Giorgio de Chirico (1888 - 1978)

De Chirico was born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. After studying art in Athens—mainly under the guidance of the influential Greek painter Georgios Roilos and Georgios Jakobides—and Florence, he moved to Germany in 1906, following his father’s death in 1905. He entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he read the writings of the philosophers Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer and Otto Weininger and studied the […]

Al Hirschfeld (1903 - 2003)

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he moved with his family to New York City, where he received his art training at the Art Students League of New York.  In 1943, he married Dolly Haas (1910–1994); they had one child, a daughter, Nina (b. 1945).  In 1996, he married Louise Kerz, a theatre historian. In 1924, Hirschfeld traveled to Paris […]

Claude Monet (1840 - 1926)

Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840 on the 5th floor of 45 rue Laffitte, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. He was the second son of Claude Adolphe Monet and Louise Justine Aubrée Monet, both of them second-generation Parisians. On 20 May 1841, he was baptized in the local parish church, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, as Oscar-Claude, but his parents called him […]

Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)

Picasso was baptised Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad, a series of names honouring various saints and relatives. Added to these were Ruiz and Picasso, for his father and mother, respectively, as per Spanish law. Born in the city of Málaga in the Andalusian region of Spain, he was the […]

Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987)

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (né Andrej Varhola, Jr.) was born on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the fourth child of Andrej Varhola (Americanized as Andrew Warhola, Sr., 1889–1942) and Júlia (née Zavacká, 1892–1972), whose first child was born in their homeland and died before their move to the U.S. Andy had two older brothers, Paul (June 26, 1922 […]

Kitty Wells (1919 - 2012)

Kitty Wells Wells was born Ellen Muriel Deason in 1919 in Nashville, Tennessee, one of the few country singers born in Nashville. She began singing as a child, learning guitar from her father, who was a brakeman on the Tennessee Central Railroad. Her father, Charles, and his brother were musicians and her mother, Myrtle, was […]

Keith Whitley (1954 - 1989)

Whitley was born to Faye (editor of The Elliott County News) and Elmer Whitley (an electrician) in Ashland, Kentucky, but was raised 46 miles away in Sandy Hook, and attended Sandy Hook High School. He had two brothers, Randy and Dwight, and a sister, Mary. The Whitley family has lived in the Elliot County area […]

Tammy Wynette (1942 - 1998)

Tammy Wynette was born Virginia Wynette Pugh in Bounds, Mississippi, a small town in Itawamba County, Mississippi, the only child of William Hollice Pugh (died February 13, 1943) and Mildred Faye Russell Pugh (1922–1991).  Wynette’s father was a farmer and local musician who died of a brain tumor when Wynette was nine months of age. […]

Marty Robbins (1925 - 1982)

Robbins was born in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix in Maricopa County, Arizona. His mother was mostly of Paiute Indian heritage. Robbins was reared in a difficult family situation. His father took odd jobs to support the family of 10 children, but his drinking led to divorce in 1937. Among his warmer memories of his […]

Dottie West (1932 - 1991)

Born Dorothy Marie Marsh outside McMinnville, Tennessee, she was the oldest of 10 children of Hollis and Pelina Marsh. The family soon moved to a bigger, better house, but like many rural families at the time, the family was still so poor they lacked electricity and indoor plumbing and had to make their own soap […]

Buck Owens (1929 - 2006)

Owens was born on a farm in Sherman, Texas, to Alvis Edgar Owens, Sr. and his wife, Maicie Azel Ellington. Midway Mall, at 4800 Texoma Parkway, now sits where his father’s farm once was. (U.S. Highway 82 through Sherman was named Buck Owens Freeway in his honor).  “‘Buck’ was a donkey on the Owens farm,” […]

Patsy Cline (1932 - 1963)

Patsy Cline Cline was born Virginia Patterson Hensley in 1932, in Winchester, Virginia, to Hilda Patterson Hensley, a 16-year-old seamstress, and Sam Hensley, a 43-year-old blacksmith. Patsy soon had a younger brother and sister, Samuel and Sylvia; the siblings were called Ginny, John, and Sis. The family moved often before settling in Winchester when Patsy […]

John Adams (1735 - 1826)

John Adams Adams, the eldest of three sons, was born on October 30, 1735 (October 19, 1735 Old Style, Julian calendar), in what is now Quincy, Massachusetts (then called the “north precinct” of Braintree, Massachusetts), to John Adams, Sr., and Susanna Boylston Adams. Adams’s birthplace is now part of Adams National Historical Park. His father […]

Hank Williams Sr. (1923 - 1953)

Hank Williams Sr Williams’s parents, Elonzo Huble “Lon” Williams and Jessie Lillybelle “Lillie” Skipper married on November 12, 1916. Hank Williams was of English-American ancestry. Elonzo Williams worked as an engineer for the railroads of the W.T. Smith lumber company. He was drafted during World War I, serving from July 1918 until June 1919. He […]

