How to Celebrate John Wayne Day
May 26 is John Wayne's birthday. Movie star John Wayne was famous for his westerns like "True Grit," dramas like "The Quiet Man" and war movies like "Sands of Iwo Jima." He made over 200 movies in a 50-year span. When California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke on Wayne's 100th birthday, he said, "John Wayne may have been a celluloid hero, but his heroic deeds in two dimensions inspired generations of real heroes in real life." Celebrate John Wayne's birthday. These ideas will head you down the right trail.
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Visit John Wayne's birthplace. The Duke was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa. The John Wayne Birthplace Museum and Learning Center is raising funds for an 8,500 square foot facility in tribute to John Wayne. The birthplace often has spectacular John Wayne Birthday parties featuring western music, parades and Wild West shows.
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Take a stroll along the Hollywood Walk of Fame to John Wayne's star at 1541 Vine Street. John Wayne's fist and boot prints are immortalized in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The site was featured in an episode of "I Love Lucy" when Lucy stole the block containing Wayne's footprints.
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Tour the John Wayne Marina at the Port of Port Angeles near Seattle, Washington. Wayne was often at Sequim Bay on his yacht, "Wild Goose," a former minesweeper. After Wayne's death, his family donated 22 acres of land for the marina that John Wayne envisioned.
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Travel the country and see John Wayne statues, often larger than life, at his birthplace in Winterset, Iowa, and at the main terminal of the John Wayne/Orange County airport near Irvine, California. Great Western Bank at 8484 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills commissioned a 21-foot Wayne equestrian statue. The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, recently unveiled a bronze statue of the legendary actor.
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Pay homage to John Wayne at his gravesite. The star is buried in the Bay View Terrace Section of the Pacific View Cemetery in Newport Beach, California. The bronze marker with his epitaph hold John Wayne's words, "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."
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- Photo Credit Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
