Steve Tarter / WCBU
Small towns across the country looking to brand their community have learned the importance of recalling hometown heroes.
In Illinois, Eureka celebrates the fact that movie actor and former president Ronald Reagan attended college there while Springfield has long been identified as the home of Abraham Lincoln.
Famous authors are also recalled. Hannibal, Mo. has developed its tourism campaign as the boyhood home of Mark Twain.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of “The Little House on the Prairie” series, is honored in five different states with museums or little-house replicas. You can find places to visit in Mansfield, Mo., Walnut Grove, Minn., Pepin, Wis., De Smet, S.D. and Independence, Kan. Towns like Chester in southern Illinois, where Elzie Crisler Segar was raised, honor the comic-strip artist s creation, Popeye, with statues all over town of Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto and the whole gang.
WCBU s On Deck has everything you need to know to start your day for Monday, April 5, 2021. Our top story is about how four Bradley seniors have launched the Bring the Beat program to add music to an after-school program at the Proctor Center. You ll also hear how small towns across the country looking to brand their community have learned the importance of recalling hometown heroes. So it should come as no surprise that Chillicothe refers to Johnston McCulley, the creator of Zorro as the town s master storyteller. WCBU correspondent Steve Tarter spoke with Dianne Colwell of the Chillicothe Historical Society.