Freeport

Daniel J. Balz is a journalist at The Washington Post, where he has been a political correspondent since 1978. Balz has served as National Editor,... Political Editor, White House correspondent and as the Washington Post’s Texas-based Southwest correspondent. Balz sometimes appears on the news show Meet the Press and frequently appears on the PBS program Washington Week. In April 2011 the White House Correspondents' Association honored Balz with the prestigious Merriman Smith Award for excellence in presidential coverage under deadline pressure. Balz is co-author, with Ronald Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times, of the 1996 book Storming the Gates: Protest Politics and the Republican Revival. In 1999, Balz received the American Political Science Association award for political coverage. Balz's latest work, co-written with Pulitzer Prize winner Haynes Johnson in 2009, is The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election" about the 2008 campaign, is based on two years of reporting, and includes exclusive interviews with President Obama, Senator John McCain and many of the top advisers to the major candidates in the 2008 election.
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Louella Parsons was the first American movie columnist. She was retained by William Randolph Hearst, possibly because she had praised Hearst's... mistress Marion Davies, and her columns were read by 20 million people in 400 newspapers worldwide. Parsons possessed an uncanny gift for sensing scandal, and her dramatic scoops could make or break an actor's career. She remained the unchallenged Queen of Hollywood until the arrival of Hedda Hopper, who displayed similar talents, and with whom she feuded viciously for years. She was born Louella Rose Oettinger in Freeport, Illinois, the daughter of Joshua Oettinger and Helen Stein, both of German Jewish descent. She had two brothers, Edwin and Fred, and a sister, Rae. In 1890, her widowed mother married John H. Edwards. They lived in Dixon, Illinois, later hometown of Ronald Reagan. As a teenager, Louella was a smart and intelligent young woman. She found little literary outlets to fuel her ambitions. It wasn't until high school that Louella decided to become a writer or a reporter. On June 4, 1901 at her high school graduation, Louella gave foretelling speech entitled “Great Men”.
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Richard Wayne Dirksen was an American musician and composer, who served as Organist and Choirmaster of the Washington National Cathedral in... Washington, D.C., from 1977 to 1988. Previously he was Assistant Organist and Choirmaster from 1942 to 1964. In 1969, Dirksen was named the cathedral's precentor, giving him administrative oversight of all worship services until his retirement in 1991. Dirksen composed extensively, mostly choral and organ works, and his music continues to be regularly featured on broadcasts from the Cathedral. His 1974 opus, Vineyard Haven, has been called "widely acclaimed as one of the finest hymn tunes of our day", by editors of hymnology. Dirksen was born in Freeport, Illinois, the eldest son of Richard Watson Dirksen and Maude Logemann. In high school, he played the bassoon and was a drum major. Awarded a scholarship, he then studied organ at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory under Virgil Fox, graduating magna cum laude in June, 1942. While still studying at Peabody, Dirksen became assistant organist to Paul Callaway at the Washington National Cathedral in February, 1942.
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Bruce Mitchell was an actor.

Don Taylor was an American movie actor and director. He co-starred in 1950s classics like Stalag 17 and Father of the Bride, and the 1948 film noir... The Naked City. He later turned to directing films such as Escape from the Planet of the Apes , Tom Sawyer , and Damien: Omen II . Born in Freeport, Pennsylvania, on December 13, 1920, Taylor studied speech and drama at Penn State University and hitchhiked to Hollywood in 1942. He was signed as a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and appeared in small roles. Drafted into the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, he appeared in the Air Forces's Winged Victory Broadway play and movie , credited as "Cpl. Don Taylor." After discharge from the AAF, Taylor was cast in a lead role as the young detective, Jimmy Halloran, working alongside veteran homicide detective Dan Muldoon in Universal's 1948 screen version of The Naked City, which was notable for being filmed entirely on the streets of New York. Taylor was later part of the ensemble cast in MGM's classic WW2 infantry comedy/drama Battleground .
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Daniel J. Balz is a journalist at The Washington Post, where he has been a political correspondent since 1978. Balz has served as National Editor,... Political Editor, White House correspondent and as the Washington Post’s Texas-based Southwest correspondent. Balz sometimes appears on the news show Meet the Press and frequently appears on the PBS program Washington Week. In April 2011 the White House Correspondents' Association honored Balz with the prestigious Merriman Smith Award for excellence in presidential coverage under deadline pressure. Balz is co-author, with Ronald Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times, of the 1996 book Storming the Gates: Protest Politics and the Republican Revival. In 1999, Balz received the American Political Science Association award for political coverage. Balz's latest work, co-written with Pulitzer Prize winner Haynes Johnson in 2009, is The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election" about the 2008 campaign, is based on two years of reporting, and includes exclusive interviews with President Obama, Senator John McCain and many of the top advisers to the major candidates in the 2008 election.
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Ravi Patel is an American actor. Patel was born in Freeport, Illinois of East Indian ancestry. He graduated from the school of The University of... North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001. Since the fall of 2008, Patel has appeared in a role as George Patil on The CW's Easy Money. In 2010, Patel starred in Past Life on Fox and is set to star in his own Fox sitcom pilot opposite Rachel Leigh Cook.
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