If that ain’t enough:
Perhaps our greatest claim to fame is Marion Michael Morrison, a.k.a. John Wayne, who lived in Earlham as a boy in the early 1900s. He attended school in the Earlham Academy Building that is now owned by the Earlham Historical Society, and his father, Clyde, owned a pharmacy in Earlham until poor health forced the family to move west.
JOHN WAYNE lived there!
My wife is from a Mississippi ever town on the Illinois side.
It’s like a different planet, people are connected.
Not necessarily best friends or kin but they are connected.
Most families have lived in the area for generations.
When my elderly mother in law was in a home for Alzheimer’s, it was always Mr. M’s wife, everyone knew my father in law.
And they took very good care of her, even though she was a war bride from Milwaukee after WWII.
Going out to eat was always interesting. Stand up every couple of minutes to be introduced ... not much time to eat!