Mary Kageyama Nomura (born September 29, 1925) is an American singer of Japanese descent who was relocated and incarcerated for her ancestry at the Manzanar concentration camp during World War II and became known as The songbird of Manzanar.
John Henry Lewis (May 1, 1914 – April 18, 1974) was a hall of fame American boxer who held the World Light Heavyweight Boxing Title from 1935 to 1938. The Ring boxing magazine named Lewis the 16th greatest light heavyweight of all time. His trainer was Larry Amadee, and his managers included Ernie Lira, Larry White, Frank Schuler and Gus Greenlee.
Emmett W. Chappelle (October 24, 1925 – October 14, 2019) was an American scientist who made valuable contributions in the fields of medicine, philanthropy, food science, and astrochemistry. His achievements led to his induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his work on bioluminescence, in 2007. Being honored as one of the 100 most distinguished African American scientists of the 20th Century, he was also one of the members of the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society of Photobiology, the American Society of Microbiology, and the American Society of Black Chemists.
Brigadier General Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García (24 January 1930 – 9 December 2009) was a Guatemalan military officer who served as the 36th president of Guatemala from 1974 until 1978. A member of the National Liberation Movement, he previously served as General Staff of the Army from 1970 to 1972 and Minister of national defence from 1972 to 1973 under President Carlos Arana Osorio.He was the son of a Norwegian father and a Guatemalan mother.
Dorothy Morrison (January 3, 1919 – October 18, 2017), later taking the married name Dorothy Morrison Green, was an American stage and screen actress who as a child actress appeared in a few of the Hal Roach created Our Gang short subject films during the silent era. Her older brother, Ernie Morrison (billed as Sunshine Sammy), also acted in this film series.
Philip Raymond Hurlic (December 20, 1927 – July 7, 2014) was an American child actor.
Elvira Louise Redd (September 20, 1928 – February 6, 2022) was an American jazz alto saxophone player, vocalist and educator. She was active from the early 1950s and was known primarily for playing in the blues style. She was highly regarded as an accomplished veteran, and performed with Count Basie, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Linda Hopkins, Marian McPartland and Dizzy Gillespie.
Mary Virginia Orozco was California’s first Latina female lawyer. She was also the first Latina to graduate from Loyola Law School.
She was born on September 24, 1928, in Whittier, California. Her parents were adamant that their children received a proper education. As an example, since Orozco’s parents were not property owners, they asked their landlord to obtain library cards for their children from the Whittier Public Library.
Orozco completed her undergraduate studies in psychology and sociology at the California State University, Los Angeles before attending Loyola Law School. Orozco worked full-time to support her immediate family while attending.
She was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1962 as the state’s first Latina lawyer. With the Spanish-speaking community as her major focus, Orozco set out to establish a legal practice that specialized in family, civil and criminal law. She eventually established the law firm Orozco & Orozco with her twin brother Hector. Orozco faced both racial and sex discrimination while practicing in the California courtrooms. In 1962, Orozco was a founder of the Mexican American Bar Association (MABA) in Los Angeles, and was a founding member for the Latina Lawyers Bar Association. She retired from practicing law in 1987.
Orozco died on June 5, 2019.
Taro Yamamoto (October 29, 1919 – June 12, 1994) belonged to the New York School Abstract Expressionist artists whose artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized across the Atlantic, including Paris.
