Portal:Seattle/Selected biography
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Lou Graham (1861-1903), born Dorothea Georgine Emile Ohben, was a German-born woman who became famous as the madame of a brothel in what is now the Pioneer Square district of Seattle. She became one of the city's wealthiest citizens before dying in her early forties. Read More...
Henry L. Yesler (December 2, 1810 - December 16, 1892) was an entrepreneur considered to be Seattle, Washington's first economic father and first millionaire. He arrived in Seattle in 1852 and built a steam-powered sawmill, which provided numerous jobs for those early settlers and Duwamish tribe members. The mill was located right on the Elliot Bay waterfront, at the foot of what is now known as Yesler Way and was then known as Mill Road or the "Skid Road," for the way the logs "skidded" down the steep grade from the ever-receding timber line to the mill. The house where Henry and his wife Sarah lived, a wooden building that resembled a store, was located near the mill, at the corner of 1st Avenue and James Street. When Sarah died in 1887, Henry constructed a mansion at the corner of 4th and James, where he spent the final five years of his life.
On June 6, 1889, the Great Seattle Fire burned down the entire business district (which consisted mainly of wooden buildings), including the mill. They were never replaced. Yesler built the Pioneer Building on the same plot of land his first home was on. He also built Yesler Hall, located on the corner of and 1st Avenue and Yesler Way, and Yesler's Pavilion, at 1st and Cherry. Of these, only the Pioneer Building survives. Read More...
Nancy Pearl (born January 12, 1945) is a librarian, best-selling author, book reviewer and was, until August 2004, the Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library. Her prolific reading and her knowledge of books and literature first made her locally famous in Seattle, Washington, where she regularly appears on public radio recommending books. She achieved broader fame with Book Lust, her 2003 guide to good reading. Read More...
Nancy Pearl (born January 12, 1945) is a librarian, best-selling author, book reviewer and was, until August 2004, the Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library.[1] Her prolific reading and her knowledge of books and literature first made her locally famous in Seattle, Washington, where she regularly appears on public radio recommending books. She achieved broader fame with Book Lust, her 2003 guide to good reading. Read More...
Anthony Ray (born August 12, 1963), known as Sir Mix-a-Lot, is a Grammy Award-winning rapper and producer, originally from Seattle, Washington, U.S..
Sir Mix-a-Lot worked together with Miami bass icon DJ Magic Mike, Mudhoney, Metal Church (on a cover of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man"). He worked with an artist known as Kid Sensation (now known as Xola) for several tracks including 2 of his most popular songs, "Buttermilk Biscuits" (1988), and "Square Dance Rap" (1988). He first was signed by Nastymix Records, then left, established Rhyme Cartel Records and was signed by American Recordings.
Sir Mix-a-Lot's first break came in 1986 when a demo tape of "Square Dance Rap" started getting airplay on UK radio. Its popularity lead to its release as a single on the UK Streetwave label and Sir Mix-a-Lot's inclusion in the line-up in the UK Fresh concert at Wembley Arena later that year alongside many of hip hop's leading artists at the time. Read More...
Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is an award-winning and prolific author and occasional comedian. Much of his writing draws on his experiences as a modern Native American. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Alexie was born in Spokane, Washington and is of Spokane and Coeur d'Alene heritage. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington, about 50 miles northwest of the city of Spokane. Read More...
Bernie Whitebear (September 27, 1937 – July 16, 2000), birth name Bernard Reyes, was an American Indian activist, a founder of the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB), the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, and the Daybreak Star Cultural Center. Around 1970, he became heavily involved in the movement to make sure that Indians would gain a share of the land in Seattle that the federal government freeing up as they reduced the size of the Fort Lawton army post. On March 8, 1970, he was among the leaders of about 100 "Native Americans and sympathizers" who confronted military police in riot gear at the fort. Read More...
Ivar Haglund (21 March 1905 – 30 January 1985) was a Seattle folk singer and the "flounder" of Ivar's. In 1938, he opened Seattle's first aquarium along with a fish and chips counter on Pier 54. In 1946, he opened a full restaurant there, Ivar's Acres of Clams, which with the fish and chip counter survives to this day (although they have been thoroughly remodeled). He coined its motto, "Keep Clam." (For reasons that are declared by the restaurant to be "unknown," the letter 'a' in "clam" is inverted on all advertisements featuring the motto.) He expanded the fine dining and fish and chips restaurants into a regional chain. Read More...
John Considine (September 29, 1868 – February 11, 1943) was an American impresario, a pioneer of vaudeville. By 1891, he was manager of the People's Theater, a box house in the wide-open "restricted district" below Yesler Way in what is now Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood.
A friendly, outgoing but resolutely sober man in a rowdy environment, he dealt cards but didn't play, made money off the sale of liquor but didn't drink, managed a business whose profits depended on its female performers hustling drinks (and, in Murray Morgan's words, "If the girls wished to peddle more personal wares, management did not object"), but was reputed to be a faithful family man. Read More...
Warren Grant "Maggie" Magnuson (April 12, 1905–May 20, 1989) was a United States Senator of the Democratic Party from Washington from 1944 until 1981. Magnuson also served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the Washington's 1st congressional district from 1937 to 1944.
Magnuson, who was of Norwegian and Swedish parentage, was born in Moorhead, Minnesota. In 1928 he married Peggins Maddieux, who had won the 1927 "Miss Seattle" beauty contest. Divorced in 1935, Magnuson lived the "good life," dating a number of glamorous women including heiress and cover girl June Millarde and actress Carol Parker. In 1964, he married Jermaine Peralta with whom he remained for the rest of his life. Read More...
