Looking in at Iowa

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5/12 UPDATE:  Barr announces Libertarian White House bid

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From Los Angeles Times:

Libertarian Bob Barr: a Ralph Nader for John McCain?

He lacks mass appeal, but some say Barr could nevertheless be a ’spoiler’ for Republicans — if he runs. …

More than a month after Barr, 59, set up an “exploratory committee” to gauge how many Americans would vote for him as a Libertarian presidential candidate, he is still considering whether to enter the race. …

Barr, who was born in Iowa and graduated from high school in Iran, does not appear to have a strong local base. He moved to Georgia when President Reagan appointed him U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. …

More information from Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress:

BARR, Bob, a Representative from Georgia; born in Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa, November 5, 1948; graduated, Community High School, Tehran, Iran, 1966; B.A., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif., 1970; M.A., George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 1972; J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C., 1977; Central Intelligence Agency, 1970-1978; United States Attorney for…

From The Tampa Tribune:

TAMPA - John Eastman, a former Tampa radio and TV personality who successfully sued two tobacco companies for contributing to his nicotine addiction, died Sunday at age 79. …

In 2005, he collected more than $3.2 million from Philip Morris USA and the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. …

Eastman was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in August 1928. He once told the Tribune that he started smoking at age 12.

He started his broadcast career in the early 1950s as an announcer at a Sioux City, Iowa, radio station. He worked at radio stations in Cedar Rapids; Jacksonville; Mobile, Ala.; Los Angeles; and Pittsburgh. …

From St. Petersburg Times:

He got his first taste of Hollywood as an usher at a CBS theater in Los Angeles. Mr. Eastman, a boy from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, knew he wanted to write scripts.

He co-wrote a 1965 episode of The Fugitive television show and did voiceover work. In the 1970s, he wrote a low-budget movie called Rooster. It was about cockfighting, but really, it was about “the conflict of mid-America’s system of values and attitude,” he once said. …

MUCH additional information about John Eastman from Cedar Rapids Gazette archives: It hasn’t been easy but — John Eastman Writes About Iowa and “The Fugitive” (August 23, 1964):

WHO’S John Eastman?

If you saw the Cedar Rapids Community Theater’s production of “Macbeth” last season, you undoubtedly noticed him in an outstanding performance as Macduff. If you listen to “The Iowa Story” on KCRG radio each weekday morning, you just may realize that he writes the scripts. …

This is a man who tried life in Hollywood and Miami and now has returned to the Cedar Rapids area where was born — to the home of his mother, Mrs. Hazle Gowans, in Marion — and who figures the ideal life would be at Stone City or somewhere else along the Wapsipinicon.

This is also a man who was admittedly foundering until a couple of years ago and then found himself when he found he had lymphatic cancer…

John Eastman was born in Cedar Rapids — the son of a well-known veterinarian, the late Dr. D. A. Eastman. The son intended to be a veterinarian, too, and went to Iowa State university at Ames to that end — “but then I found chemistry made me sick, actually and literally.”

So after he’d flunked out of Iowa State he went to the University of Florida to study journalism. And while he was there he wrote and produced a campus musical comedy.

Comedian Jerry Colonna was guest star and “He said he’d give me a job if I ever got to Hollywood. So I quit school the next day.”

Next chapter finds our young ex-student knocking at Colonna’s door and coming away empty-handed and so, like thousands of eager young hopefuls before and after him, he settled for something that would bring a regular paycheck until the pot o’gold.

Specifically, this was a job as a CBS usher—and Eastman recalls the glorious days when he dispensed free tickets… “I was also in charge of seat cushions under the proper people for the first ‘I Love Lucy’ show ever made,” he says gleefully now.

Then, “luckily,” he was drafted and put into air force security as a Russian linguist— fighting the good battle, of New York. His Russian now? “I could say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ and maybe ‘Can I have a cigaret?’ “

After service it was back to Iowa and the University of Iowa campus, where he studied in the Ford Foundation project headed by that vastly successful play and movie writer, Richard Maibaum — and worked at KXIC in Iowa City and WMT in Cedar Rapids simultaneously with his
campus activities.

Of these days he recalls mostly sleepless nights and the fact that, during a short stint in the WMT weather tower, he once finger-painted the weather map on a pretty girl’s back. Fired? “No, but let us say that the relationship between the station and me was a little strained thereafter.” …

He is living and breathing Iowa history these days by reason of his “The Iowa Story” series, which is now being aired over 22 stations under auspices of the Iowa Electric Light and Power Company and the Iowa State Education Association (on KCRG each weekday morning for five minutes starting at 8:50). …

“Iowa Story” has been on the air for about a year. It has been the Eastman family’s bread and butter and allowed Eastman to proceed simultaneously with that great gamble that Is free-lance writing. He also hopes to put it on television, and he and Ken Butcher of Miami have been filming it in recent weeks.

The radio series, not so incidentally, was a prize-winner in a competition amid all advertising agencies handling public utility accounts in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. “Iowa Story” is not an academic history of the state. It’s a journalistic one says Eastman, dealing with a Lillian Russell, a Bob Feller, the Indians . . .

