To the editor:

Thank you so much for the wonderful and most appropriate tribute to the legendary Jimmy Stewart in Saturday’s Journal World.

However, Jimmy was not a Hoosier … he was born and raised in the beautiful western Pennsylvania town of Indiana, Pa. I grew up in Lucernemines, six miles south of Indiana, and have many fond memories of Mr. Stewart. His father, Alex, had a hardware store on Philadelphia Street and displayed many mementos of Jimmy’s military and acting careers, to include his Oscar. His dad also owned race horses – trotters and pacers – who raced at the Indiana County Fair every August. My favorite was Sister Dale – a gray trotter – whose jockey Torgey Patterson was from our hometown.

Jimmy was on the cover of Life Magazine in September of 1945 in his Army Air Corps uniform sitting in front of the Indiana County Courthouse. Today if you visit Indiana, Pa., you will know you are in Jimmy Stewart’s hometown. The local airport is named after him, a life-size sculpture of him stands in front of the new courthouse, and the Jimmy Stewart Museum is located on Philadelphia Street across from the former location of his dad’s hardware store. Yes, Jimmy Stewart was a native of Indiana, Pa., our most famous citizen. And we Indiana Countians will be forever proud of this great American.

And by the way, Indiana, Pa., was incorporated in 1803. Indiana did not achieve statehood until 1815.

Bernie Kish,

Lawrence