Religion · 1892–1971Reinhold Niebuhrtheologian, pastorOne of America's leading 20th-century theologians, who formed his ideas as pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit from 1915 to 1928.DETROIT / A living lexicon / ¼
Famous Detroiters
People who were born here, moved here or built their careers in Detroit: musicians, carmakers, athletes, writers, inventors, civil-rights leaders and a few notorious names. With their dates, their Detroit story and the places where they lived, worked and played, closed ones included.
- 1,940 famous people
- 366 Detroit places
- 21 fields
Hungarian ties 22 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →
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8 people
Clear filtersReligion · 1892–1971Reinhold Niebuhrtheologian, pastorOne of America's leading 20th-century theologians, who formed his ideas as pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit from 1915 to 1928.
Literature · 1858–1939Charles Eastmanphysician, writer, reformerSantee Dakota physician and author, one of the best-known Native American writers of his time, who spent his last winters in Detroit, died here in 1939 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
Civil rights & activism · 1870–1952Agnes Inglisanarchist activist and archivistDetroit-born heiress turned anarchist who funded radical causes and built the Labadie Collection, one of the great archives of American radicalism.
Literature · 1881–1959Edgar Guestpoet, newspaper columnist, radio and TV hostDetroit Free Press's 'People's Poet', who wrote some 11,000 homespun verses over six decades, syndicated nationally, and was Michigan's poet laureate.
Military · 1823–1907Orlando B. WillcoxUnion general, lawyer, authorDetroit-born West Pointer and Detroit lawyer who led the 1st Michigan Infantry to Bull Run, won the Medal of Honor and served as a Union general.
Theatre & dance · 1842–1908Bronson HowardplaywrightDetroit-born son of an 1849 Detroit mayor, often called the first American to make a living as a professional playwright, author of Shenandoah and Saratoga.
Theatre & dance · 1898–1993Edith Meiseractress, playwright, radio writerDetroit-born actress and writer who brought Sherlock Holmes to American radio in 1930 and appeared in more than 20 Broadway shows.
Literature · 1849–1898Robert Reitzelwriter, editor, speakerGerman-American freethinker who published the radical literary weekly Der arme Teufel in Detroit from 1884 until his death in 1898.The lexicon keeps growing. Every entry lists its sources at the bottom. Dates were checked against Wikidata and Wikipedia. The texts are our own. Famous people's places among the sights ↗