Town has had big-name natives, visitors

Arcola certainly has had its brushes with fame. For instance:

– Ella Fitzgerald serenaded resident Joe Ernst in his gas station, sometime before 1941. Ernst served some food at his gas station on U.S. 45, and a busload of people came in, Fitzgerald among them. They'd come from Chicago, and being black they had a hard time finding a restaurant to serve them.

"I didn't know Ella Fitzgerald from anyone else," Ernst said, but he served them anyway.

She sat by the cash register, Ernst said, and sang a song to thank him.

– Actress Jennie Garth lived in Arcola from the age of 2 or 3 until she was about 5½, said her sister, Cammie Clark.

Clark, an Arcola resident, said Garth, once star of "Beverly Hills 90210," visits about once a year. Now Clark hears about Garth's recent performances on "Dancing With the Stars."

"They love to watch her and ... everybody kind of connected for that," Clark said.

– Nancie King Mertz is a noted Chicago artist who was born and raised in Arcola. Mertz won Artist of the Year from Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau for 2005-06 and '06-07. She graduated from Arcola High and has fond memories of her days there.

"It was wonderful," Mertz said. "It was very safe and of course people were friendly."

She returns frequently to visit her family.

– Fred Warren, editor of the progressive "Appeal to Reason" was born in Arcola. Warren is said to have commissioned Upton Sinclair to write "The Jungle" and encouraged Jack London, Mother Mary Jones, Helen Keller, Eugene Debs and Sinclair to write in his journal.

– Charles Kuralt came to town in 1977 to cover the Broom Corn Festival and did a story on Bob Arrol's Coffee Club, which awarded residents their own mugs if they drank a certain amount of coffee. The five-minute segment aired on Kuralt's "On the Road."

– Richard Gruelle, father of more famous Johnny Gruelle, creator of Raggedy Ann, illustrated poems for Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley. Riley visited Arcola often and is said to have written "When Bessie Died," "The Train Miser," and "When the Hearse Comes Back" in Arcola.

– Arcola High athletic star Terry Miller played four years of football at the University of Illinois and three years of track and field. Drafted into the NFL, he played five seasons with the Detroit Lions and the St. Louis Cardinals.