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From KTIV and USA Today blog:

It’s news when a 78-year-old man rolls a perfect 300 game in bowling.

But this time, the 78-year-old Iowan also is legally blind.

Iowa television station KTIV reports that Dale Davis of Alta rolled his perfecto Saturday night. He’s been bowling for more than 60 years, and averages 180. …

Davis is a World War II veteran who lost all vision in his left eye in 1996, to macular degeneration. A year later he began losing most vision in his right eye. The 115-pound Davis told the Storm Lake Times that when he completed the 300 game with his 12th consecutive strike, “A few guys were hugging me and almost broke my skinny bones.” …

From Storm Lake Times

“After I went blind, I just assumed it wouldn’t happen,” he said of the doubts he had. “I always knew I wanted to have a 300, but I never thought it would be possible, especially as I got older and couldn’t see. Bowling rejuvenated me. I’ve got a love for this game I can’t even describe.” …

The video report from KTIV in Sioux City shows Dale Davis bowling.

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5/8 AFTERNOON UPDATE: Associated Press now has an article available. See Blind man from Iowa bowls perfect game posted by Chicago Tribune.

From Idaho Statesman:

[Emil] Drzayich, a longtime baseball figure in the Treasure Valley and the assistant baseball coach at Eagle for the past 10 years, died in the Eagle Yard clubhouse after Friday night’s game against Boise. He was 53. The cause of death has not been released. Services are pending, under the direction of Summers Funeral Homes, Ustick Chapel.

“If you could pick a place for that man to pass, it would be in a clubhouse,” said Eagle coach Frank Wright, a longtime friend who was at Drzayich’s side when he collapsed. “He had great compassion for baseball and love for the game. Our kids absolutely loved him.” …

Drzayich grew up in Mingo Junction, Ohio, and played at Ohio University, where he broke major league Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt’s career home run record. He later played professionally for the Boise Buckskins and the Cincinnati Reds’ affiliate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

UPDATE: Eagle High coach died from heart disease

To view a PDF of the page, click the following: The Gazette’s front page for April 5, 1968.

Also, something related from Grinnell College:

King delivered his final Iowa speech, “Remaining Awake During a Revolution,” on October 29, 1967 in Darby Gymnasium on Grinnell’s campus. We are unable to publish the speech online due to copyright rules, but King gave a very similar speech, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, in 1968 at the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.

The Stanford site they link to also offers 2 audio clips from that speech:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/sermons/multimedia/680331A.htm
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/sermons/multimedia/680331B.htm

From Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Pamela Young grew up on a farm in Kendall, about 15 miles southeast of Tomah. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa in 1992, she came to Milwaukee, where she worked for Allen-Bradley and Stano Landscaping.

She earned a teaching certificate in elementary education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1997 and a master’s degree in exceptional education from UWM in 2004.

[She and husband James Young II] met in a cornfield in 1991 while they were working for Ciba Seeds in Marion, Iowa. ..

News obituary also includes photo of Pam Young.

From Athletic Turf News:

EASTLAKE, OH — The Lake County Captains, the Class A affiliate of the Major League Cleveland Indians,, recently announced that Greg Elliott, 4-time winner of the South Atlantic League (SAL) Groundskeeper of the Year Award, has been named the new head groundskeeper for the San Francisco Giants. …

Prior to joining the Captains in 2002, Elliott previously served as the Sports Turf Manager for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, a Class-A Midwest League team in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His experience also includes  …

From Oral Roberts University:

TULSA - Gloria Burzynski, a sophomore on the Oral Roberts’ women’s track and field team, passed away on Friday evening after being involved in a two-car accident.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Gloria,” ORU Athletics Director Mike Carter said. “ORU Athletics sends its deepest sympathies to the Burzynski family. We know she will be missed.”

The Elmhurst, Ill., native joined the track team this fall after spending a season at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Burzynski competed in the throw’s events, specifically the shot put. …

A memorial service is planned for 3 p.m. at Christ’s Chapel on the ORU campus on Wednesday, March 12.

From USA Today blog. What do you think?

John Chaney, Temple…Pete Carril, Princeton…Lefty Driesell, Maryland…Norm Stewart, Missouri…

Tom Davis, Iowa: Won 598 games coaching at Boston College, Stanford, Iowa and Drake. Got to the Final Eight twice. Turned the Drake program over to his son Keno who this year went 28-4, won the Missouri Valley Conference and is ranked No. 18 in the USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches Poll.

From today’s Chicago Sun-Times:

[Youth minister Albert L.] White, who also coaches a team [Pierre] Pierce plays on, believes Iowa bears responsibility for the second sexual assault.

”We’ve said prayers for the victim, as well,” White said. ”If the first [assault] had been taken care of properly, the second wouldn’t have happened. The college has just as much of the blame. They gave him a slap on the wrist when he deserved a harsher penalty. People protested when he was allowed to come back [to the team] after the first incident, and they should have protested.”

Pierce remains close to Alford, who’s now at New Mexico and who received national criticism for standing by Pierce after the first assault.

”He’s my No. 1, and I’m his,” Pierce said. ”Our relationship has been established since he recruited me.” …