For the past 100 years, Downeasters, both those born here and those who have adopted the state — have left their mark, not only on Maine, but often on the nation and the world. They have excelled at politics, science, sports, and in the arts. There have performed heroic feats, and they have had grand visions of what life should be like.

We asked our readers to tell us their favorite Mainers of the 20th century. Today, in the second of our series of special projects celebrating the end of the century, we are publishing those choices. The results may surprise you. They include cultural icons as well as people not widely known. But they prove more than adequately that Mainers have played a major role in making the world a better and more interesting place to live in the century about to end.

Margaret Chase Smith and Stephen King are two Mainers who will have left their marks on history when the century turns at midnight Dec. 31. Sen. Smith of Skowhegan blazed a trail for women who aspired to be political leaders in the latter half of the 20th century. Bangor’s best-selling author King brought the art of horror writing to new heights, gaining millions of fans around the world in the process. With 91 votes each, Smith and King generated the most enthusiasm among the 176 people who responded to our “Great Mainers of the 20th Century survey, the results of which are contained in this special supplement celebrating 100 years in the Pine Tree State.

We asked readers to pick their favorite notables in 10 categories. The only criteria were that their choices had lived in Maine for a substantial part of their lives, and had significant accomplishments after 1900.

Many choices were obvious, actual accomplishments sometimes taking a back seat to celebrity. In other cases, relatively obscure names such as Dr. Charles Best, the West Pembroke native who helped isolate insulin, came to the fore.

But perhaps the most interesting choices are in two relatively ill-defined categories – visionaries and heroes. An eccentric politician and a controversial explorer topped those lists respectively. Those choices and others like them – people who dared to stand up and be counted, sometimes taking unpopular positions in the process – tell a great deal about our values as the century comes to a close.

Political Leaders

1. Margaret Chase Smith 1897-1995

To Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev, she was “the devil in a disguise of a woman” because of her firm stands on U.S.-Soviet relations.

Skowhegan native Margaret Chase Smith first gained notice in 1940 when she was appointed to replace her late husband, Clyde, to represent Maine’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

She served in the House until 1948, when she won election to the U.S. Senate. She became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress, and the first woman elected to the Senate in her own right rather than being appointed to finish another senator’s term.

The defining moment of Smith’s political career, however, was her “Declaration of Conscience,” a statement delivered to Congress on June 1, 1950, in an effort to combat the infamous “red scare” paranoia generated by Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. The speech gained instant national attention for Smith and is credited as the event that started McCarthy’s fall from power.

In 1964, Smith added another first to her record, becoming the first woman to receive a presidential nomination from one of the major political parties. After losing her Senate seat to William D. Hathaway, a Democrat, in 1972, she retired from political life, launching a second career as a lecturer and visiting professor. In 1989, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George Bush.

2. Edmund S. Muskie 1914-1996

Sensing dissatisfaction with state government, Rumford politician Edmund Muskie challenged incumbent Republican Burton M. Cross in the 1954 gubernatorial election and won, becoming Maine’s first Democratic governor in 20 years. This win, along with his re-election in 1956, is often viewed as the event that invigorated Maine’s modern Democratic Party.

Moving to Capitol Hill in 1958, he became a key figure in the U.S. Senate, gaining recognition for his sponsorship of the Clean Air Act of 1963, the Water Quality Act of 1965, and the Air Quality Act of 1967. He later was chosen as Sen. Hubert Humphrey’s running mate in the 1968 presidential election, mounting his own unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic Party nomination in 1972.

He continued to serve in the Senate until 1980, when he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to replace Cyrus Vance as secretary of state, a job Muskie held until Republican Ronald Reagan took office in 1981.

After leaving office, Muskie continued to serve the public, becoming a member of the President’s Special Review Board, which investigated the Iran-Contra affair.

3. George J. Mitchell 1933-

A U.S. District Court judge initially appointed to the U.S. Senate to finish the remainder of Edmund Muskie’s term in 1980, George Mitchell served in the Senate until 1995, where, among other achievements, he was lead Democratic interrogator for the Iran-Contra hearings and was Senate majority leader from 1989 until his departure. His retirement from politics has been notable as well.

Appointed as a special adviser to President Clinton, he helped to hammer out the 1998 Good Friday peace accords in Northern Ireland. His participation in this event has garnered him honors that include the Presidential Medal of Freedom and an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. Recently he has served on the panel investigating corruption in Salt Lake City’s bid for the Olympic games.

4. William S. Cohen 1940-

Former Bangor Mayor William Cohen probably wore out more shoes than any other modern politician, walking more than 600 miles across Maine’s 2nd Congressional District in his successful 1972 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. There, he gained national attention while serving on the House Judiciary Committee as one of the Republicans to vote for Richard Nixon’s impeachment in the 1974 Watergate proceedings.

Elected to the Senate in 1978, he made a name for himself there as well, most notably as a member of the Senate committee investigating the Iran-Contra scandal. Cohen was one of only three Republicans to sign the report holding President Reagan accountable for the actions of those involved with the affair.

