Author William Kennedy is 81 today.
His first novel, The Ink Truck, came out in 1969, and didn’t sell very well. He began writing a series of novels about a big, down-at-heel Irish family full of storytellers and brawlers. One of these novels, Ironweed (1984), is about a derelict on the run from his past. Thirteen publishers rejected it because they thought no one would want to read about bums. But it was published, and it won the Pulitzer, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and a Pen/Faulkner award, all in the same year.
Kennedy made it big at age 56.
Dian Fossey is 77 today.
She lived alone for 18 years, studying mountain gorillas in the cold, rainy mountains of Rwanda. She was the first person ever approached by gorillas in the wild, and she would sit with them for hours while they swatted her gently with leaves and played with her hair. She wrote a book about her experience called Gorillas in the Mist (1983).
Fossey made it big at age 51.
Albert Pujols is 29 today. Pujols made it big at age 21.
Also having birthdays today, Marilyn Horne (75), A.J. Foyt (74), Ronnie Milsap (66), Debby Allen (59), Sade (50) and Kate Moss (35).
Dizzy Dean was born 99 years ago today.
Jay Hanna Dizzy Dean, the brash Cardinals fireballer, burst upon the big league scene in 1932 and averaged 24 wins over his first five full campaigns. A winner of four consecutive National League strikeout crowns, Diz was 30-7 in 1934 (the last National League pitcher to record 30 wins) when he and his brother Paul led the Gashouse Gang to the World Championship. A broken toe suffered in the 1937 All-Star Game led to an arm injury that eventually shortened his playing days. He later embarked on a successful broadcasting career.
Ethel Merman was born 101 years ago today.