George Washington (1732 - 1799)

George Washington (February 22, 1732  – December 14, 1799) was the first President of the United States (1789–1797), the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He presided over the convention that drafted the United States Constitution, which replaced the Articles of […]

Mindy McCready (1975 - 2013)

Mindy McCready Born Malinda Gayle McCready in Fort Myers, Florida, McCready began singing in her local Pentecostal church at age three, and graduated from high school at the age of 16 with the intention of beginning her music career early.  When she was 18, she moved to Nashville, where she was signed by BNA Records. […]

Jimmy Dean (1928 - 2010)

Dean was born in Plainview, Texas, in 1928 the son of George Otto Dean, and his second wife Ruth (née Taylor) Dean. He attributed his interest in music to the Seth Ward Baptist Church. He dropped out of high school and became a professional entertainer after a stint in the Air Force in the late […]

Janette Carter (1923 - 2006)

Janette Carter (2 July 1923, Maces Spring, Virginia – 22 January 2006, Kingsport, Tennessee) was the last surviving child of A.P. and Sara Carter, of Carter Family musical fame. In 1976, she and community members built an 880-seat amphitheater, the Carter Family Fold, beside the store her father operated in Southwestern Virginia. Today, the Carter […]

Jack Clement (1931 - 2013)

Raised and educated in Memphis, Clement was performing at an early age, playing guitar and Dobro; before embarking on his music career he served in the Marines. In 1953, he made his first record for the Sheraton label in Boston, Massachusetts but did not immediately pursue a full-time career in music, instead choosing to study […]

Ann Davis (1926 - 2014)

Ann Davis Davis was born in Schenectady, New York, the daughter of Marguerite (née Stott) and Cassius Miles Davis. She had an identical twin, Harriet, and an older brother, Evans.  When Davis was three, she and her family moved to Erie in northwestern Pennsylvania. She graduated from Strong Vincent High School and later from the […]

June Carter Cash (1929 - 2003)

June Carter Cash June Carter Cash was born Valerie June Carter in Maces Spring, Virginia, to Maybelle Carter and Ezra Carter. She was born into country music and performed with the Carter Family from the age of ten, beginning in 1939. In March 1943, when the Carter Family trio stopped recording together at the end […]

Johnny Cash (1932 - 2003)

Johnny Cash Born Feb. 26th, 1932, in Kingsland, Ark., Johnny Cash was born John R. Cash, one of seven children belonging to Ray and Carrie Rivers Cash. When John was 3 years old, his father took advantage of a new Roosevelt farm program and moved his young family to Dyess Colony in northeast Arkansas. There […]

Eddy Arnold (1918 - 2008)

Eddy Arnold Arnold was born on May 15, 1918 on a farm near Henderson, Tennessee. His father, a sharecropper, played the fiddle, while his mother played guitar. As a boy Arnold helped on the farm, which later gained him his nickname—the Tennessee Plowboy. Arnold attended Pinson High School in Pinson, Tennessee, where he played guitar […]

Maya Angelou (1928 - 2014)

Maya Angelou Dr. Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.  Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Angelou was raised in […]

Jim Fregosi (1942 - 2014)

A right-handed batter, Fregosi is one of many notable alumni of Junípero Serra High School of San Mateo, California, and was signed by the Boston Red Sox in 1960. The same year he was selected by the Angels in the 1960 MLB Expansion Draft, and made his debut in September 1961. After hitting .291 as […]

Nelson Mandela (1918 - 2013)

Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei, on July 18, 1918, to Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, principal counsellor to the Acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo.  His father died when he was 12 years old (1930) and the young Rolihlahla became a ward of Jongintaba at […]

Paul Walker (1973 - 2013)

Paul Walker Walker was born in Glendale, California, and was the son of Cheryl (née Crabtree), a fashion model, and Paul William Walker III, a sewer contractor and a fighter who was a two-time Golden Gloves champion, His ancestry was mostly English, with a smaller amount of German. His paternal grandfather, a professional boxer, had […]

Jimmy Ellis (1940 - 2014)

He was born one of ten children. Father Walter was a Pastor and Jimmy grew up a devout christian. As a teenager Ellis worked in a cement finishing factory. He also had an interest in music and became a good singer in the local Church choir, years later wife Mary would join him. He continued […]

Mickey Rooney (1920 - 2014)

Mickey Rooney Rooney was born Joseph Yule, Jr. in Brooklyn, New York on September 23, 1920, the only child of vaudevillians Joe Yule (born Ninian Joseph Ewell; a native of Glasgow, Scotland) and Nellie W. Carter, a native of Kansas City, Missouri. At the time of their son’s birth, they were appearing in a Brooklyn […]

Henry Fonda (1905 - 1982)

The Fonda surname originated with immigrants from Genoa, Italy, to the Netherlands, in the 15th century. In 1642, a branch of the Fonda family immigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland, on the East Coast of North America. They were among the first Dutch population to settle in what is now upstate New York, […]