Cohen was appointed to President Clinton’s cabinet as secretary of defense in 1997, and was a key figure in NATO’s involvement in the war in Kosovo. He has written or co-written nine books, including works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

5. Olympia J. Snowe 1947-

Of all 228 candidates who have run for higher Maine office (U.S. Senate, U.S. House or governor) since World War II, Olympia Snowe is the most successful, with nine wins and no losses, according to political consultant Christian Potholm. Snowe’s political career began in 1973 when she was appointed to finish her husband’s term as a state Republican representative from Auburn after his death in a car accident. After serving in both houses of the Legislature, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978.

Snowe was the youngest Republican woman and the first Greek-American woman ever elected to Congress. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1994. She is known for her work in both houses of Congress on budget deficit reduction, issues important to women and families, foreign affairs and health care.

Snowe recently gained national attention as one of a number of Republicans to vote against the impeachment of President Clinton.

Writers

1. Stephen King 1947-

World-class horror writer Stephen King lives in a mansion in Bangor purchased with proceeds from his novels, 300 million copies of which are in print. The publishing phenomenon from Maine rivals Edgar Allan Poe as the standard-setter for the genre.

The Maine native and University of Maine graduate began his professional career in the late 1960s, writing stories at night and on weekends while working days in an industrial laundry and as a teacher at Hampden Academy. With the publication of his first novel, “Carrie,” in 1974, he was able to write full time.

Since then, King has published more than 30 novels (including those written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman) and a number of other books, among them short story collections, novellas, screenplays and nonfiction works. His work has been translated into 33 languages and published in 35 countries.

King and his wife, Tabitha, also an author, are well-known for their philanthropy, donating time and money to causes including Eastern Maine Medical Center’s Inpatient Children’s Center, the Kevin Mansfield Sports Complex in Bangor, the University of Maine, Bangor Public Library and other institutions.

2. E. B. White 1899-1985

Elwyn Brooks White wrote numerous articles and essays, as well as some of the most beloved children’s books ever, but his best-known contribution may have been teaching millions of people how to write.

White, already well-known for his New Yorker magazine essays and the book “Is Sex Necessary?” (written with James Thurber), moved to a farm in North Brooklin in 1939. There he wrote his most famous works, including the children’s classics “Stuart Little” and “Charlotte’s Web,” the latter inspired by a spider he saw in an outhouse.

His most popular work may be his revision of “The Elements of Style,” written originally by his former Yale professor William Strunk Jr. Since its publication in 1959, this little primer has become one of the most widely used and most respected books on writing ever published.

3. Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892-1950

Most of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s career unfolded in New York, but the Maine coast remained for her both a source of inspiration and a refuge. Millay began writing one of her most famous poems, “Renascence,” when she was a student at Camden High School. After attending Barnard and Vassar colleges and later moving to Greenwich Village in New York City, she distinguished herself as a successful playwright, actress, poet and short story writer. Her book “The Harp Weaver and Other Poems” won a Pulitzer Prize in 1923, and contained a strong statement in favor of women’s rights.

4. Kenneth Roberts 1885-1957

“History can be most effectively told in the form of fiction,” said Kenneth Roberts, writer of some of the most popular and painstakingly researched historical novels of the 20th century.

Born in Kennebunk, he served with the U.S. Army in World War I and worked as a reporter for the Boston Post and the Saturday Evening Post before becoming a full-time author. His first historical novel, “Arundel,” became an instant success due to its blending of an imaginative plot about average people and historical events. Later novels, such as “Northwest Passage” and “Rabble in Arms,” required years of research to maintain his level of accuracy. He received a special Pulitzer Prize citation just before his death in 1957.

Roberts was an outspoken environmentalist, engaging in a campaign against the increasing number of billboards in Maine before it was a popular cause.

5. Edwin Arlington Robinson 1869-1935

E. A. Robinson received his first positive review in 1896 from Theodore Roosevelt, then governor of New York, in the form of an unsolicited letter of praise. It encouraged him not to abandon his literary career.

Born in Head Tide and a graduate of Gardiner High School, Robinson started making a name for himself in the early 20th century. By the 1920s, he was a respected poet and author, with a body of work including such famous short poems as “Miniver Cheevy,” “Mr. Flood’s Party” and “Richard Corey.”

He won Pulitzer Prizes in 1922, 1925 and 1928, and the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Arts and Letters in 1929.

Scientists and Inventors

1. Francis E. Stanley 1849-1918

Freelan O. Stanley 1849-1940

The Stanley brothers invented their pioneering automobile, the Stanley Steamer in 1897, but their subsequent improvements to the vehicles into the 1920s ensure them a place in any recollection of the 20th century.

Born in Kingfield, the twins were already innovators at the time the first automobiles were built. Francis had perfected a method of dry plate photography in 1883, and the brothers operated the Stanley Dry Plate Co. in Lewiston, which they sold to Eastman Kodak Co. in 1905. Freelan was the first to have his curiosity aroused by the new form of transportation, and the brothers set out to make a car of their own.

