Arizona: The People 1912-2012 Quiz

Answer: Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez, was born in Yuma in 1927 and died in San Luis, AZ in 1993, although he perhaps was most famous for his work in California. Chavez was one of the founders of the United Farm Workers, an organization largely devoted to rights for migrant workers, and he was very successful at organizing boycotts of produce to draw attention to the plights of workers. "Cesar Chavez Day" is celebrated in Phoenix on March 31st with city offices and services being closed for the day.

Answer: He helped raise the American flag on Iwo Jima.

The Gila River Indian Community tribal member from Sacaton, Arizona, was one of the Marines who raised the flag over Iwo Jima in the iconic photograph. (He is on the far left in the photo). Both the Pee Posh (Maricopa) and Akimel O'odham (Pima) peoples belong to the Gila River Indian Community, and Ira Hayes was a member of the latter group.

He joined the Marines in 1942 following his high school graduation and during his second enlistment, he was a member of the division that captured Iwo Jima. His life was the subject of the book and film "The Outsider". Tony Curtis portrayed Hayes in the film, and the song "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" was recorded by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger, among others.

Answer: Zane Grey

The author of "Riders of the Purple Sage" and "Rangers of the Lone Star", Zane Grey had a passion for the West that was apparent in his books. Born in 1872 in Ohio, Grey first visited Arizona in its pre-statehood days, but he returned in 1923 to build a cabin near Payson on the Mogollon (pronounced MUG-ee-own) Rim. The cabin was abandoned in the 1930s but was restored in 1966 as a museum dedicated to Grey. It burned down in a wildfire in 1990 but was later reconstructed at a different site also near Payson.

There must be something about Arizona that inspires writers. Other authors who have lived in Arizona include Clive Cussler, Erma Bombeck, Stephenie Meyer (of "Twilight" fame) and Diana Gabaldon, the author of "The Outlander" series. Another writer of Western novels, Louis L'Amour, set his novel "The Sackett Brand" on Arizona's Mogollon Rim.

Answer: The Family Circus

Born in Philadelphia in 1922, Bil Keane moved to Paradise Valley, Arizona in 1959, and "The Family Circus" debuted the following year. The cartoon was based on Keane's family, and it earned him four National Cartoonists' Society awards for Best Syndicated Panel. Following his death in 2011, his son Jeff took over the production of the comic strip.

Cartoonist Todd McFarlane of "Spawn" fame and Pulitzer-Prize winning political cartoonist Steve Benson also reside in Arizona.

Answer: Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright moved to Scottsdale in 1927 where he built his Taliesin West home and worked on projects such as the Arizona Biltmore and Gammage Auditorium. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation still maintains its headquarters at Taliesin West, which has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public for tours. Wright remained in Arizona until his death in 1959 when his body was sent to Wisconsin for burial near his first Taliesin. After the death of his wife in 1985, his body was exhumed and his remains were cremated and returned to Arizona for burial with her at Taliesin West.

Incidentally, "Weird Al" Yankovic graduated from California Polytechnic State University with a degree in architecture, but luckily for us, he decided to pursue a different field for his career.

Answer: Native American children

Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia was born in the mining town of Morenci in the Territory of Arizona in 1909. He spent five years of his childhood in his parents' native Italy before returning to Arizona where he did much of his work. The subjects of his painting were mainly Western and Mexican scenes (he spent time in Mexico with Diego Rivera), but he is best known for his whimsical depictions of Native American children. His creations were made into a series of Goebel figurines and Christmas ornaments. In 1976, DeGrazia made the news when he burned a hundred of his paintings in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix to protest an Internal Revenue Service ruling on inheritance taxes. He died in Tucson in 1982 and is buried on the grounds of his Gallery in the Sun, which is opened to the public for tours.

Other artists who lived in Arizona include Jackson Pollock, Maxfield Parrish, Fritz Scholder and photographer Frederick Sommer.

Answer: Sesame Street

Joan Ganz Cooney was born and raised in Phoenix and graduated from the University of Arizona in Tucson before leaving for New York to embark on her television career. Although Jim Henson's Muppets are synonymous with "Sesame Street", the show was actually the creation of television producer Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett of the Carnegie Foundation. Cooney was instrumental in guiding the development of the show by using test audiences of children to discover what appealed to them and kept their attention.

It was discovered that the Muppets did so, so their role on the show was expanded from small segments to being the main focus of Sesame Street.

Answer: Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag was born in New York in 1933, but her mother moved the family to Tucson in 1939 after Sontag began having asthma attacks. It was there that Sontag began to write, selling a monthly newpapers to neighbors. She remained in Tucson until her teenage years when the family moved to California.

She later moved to Chicago and Paris during her university years before embarking on her literary career, mainly focusing on essays, although she was also known for her fictional works, including the best-selling novel "The Volcano Lover" about Lord Nelson and his mistress.

Answer: General George S. Patton

The Desert Training Center was established in 1942 and was used to train over one million soldiers to prepare for the North Africa campaign in WWII. The massive training area stretched from Pomona, California to the western edge of Phoenix and from Yuma to Boulder City, Nevada. Camp Young near Chiriaco Summit, about thirty miles east of Indio, California, was the headquarters for the center, and the General Patton Memorial Museum is now located there. Ten other camps were located within the center, with a few of the camps, including Camp Bouse and Camp Laguna, being located in Arizona. Patton was instrumental in getting the Desert Training Center established; he had led a reconnaissance mission in the area and declared it to be ideal due to the lack of inhabitants. Patton remained there for four months before leaving for the North Africa campaign.

Answer: Hugh Downs

According to Hugh Downs, his wife and he decided to move to Arizona after a single visit when he was invited to speak at a Phoenix Executives' Club meeting. He said they'd "rather be here at 110 degrees than in almost any other state at 90". He started working as a news broadcaster in 1945 and over the years, he worked as an announcer and game show host before joining "20/20" as a co-host with Barbara Walters in 1978. He remained on the show until his retirement in 1999. Among his numerous books, Downs used his degree in gerontology to write a few books on aging. His work in television journalism led to the establishment of the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University.

Other broadcasters who lived in Arizona include Paul Harvey, Steve Allen, Aaron Brown, sportscaster Al Michaels and talk show host/comedian Jimmy Kimmel. The school of journalism at Arizona State University is named for Walter Cronkite, who visited annually to present awards to students.