Vincennes

The Old State Bank is a historic Jeffersonian-style bank building in Decatur, Alabama, United States. It was recorded by the Historic American... Buildings Survey in 1934 and 1935. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 24, 1972, due to its architectural significance. The Decatur branch of the Alabama State Bank opened its doors on July 29, 1833. It was authorized by the Alabama General Assembly in 1830 to be one of three branches of the Alabama State Bank. After outstanding debts of over $1 million dollars were unable to be reformed the Decatur branch franchise was revoked. The building remained vacant until the 1860s when it was one of three buildings that survived the Civil War in Decatur, Alabama. During the Battle of Decatur, the bank was used as headquarters for the Union forces in the area, and was also used as a hospital while battles raged outside. Such evidence of the battle remains in the form of visible bloodstains in one of the three vaults, slugs from musketfire, and Minie balls are still clearly seen in the walls of the building. In 1881, the First National Bank opened its doors in the Old State Bank building.
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Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American entertainer best known for being a national radio and television comedian between 1937 and 1971.... Skelton, who has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, began his show business career in his teens as a circus clown and continued on vaudeville and Broadway and in films, radio, TV, night clubs, and casinos, all while he pursued an entirely separate career as an artist. Born in Vincennes, Indiana, Richard Skelton was the fourth son of Ida Mae and Joseph E. Skelton . Joseph, a grocer, died two months before his last child was born; he had once been a clown with the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. In Skelton's lifetime there was some dispute about the year of his birth. Author Wesley Hyatt suggests that since Skelton began working at such an early age, he may have had to say he was older than he actually was in order to work. Because of the loss of his father, young Richard went to work at the age of seven, selling newspapers to help his family. He quickly learned the newsboy's patter and would keep it up until a prospective buyer bought a copy of the paper just to quiet young Skelton.
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Buck Jones was an American motion picture star of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, best known for his work starring in many popular western movies. In... his early film appearances, he was billed as Charles Jones. Charles Frederick Gebhart was born on the outskirts of Vincennes, Indiana on December 12, 1891. In 1907, Jones joined the US Army at age sixteen, after his mother signed a release form authorizing his enlistment. He was initially assigned to Troop G, 6th Cavalry Regiment. He served in combat and was wounded in the Philippine islands during the Moro Rebellion, deploying there in October 1907, returning to the U.S. in December 1909. He was honorably discharged that same year, at Fort McDowell, California. Jones had an affection for racecars and the racing industry, and became close friends with early racecar driver Harry Stillman. Due to his association with Stillman, he began working for the Marmon Motor Company, where he test drove many of their vehicles. However, by 1910 he had re-enlisted in the US Army.
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Jane Nossette Jarvis was an American jazz pianist. She was also known for her work as a composer, a baseball stadium organist and a recording... industry executive. She was born in Vincennes, Indiana to Charles and Luella Nossette. Jarvis was recognized as a piano prodigy at the age of five and she studied under a Vincennes University professor as a young girl. Her family moved to Gary, Indiana soon afterward, and Jarvis was hired to play the piano at radio station WJKS in Gary in 1927. At the age of 13, she was orphaned when her parents died in a train-auto wreck and she returned to Vincennes, graduating from high school in 1932. By then, she had already studied music at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, the Bush Conservatory of Music, Loyola University Chicago and DePauw University. By 1954, Jarvis was on television at station WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, hosting a show called "Jivin' with Jarvis" while serving as staff pianist and organist. At the time, the Milwaukee Braves had just relocated from Boston and sought out Jarvis to be the organist at Milwaukee County Stadium. In a 1984 interview, Jarvis told John S.
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Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American entertainer best known for being a national radio and television comedian between 1937 and 1971.... Skelton, who has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, began his show business career in his teens as a circus clown and continued on vaudeville and Broadway and in films, radio, TV, night clubs, and casinos, all while he pursued an entirely separate career as an artist. Born in Vincennes, Indiana, Richard Skelton was the fourth son of Ida Mae and Joseph E. Skelton . Joseph, a grocer, died two months before his last child was born; he had once been a clown with the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. In Skelton's lifetime there was some dispute about the year of his birth. Author Wesley Hyatt suggests that since Skelton began working at such an early age, he may have had to say he was older than he actually was in order to work. Because of the loss of his father, young Richard went to work at the age of seven, selling newspapers to help his family. He quickly learned the newsboy's patter and would keep it up until a prospective buyer bought a copy of the paper just to quiet young Skelton.
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William Edward "Bill" Phipps is a retired American actor and producer, perhaps best known for his roles in dozens of classic sci-fi and westerns,... both film and television, from the late 1940s through the mid-1960s. From then until his retirement in 2000, his work was mainly in television. Phipps grew up in St. Francisville, Illinois, and by high school he was using his stepfather's last name of Couch. He developed a love of acting at a young age, performing in several plays in grade school and high school. One of the plays he was in, during his junior year of high school in 1937, was "Before Morning", a 1933 play which was made into a movie that same year. After graduating high school in 1939, he attended Eastern Illinois University as an accounting major. He was voted freshman class president and served as head cheerleader. After two years of college, he moved to Hollywood to pursue a career in acting, and went back to his original last name of Phipps. During that same year, the United States entered into World War II, and Phipps enlisted in the US Navy, serving as a radio operator on several ships all across the Pacific.
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