Respect Your Elders: Janet Guthrie
#RespectYourElders: Janet Guthrie, 81, is a former professional race car driver, pilot, flight instructor and aerospace engineer. She is the first woman to qualify and compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500. Guthrie was born in Iowa City, but moved to Miami with her family at the age of three. She attended […]
Respect Your Elders: Retired Doctors Battling COVID-19
#RespectYourElders: Chicago Methodist Senior Services frequently highlights older adults who changed the world in one way or another. We write about actors, musicians, activists and more. With the state of the world, we decided this edition would focus on the retired health care workers who are returning to the field to help those affected by […]
Respect Your Elders: Claudette Colvin
#RespectYourElders: Everyone knows Rosa Parks, her influence on African American civil rights and her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. But nine months before Parks became known for her protest, the police arrested a woman named Claudette Colvin in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a […]
Respect Your Elders: Anthony Hopkins
#RespectYourElders: Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins CBE, 81, is a Welsh actor, director, producer and philanthropist. He’s well-versed in TV and film and has won both Academy and Emmy Awards during his career. Hopkins was born in Port Talbot, Wales in 1937 to parents of Welsh and English descent. He enjoyed drawing and playing the piano […]
Respect Your Elders: Jeremiah Stamler
#RespectYourElders: Jeremiah Stamler, MD, 100, is a researcher at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a trailblazing scientist specializing in cardiology. He’s considered by many to be the “father of preventive cardiology.” Stamler was born to Russian immigrants in New York City in 1919. His parents moved the family to West Orange, New Jersey […]
Respect Your Elders: George Merz
#RespectYourElders: George Merz, 94, is a World War Two veteran who fought at D-Day in Normandy, France and the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne, Belgium. Merz was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1925. He spent his first 19 years living in his hometown, before enlisting in the Army. Two days after his nineteenth birthday, […]
Respect Your Elders: Tina Turner
#RespectYourElders: Tina Turner, 79, is an American-Swiss singer and actress. The Grammy-winning singer is often called “The Queen of Rock and Roll.” Born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939, she was the child of poor sharecroppers living in Nutbush, Tennessee. Turner and her sister were abandoned at an early age, leaving their grandmother to raise the […]
Respect Your Elders: Pele
#RespectYourElders: Edson Arantes do Nascimento, KBE, 79, is a retired Brazilian soccer player who played as a forward. He’s considered by many to be the greatest soccer player of all time. Around the world, he’s known as Pelé. Pelé was born in Três Corações, Brazil. His father, a soccer player known as Dondinho, and his […]
Respect Your Elders: Dan Rather
#RespectYourElders: Dan Rather, 87, is an American journalist and author. His career spans nearly seven decades and he’s interviewed every president since Harry Truman. Rather won countless journalism awards throughout his career, including numerous Emmy Awards and Peabody Awards. Rather was born in 1931 and grew up in Houston, Texas. His father, a ditchdigger and […]
Respect Your Elders: Dick Butkus
#RespectYourElders: Richard (Dick) Marvin Butkus, 76, is a former Chicago Bears linebacker and NFL Hall of Fame athlete. He’s considered one of the best football players in history and played his entire career in the state of Illinois. Butkus was born in Chicago and weighed an impressive 13 pounds 6 ounces as a baby. He […]
Respect Your Elders: Sister Rosemary Connelly
#RespectYourElders: Sister Rosemary Connelly, 88, is a pioneer for disability rights and has dedicated her life to the service of others. She is the executive director at Misericordia, a nonprofit on the North Side of Chicago that provides a continuum of care for children and adults with developmental disabilities. Connelly grew up in Chicago. She […]
Respect Your Elders: Philip Bailey
#RespectYourElders: Philip Bailey, age 68, is an American singer, songwriter and percussionist for Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF). Bailey’s musical success is in part due to his vocal versatility and ability to play across many musical genres, including R&B, jazz, soul, gospel and funk. Bailey was born in Denver, Colorado in 1951. He says music […]
Respect Your Elders: Tony Bennett