Setting up shop in Newton, Mass., their initial steam-powered car was a success, and they soon sold the patent in 1899 to the Locomobile Co. for $250,000. But the Stanleys were convinced they could top themselves, and after buying back the patent, they created a better steamer. They proved the vehicle’s durability in 1904 by driving to the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire in just over two hours.

With the rise in popularity of gasoline-powered cars and the effectiveness of the assembly line, the Stanley Steamer’s life was limited, and it was no longer manufactured after 1925.

2. George Snell 1903-1996

Anyone who has had an organ transplant owes a debt to George Snell, often called the “father of immunogenetics.”

A native of Massachusetts who taught and did research at universities including Dartmouth and Brown, Snell came to the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor in 1935, where he worked and served in numerous positions until his retirement in 1973. His research helped to expand greatly what was known about the immune system, including the role genetics plays in immune reactions.

Snell’s studies with mice that led to breakthroughs in organ transplants and the understanding of infectious disease earned him a Nobel Prize in 1980.

3. Charles Best 1899-1978

Charles Best was a medical student at the University of Toronto when he helped make one of the biggest breakthroughs ever in the treatment of diabetes.

Best, born in West Pembroke, was working with Dr. Frederick Banting in 1921 when he helped to isolate the pancreatic hormone insulin and apply it for use to treat diabetes. Banting and another scientist, J.J. Macleod, won a Nobel Prize in 1923 for their work, but Banting protested Best’s lack of recognition and shared the cash award with him.

Best joined Banting in forming the Banting-Best Department of Medical Research at the University of Toronto, and he served as its director after Banting’s death. In 1963 he was appointed adviser to the medical research committee of the United Nations World Health Organization.

4. Victor McKusick 1921-

Time magazine said he’s “often called the father of genetic medicine.” Most people are probably unaware that the man so highly praised was born in Parkman. Originally trained in cardiology at Johns Hopkins University in the 1940s, Victor McKusick made genetics his life work, creating a separate medical genetics division at the school in 1957.

His work has furthered Gregor Mendel’s theories of inheritance, and he helped organize the Human Genome Project, which is mapping connections between specific genes and disorders.

McKusick has taught a course on genetics at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor every summer since 1960. It attracts doctors and scientists from around the world. The twin brother of Vincent McKusick, a former chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, McKusick holds the position of university professor of medical genetics at Johns Hopkins.

5. Clarence Cook Little 1888-1971

Clarence Cook Little left a legacy not only to the state of Maine, but to the world – in the form of one of the most prestigious biological laboratories anywhere.

Little, a biologist and president of the University of Maine between 1922 and 1925, was interested in discovering the links between genetics and cancer. He was credited with the idea that mice could be used in such research, as well as in investigations of other biomedical questions. To achieve these ends, he founded the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory in Bar Harbor in 1929, serving as a researcher and director until 1956.

He went on to be a founder of the National Cancer Institute and headed the organization that became the American Cancer Society.

Visionaries

1. Percival Baxter 1876-1969

Percival Baxter had a vision of Maine’s environmentally oriented future. His legacy is the enormous state park that bears his name, with Mount Katahdin as its centerpiece.

Baxter, an heir to the Portland Packing Co., first made his name in politics. He went back and forth between the Maine House of Representatives and Senate from 1905 to 1921, when, as president of the Senate, he was appointed governor after the death of Gov. Frederick Parkhurst. Baxter won the Blaine House in his own right in 1923. He left politics in 1925.

In 1931, Baxter proposed the state take control of a 6,690-acre tract of land in northern Maine that he had purchased, with the goal of preserving the area he considered one of the most beautiful in the state. The land contained Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest and most spectacular peak. When the Legislature refused to take action, Baxter donated the land outright.

Over the next 38 years, Baxter continued to purchase and donate adjacent lands, and by the time of his death, Baxter State Park contained more than 200,000 acres. He also established a $1.5 million trust fund, and provided an additional $5 million in his will to take care of one of the most scenic areas in the country.

2. Elizabeth Noyce 1930-1996

Philanthropist Elizabeth Noyce donated about $75 million to various causes after settling in Maine, but she never allowed her name to be attached to anything she financed.

The wife of Robert Noyce, the co-inventor of the microchip and co-founder of Intel Corp., Elizabeth Noyce moved to Bremen after the couple’s divorce in 1975. She donated a considerable amount of the approximately $100 million gained from the divorce settlement to hospitals, museums and institutions of higher education throughout Maine.

Her charitable donations included $5 million to the University of Maine System’s statewide capital campaign; $3 million to Maine Medical Center in Portland for a children’s hospital named for former first lady Barbara Bush; $2.5 million for faculty endowments at the University of Maine; and $4 million to Maine Maritime Academy. She also was active in Portland’s downtown revitalization.

