CAPE HOME TO MANY WHO GAINED NOTORIETY

Rush Limbaugh III is getting all the attention around here. The Chamber of Commerce is putting up billboards and scheduling bus tours past the barbershop where he once polished shoes, no less. But he's far from the only Cape Girardean, present or former, who is or was famous for something -- or ought to be.

Take Jess Stacy. A pianist for Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Bob Crosby, Stacy is considered a pivotal figure in jazz's Swing Era.

The city has produced a movie actor known for playing Al Capone, noted musicians (jazz, classical and pop), writers, world-topping builders, a pitcher who won 100 games in the Big Leagues, a pharmacist whose national campaign doubtless has saved many lives, a comic book writer, an acclaimed flower-grower, a wunderkind four-star general, an eccentric big-game hunter, a U.S. Senator, big-time industrialists and entrepreneurs, and the man who's at least partly responsible for Rush Who?'s success.

You don't believe it? That's understandable.

As U.S. Rep. Willard D. Vandiver, a former Cape Girardean, once famously said: "I'm from Missouri. You have got to show me."

Cape Girardeau's

Hall of Fame

Willard D. Vandiver -- Vandiver came to Cape Girardeau in 1889 as a teacher at the Normal School, which became Southeast Missouri State University. He was named the school's president in 1893 and served in the U.S. Congress 1897-1905. Irked by a remark made by the governor of Iowa at a banquet in 1899, Vandiver said, "I come from a state that raised corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces me nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me."

Neville Brand -- Brand's father moved the family to Cape Girardeau, where he did electrical work on construction of the Mississippi River Bridge. Brand was one of the most highly decorated soldiers in World War II. After getting out of the service, he got into movies to get away from guns but wound up playing gangsters or American Indians. He was Al Capone twice, in "The Scarface Mob" and "The George Raft Story." Also appeared in "The Birdman of Alcatraz," "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and in the TV series "The Untouchables." He died in 1992.

Judith Farris -- Farris, a 1970 graduate of Southeast, is a New York vocal teacher and singer who has appeared with the Santa Fe Opera, the Opera Theater of St. Louis, the Tulsa Opera, the Fort Worth Opera, the Virginia Opera, the Washington Opera, the Canadian Opera of Toronto, the Hartford Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Honolulu Symphony, the National Symphony, the American Symphony, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.

Billy Swan -- In 1974, Swan wrote and recorded the song "I Can Help," which went to No. 1 on both the pop and country charts. He later toured with Kris Kristofferson. As a Cape Girardeau teen-ager in 1962, Swan wrote "Lover Please," a song that went into the Top 10 for Clyde McPhatter. Swan's sister, Joy Grace, lives in Cape Girardeau.

Homer George -- The Cape Girardeau pharmacist, owner of the Broadway Prescription Shop, is the father of Poison Prevention Week. He began by working to establish a poison control center in the city, which was followed by a local Poison Prevention Week. George engineered a national lobbying campaign that led to President Kennedy's declaration of a national Poison Prevention Week in 1962. George died in 1969.

Oscar Hirsch -- The Cape Girardeau broadcasting pioneer who built a battery business into a regional radio and television empire had a thing for towers, as the building on Broadway named for him would indicate. In 1970 he erected a television tower north of Cape Girardeau that was 2,000 feet above average terrain. For 18 months it was the tallest man-made structure in the world. He died in 1992.

R.B. Potashnick -- Potashnick's far-flung construction company, begun with three teams of mules, once ranked among the largest in the world. His companies built an oil pipeline in Iran and 152 miles of the Alaskan Pipeline, along with highways in Japan, Central America, Puerto Rico, Europe and the Middle East. He died in 1992.

Denny O'Neil -- Cape Girardeau was only a way station for the St. Louis native born in 1939. He studied philosophy and creative writing in college, served aboard an aircraft carrier during the U.S. blockade of Cuba, taught history and psychology in high school, worked as an insurance investigator, and for awhile covered the police beat for the Southeast Missourian. While here, he wrote a feature story about comic books.

He later went to New York to work for a publisher of comic books, and wrote scripts for "Nightmaster" and "Iron Man." At last sighting he was the editor of "Batman."

Jess Stacy -- As a pianist in the big bands of Benny Goodman, Bob Crosby and Tommy Dorsey, Stacy is considered an important figure in the history of the Swing Era. For four years running in the 1920s, he was voted the best jazz pianist in the world by Downbeat and Metronome magazines.

He began his career at Central High School as a member of Peg Meyer's band, The Agony Four. He also played on Mississippi riverboats, where he heard Louis Armstrong in Cape Girardeau. Has played on more than 400 records.

