Famous names have called Lawrence area ‘home’

One thing that makes Lawrence special is its people — an ever-changing assortment of experts, innovators, athletes and oddballs.

Some are better known than others.

Srinija Srinivasan, a Lawrence High School graduate, went on to fame in the 1990s by becoming the world’s best-paid librarian as editor-in-chief of Yahoo Inc. But don’t forget that Lawrence also is the home of Roger Holden, whose claim to fame was inventing the technology used to film books on the PBS show “Reading Rainbow.”

Here are just a few of the interesting and influential people who have called Lawrence home in the past 150 years.

Lucy Hobbs Taylor

Hobbs Taylor was the first woman in the world to receive the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. She moved to Lawrence in 1867 and practiced dentistry with her husband here for more than 40 years, much of it in a building at what is now 809 Vt.

Langston Hughes

The acclaimed Harlem Renaissance poet spent his boyhood years in Lawrence, where he lived at both 732 Ala. and 731 N.Y. At Central School, where his teacher seated all black students in the same row, he got into trouble with the principal for placing a sign reading “Jim Crow Row” on his desk.

Billy Mills

Vietnam War (1962-1975)Donald R. Bowman, Richard E. Boyd, Raymond V. Browning, James R. Cooper, Leroy R. Delbert, William R. Dennis III, Donald E. Dillon, David P. Gibson, Russell L. Harris, Lynnford H. Higley, Mark R. Holtom, Gary D. Johnson, Lonnie G. LeBombard, Timothy A. Mohler, Glenn E. Nicholson, Arlen D. Richardson, Lonnie D. Snow and Loyd M. Wilson.Police deathsAllen Moore (1901), Wilson Pringle (1909) and Melvin Howe (1931).Fire deathsLarry Lee Riggs (1969) and Mark M. Blair (1986).Other Cold War era deathTimothy M. Harris (1986).

Mills, who attended Kansas University and Haskell Institute, shocked the world in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics by becoming the first and only American runner to win the gold medal in the 10,000 meters. He went on to become a speaker and mentor for American Indian youths.

William S. Burroughs

The beat-generation writer whose best-known work was “Naked Lunch” lived his last years in a modest home on Learnard Avenue in east Lawrence. Earlier this year, a creek that runs past the home was renamed in his honor.

Elizabeth Watkins

This local bank employee caused a stir in November 1909 when she went to New York and secretly married her wealthy boss, Jabez Bunting Watkins, the most famous financier in Kansas at the time. She went on to become a prominent philanthropist who donated money to help build up the Kansas University campus and create a city hospital.

Jim Brothers

This prominent present-day sculptor’s works include the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va. He also plays instruments including washboard, whistles and guns for the Alferd Packer Memorial String Band, known for playing a late-night concert each tax day at the main post office.

Clyde Tombaugh

Tombaugh was one of the stars of the astronomy world when he attended KU in the mid-1930s. He received a scholarship to KU after winning fame in 1930 by discovering Pluto as a 24-year-old amateur astronomer. An observatory on campus still bears his name.

Wilt Chamberlain

The most dominant basketball player of his era — and perhaps of all time — played at KU in the mid-1950s and even hosted his own student-radio show. He returned to campus in 1998 to have his jersey retired.

Stan Herd

This Lawrence resident is known internationally for building crop artwork visible from thousands of feet above. Lately he’s made headlines for a plan to thaw U.S.-Cuba relations by building one of his “earthworks” in Havana.