1921 births

Richard Sumner Cowan (January 23, 1921 – November 17, 1997) was an American botanist.

William Jesse Shirley (July 6, 1921 – August 27, 1989) was an American actor and tenor/lyric baritone singer who later became a Broadway theatre producer. He is perhaps best known as the speaking and singing voice of Prince Phillip in Walt Disney's 1959 animated classic Sleeping Beauty and for dubbing Jeremy Brett's singing voice in the 1964 film version of My Fair Lady.

Dorothy Marie Mengering (née Hofert, formerly Letterman; July 18, 1921 – April 11, 2017), better known to Late Night and Late Show viewers as Dave's Mom, was the mother of late-night talk show host David Letterman and frequent telephone and live guest on his show.
She appeared on camera (identified as Dorothy Mengering) on Late Night with David Letterman on the "Parents' Night" broadcast of February 25, 1986, in which the parents of many Late Night staffers were also seen. Following several years of appearing via telephone, Mengering (usually billed as "Dave's Mom" or "Dave's Mom Dorothy", with no mention of her surname) became a recurring on-camera guest on Letterman's subsequent Late Show, initially by covering the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. She lived in Carmel, Indiana, at the time of her death.

Jack Warren Mathis (September 25, 1921 – March 18, 1943) was a United States Army Air Forces officer and a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the United States military's highest decoration, for his actions in World War II.

Turney White Leonard (June 18, 1921 – November 6, 1944) was a United States Army officer who received the U.S. military's highest award, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in World War II.

Howard Edward "Red" Maley (December 6, 1921 – June 20, 1987), was an American football back and punter in the National Football League (NFL). Drafted in 1944, Maley played for two seasons from 1946 to 1947 for the Boston Yanks. Maley played college football at Texas–Arlington and Southern Methodist University.

Marvin Harold Zindler (August 10, 1921 – July 29, 2007) was a news reporter for television station KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas, United States. His investigative journalism, through which he mostly represented the city's elderly and working class, made him one of the city's most influential and well-known media personalities.

Francis Marion ("Frank") Gibbons (April 10, 1921 – July 16, 2016) was the secretary to the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1970 to 1986 and a church general authority from 1986 until 1991.A native of St. Johns, Arizona, Gibbons received degrees from Stanford University and the University of Utah and practiced law in Utah for eighteen years. In 1970, Gibbons was hired as the secretary to the First Presidency to replace Joseph Anderson, who had been the secretary since 1922 but who had become an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.Gibbons served as secretary to the First Presidency until March 1986, when he retired and was succeeded by F. Michael Watson. One week later, at the church's April general conference, Gibbons was called as a general authority and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. In April 1989, he was transferred to the newly created Second Quorum of the Seventy.In October 1991, Gibbons was honorably released from service in the Second Quorum of the Seventy and as a general authority of the church.Gibbons also served in the church as a bishop, stake president and patriarch. He is the author of 20 books, including a biography of Jack Anderson and the hagiographical Prophets of God series about the presidents of the LDS Church.Gibbons was married to Helen Bay and they are the parents of four children.

George Frederick Senner Jr. (November 24, 1921 – October 6, 2007) was an American Democratic politician from Arizona.

Julia Hartwig-Międzyrzecka (14 August 1921 – 14 July 2017) was a Polish writer, poet and translator, considered to be one of Poland's most important poets.