Elam Vangilder -- Big Elam pitched for the St. Louis Browns and Detroit Tigers from 1919 to 1929, earning a record of 100-102. His best year was 1922 when he won 19 games, hit .344 and the Browns lost the American League pennant to the Yankees by one game.

He played against Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. During the off season he still pitched for the Cape Capahas.

After retiring, he faced Dizzy Dean in a game at Charleston. Vangilder struck out 22, Dean 9.

Jean Bell Mosley -- The Southeast Missourian columnist has published four books, the first of which, "The Mockingbird Piano," won the Missouri Writers Guild's top award. Eleven of her stories have appeared in the Reader's Digest.

Jerry McNeely -- Born in Cape Girardeau in 1928, McNeely has written the teleplay for more than 100 television shows, including 11 "Dr. Kildares," a "Twilight Zone" and a "Man from U.N.C.L.E." He graduated from Southeast in 1949 and was a longtime member of the faculty at the University of Wisconsin. He is the brother of retired KFVS weatherman Don McNeely.

O.D. Niswonger -- The retired administrator of Southeast Missouri Hospital is internationally known as a hybridizer and grower of irises. One of his introductions, "Everything Plus," received iris-growing's highest honor.

Chester Brown -- Brown's was an Horatio Alger story, a boy from Anytown, U.S.A., who went to work for the giant Allied Chemical company out of the University of Missouri and eventually became its president. Brown, who attended Southeast for two years, died in 1981.

Alexander Buckner -- Buckner, a former Grand Master of the Masons of Indiana, was the third U.S. Senator from Missouri. Elected in 1830, he died of cholera three years later at the age of 48. His wife, Rebecca, died a few hours later.

Strictly speaking, Jackson has a better claim to him than Cape Girardeau, although The Encyclopedia of Missouri History says he first settled in Cape Girardeau.

According to Louis Houck's history, Buckner "was an ardent pro-slavery advocate."

The Drury brothers -- Though natives of Kelso, the four Drury brothers' far-flung business interests have long been headquartered here. Charles, Jim, Bob and Jerry began in the plastering business as teen-agers working with their father, Lambert Drury. They diversified into motels, construction, roofing and real-estate development in the early '60s, when they built the Holiday Inn in Cape. In 1973 came the first of the Drury Inns, now a well-known competitor in the hospitality industry. Today, the company operates more than 60 motels in 11 states and, with more than 1,500 rooms, is the largest hotelier in the St. Louis market.

In the 1970s, Jim Drury began a highly successful diversification into restaurants; his company now operates nearly two dozen Burger Kings in four states.

Denver Wright -- A millionaire leather goods manufacturer who lived in Cape Girardeau during his young adult life, Wright was a big game hunter who had a collection of about 300 trophies. He is remembered by the people of Commerce for staging a lion hunt on an island in the Mississippi in 1932.

Word spread and onlookers crowded the banks of the island before the hunt began. A deputy claiming the lions were endangering the local people and livestock killed them with a submachine gun.

He learned to fly at 58 and died at in 1975 at 85.

Gustav B. Margraf -- A 1936 graduate of Southeast and Cape native, Margraf turned a Duke University law degree into the vice presidency of Reynolds Metal Co., one of the largest companies in the country. He also was the general counsel for the National Broadcasting Co. for a period of years.

Margraf, whose brother Henry operated a jewelry story in Cape Girardeau until recently, died in 1969.

Gen. Seth Jefferson McKee -- McKee rose from a private in the Missouri National Guard to, at 42, the youngest four-star general in Air Force history. A fighter pilot who flew 69 combat missions in World War II, McKee retired from the Air Force in 1973.

Rush H. Limbaugh Sr. -- Born near Sedgewickville, he entered Southeast in 1907 and received a law degree from the University of Missouri. He still maintains a practice in Cape Girardeau.

Though at 103 the oldest practicing attorney in Missouri, he may be most famous for his progeny. One son is a federal judge, one grandson a Missouri Supreme Court justice, and another grandson, Rush Limbaugh III, is probably Cape Girardeau's most famous product after all.

Jo Sullivan Loesser-- Born in Mounds, Ill, she and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Hessie Sullivan, lived in Cape Girardeau for many years. During the 1950s and 60s, Jo Sullivan was a Broadway singing star, appearing in such successes as "Oklahoma," "Carousel," "Wonderful Town," "Showboat" and "Most Happy Fella," playing the lead role of Rosabella. In 1959 she married the late Frank Loesser, who wrote the words and music to "Most Happy Fella," "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and "Guys and Dolls." After his death in 1969, she continued to live in New York City and appeared at a benefit concert in 1983 at SEMO State University.

Missourian Librarian Sharon Sanders contributed information to this article.