Ward B. "Hoot" Gibson Jr. (December 5, 1921 – February 1, 1958) was an American professional basketball player. He played for several teams in the National Basketball League (NBL) and National Basketball Association (NBA).Gibson was killed in a car accident in his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa when he lost control of the vehicle he was driving and hit a tree. He was survived by his wife, Vonnie.
Joseph Clemens Howard Sr. (December 9, 1922 – September 16, 2000) was the first African American to win an election as judge for the Baltimore City Supreme Bench and was later appointed by President Jimmy Carter to be a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, becoming the first African American to serve on that bench as well.
Jack Oxenrider (December 1, 1922 – April 6, 2004) was an American football, baseball, and basketball player and coach. He played for one season with the St. Joseph Outlaws of the Professional Basketball League of America. Oxenrider served as the head football, basketball, and baseball at his alma mater, William Penn University during the 1948–49 academic year.
John H. Connors (December 2, 1922 – March 7, 2009) was an American politician in the state of Iowa. Connors was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He attended high school there, and then the Harvard University Trade Union Program. He served in World War II with the United States Navy Reserve. He was a firefighter in the Des Moines Fire Department. In 1945 he married Marjorie Leonard. He has four children. Connors served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1973 to 2005 as a Democrat. He served the 64th district from 1973 to 1981, and the 68th district from 1981 to 2005. He died in Des Moines in 2009, at the age of 86.
Stanley H. Biber (May 4, 1923 – January 16, 2006) was an American physician who was a pioneer in sex reassignment surgery, performing thousands of procedures during his long career.
Louis Straight Clark (February 10, 1925 – February 10, 1995) was an American tennis player in the mid-20th century. Clark was once ranked world No. 4 in men's singles. He was ranked the No. 5 American player by the USTA for 1953.He was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He played college tennis at the University of Southern California.
A member of the US Davis Cup team, he was 5–0 in matches in 1953 and 1954 (and the latter year, a member of the winning team).
Clark won five tournaments in the 1951 season, including the singles title in Monte Carlo in 1951 after a five-set win in the final against compatriot Fred Kovaleski. That same year he defeated Whitney Reed to reach the final of the Pennsylvania State tennis championship, only to fall to future Hall of Famer Vic Seixas. In 1952 he won the Western India Tennis Championships in Bombay against Władysław Skonecki.In 1954, he won the singles title at the tournament in Cincinnati Masters, defeating Sammy Giammalva, Sr., in the final in three straight sets.
He reached the final at the Newport Casino Invitational in 1954, only to lose to Ham Richardson in five sets, in a match that lasted more than four hours.
When he teamed with fellow American Hal Burrows, the pair became one of the top doubles teams of their time. They reached the finals of the U.S. Clay Court Championship, and the semifinals of the U.S. Nationals, upsetting the team of future International Hall of Famers Ken Rosewall and Lew Hoad in the quarterfinals. Clark and Burrows also reached the quarterfinals at the French National Championships, Rome and Wimbledon.
Michael J. O'Brien (born May 4, 1939) is an American politician in the state of Iowa.
O'Brien was born in Shenandoah, Iowa. He attended Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa and was a teacher. A Democrat, he served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003 (79th district).
Roger Perry (May 7, 1933 – July 12, 2018) was an American film and television actor whose career began in the late 1950s. He served as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force during the early 1950s.
Russell S. Doughten Jr. (February 16, 1927 – August 19, 2013) was an American filmmaker and producer of numerous short and feature-length films. His film work is credited under numerous variations of his name: with or without the "Jr." suffix or middle initial, and sometimes using the informal "Russ" instead of "Russell".
Doughten made both secular and Christian films. His work included the 1958 science fiction classic The Blob. He was best known for his four-part series A Thief in the Night. Nearly all of his Christian films were shot in various locales in his home state of Iowa.He has been referred to as "the godfather of independent film in Iowa" and his body of work ranks him as the leading filmmaker in that state. He mentored many indie filmmakers in Iowa.
Lewis Burr Anderson (May 7, 1922 – May 14, 2006) was an American actor and musician. He is widely known by TV fans as the third and final actor to portray Clarabell the Clown on Howdy Doody between 1954 and 1960. He famously spoke Clarabell's only line on the show's final episode in 1960, with a tear visible in his right eye, "Goodbye, kids." Anderson is also widely known by jazz music fans as a prolific jazz arranger, big band leader, and alto saxophonist. Anderson also played the clarinet.