Two former Ellis County residents are included in the latest list of five notable Kansans released by Governor Sam Brownback Wednesday in Fort Scott. The list includes Walter P. Chrysler, George Sternberg, John Stuart Curry, Alfred Landon and Gordon Parks.
Chrysler was born in Wamego and grew up in Ellis. He started the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. Sternberg was an internationally renown paleontologist and curator of the museum at Fort Hays State University, which was later named for him.
John Stuart Curry was an artist, who painted the famous murals in the state capitol. Alfred Landon was the 26th governor of Kansas and the Republican nominee for president in 1936. Gordon Parks was born in Fort Scott and became a nationally recognized photographer, author, poet, composer and filmmaker.