3. Scott Nearing 1883-1983

Helen Nearing 1904-1995

Scott and Helen Nearing had a vision of the back-to-the-earth movement before it was fashionable.

Authors of “Living the Good Life,” a bible of the back-to-the-land movement, the Nearings came to Maine in the 1950s, eventually settling in Harborside on Cape Rosier. Strict vegetarians, they lived off the land by subsistence farming, organically growing and harvesting what they needed and using no processed food products. They made their living through writing and working a few hours a day producing maple syrup and growing blueberries.

Their lifestyle inspired thousands to abandon the trappings of modern society and live a more simple existence. Forest Farm, their Harborside homestead, is now the home of the Good Life Center, and is visited by many of their followers.

4. Rachel Carson 1907-1964

Famed environmentalist and summer resident Rachel Carson was inspired by the beauty of the state in her pioneering effort to raise awareness of the deadly impact of pesticides.

Carson’s most notable achievement was the book “Silent Spring,” which touched off an outcry that brought about the banning of the pesticide DDT. The book has been called one of the major influences on the modern environmental movement.

She summered in Southport from 1952 until her death, enjoying coastal life and continuing her research and writing. Several of the state’s natural preserves bear her name, the largest of which is the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, consisting of more than 7,000 acres in Wells. In her will, she was a major contributor to the Maine Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

5. Samantha Smith 1972-1985

Samantha Smith of Manchester had a Cold War vision of world peace. At age 10 she wrote a famous letter to Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov asking him about hostilities between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Invited to Moscow by Andropov, Smith’s journey and oft-stated desire for peace between the superpowers made her an instant celebrity throughout the world. Returning home, she wrote a book about her experience, spoke at an international children’s symposium in Japan, and hosted a TV special about the 1984 presidential election for the Disney Channel. Her fame won her a part in the Robert Wagner TV series “Lime Street.”

While returning home from filming in London, she was killed in a plane crash in Auburn with her father and several others. Her memory was honored by the Soviet Union with a postage stamp, and the first Goodwill Games, held in Moscow, were dedicated to her. A statue of her stands in front of the Maine State Museum in Augusta.

Artists

1. Andrew Wyeth 1917- 2. Jamie Wyeth 1946- 3. N.C. Wyet 1882-1945

The members of the Wyeth dynasty, Andrew, Jamie and N.C., were voted by Bangor Daily News readers first, second and fourth respectively in the artists category.

Andrew Wyeth, probably the most famous American painter of the 20th century, has spent summers in Maine his entire life. Early on he began immortalizing the scenery and his friends and neighbors in the coastal town of Cushing. His renowned work “Christina’s World” made the town famous. Her house has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, the first property ever named to the registry because of its status as the subject of a painting.

Jamie Wyeth, like his father, has made his career depicting Maine scenery and people, focusing on Monhegan and Southern islands. He is best-known for his portraits, and for his realistic renderings of his subjects and their surroundings.

N.C. Wyeth, Andrew’s father, was a student of noted illustrator Howard Pyle, achieving his own fame for illustrations of editions of books such as “Treasure Island” and “The Yearling.” Many of his private works showed his love of his summer home in Port Clyde.

3. Marsden Hartley 1877-1943

Marsden Hartley has been hailed as Maine’s greatest native-born painter in the 20th century.

Born in Lewiston, he went to work in a shoe factory when he quit school at age 14. After the family moved to Cleveland, he studied art there and in New York. It wasn’t until 1909 that he was discovered by photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who sponsored an exhibition of his work. He traveled the world during his career, and each change of locale brought about changes in his artistic style, which at various times included Impressionism, Cubism and Expressionism.

Later in life, he decided he preferred his birth state and returned to do many of his best works, such as “Lobster Fisherman” and “Evening Storm, Schoodic, Maine,” as a Realist painter in the coastal village of Corea near Winter Harbor. He was also an accomplished poet.

5. Louise Nevelson 1899-1988

The self-styled “architect of shadows” knew she wanted to be a sculptor by age 9, though 31 years would pass before her first exhibition.

Nevelson, born in Kiev, Russia, moved to Rockland as a small child. She studied in Germany in the 1930s and excelled in dance and theater, but stuck with her childhood decision to pursue sculpture in New York.

Nevelson is best-known for her wall sculptures, which resemble boxes hung on the wall. They varied in size, shape and contents, and were usually painted black, giving them a shadowy appearance. She worked predominantly in wood – her father worked in a lumber business, so wood from Maine trees was never in short supply.

6. John Marin 1870-1953

If John Marin, yet another of Maine’s artistic summer residents, had stayed with his original profession, he might be remembered for his buildings instead of his marine paintings.

Marin had always been artistic, but did not decide to pursue art professionally until he had spent 11 years as an architect. His first paintings made use of his former occupation and were inspired by the monuments and cityscapes of New York City. His career shifted gears after the first of what would become annual visits to Maine in 1914, at which point he shifted to portraying the natural world.

