Illinois

Jane Addams

(1860-1935)

Social Reformer

Fame-O-Meter-8/10

Resting Place-Cedarville Cemetery, Cedarville

GPS Coordinates-

42°22'59.8"N, 89°38'28.4"W

She was a feminist. She was a pacifist. She was a reformer. She was a Nobel Prize winner. Jane Addams believed in helping people. She helped found Hull House in Chicago, specifically to help people in areas that needed extra attention. Hull House started small, providing the community with services such as day care, employment bureaus, citizenship classes, and public health clinics. Soon, Hull House had expanded, and the services were helping more than 10,000 people per week in the Chicago area. Addams herself was pushing for women's suffrage, becoming a charter member of the NAACP, helping establish the nation's first juvenile court system, working to ban child labor, and also fought to protect and expand unions. She would go on to win many awards for her life of civic reform, but none greater than the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize. She became the first American woman to win the award.

Urban "Red" Faber

(1888-1976)

Baseball Player

Fame-O-Meter-2/10

Resting Place-Acacia Park Cemetery and Mausoleum, Norridge

GPS Coordinates-

41°57'17.2"N, 87°49'51.1"W

"Red" Faber was a Hall of Fame Major League Baseball player who spent most of his career with the Chicago White Sox. He led the league in many stats including complete games, ERA, and innings pitched. He was one of the final three legal spitball pitchers in MLB, having been grandfathered into being allowed to use the pitch after it was outlawed in 1920.

Enrico Fermi

(1901-1954)

Physicist

Fame-O-Meter-4/10

Resting Place-Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago

GPS Coordinates-

41°46'17.4"N, 87°35'48.1"W

Enrico Fermi was a genius when it came to physics. He helped lead the construction of the world's first nuclear reactor (Chicago Pile-1) as well as helped develop the atomic bomb. He was a leader in the infamous Manhattan Project, but before that he was already the recipient of the Nobel Prize for his work. He also is the namesake of the Fermi Paradox, which asks simply, "Where is everybody?" in relation to why the universe is so large and yet there is no proof of anything living being out there. 

Andrew "Rube" Foster

(1879-1930)

Baseball Player

Fame-O-Meter-2/10

Resting Place-Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island

GPS Coordinates-

41°40'15.8"N, 87°42'05.4"W

Andrew "Rube" Foster was a Hall of Fame pitcher who also helped found the National Negro League in 1920.  He once beat white superstar Rube Waddell in an exhibition game, earning himself the nickname "The Black Rube," which stuck for his entire life. He was a player, a manager, a commissioner, and an executive in various Negro leagues. He sadly didn't live long enough to see integration of black players into Major League Baseball, but he made it viable for black athletes such as Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson to do what they loved at a time when they weren't accepted.

William "Big Bill" Haywood

(1869-1928)

Labor Leader

Fame-O-Meter-3/10

Resting Place-Forest Home Cemetery, Forest Park

GPS Coordinates-

41°52'16.0"N, 87°50'09.5"W

"Big Bill" Haywood was known as the labor leader of the Industrial Workers of the World of IWW. Haywood was cremated and half of his ashes were scattered here near the memorial marker for the Haymarket Square Riot victims and the other half in Moscow, Russia.

John Hughes

(1950-2009)

Director/Screenwriter/Producer

Fame-O-Meter-6/10

Resting Place-Lake Forest Cemetery, Lake Forest

GPS Coordinates-

42°16'02.3"N,  87°49'51.0"W

Hughes was known for helping create such wonderful films as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Home Alone, The Great Outdoors, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and many, many more.

Freddie Lindstrom

(1905-1981)

Baseball Player

Fame-O-Meter-3/10

Resting Place-All Saints Catholic Cemetery, Des Plaines

GPS Coordinates-

42°03'38.4"N, 87°53'21.2"W

Hall of Fame Major League Baseball player Freddie Lindstrom played for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, and the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Known for an outstanding batting average and an equally outstanding fielding ability, Lindstrom was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1976, several years before he passed.

Bernie Mac

(1957-2008)

Actor, Comedian

Fame-O-Meter-8/10

Resting Place-Washington Memory Gardens, Homewood

GPS Coordinates-

41°33'44.2"N, 87°37'51.5"W

Bernie Mac was a stand up comic and also an actor of film and television. He was known for "The Bernie Mac Show" for which he earned two Emmy nominations. He was also a movie star, appearing in films such as "Friday", "Ocean's Eleven", "The Original Kings of Comedy", "Transformers", and many more. He was one of the most popular comedians at the time of his death.

Elijah Muhammad

(1897-1975)

Religious Figure

Fame-O-Meter-5/10

Resting Place-Mount Glenwood Memory Gardens South, Glenwood

GPS Coordinates-

41°33'23.5"N, 87°36'56.5"W

Elijah Muhammad was the founder of the Nation of Islam. He was not without many controversies in his life. He had an on and off again relationship with Malcolm X, but provided the latter with his first major public outlet. Elijah Muhammad also renamed Cassius Clay Muhammad Ali, claiming that the Clay moniker was Ali's slave name. Elijah Muhammad served as a religious leader until he died in 1975.

Allan Pinkerton

(1905-1981)

Baseball Player

Fame-O-Meter-6/10

Resting Place-Graceland Cemetery, Chicago

GPS Coordinates-

41°57'28.4"N, 87°39'37.0"W

Allan Pinkerton was ahead of his time in law enforcement. He co-founded the world's first private investigation company in the United States and later created the famed Pinkerton Detective Agency. Such was his reputation that he was placed by President Abraham Lincoln into leading the Union Intelligence Service during the Civil War. He began working on a idea to centralize criminal information when he passed. His ideas would later be adopted by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

Angelo Poffo

(1925-2010)

Pro Wrestler

Fame-O-Meter-1/10

Resting Place-Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery, Hillside

GPS Coordinates-

41°51'39.8"N, 87°54'07.6"W

Angelo Poffo was a multiple time champion in a wrestling career that spanned over 40 years. His sons also went on to great fame, including Lanny Poffo who wrestled as both "The Genius" and "Leaping" Lanny Poffo and Randy Poffo who wrestled as the "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Angelo Poffo also once broke a world record by completing 6,033 sit ups in just over four hours.

Lanny Poffo

(1954-2023)

Pro Wrestler

Fame-O-Meter-1/10

Resting Place-Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery, Hillside

GPS Coordinates-

41°51'39.8"N, 87°54'07.6"W

Lanny Poffo was the son of legendary wrestler Angelo Poffo and brother to the famous "Macho Man" Randy Savage. He wrestled as himself earlier in his career and later turned to "Leaping" Lanny Poffo and "The Genius" as gimmicks he used. He was also a manager at various times in his career. 

Harold Ramis

(1944-2014)

Director, Actor, Screenwriter

Fame-O-Meter-5/10

Resting Place-Shalom Memorial Park, Arlington Heights

GPS Coordinates-

42°07'55.1"N, 87°59'43.2"W

Harold Ramis got his acting break with the famous Second City comedy troupe in Chicago. He joined the cast of SCTV as both a writer and actor in the mid-70s. His first screenwriting credit was National Lampoon's Animal House. His first directing credit was Caddyshack. He either acted, wrote, or directed in many of the movies people still love to today, including Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, Meatballs, National Lampoon's Vacation, Stripes, and Groundhog Day.