It seems he never looked back after he left Iowa. But his hometown has worked to rebuild its ties to the Duke.
Winterset, Ia. - John Wayne moved away from his birthplace in Winterset, became one of Hollywood's biggest stars - and then few Iowans ever laid eyes on him in person again.
The 6-foot-4 son of an Iowa pharmacist, Wayne was discovered in 1929 while hauling equipment for a Hollywood studio.
He went on to acquire a drawl, perfect a distinctive walk and work like a mule.
He played memorable roles in nearly 150 films, won an Oscar for "True Grit" in 1970, and became one of the biggest box office draws of the 20th century.
Next weekend, his hometown will throw its biggest shindig yet - to honor the 100th birthday of the film star, who died in 1979. The John Wayne Birthday Centennial Celebration beginning Friday in Winterset will roll out a parade, concerts, Western shows, discussions of his films, appearances by family members and co-stars, and groundbreaking for the grand $5.5 million expansion of the John Wayne Birthplace.
But for decades the relationship between the star and the town of his birth was like a distant cousin who heads West and never sends a postcard.
Some forgot, others forgave.
James Olson, the mayor of Winterset, has a theory that an Iowan has to move 25 miles away from his hometown to become a local treasure.
"If I would have moved to Indianola," joked Olson, "I really would have been something."
The state's love for the Duke, however, was never really returned. Iowans wanted to take credit for his toughness, fierce independence and hard work. When they didn't get it, they seemed a bit wounded.
Tom Arnold, born and raised in Ottumwa, tells people he's from Iowa and is showered with the home-state love.
The Duke? He lived in Winterset for only the first three years of his life and barely acknowledged his ties to the place.
He gave just one face-to-face interview to a Des Moines Register reporter, Joseph Lewellen, in 1936.
"I don't know a thing about Iowa," Wayne told Lewellen. "I mean personally.
"I've never been back there, and you don't remember much, you know, out of the first five years of your life."
That Wayne never came back to Iowa is often repeated, although he did play a part in opening ceremonies of Veishea in Ames in 1966.
Garry Wills, who wrote the 1997 book "John Wayne's America," wrote that "Wayne forgot Iowa, and Iowa forgot him."
"John Wayne had nothing to gain from the farmlands in his past."
Unlike Ronald Reagan, who used his Midwestern roots to hone a down-to-earth image, Wayne dismissed it.
"Western heros appear from nowhere," Wills wrote.
Before 40,000 visitors a year began to visit a tiny, white four-room house in Winterset, it sat undistinguished for years on the corner of Second and South streets.
Some knew the famous actor had once lived there, although many didn't know where Clyde and Mary Morrison had raised their son, Marion, before moving to Earlham and eventually California by the time the boy was 7.
But when the actor died in 1979 and the home's owner, Albert Kordick, died the following year, Winterset native David Trask came up with an idea.
Why couldn't the city buy the house, use it for the Madison County Chamber of Commerce offices and see what happened?
The building had been left much the way it was when Wayne lived there, with the original windows and woodwork.
So Trask, then the chamber president, put out a little sign indicating it was John Wayne's birthplace, sat back and watched.
He saw cars slowly roll past, drivers stop to take pictures and ask to come in, although there was nothing inside to see.
By 1984, a nonprofit organization, the John Wayne Birthplace Society, was born and materials gathered to turn it into a museum. The main highway through town was renamed John Wayne Drive.
Wills has questioned whether, in fact, the home is Wayne's birthplace. But Trask said he personally interviewed the late Alice Miller, who lived across the street from the house and remembered the boy being pushed by his mother in the stroller in front of the house.
"That was our only real connection to someone with personal knowledge," said Trask, who has been on the birthplace board for 27 years and today is its chairman.
"It's true that when John Wayne was alive, a lot of people in Winterset couldn't tell you where he lived. I never knew that was the house."
Today, the museum is the only one of its kind solely honoring Wayne in the country, and it has exclusive rights to the Wayne brand, Trask said.
The home's walls are lined with shots of Wayne in various films. Wayne memorabilia includes the original eye patch from the movie "True Grit," guns and other props.
Trask expects more materials and costumes to arrive to be displayed when a new museum is built, including an 9-foot bronze statue of Wayne the family has already shipped to Winterset, to be unveiled during the celebration by youngest son Ethan Wayne.
Walk the streets of this picturesque small town of nearly 5,000 people, with its square filled with antique shops, cafes and an old-time drugstore, and you wouldn't guess Hollywood plays a big part.
