Wisconsin

Valentin Blatz

(1826-1894)

Businessman

Fame-O-Meter-2/10

Resting Place-Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee

GPS Coordinates-

42°59'56.5"N, 87°56'28.3"W

Valentin Blatz owned and operated a brewery in downtown Milwaukee that eventually became the city's first bottle beer. Blatz beer has gone on to be a beloved, but mocked for being low class, beer. Still, Blatz became famous enough in Milwaukee to have some clout when it came to city affairs. 

Arthur Davidson

(1881-1950)

Entrepreneur

Fame-O-Meter-3/10

Resting Place-Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee

GPS Coordinates-

42°59'47.2"N, 87°56'27.9"W

Arthur Davidson was one of the four founders of Harley-Davidson Motorcycles. The company was founded in 1903 and soon after the company was producing bikes that would travel up to 60 miles per hour. "The Hog" became a nickname given to their bikes after their racing team used to "hog" victories in races and then celebrate with a literal piglet riding on the gas tank for the victory lap. The company had its ups and downs, but remains a cultural phenomenon in America. 

Walter Davidson Sr.

(1876-1942)

Entrepreneur

Fame-O-Meter-3/10

Resting Place-Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee

GPS Coordinates-

42°59'47.2"N, 87°56'27.7"W

Walter Davidson was one of the four founders of Harley-Davidson Motorcycles. He, two brothers, and a friend created a business that has become synonymous with America. The image of the black Harley roaring down highways across America has endured as status of being one with the culture of the country. The company was valued at near $3 billion dollars at the time of this writing.

William Davidson

(1870-1937)

Entrepreneur

Fame-O-Meter-3/10

Resting Place-Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee

GPS Coordinates-

42°59'47.2"N, 87°56'27.7"W

William Davidson, along with brothers Walter and Arthur and good friend William Harley, created the now iconic Harley-Davidson motorcycle. 

Lynn Fontanne

(1887-1983)

Actress

Fame-O-Meter-4/10

Resting Place-Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee

GPS Coordinates-

42°59'49.8"N, 87°56'32.3"W

Born in London, Lynn Fontanne became a hit around the world with her husband Alfred Lunt. The couple would go on to star in 3 movies and 27 stage productions. They were the hit comedic couple of their day. Fontanne won an Emmy, a Tony, and was nominated for an Oscar. Their marriage lasted 55 years until Alfred passed.

Samuel Johnson Jr.

(1928-2004)

Businessman

Fame-O-Meter-3/10

Resting Place-Mound Cemetery, Racine

GPS Coordinates-

42°43'14.3"N, 87°48'31.6"W

Samuel Johnson Jr. was a fourth-generation business leader for the Johnson company. When he took over the family company, its yearly sales were $171 million. When he retired, it was up to $6 billion. SC Johnson remains a global powerhouse today. Samuel Johnson was also an environmentalist, attempting to find balance between business and nature.

Increase Lapham

(1811-1875)

Scientist, Educator

Fame-O-Meter-1/10

Resting Place-Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee

GPS Coordinates-

42°59'51.3"N, 87°56'46.0"W

Moving from a job as a civil engineer to a job as a geologist, Increase Lapham finally found his true passion as a proto-meteorologist. He pressured the government to keep track of weather and create a system to alert people around the Great Lakes about the weather. His efforts eventually became the U.S. Weather Service. Lapham is known as the "Father" of the Weather Service. 

Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski

(1926-2005)

Professional Wrestler

Fame-O-Meter-2/10

Resting Place-Holy Sepulcher Cemetery, Cudahy

GPS Coordinates-

42°55'53.0"N, 87°51'07.3"W

"The Crusher" was an eight-time world tag team champion, mostly winning the belts with Dick "The Bruiser". "The Crusher" was also a three-time singles world champion. He was known for his early, barrel-chested physique and genuine "tough guy" demeanor. 

