Ellen Church Marshall

Although Ellen Church Marshall wasn't born in Terre Haute originally, she spent many years here working as the director of nursing at Union Hospital. Ms. Marshall was a historical figure in this town because she was the very first airline stewardess. Before her career at Union Hospital, Ellen was a nurse and an early female pilot. The United Airlines refused to hire her as a pilot for them but took her advice when she suggested hiring nurses as stewardess in order to calm passengers fears. Upon arriving in Terre Haute, Indiana Ellen met her future husband, Leonard Briggs Marshall. He was the president of Terre Haute First National Bank. Sadly, Ellen passed away on August 22, 1965 after falling from a horse while riding. She was buried at Highland Lawn Cemetery in Terre Haute.

Terre Haute KISS Army

Bill Starkey, a resident of Terre Haute, was only a young boy when he first realized his love for the band KISS. He would stay up late watching their concerts and was lucky to have a father working in the record distribution in order to get his beloved KISS records. Starkey and his friends remained true KISS fans throughout their highschool years. They would go to Terre Haute North and pass out bootleg tapes of the band while wearing their homemade KISS t-shirts. The avid fans noticed they never heard any KISS songs on the radio. They found out the reason for this was a man named Rich Dickerson, the program director for West Terre Haute's WVTS. Although Rich played many rock songs similar to KISS ones, he refused to play any of the band's songs. He did not like them and did not feel his job was to promote them. This upset Starkey and teenage friends who decided to constantly call the station requesting KISS songs and referring to themselves as the KISS Army. They used the word army because they believed calling themselves KISS fans sounded too weak. They drew a logo on a sheet of paper and brought it to the radio station, not knowing at the time that this logo would eventually form thousands of T-shirts and patches.

The KISS Army and Dickerson would frequently joke with eachother on air and was beginning to get noticed by the Terre Haute community. Fans from all around were hearing of the KISS Army. When KISS came to Terre Haute on November 1st, 1975, at Hulman Center, Bill Starkey was called on stage to recieve a plaque from KISS, where he was allowed to hand the band his own banner. When the band began playing Starkey noticed the drummer for KISS had his banner draped across his drumset for the whole concert.

Suddenly, the KISS Army exploded into something that Bill Starkey had never imagined it would. He has since met with the band several times and the KISS Army has even been mentioned on "The Daily Show" and enlists U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. When meeting with KISS fans who had traveled to Terre Haute to see the band, Starkey had the chance to ask the individuals why they chose to come to Terre Haute to see KISS perform when the fans replied that they had to come here because "..this is Terre Haute, where it all began.."

The Ghost of Burford Hall

Before even attending Indiana State University, I can remember hearing stories about a ghost taunting people in one of the living quarters there. Knowing how silly urban legends are, I found it hard to believe. It wasn't until I started researching this legend that I became skeptical. The legend goes that a girl attending ISU came to Burford Hall after partying one night, went to the bathroom to puke, and ended up dying there of alcohol poisoning. Hence, the ghost was dubbed "Barfing Barb". For many years, students at Indiana State University have reported strange things occuring at Burford Hall in the wee hours of the night. One young man reported that he had gotten up to use the restroom around 3:00 AM on a weekend. As he was walking to the restroom, he heard someone vomitting. He looked beneath the stalls but saw nothing. This happened again as he was leaving. A few years later a number of girls on the 4th floor of Burford Hall all reported the same thing; hearing a hideous laugh, vomiting in the restroom, and the sound of a flushing toilet. This would supposedly happen in sequence many times over their stay in this living quarter. Along with these strange reportings, the ghost of Burford Hall has also been said to turn off alarm clocks, unlock doors, and moan. Many believe this legend was made up by professors in hopes of scaring students away from excessive drinking. Either way, I prefer to steer clear of the infamous Burford Hall.

Booker T. Washington High School

As I continue doing all of this research on the history of Terre Haute, it has become apparent to me just how much I've been surrounded with my whole life and had no idea about. Throughout my high school years some of my best friends were attending Booker T. Washington High School and I knew nothing about it. I didn't realize that it was built as a school for African Americans following the Plessy vs. Ferguson case that allowed for "seperate but equal" public accomodations. Unfortunately, the seperation took place while the equal part took a little longer. This school still stands today on South 13th St. in Terre Haute, Indiana and is now open to students of any race, color, or nationality.

Terre Haute Tots

Over the course of their season, the Terre Haute Tots (a minor-league team) played 63 games at home. These all took place at Memorial Stadium, a stadium which was originally intended to be a multi-use stadium but soon turned into one of the nation's finest minor league baseball stadiums. The Terre Haute Tots were only Class B minor leaguers, but that doesn't mean they never got their chance to shine. On Wednesday, April 26th, 1926, the St. Louis Cardinals, on their way to play the Pittsburgh Pirates the next day, had arrived in Terre Haute to play an exhibition game they had arranged with the Tots. After their expected slaughtering of the Terre Haute Tots, they would then sleep on the overnight train and arrive at Forbes Field the next day to play the Pittsburgh Pirates. Unfortunately for them, the Tots had other plans. At Memorial Stadium at 3:00 PM, the game between the Cardinals and the Tots began. The game was close early on. Expectedly the Cardinals took a slight lead in the middle innings. Slowly that slight lead changed to a huge lead, needing just one more inning to play until the game was ended. No one expected what was about to happen in the 3rd inning. The Terre Haute Tots quickly scored three doubles and two singles, tying the two teams. The fact that the pitch-hitter for the Tots ended up striking out to end the game is far from the most memorable part of this game. Later that same year, the St. Louis Cardinals that were ever so close to being beat by the Terre Haute Tots went on to win the World Series against the New York Yankees, a team that had legendary players such as Babe Ruth. There was only one umpire that called the entire game that took place that spring day in Memorial Stadium. His name was Charles Jensen and I was surprised to find out that the place he called home is right around the corner from the place I call home now.