His work focused largely on seascapes, portrayed in both watercolor and oil. He combined realistic images with abstraction and objected to any kind of art that lacked reference to the outside world.

Musicians

1. Rudy Vallee 1901-1986

Widely recognized as the first of the crooners, singer-band leader Rudy Vallee helped make the University of Maine’s school song the No. 1 hit in the country.

Hubert Prior Vallee grew up in Westbrook where he taught himself the drums, clarinet and saxophone. He began playing in public before he finished high school. At the University of Maine, his friends nicknamed him “Rudy” after his idol, saxophone player Rudy Wiedoft. After his freshman year, he transferred to Yale, where he graduated.

Vallee, with partner Bert Lown, put together a band in New York City called the Connecticut Yankees, and in 1928 started achieving widespread fame on radio shows and in films. One of his greatest successes came in 1930, when his recording of the “Maine Stein Song” topped national charts. It is his arrangement of the song that UM students and alumni still sing today.

Vallee’s trademark was his use of a megaphone while he sang. Amplifier and microphone systems were still primitive. Vallee’s megaphone allowed his soft voice to be heard over the band and the crowds. His vocal style paved the way for soft-voiced crooners such as Bing Crosby.

2. Dick Curless 1931-1995

The man called the “Baron of Country Music” was born in Fort Fairfield, about as far northeast of Nashville as a person can be and still live in the United States.

Dick Curless started his career singing on a radio station in Ware, Mass., in 1948, and on the Armed Forces Network while stationed in the Far East in 1951, but his big break came in 1954 on the “Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts” program.

During his career, he had a total of 22 hits on the country charts, including “A Tombstone Every Mile,” about the isolated road though Aroostook County’s Haynesville Woods. At the time of his death, he was a regular performer at the Christy Lane Theater in Branson, Mo.

3. Noel Paul Stookey 1937-

Best known as a member of the legendary 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, Noel Paul Stookey’s music career continues both in front of and behind the microphone.

Moving to Blue Hill in 1973, Stookey opened a recording studio and started his own record label, Neworld, which, among others things, produced the first few albums of another Maine-based folk singer, Dave Mallett.

Stookey rekindled his partnership with Peter Yarrow and Mary Travers in 1978, and the trio has produced several albums since that time. He also oversees a multimedia organization that specializes in children’s computer software, music and television shows.

4. Lillian Nordica 1857-1914

Lillian Nordica left her native Farmington, where her given name was Lillian Norton, to become one of the best-known opera singers in the world.

After establishing herself across Europe at the end of the 19th century by performing with opera companies in Milan, Paris and London, among others, Nordica came to the United States in 1895 to sing with New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, where she would further build her reputation with her strong dramatic presence and powerful voice until her retirement in 1909.

Soon after her retirement, she began a worldwide farewell tour which was cut short when her ship ran aground in December 1913 in the Gulf of Papua.

5. Dave Mallett 1951-

A day of gardening on his family’s farm in Sebec inspired Dave Mallett to write one of the most often recorded folk songs.

Mallett attracted attention with his music for most of his life, but his first real break was meeting Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary. Stookey became Mallett’s mentor and producer. Stookey also brought Mallett’s “The Garden Song” to the attention of Pete Seeger, who would be the first of more than 150 artists to record it, in 1979.

Mallett moved to Nashville for a time in the early 1990s, where he collaborated with country music songwriter Hal Ketchum. He returned to Maine in 1997 and continues to write, record and perform.

Actors and Directors

1. John Ford 1895-1973

This winner of six Academy Awards for directing helped define Hollywood’s image of the West, although his own life began in the opposite direction.

Born in Cape Elizabeth to Irish immigrant parents, Sean O’Feeney was the youngest of 13 children. Upon graduating from Portland High School in 1914, he followed a brother to Hollywood hoping to become an actor. The brother took the Americanized name Francis Ford, and Sean followed suit, becoming John Ford.

He soon moved from acting and stunt work to directing, starting with the 1917 western “The Tornado.” His first brush with acclaim, however, did not come until “The Informer” in 1935, for which he won his first Academy Award.

He also won Oscars for directing “The Grapes of Wrath,” “How Green Was My Valley” and “The Quiet Man,” as well as the documentaries “Battle of Midway” and “December 7th.” Other notable films directed by Ford include “Young Mr. Lincoln,” “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” and “Stagecoach,” the movie that propelled John Wayne to stardom.

2. Tim Sample 1951- 3. Marshall Dodge 1936-1982

Tim Sample and Marshall Dodge, voted by NEWS readers second and third respectively in this category, helped define Down East humor for Mainers and flatlanders alike, and as such deserve mention together.

Dodge, a native of New York City, became interested in regional humor and storytelling, particularly Maine’s, in high school. At Yale, he met divinity student Robert Bryan, who shared his interests. Pooling their talents, they created the popular “Bert and I” albums. In 1977, Dodge started the Maine Festival, a “cultural jam festival” of the arts initially held each year at Bowdoin College. Dodge was killed in a bicycle accident in Hawaii in 1982.

