Famous Citizens:

Louis L'Amour
Born Louis Dearborn LaMoore in Jamestown, North Dakota, he is best known for his novels of the West. L’Amour held a variety of jobs in his early career, including longshoreman, lumberjack, miner, and elephant handler. He also boxed professionally. Although he published a book of poetry in 1939, his career was put on hold when he entered the army during World War II. After the war, he began to publish detective, adventure and sports stories in pulp magazines. He found that his stories written in the Western genre sold the best. He consistently published three novels a year and before his death, had sold hundreds of millions of copies of his books.

 

 

Peggy Lee
Born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, she went on to be one of the best known jazz singers of her generation. She joined the Benny Goodman band in 1941 and recorded “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good.” Her career included hits with Mel Torme and Bing Crosby, but today she may be best known for providing vocals for the Disney movie “Lady and the Tramp” including the song “The Lady is a Tramp,” and for her 1958 top ten hit “Fever.”

 

 

Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk was born in Strasburg, North Dakota to immigrant parents on a farm. He spoke only German in his early life and dropped out of school after the fourth grade. His first accordion was a handed down instrument, but he sold fur pelts until he earned enough to buy a new one, and by age 17 knew he wanted to be a musician. Wanting a more expensive instrument, he agreed to work for his father on the family farm until he was 21 in exchange for the $400 accordion. After that, he left for South Dakota to find work as a musician. He joined several orchestras and toured through the country until his local television show was picked up by ABC in 1955. The show became one of the top-rated programs on television and is considered by many to be the “king of dance music.”