Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series about famous Iowans. Read part two in the Jan. 24 edition of the of the Business Record.

More Iowans have found fame by leaving than by staying in Iowa, according to my seat-of-the-pants analysis of a 2017 Des Moines Register list of more than 350 “famous Iowans.” 

Nearly all 350 were profiled by Tom Longden, an exceptional copy editor and close student of Iowa.  As someone who covered Iowa and Iowans for more than 50 years, it is my estimate that 3 out of 4 were what we would call former Iowans. 

Some lived here as little as two years or less, as did Mark Twain and Jerry Mathers. 

Twain was the pen name of Samuel Clemens, the 19th-century humorist who worked in Muscatine in the summer of 1854 at his brother’s newspaper and again in 1855 when his brother moved to Keokuk. 

Mathers, the child actor who played Beaver on the 1950s TV sitcom “Leave it to Beaver,” was born in Sioux City in 1948, but left Iowa before he was 2, when his family moved to California, Longden reported. 

Others of note, who passed through Iowa briefly on their way to fame, include late-night talk show hosts Johnny Carson and Steve Allen. 

Carson was born in Corning in 1925 and bounced around southwest Iowa before his family moved to Nebraska when he was 8. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1949, launched his broadcasting career in Omaha, then moved to California to write for comedian Red Skelton and host NBC’s “Tonight Show,” starting in 1958. 

Allen, the show’s original host from 1953 to 1957, spent the 1941-42 school year at Drake University in Des Moines before “asthma forced him to a drier climate,” Longden wrote.   

Five actresses of the same era had deeper Iowa roots. 

Donna Reed, Jean Seberg, Mary Beth Hurt, Cloris Leachman and Harriet Nelson were born in Iowa and completed high school in their hometowns — Reed in Denison; Seberg and Hurt in Marshalltown (where Seberg babysat for Hurt); Leachman and Nelson in Des Moines. Leachman and Reed won Academy Awards; Reed and Nelson were widely known TV moms in 1950s TV sitcoms, “The Donna Reed Show” and “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” 

Three former Iowans have played Superman. 

George Reeves starred in the television version of Superman (1952-57). He was born in 1914 north of Webster City, but like Mathers, Reeves’ parents left Iowa before he started school. 

Iowa’s second Superman, Brandon Routh, was born in Des Moines in 1979, grew up in Waukee and attended the University of Iowa for one year. Routh played the man of steel in the 2006 movie “Superman Returns” and appeared in other superhero projects.   

Iowa’s other Superman was the now-forgotten actor John Frederick. He wrote in a 1999 autobiography that he was hired to fill in for Reeves during a contract dispute, but the dispute was settled and the episodes never aired. Frederick grew up in Dallas County, played football at the University of Iowa and taught school in rural Iowa before heading to Los Angeles in 1942, according to Longden.  

Dozens of former Iowa musicians have achieved fame, including “Music Man” composer Meredith Willson, born in Mason City in 1902; big band leader Glenn Miller, born in Clarinda in 1904; crooner and TV host Andy Williams, born in Wall Lake in 1927; and cabaret singer Marilyn Maye, a Des Moines East High grad who was a favorite guest of both Carson and Allen on “The Tonight Show.”

Iowa’s most famous former residents are presidents Herbert Hoover and Ronald Reagan, who both lived here during their youth, but not for long. 

Hoover was born in West Branch in 1874 and buried there in 1964. But he only lived in Iowa for 10 years. His father died when he was 6 and his mother died when he was 10, after which he was sent to Oregon to live with relatives. 

After graduating from college in Illinois, Reagan lived in Iowa for five years as a sportscaster in Davenport and Des Moines before moving to California. 

Next week: Iowans who did not leave to find fame.