Sample was born in Fort Fairfield and raised in Boothbay Harbor. His first humor album, released in 1979 and produced by Noel Paul Stookey, attracted the attention of Dodge, leading to several collaborations with both him and Bryan. Sample has written and illustrated several books of Maine humor and is host for a regular segment about Maine life on “CBS Sunday Morning.”

4. Linda Lavin 1937-

Portland-born Linda Lavin rose to fame on a show that not only featured her as one of television’s first strong working women, but also introduced the phrase “Kiss My Grits” into the American lexicon.

Lavin played the title role on “Alice,” a sitcom about a single mother and aspiring singer who worked a minimum wage job as a waitress in an Arizona diner. Over the show’s nine-year run between 1976 and 1985, Lavin chalked up two Golden Globe Awards.

The National Commission of Working Women presented her with its first Grass Roots Award when a nationwide poll of women selected Alice as the television character who best represented their lives.

She has produced and starred in TV specials, Broadway productions and movies. She won two Emmys for the musical special “Linda in Wonderland” and a Tony for her performance in Neil Simon’s “Broadway Bound.”

5. Gary Merrill 1915-1990

As famous for his marriage to Bette Davis as for his own career, Merrill had an admitted addiction to the state of Maine.

A Connecticut native, Merrill was known for his roles in movies such as “All About Eve,” “Twelve O’Clock High” and “Mysterious Island,” and the TV series “Young Dr. Kildare.” He spent summers in Maine all his life, even during the height of his career. He and Davis spent much of their 10-year marriage in Cape Elizabeth, and Merrill later made Falmouth his full-time residence.

Merrill’s trademark deep voice also led him to work in many commercials, as well as the BBC series “Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years.”

6. Richard Dysart 1929-

Though an actor from Maine, Richard Dysart is known by TV audiences as a West Coast lawyer.

Augusta-born Dysart has appeared in many movies, including “Wall Street,” “Mask,” “The Falcon and the Snowman” and “Pale Rider,” but he is most famous for portraying Leland McKenzie, senior partner of the law firm McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak on NBC’s “L.A. Law.” He returns home to Maine annually to visit his family and enjoy some freshwater fishing.

Dysart has been seen most recently in the movie “Hard Rain,” and heard on the WB’s “Batman: The Animated Series” (formerly on Fox) and HBO’s “Spawn.”

Athletics

1. Cindy Blodgett 1975-

Not only is Cindy Blodgett one of the state’s best women’s basketball players ever, she may also hold the distinction of being the most popular athlete in any sport in Maine history.

Born in Clinton, Blodgett was attracting attention on the court in her middle-school days, so no one in her area was too surprised when she exploded on the high school scene. After four years with the Lawrence High School Bulldogs, she had won four state championships and scored 2,565 points, and the entire state waited to learn where she would play college ball.

Probably no one was happier with her decision to play for the University of Maine than her Black Bear teammates. She rose to the top of the heap in college basketball, too, in the process setting 20 UM records, including all-time leader in points with 3,005. Her contributions also helped bring the team to post-season play in the NCAA tournament in all four of her years at Maine. Her number, 14, was retired by the team last November, making her one of only a handful of UM players to receive such an honor.

In 1998, Blodgett was drafted by the WNBA’s Cleveland Rockers. She was the team’s first draft pick that year, and the sixth pick overall. She was traded to the Sacramento Monarchs in 1999. This month, Blodgett was hired as an assistant coach for Boston University’s women’s basketball team, for the 1999-2000 season.

2. Joan Benoit Samuelson 1957-

Joan Benoit Samuelson started running marathons because it seemed like fun. World records and Olympic gold only enhanced the experience.

Samuelson, of Cape Elizabeth, began running track in high school and continued at Bowdoin College and North Carolina State University. In 1979, not yet a college graduate, she grabbed headlines with an unexpected victory in the Boston Marathon, the second marathon she had ever entered.

A second Boston Marathon win in a world-record time of 2:22:43 came in 1983, and the next year she qualified for the Olympic team just 17 days after knee surgery. She went on to take the gold in the first women’s marathon at the 1984 games in Los Angeles.

3. Billy Swift 1961-

South Portland’s Billy Swift was originally recruited by the University of Maine as an outfielder, but distinguished himself in college and the professional leagues as a pitcher.

The 14th of 15 athletic siblings, Swift made the transition from the outfield so well that he set a UM record for most wins by a pitcher. His performances in the regular season and in the College World Series earned attention from baseball’s major leagues, and in the 1984 amateur draft he was the Seattle Mariners’ first pick, and second pick overall.

Swift’s career record in the majors is 94-78 with an earned run average of 3.94 during his stints with the Mariners, the San Francisco Giants and the Colorado Rockies. In 1993, while with San Francisco, he finished second to Greg Maddux for the National League’s Cy Young Award.

