Rachel Annetta Robinson (née Isum; born July 19, 1922) is an American former professor and registered nurse. She is the widow of professional baseball player Jackie Robinson. After her husband's death, she founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation.
Victor Costa (born December 17, 1935) is an American fashion designer. Dubbed the "King of Copycats," he attained international fame in the mid-1970s for mimicking high-end European styles, tailoring them to his American audiences for affordable prices.
In 1987, the New York Times reported that, along with Christian Lacroix and Arnold Scaasi, Costa "is widely recognized... as a significant contributor to the current vogue for flamboyant, super-feminine dresses that bare the shoulders, hug the waistline and billow and swirl over the hips." He founded Victor Costa, Inc. and later Victor Costa Bridal, and designed for several large retail outlets well into the 1990s. At one time, he was delivering merchandise to five different markets a year.
Costa is known for his extensive list of loyal customers, including Betsy Bloomingdale, Brooke Shields and Ivana Trump; he has also designed for First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson and Rosalynn Carter, as well as President Richard Nixon's daughters, Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower.
Donald B. Prell (July 7, 1924 – July 28, 2020) was an American World War II veteran, venture capitalist and futurist who created Datamation, the first magazine devoted solely to the computer hardware and software industry.
Nancy Norman (born Florence Berman on April 23, 1925) is an American singer.
Norman was born in Los Angeles, California.
Norman studied voice while attending Roosevelt High School. She sang with a swing orchestra led by Edmundo Martinez Tostado. During this time, Norman learned that "Swing and Sway" big band leader Sammy Kaye was holding a contest in Los Angeles. She entered the Who Wants to Sing With the Band contest and Kaye was so impressed with Norman that he immediately signed her on as one of his "girl singers" in his band. At just 4,'11", barely 100 pounds, and only 16 years old, "Little Nancy Norman" as she was frequently introduced, was underaged and had to be accompanied by her mother when she traveled back to New York City, as well as traveling to other cities with the orchestra.
Norman was Kaye's lead female singer from 1942 to 1945. Hits featuring her vocals in the 1940s include "Chickery Chick", "Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)", and "There Will Never Be Another You". Norman had three songs in the Top 10 according to Billboard’s top jukebox played songs. "Chickery Chick" spent four-and-a-half months on the charts and one month at the top of the charts in 1945. Norman also introduced several classic songs such as "You'll Never Know" and "As Time Goes By". She performed with the Sammy Kaye Orchestra across the country, including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
In 1948, Norman was married to singer Dick Brown. She married Robert Jacobs in 1949 and relocated to Beverly Hills, California. She still resides in her native Los Angeles in the same home she and her husband built shortly after their marriage. She has three children.
William James Claxton (October 12, 1927 – October 11, 2008) was an American photographer and author.
Eleanor Mercein Kelly (August 30, 1880 - October 11, 1968) was an American writer of fiction and nonfiction. She wrote one biographical study, The Chronicle of a Happy Woman: Emily A. Davison (1928), but is best known for her romantic fiction, most of which was set in exotic locales. She was widely traveled, and used her travels as inspiration for her novels. Four of her stories were adapted to film and one on Broadway.
Benny Fields, occasionally billed as "Bennie Fields" (born Benjamin Geisenfeld; June 14, 1894 – August 16, 1959), was a popular singer of the early 20th century, best known as one-half of the Blossom Seeley-Benny Fields vaudeville team.
Marguerite Henry (née Breithaupt; April 13, 1902 – November 26, 1997) was an American writer of children's books, writing fifty-nine books based on true stories of horses and other animals. She won the Newbery Medal for King of the Wind, a 1948 book about horses, and she was a runner-up for two others. One of the latter, Misty of Chincoteague (1947), was the basis for several related titles and the 1961 movie Misty.
Lynn Davis Compton (December 31, 1921 – February 25, 2012), known as Buck Compton, was an American jurist, police officer, and soldier. In his legal career, he served as a prosecutor and California Court of Appeal judge, and is most notable as having been the lead prosecutor in Sirhan Sirhan's trial for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Previously, he served with the Los Angeles Police Department. During World War II, he was a commissioned officer with E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army. Compton was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Neal McDonough.