Yet, when "The Bridges of Madison County," a best-selling book and movie set and filmed here, was released in 1995, the tourism opportunities quickly surfaced.
As "Bridges" began to drive tourism, the Wayne birthplace benefited. Here was a two-for-one Hollywood tour in the making.
"We have 14 tour buses coming in this month and 32 scheduled for the summer," said Brenda Hollingsworth, president of the chamber of commerce. "It's a big cash crop."
The economic impact of travel to Madison County reached $8.58 million by 2005, up from $5.29 million in 1994, and nearly everyone in town is now familiar with Wayne's roots. Stop at the Montross Pharmacy lunch counter, and the first two people interviewed display extensive knowledge of the actor.
"I spent all summer doing a college paper on Wayne and his parents," said Mike Fisher, 66. "His dad was a braggart. He claimed he was a football star, but he was nothing but a waterboy. He was kind of a dreamer. Maybe that's where John got it from."
Wayne was often tagged a football star at the University of Southern California, but he played little, was injured and quit his second year.
Next to Fisher, Clyde Lecocq, 92, has his own connections. "My wife's mother was Wayne's babysitter," he said.
Winterset's Mary Ann and Garry Orr's connection is to remain lifelong fans.
They went to see Wayne's movie "Chisum" shortly after marrying. If they ever had a son, Garry told his wife, that would be his name.
In 1979, Chism was born. Garry Orr misspelled the name on the birth certificate.
Chism Orr, today a plumber's apprentice who lives seven blocks from Wayne's birthplace, admires the actor's resolute character.
"He didn't put up with any crap," Orr said.
John Wayne's popularity is so enduring that today he still ranks third among favorite movies stars in the most recent Harris Poll.
The actor's drawl and graceful moves were said to be the product of intense study and personal packaging by director John Ford. Wayne practiced saying the word "ain't," yet studied classical art to refine his stance.
After the movie "The Big Trail" in 1930, he slugged his way through B westerns before hitting fame with "Stagecoach" in 1939.
"He was a complete perfectionist," said Harry Carey Jr., who worked with Wayne on 11 films.
"He knew what his screen persona was, and that is what he always maintained."
Carey, 86, who lives in Santa Barbara, Calif., said he was raised around movie stars, including his father, Harry Carey Sr., who starred in silent films, but he never met one like Wayne.
"Any time you came into vision, it was like the first time you saw him in your life. He had this tremendous presence.
"We'd been drunk together and God knows what, but I was always amazed at his stature."
Despite his stardom, reputation for drinking and three marriages, Wayne was true to his reputation as a hardworking, kind man, even on the set, Carey said.
He was forever the character demanding "Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!" ("True Grit"), but he had a gentle quality, said Bruce Crawford, a film historian from Omaha.
"He had a penchant for understatement in his swagger and in his dialogue," said Crawford, who held a film festival in Wayne's honor in April. "His performances were so subtle."
Later in his life, he became known for war films and was linked to politics with his support of the Vietnam War.
"He gets a bad rap," Crawford said. "It's hard to pigeonhole patriotism and hawkishness. In one of his movies, he said, 'All battles are fought by men who wish to be somewhere else.' "
Crawford said Wayne also included moments of civil rights in his movies, such as asking a bartender to serve a black man in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance."
His character, in many ways, reflected the independent mind and self-sufficient manner championed by many Midwesterners.
Winterset officials are confident[/B] that private donations and a state Community Attractions Tourism grant will fund the new, expanded birthplace museum.
Iowans are good at honoring their famous sons and daughters. Donna Reed, Andy Williams, Meredith Willson, Glenn Miller and John Wayne will be joined by a birthplace site in Corning for Johnny Carson.
"This is a significant part of pop culture history and people want to be a part of that," said Kathy Bowermaster of the Iowa Tourism office.
That's what many Winterset residents say. No matter how significant Wayne's ties to the town, why not have his museum in Winterset?
Why not have a big celebration? Visitors from 36 states and three foreign countries are already committed to come.
Chism Orr hopes to join them this coming weekend. But he's not sure.
His wife is pregnant with their second child and due May 30.
Last time, when he held his daughter for the first time in the hospital as his wife slept, he flipped through channels and was surprised to find the John Wayne movie "Rio Bravo."
"We were good to go," he said.
This time, Chism already has it planned. If it's a boy, he knows the middle name.
"Wayne."
- Mike Kilen, DesMoinesRegister
