These personages, whether they care to acknowledge it or not, do in fact hail from da' Region(Gary, Indiana). Consequently, each qualifies as a "Home Boy":
Justice Robert D. Rucker (Indiana Supreme Court 1998-2017)
The Lake Co. Court Building in Gary was renamed the Robert D. Rucker Courthouse in honor of the Gary Native who early in his legal career served as a Gary Asst. City Attorney.
Art LeFleur, aka LaFleur b.1943 Actor, "Bad Guys" (2006), "Hostage" (2005), "Field of Dreams" (1989), and numerous TV series dating back to the 1970s
Claire Malis b.1944-d.2012 Actress whose works include TV series such as "One Life to Live", "St. Elsewhere", "Murphy Brown", "Picket Fences", "Murder She Wrote", "CSI Miami"
William Marshall b.1924-d.2003 Known as King of Cartoons on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" TV series. Acting career began in 1950s live TV's "Studio One" and "Dupont Show", later including movies "Blacula" (1972), "Othello" (1981), "Amazon Women on the Moon" (1987)
Karen McDougal b.1971 Playmate of the year 1998
James McCracken b.1926-d.1988 Tenor. Horace Mann grad and ex WWII sailor who debuted abroad at the Vienna State Opera, moving on to the Opera House of Zurich and eventually to the New York Met, where he gave over 400 performances
Helene Stanley b.1929-d.1990 Actress from 1940s-'60s; works include "All the King's Men" (1949), "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950), "Davy Crockett" TV series (1954)
Gary Teen Graduates from College before Receiving Hgh School Diploma
CBS NEWS May 1, 2017, 7:21 PM
GARY, Ind. -- Eighteen-year-old Raven Osborne is about to get her college degree. "I graduate from college on May 5," she told CBS News' Jericka Duncan. But when does she graduate from high school? May 22.
Yes, it's true; Raven gets her college degree two weeks before her high school diploma. "When people hear that … they're going, 'What? How did she do that?'" Duncan said. "Yeah they think I'm lying," Raven said.
She did it through online classes, year-round community college and two years at Purdue University Northwest. Her semester-long college courses counted as a full year of high school credit.
"Sophomore year, that was the most work. I had five high school classes and four college classes," she said.
Raven attends the 21st Century Charter High School in Gary, Indiana. The school is surrounded by dilapidated buildings, a common sight throughout the city. Everyone here is required to take college classes on a college campus in order to graduate. Some get just a few credits. Five of this year's 43 graduates earned associate's degrees. And then there's Raven.
And how much did Raven pay for college? "Absolutely nothing," she said. "Not a dime." The foundation that runs the school uses state funding to pay for college tuition and student transportation to nearby college campuses.
This fall, Raven will be back at 21st Century Charter. Instead of paying for college, the school will be paying her salary, $38,000 a year to teach.
March 1 (1915): the birthday of Gary's first major league baseball player, Nick Strincevich; nickname "Jumbo." Nick grew up in Glen Park. He began working for Gary Sheet & Tin at age 16. He is also the oldest living former major league baseball player.
In a 10-season career, Strincevich posted a 46-49 record with a 4.05 ERA in 889.2 innings pitched. In 1945, he won 16 games. He also pitched 18 complete games that year. No modern era player could, or would, even attempt such a feat.
Lee Quincy Calhoun (Olympian-Track)
Tony Zale [Real Name: Anthony Zaleski]Zale, now 33, was still recognized as champion when the war ended and thus began his series with Graziano. In the first match, at Yankee Stadium, each fighter went down in the first two rounds. Then Graziano assumed control of the fight, battering Zale through the fifth round. But somehow, Zale came out and knocked Graziano out in the sixth. That win earned Zale Fighter of the Year honors from Ring Magazine and the Boxing Writers Association of America.
The rematch in 1947 was just as brutal as the first fight, with Graziano winning this time by sixth-round knockout. In the third and final match, later in '47, Zale knocked out Graziano in three to regain the crown.
Three months later, Zale lost the title to Marcel Cerdan and retired from boxing. So exciting were Zale's fights that two of the Graizano contests and the Cerdan fight were named Fight of The Year by Ring Magazine.
GEORGE TALIAFERRO - The Jackie Robinson of the NFL 
Walter Hellman (World Champion Checkers Player)
The Gary native earned his first patent from the creation in 1967 and displayed his windshield wiper to executives at Ford -- only to see Ford introduce it in 1969 without giving him any credit.
Kearns, who died of brain cancer complicated by Alzheimer's disease in 2005, spent much of his life fighting for damages, all the way to the Supreme Court. He eventually got $30 million from Ford and Chrysler in the early 1990s.
But before that victory came, Kearns suffered a mental breakdown and his marriage ended in divorce in 1989.
The "Chicago Picasso" (Manufactured at U.S. Steel-Gary Works)
John Dillinger, posing on arrest with the Prosecutor Robert "Fighting Bob" Estill and Sheriff Lillian Holley. Not the typical mugshot! (Not from Gary. Rather, Escapee from the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, IN - 1934.)
She wouldn't talk about it, even around her family, said her 90-year-old niece, LaVanche West. "I just think she wanted that terrifying part of her life to be over," West said. "It made her feel humiliated, to think that he could get out of that jail when she was so sure that he wouldn't escape." Adding insult to injury was the getaway vehicle Dillinger used -- a brand new V-8 Ford owned by Holley herself. Holley proclaimed the Lake County Jail the strongest in Indiana, according to Bryan Burrough's book "Public Enemies," on which the movie is based.
West said her aunt faced a lot of scrutiny, "just because she was a woman." That only increased after Dillinger broke free. People speculated she was afraid of Dillinger, and intended to let him escape, but Holley was cleared of involvement. The staunch Democrat also upset people with her theory that town Republicans had smuggled a gun to Dillinger, West said.
"She didn't like to be sheriff and didn't want to be in that position," West said. "She was a homebody and I think she always wanted to stay in Hammond in her beautiful home and just be a social lady." Her husband, Roy "Doc" Holley, preceded her as Lake County sheriff. But he was shot and killed in 1933 trying to solve a dispute between a pair of farmers in Ross Township. Lillian Holley agreed to finish his term. West said Holley primarily accepted the position so she could pay for her twin daughters' college education.
After Dillinger broke out, West said, Holley's daughters had to be protected by bodyguards, in case the outlaw wanted to take revenge. West herself was in Terre Haute at the time, but she was still afraid. "I didn't think anything like that would ever happen in our family," West said. "I feared they would be harmed by the fellow who escaped."
Holley didn't seem too scared when she spoke to reporters after Dillinger's escape. Her words to the Post-Tribune are famous: "If I ever get John Dillinger back in the Lake County Jail, I'll shoot him in the head with my own gun." Holley never had the chance, not that she would really take it, West said. "She would have never shot a gun at anyone," West said. "She was a little, petite person. I'm sure that was just bravado."
Holley dreaded media recaps of the Dillinger escape, all the way until 1994, when she died at age 103. But West herself is eager to see "Public Enemies," and thinks actress Lili Taylor ("The Haunting," "Six Feet Under"), who plays Holley in the film, bears a resemblance to her.
