INIndiana Famous People

No president has ever been born in Indiana. Six vice presidents came out of Indiana politics, a total second only to New York, which earned the state the nickname Mother of Vice Presidents back in the 19th century. The pattern holds further down the list. Indiana keeps turning out the person one step off centre: the brother who flew first, the candidate who lost, the high school team nobody expected.

Six vice presidents, one president and a borrowed Lincoln

Schuyler Colfax of South Bend was Speaker of the House before serving as Grant's vice president from 1869 to 1873. Thomas Hendricks, a former Indiana governor, took office under Grover Cleveland in March 1885 and died that November. Charles Fairbanks of Indianapolis served under Theodore Roosevelt from 1905 to 1909, and Fairbanks, Alaska carries his name. Thomas Marshall of North Manchester served two full terms under Wilson, Dan Quayle of Indianapolis one under George H. W. Bush, and Mike Pence, born in Columbus in 1959, one under Donald Trump. Only Marshall, Quayle and Pence were born in the state.

Benjamin Harrison was born in North Bend, Ohio in 1833 and moved to Indianapolis at twenty one to practise law. He raised and commanded the 70th Indiana Infantry, went to the Senate as an Indiana Republican and served as president from 1889 to 1893, the only man whose grandfather had also held the job.

Indiana's better claim is on Lincoln. The family crossed the Ohio River in December 1816, the month Indiana entered the Union, and settled at Little Pigeon Creek in Spencer County. His mother Nancy died there of milk sickness in 1818, when he was nine. The family left for Illinois in March 1830, so Lincoln spent the years from seven to twenty one in Indiana, longer than he lived anywhere else.

Eugene Debs, Wendell Willkie and the candidates who lost

Eugene Debs was born in Terre Haute on November 5, 1855 and left school at fourteen to scrape paint off locomotives. He helped found the American Railway Union, went to jail over the 1894 Pullman strike, came out a socialist and ran for president five times. In 1920 he campaigned from a cell in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, serving a sentence under the Espionage Act, and collected roughly 913,000 votes.

Wendell Willkie was born in Elwood in 1892, ran a utility holding company, had never held elected office and won the Republican nomination in 1940 on the sixth ballot. He accepted it that August before an enormous crowd in Elwood, then lost to Roosevelt and spent the rest of the war working for him as an envoy.

Basketball is most of the state's biography

John Wooden was born in Hall in 1910, won a state title with Martinsville High School in 1927, was a three time All American guard at Purdue, and later won ten NCAA championships in twelve years at UCLA. Oscar Robertson grew up in Indianapolis and led Crispus Attucks to the 1955 state title, the first all Black high school in Indiana to win it. Larry Bird was born in West Baden Springs in 1956, grew up in French Lick, lasted less than a month at Indiana University, and took Indiana State to the 1979 final against Michigan State. And Milan High School, with an enrolment of about 161, won the single class state tournament in 1954 on a last second shot by Bobby Plump, which is the true story underneath Hoosiers.

Inventors, astronauts and one founder in a white suit

Wilbur Wright was born on a farm near Millville on April 16, 1867. The family moved to Dayton, where Orville arrived four years later, so the two brothers were born in different states. Gus Grissom of Mitchell became the second American in space in July 1961, commanded Gemini 3, the first flight to change its own orbit, and died in the Apollo 1 fire in January 1967. Madam C.J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove in Louisiana, moved her hair care business to Indianapolis in 1910 and built a factory and training school there. Eli Lilly opened his laboratory on Pearl Street in Indianapolis in 1876. Harland Sanders, the colonel on every bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, was born in Henryville, Indiana on September 9, 1890. Orville Redenbacher of Brazil, Indiana spent decades at Purdue and after it breeding a better popping corn.

Gary, Fairmount, Peru: musicians, writers, a movie star

Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958 in a two bedroom house at 2300 Jackson Street in Gary, the eighth of ten children, and the Jackson 5 rehearsed in it. Cole Porter was born in Peru on June 9, 1891 and is buried there. Hoagy Carmichael wrote Stardust around Bloomington in 1927 while drifting between law school and the piano. John Mellencamp came from Seymour, Axl Rose from Lafayette.

James Dean was born in Marion on February 8, 1931, raised on his aunt's farm in Fairmount, made three lead performances and is buried back in Fairmount. Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922 and wrote the city into his novels for fifty years. Ernie Pyle of Dana won a Pulitzer in 1944 for his reporting from the infantry and was killed on Ie Shima in April 1945. Steve McQueen was born in Beech Grove in 1930. David Letterman started as an Indianapolis weatherman. Jim Davis grew up on a Fairmount farm surrounded by cats and drew the first Garfield strip in 1978.

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