For many, Kansas brings to mind the image of flickering wheat fields. But the state has had more than its share of celebrities and luminaries.
The Wichita Eagle has published a list of 19 famous people—and 2 animals—that spent time in Kansas. Military leaders on the list include Colin Powell, who was once deputy commander at Fort Leavenworth, and George Patton, who was stationed at Fort Riley before World War I.
The state has its share of explorers, too. Robert Ballard has led more than 125 deep-sea expeditions. His grandfather was a Wichita police detective. And then there was Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, who came to Kansas in 1541 but never found his seven cities of gold.
As for those animals? Able, a rhesus monkey born in Independence, was the first American to travel in space. And a Kansan named Lawrin is the only horse from the Sunflower State to have won the Kentucky Derby.