4. Sockalexis Cousins:

Louis 1871-1913

Andrew 1892-1919

The Sockalexis cousins from Indian Island excelled in two different sports nearly 20 years apart, but together left a legacy not only for American Indians, but for all Mainers.

Louis Sockalexis’ ability took him from Maine to play for Holy Cross College and Notre Dame, and eventually to the Cleveland Spiders in 1897, making him one of the first American Indians in major league baseball. He ignited crowds with his batting and outfielding, and the team was nicknamed the Cleveland Indians in his honor. He retired after just three seasons in 1899, and in 1915, two years after his death, his old team was officially renamed the Indians.

Louis’ cousin, Andrew, distinguished himself as a world-class runner. Training by running the perimeter of Indian Island in the summer and on the frozen Penobscot River in winter, the younger Sockalexis secured a spot on the 1912 U.S. Olympic team, placing fourth in the marathon at Stockholm. A strong favorite in that year’s Boston Marathon, he came in second after a legendary close race. He also came in second the next year – no small feat considering he ran against doctor’s orders with chest pains and a severe cold that may have led to his early death from tuberculosis.

5. Mike Bordick 1965-

Mike Bordick earned his spot in baseball’s major leagues thanks to his performance with the same University of Maine baseball team that spawned Billy Swift.

The Winterport native quickly made the shortstop position for the Hampden Academy and UM baseball teams his own. He was signed by the Oakland Athletics in July 1986 as a nondrafted free agent, and rose through the ranks to the major leagues in 1991. While with Oakland in 1995, he chalked up a streak of 37 consecutive errorless games, and led American League shortstops in assists in 1996.

Bordick moved to the Baltimore Orioles in December 1996 as a free agent and quickly assumed the starting shortstop position for Cal Ripken Jr. Last season he was second among American League shortstops with a .990 fielding percentage, the highest of his career.

Heroes

1. Adm. Robert Edwin Peary 1856-1920

The first man to reach the North Pole first envisioned his goal when he was stationed in Nicaragua with the U.S. Navy.

Born in Pennsylvania to Maine natives, Peary moved to South Portland and later Cape Elizabeth as a small child after his father’s death. He graduated from Bowdoin College, and then accepted an appointment with the U.S. Navy as a civil engineer. While in Nicaragua in the 1880s, he read constantly about the polar regions, becoming so obsessed he took a leave of absence in 1886 to explore Greenland on his own.

Peary returned in 1891 as the head of the Academy of Natural Sciences expedition that would determine Greenland’s status as an island. Determined to go even farther north, he mounted expeditions to the North Pole in 1898 and 1905, coming a few hundred miles short both times.

On March 1, 1909, he launched his third attempt. When his ship was stopped by the ice, Peary, his aide Matthew Henson, four Eskimo guides and 40 dogs went the last 133 miles on their own, finally reaching their goal April 6. Peary recorded his adventure in his book “The North Pole,” and retired from the Navy in 1911 with the rank of rear admiral.

2. Donald Baxter MacMillan 1874-1970

A supporter and colleague of Peary, Donald Baxter MacMillan’s own Arctic expeditions helped chart much of what we know about the region.

Born in Provincetown, Mass., and raised in Freeport, Maine, MacMillan graduated from Bowdoin College. He was a teacher in Worcester, Mass., when he was invited to join Peary’s third expedition for the North Pole. If not for frozen feet, he might have been with Peary on the final trek to the Pole. MacMillan later led several expeditions on his own, making extensive use of radio equipment and airplanes.

MacMillan was the first to theorize that Arctic glacial fields slowly move southward. He kept precise records of all his findings, which have been of great use to geologists and naturalists over the years. He also compiled the first Eskimo-English dictionary.

MacMillan’s famous schooner Bowdoin is still used today by Maine Maritime Academy.

3. Maj. Charles Loring 1918-1952

Maj. Charles Loring of Portland saved the lives of several fellow U.S. Air Force pilots. A pilot with the 80th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 8th Fighter-Bomber Wing in the Korean War, he was leading an air support mission when he was ordered to dive bomb several enemy gun positions that were firing on friendly ground troops.

Successfully locating and attacking the targets, his own plane was hit by return fire. As he went down, he altered his course to collide with the remaining gun positions, destroying them in the crash.

He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone was named in his honor.

4. Lt. Edward Dahlgren 1916-

Edward Dahlgren saw 600 days of front-line combat in World War II. During that time, one particular mission, which sounds like a scene out of a Hollywood movie, gained him lasting fame.

In 1945, the Perham native was a sergeant leading a rescue mission to a platoon that had been surrounded by a German counterattack in Oberhoffen, France. Spying several German soldiers in a field, he took up a position in a nearby barn window and sprayed them with submachine gun fire.

When the two platoons made contact, they merged. The men moved throughout the town, killing German soldiers and destroying gun emplacements as they went. Throughout the battle, Dahlgren put himself directly in harm’s way, leading charges and subduing enemy troops. His actions won him the Congressional Medal of Honor.

