Famous Chicago Transplant Thread (Peoria, Urbana: transplants, apartment, live)

[Lookout Kid]

In response to the anti-transplant attitude some self-styled "Chicago purist" posters have promoted on this forum (ahem), I have listed just a few famous Chicagoans who were indeed born somewhere else but made it big in Chicago (followed by the cities of their birth in parentheses). As you can see, a great many of Chicago's most treasured cultural figures, public servants, notorius criminals, sports heroes, and celebrities were indeed these awful "transplants" we keep hearing about that are ruining Lakeview. Chicago is a world-class city that attracts people from all over the region, country, and globe--and this is one of the things that makes the city great.


Studs Terkel (New York, NY)
Nelson Algren (Detroit, MI)
Al Capone (Brooklyn, NY)
Harry Caray (St. Louis, MO)
Jack Brickhouse (Peoria, IL)
Buddy Guy (Lettsworth, Louisiana)
Bo Diddley (McComb, MS)
Kanye West (Atlanta, GA)
Frank Lloyd Wright (Richland Center, WI)
Daniel Burnham (Henderson, NY)
Louis Sullivan (Boston, MA)
Mike Ditka (Carnegie, PA)
Walter Payton (Columbia, MS)
Michael Jordan (Brooklyn, NY—Didn’t know that, did you?)
Ryne Sandberg (Spokane, WA)
Mike Singletary (Houston, TX)
Pinto Colvig, the original “Bozo the Clown” (Jacksonville, OR)
Steve Dahl (Pasadena, CA)
Mancow Muller (Kansas City, MO)
Adlai Stevenson (Los Angeles, CA)
Barack Obama (Honolulu, HI)
Jesse Jackson (Greenville, SC)
Roger Ebert (Urbana, IL)
Oprah Winfrey (Kosciusko, MS)

[KevK]

The natives here in Georgia gripe about all the "carpetbaggers" too. Nothing new there.

[JohnDoe2008]

Its not where you were born, its where you grew up/or lived for the past 15 years or more.

I was born in NYC, that doesn mean a damn thing to me, except I like the Prudential Two more than any other byuilding except Sears cause it looks like a new Chrysler building from NYC.

AND, celebrities dont make us or shape us or represent us in any way.

[andrew61]

Mike Ditka is from PA?! Who knew? I certainly didn't... I always had him pegged as "the" quintessential Chicagoan.

On your list you forgot the late, great Ann Landers (Sioux City, IA).

[KevK]

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2008

Its not where you were born, its where you grew up/or lived for the past 15 years or more.

I was born in NYC, that doesn mean a damn thing to me, except I like the Aon Center more than any other byuilding except Sears cause it looks like a new Chrysler building from NYC.

AND, celebrities dont make us or shape us or represent us in any way.

I was born in Washington state and know nothing about the place. We left there when I was 2!

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2008

Its not where you were born, its where you grew up/or lived for the past 15 years or more.

I was born in NYC, that doesn mean a damn thing to me, except I like the Aon Center more than any other byuilding except Sears cause it looks like a new Chrysler building from NYC.

AND, celebrities dont make us or shape us or represent us in any way.

I think you mean the Prudential Tower 2 looks like the Chrysler Building??? Aon looks more like the WTC.

15 years is your threshold? Seems arbitrary to me. I argue that you're a Chicagoan once Chicago is your home, and not some other place. If you've raised your family here, made your entire career here, or just don't ever plan on leaving.

[JohnDoe2008]

I meant Prudential Two, your right, my bad. hah.
but then again, AON does remind me of NYC too cause well, you just said why.

[Manigault]

Saul Bellow (Canada)
Nat "King" Cole (AL)
Bo Diddley
Cecil Partee
Ann Landers

[Robbied]

I always think of bozo as Chicago because I watched him so many years on WGN.. rest in peace Bozo.

[Venom]

Cool... that Nelson guy lived in Albany Park... in our former apartment building.