By Jeff Abell
Over the years, Burlington has produced more than its fair share of the famous and infamous. When scanning the list of notable people, several prominent names stand out, while others more obscure but equally important remain only a footnote.
In the annals of rock ‘n’ roll history, few people outside of Iowa know the name of O.W. Appleton. The music pioneer was inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for inventing the earliest known solid-body electric guitar.
Appleton had a love of music from an early age. In his teens, he traveled the country as a musician before settling down in Burlington in 1936.
Soon after, he opened a music store and began tinkering with musical instruments to improve their sound, including his favorite instrument, the guitar.
With the hands of an artist and the mind of an engineer, Appleton spent his free hours working on a new design, a closely guarded secret he believed would take the guitar to a new level.
In 1941, he carved the body of the now-conventional guitar, attaching a stock neck. The new design soon became the guitar of choice for rock musicians.
Appleton was never fully credited for his creation due to a chain of events that resulted in guitar maker Leo Fender building on his design, and later marketing it, according to an Iowa music historian.
Then there’s the rise and fall of chemist Wallace Hume Carothers.
On an April evening in 1937, Philadelphia police were called to the hotel room of a man who was unresponsive to staff. Breaking down the door, officers observed a man lying lifeless on a bed.
Police observed no signs of a struggle but did discover an empty bottle and a squeezed lemon near the body. The man was 41-year-old Carothers, who is credited with inventing nylon.
Despite early reservations, the Burlington native began work on creating synthetic rubber or neoprene after being hired by DuPont Chemical.
In the summer of 1934, Carothers became severely depressed and suddenly disappeared. He was later found at a psychiatric clinic. Upon his release, Carothers began the work that led to his greatest discovery — the creation of the synthetic polymer known as nylon.
Then, tragedy struck.
In January 1937, his sister died of pneumonia. The loss led Carothers to Philadelphia to see his psychiatrist.
Two months later, he checked into a hotel room, and using the cyanide capsule he carried attached to a watch chain, Carothers dissolved the poison in lemon juice to speed up its effect.
Thus concluded his final chemical experiment.
During the dark days of the Vietnam War, Jimmie Howard was a shining example of bravery. Howard, a Marine gunnery sergeant, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor for his leadership of a platoon before and after he was wounded severely by a Viet Cong grenade on June 1966.
Then there is space shuttle astronaut Jim Kelly with missions under his belt that include NASA’s return to space flight after being grounded due to the 2003 Columbia accident that claimed the life of its crew.
Others include:
• Mary “May” Naudain, an actress and singer who gained fame on the stage during the vaudeville era, was born in 1881 in Burlington. She was raised in Omaha, Neb., before traveling to New York City to appear on stage, including Broadway where she was a sensation.
• William Frawley, famous for playing Fred Mertz in “I Love Lucy,” was born Feb. 26, 1887, in Burlington. In a 1955 interview with the Des Moines Register, Frawley fondly recalled growing up in the North Hill neighborhood, which he saw for the last time in the 1920s. Frawley grew up at the house at 1203 N. Sixth St.
In 1960, Frawley landed the role of “Bub O’Casey” on “My Three Sons,” which he starred in for six seasons before becoming too ill to work. His final on-camera performance was in 1965 on “The Lucy Show.”
• Former director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Edward Stone worked on the Voyager I and II deep space exploration missions. He was the recipient of the 1999 Carl Sagan Memorial Award.
And the list goes on.
Burlington residents, native or transplant, have contributed to the success of the country in science, entertainment, and innovation. Their lives tell the story of Burlington. But, more importantly, their story is the story of America.