5. Donn Fendler 1927-

The attention of people across the country was drawn to Baxter State Park for more than a week in 1939, waiting for word about 12-year-old Donn Fendler, who was hiking up Mount Katahdin with his family and some friends when he became separated from them in fog near Baxter Peak and wandered off the trail.

For nine days, Fendler made national headlines as he roamed the area surrounding Katahdin, fighting the elements, fatigue, black flies and an injured toe. He credited his Boy Scout training with saving his life. Following Wassataquoik Stream, he emerged near a camp on the East Branch of the Penobscot River.

Fendler recorded his experience in the popular book “Lost on a Mountain in Maine.” For the record, he finally hiked to the top of Mount Katahdin in 1977.

And the rest

NEWS readers were invited to submit suggestions for notable Mainers who do not fit into any of the categories we offered. Here are some of the choices:

EDDIE DRISCOLL 1925-

Longtime television personality for WLBZ in Bangor; host of shows such as “Dialing for Dollars,” “My Back Yard,” “Weird” and “The Great Money Movie.”

DORIS TWITCHELL ALLEN 1901-

Founder of Children’s International Summer Villages to promote world peace by bringing together children from around the world, and former University of Maine psychology professor.

GEORGE HALE 1932-

Radio and television personality for WABI in Bangor and one of Maine’s most popular broadcasters.

TOM HENNESSEY 1937-

NEWS outdoors columnist and nationally known nature painter and illustrator.

RALPH WILLIAM ‘BUD’ LEAVITT JR. 1917-1994

Renowned outdoors columnist, journalist, television personality and former NEWS executive sports editor.

MILDRED ‘BROWNIE’ SCHRUMPF 1903-

Former University of Maine home economics teacher, cook and NEWS recipe columnist for 44 years.

ANDRE the SEAL 1961-1986

Internationally known seal that entertained audiences in Rockport Harbor for many years.

IRVING ‘FISHBONES’ STEVENS 1910-1999

1988’s “King of the Hobos” who wrote two books about his life on the road and invented “Irving’s Fly Dope.”

JAMES RUSSELL WIGGINS 1903-

Longtime editor of The Ellsworth American, a former editor of The Washington Post and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

“MEMORABLE MAINERS” IS PART TWO OF a COMMEMORATIVE SERIES CELEBRATING ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MAINE LIFE.

About “MEMORABLE MAINERS”

Project editor: Wayne E. Reilly Researchers: Bill Doughty, Bridgit Cayer Writer: Bill Doughty Design: Eric Zelz Cover: Mary Ford, Brent Murray, Eric Zelz Copy editors: Janet Sargent, Dana Wilde Photographs: Charles H. Best courtesy of the University of Toronto;

Rachel Carson photo by Stanley L. Freeman; Marsden Hartley courtesy of the Portland Museum of Art; Donald B. MacMillan courtesy of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, Bowdoin College; John Marin by George Daniell; F.E. and F.O. Stanley courtesy of the Stanley Museum, Kingfield, Maine; N.C. Wyeth courtesy of the Brandywine River Museum; E.A. Robinson, E.B. White, John Ford, Kenneth Roberts and Percival Baxter courtesy of the Maine Historical Society; all others from the Bangor Daily News library.

Numerical key to photographic montage:

1. Elizabeth Noyce

2. Noel Paul Stookey

3. Clarence Cook Little

4. Scott Nearing

5. Edna St. Vincent Millay

6. Donn Fendler

7. William S. Cohen

8. Doris Twitchell Allen

9. Marshall Dodge 10. Richard Dysart 11. Lillian Nordica 12. George Snell 13. Dick Curless 14. The Stanley brothers 15. Adm. Robert Edwin Peary 16. Lt. Edward Dahlgren 17. Cindy Blodgett 18. Eddie Driscoll 19. Joan Benoit Samuelson 20. Billy Swift 21. E.B. White 22. Tim Sample 23. Edwin Arlington Robinson 24. Linda Lavin 25. Andre the Seal 26. Mike Bordick 27. Percival Baxter 28. Stephen King 29. Rudy Vallee 30. George Hale 31. N.C. Wyeth 32. Tom Hennessey 33. Jamie Wyeth 34. John Marin 35. Samantha Smith 36. Gary Merrill 37. Marsden Hartley 38. Victor McKusick 39. James Russell Wiggins 40. Louise Nevelson 41. Andrew Wyeth 42. Mildred “Brownie” Schrumpf 43. George J. Mitchell 44. Maj. Charles Loring 45. Louis Sockalexis 46. Donald Baxter MacMillan 47. Margaret Chase Smith 48. Ralph “Bud” Leavitt Jr. 49. Rachel Carson 50. Andrew Sockalexis 51. Edmund S. Muskie 52. Charles Best 53. John Ford 54. Dave Mallett 55. Helen Nearing 56. Olympia J. Snowe 57. Kenneth Roberts 58. Irving “Fishbones” Stevens