Alfred Lunt

(1892-1977)

Actor

Fame-O-Meter-4/10

Resting Place-Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee

GPS Coordinates-

42°59'49.7"N, 87°56'32.3"W

Alfred Lunt, along with his wife Lynn Fontanne, were fixtures in the acting world for near forty years. Alfred won two Tonys, an Emmy, and was nominated for an Oscar. Unique to Broadway and Hollywood because there were a couple who always worked together, the Lunts stayed by each other's side until Alfred's death in 1977. Even in death, they remain side by side. A true love story.

John Matuszak

(1950-1989)

Football Player, Actor

Fame-O-Meter-2/10

Resting Place-Holy Sepulcher Cemetery, Cudahy

GPS Coordinates-

42°55'55.0"N, 87°51'12.2"W

Sometimes an actor comes along who creates a character so impressionable and loved that people forget there is a good-looking guy underneath all the makeup. Such is the case with John Matuszak who played the beloved Sloth in The Goonies. A former All-Pro football player in the NFL, Matuszak also had roles in movies such as North Dallas Forty and One Crazy Summer. He also made cameos in television shows such as "Miami Vice", "M*A*S*H*", and "The Dukes of Hazzard". But it will undoubtedly be his role of Sloth that most will remember him for. "Baby Ruth" indeed.

Billy Mitchell

(1879-1936)

General, Aviator

Fame-O-Meter-3/10

Resting Place-Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee

GPS Coordinates-

42°59'48.5"N, 87°56'36.2"W

"The Father of the U.S. Air Force", Billy Mitchell was an early aviation pioneer in World War I. He was a leading vocal proponent of the formation of the U.S. AIr Force as a separate branch of the military away from the army and navy.  His prescience on military affairs was astounding as he predicted the next war after World War I would be with Japan, fought with submarines and planes, and that a single bomber would be able to do what it previously took many battleships to do. All of these turned out to be correct. His vocal presence on the national stage eventually had him at odds with the President and military. 

Frederick Pabst

(1836-1904)

Businessman

Fame-O-Meter-3/10

Resting Place-Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee

GPS Coordinates-

42°59'57.6"N, 87°56'29.9"W

Frederick Pabst made the most of his life. He took over the family beer business and immediately increased it from 5,000 barrels of beer per year in 1863 to eventually 1 million in 1892. Pabst made a fateful decision when at the World's Fair in Paris in 1882. While selling their beer to the customers there, he began tying blue silk ribbons around his bottles of beer to distinguish them from other competitors' beer. People loved the idea and began asking for the "blue ribbon beer". The nickname would stick and is still around today. Pabst also gave generously in Milwaukee, and features such as the Pabst Theater reflect this civic engagement.

Christopher Sholes

(1819-1890)

Inventor

Fame-O-Meter-3/10

Resting Place-Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee

GPS Coordinates-

42°59'56.9"N, 87°56'46.2"W

If you've ever typed on the "QWERTY" keyboard on your laptop or cell phone, you are using part of what Christopher Sholes invented. Sholes took earlier ideas about a typewriter and refined them until he had a usable product to sell to others. Early models had only capital letters, later models had upper and lower case keys, and still later yet models used the shift key we are all familiar with today. A pretty cool invention, if I do type so myself.

Al Simmons

(1902-1956)

Baseball Player

Fame-O-Meter-1/10

Resting Place-St. Adalberts Cemetery, Milwaukee

GPS Coordinates-

42°58'30.4"N, 87°55'16.7"W

Al Simmons, born Aloysius Harry Szymanski, was a baseball player who was elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953. He spent twenty seasons with teams such as the Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Athletics, Cincinnati Reds, and the Boston Bees (later the Braves). A lifetime .334 hitter, he finished with 2,927 hits, 307 home runs, and 1,827 runs batted in. He was a two time World Series winner (1929 and 1930), and was also part of the very first All-Star Game.