discovery from laboratory to the marketplace, resulting in new products of much benefit to the world; recipient of many awards and recognized for fundraising by United Negro College Fund and other organizations. Born at Washington, Pennsylvania, he earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska in 1950, and was a Parke-Davis salesman in Beatrice until 1955. Consult Wall Street Journal, November 28, 1984, p. 18 and Forbes, November 17, 1986, pp. 178, 180 and International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 10 (St. James Press, 1995) 549-552 and Omaha World Herald, February 12, 1994, pp. 23, 25.

For more information see 700 Famous Nebraskans.

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