#RespectYourElders: Tony Bennett, 93, is a legendary American singer. Throughout his nearly seven-decade-long career, Bennett has won 18 Grammy Awards and two Emmy awards, and has sold over 50 million records worldwide. Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in 1926, Bennett grew up in the Queens borough of New York City during the Great Depression. His father, […]
Respect Your Elders: Katherine Johnson
#RespectYourElders: Katherine Johnson, 100, is an American mathematician and former NASA employee who was vital to the success of some of history’s most important space missions. She’s one of the first African Americans to work as a NASA scientist and a central character in the film “Hidden Figures“. Johnson was born in 1918 in White […]
Respect Your Elders: Danny Glover
#RespectYourElders: Danny Glover, 72, is an American actor, film director and humanitarian. Over the course of his career, he has acted in over 100 films and is best known for his lead role in the “Lethal Weapon” series. In 2019 alone, Glover is set to appear in four films. Glover was born in 1946 in […]
Respect Your Elders: Meryl Streep
#RespectYourElders, Meryl Streep, age 70, is an award-winning American actress. She’s been nominated for 21 Academy Awards, winning three, and has received 31 Golden Globe nominations, winning eight. Streep was born in Summit, New Jersey to Mary Wolf, a commercial artist and art editor, and Harry William Streep, Jr., a pharmaceutical executive. Her interest in […]
Respect Your Elders: Raffi Cavoukian
#RespectYourElders, Raffi Cavoukian, 70, is a singer and guitarist best known for his popular children’s music. Raffi is also an author, advocate, entrepreneur and founder of the Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring. Raffi was born in Cairo, Egypt to Armenian parents. They immigrated to Canada during his childhood and lived in Toronto, Ontario. In high […]
Respect Your Elders: Mickey Hart
#RespectYourElders: Mickey Hart, 75, is a percussionist, author and musicologist best known as one of the drummers for the Grateful Dead. He is a Grammy Award winner, an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and one of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time. Hart was born in Brooklyn, New York […]
Respect Your Elders: Yoko Ono
#RespectYourElders: Yoko Ono, age 86, is an artist, filmmaker, peace advocate and musician. Many people know of her marriage to John Lennon, the late guitarist and singer of the Beatles. Ono was born in 1933 in Tokyo, Japan. As a young girl, she wrote poetry, plays, learned classical piano and took voice lessons. She briefly studied […]
Respect Your Elders: Sir David Attenborough
#RespectYourElders: Sir David Attenborough, 93, is an English broadcaster, writer and historian. He’s known as the face and voice of countless educational television programs that explore animal life, climate change and the wonders of the Earth. Attenborough was born in London in 1926. By the age of seven, he had already created his own “museum” […]
Respect Your Elders: Margaret Atwood
#RespectYourElders: Margaret Atwood, age 79, is a Canadian author, poet and inventor. Known for her work in dystopian and historical fiction, she has written more than 40 books and essays including “Cat’s Eye,” “The Blind Assassin,” and the widely popular novel-turned-TV-show, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The themes in Atwood’s stories often include social realism, gender and […]
Respect Your Elders: Mick Jagger
#RespectYourElders: Michael Phillip “Mick” Jagger, age 75, is an English singer, songwriter and actor. He is the lead singer of the Rolling Stones and a rock and roll legend. Between solo projects and his work with the band, he’s won three and been nominated for 16 Grammy Awards, and was inducted into the Rock and […]
Respect Your Elders: Buddy Guy
#RespectYourElders: Buddy Guy, 92, is an American blues guitarist and singer. Known for his sensational guitar playing and Chicago blues performances, he has influenced many musical legends including Jimi Hendrix, John Mayer and Jimmy Page. A Chicago icon, Guy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. He was born in […]
Respect Your Elders: Sidney Poitier
#RespectYourElders: Sidney Poitier, 92, is an actor, director, author and diplomat known for his influence on race relations in the United States. He became the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1963 for his work in “Lilies of the Field.” Poitier was born in Miami, Florida, but raised by […]
Respect Your Elders: Warren Buffett
#RespectYourElders: Nebraska native Warren Buffett, age 88 and known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” is an American business tycoon, investment guru, speaker and philanthropist who serves as the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is considered one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net worth of $84.9 billion, making […]
