The St. Louis Walk of Fame, similar to the much less famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, seeks to celebrate a few of the greats that made an impact on St. Louis and beyond. From over 170 St. Louisans, we’ve selected our personal top 10 (in no particular order).Star students: the best of the St. Louis Walk of Fame
Alice Gottesman and Avi Holzman | Managing Scene Editor and Editor-in-Chief

St. Louis is famous for many things — the Gateway Arch, the Cardinals, the terrible pizza, just to name a few. But since its early days, the city has been home to great change-makers, culture-shakers, and giants of pop culture. The St. Louis Walk of Fame, similar to the much less famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, seeks to celebrate a few of the greats that made an impact on St. Louis and beyond. From over 170 St. Louisans, we’ve selected our personal top 10 (in no particular order).

Maya Angelou:
Maya Angelou, renowned poet, activist, and performer, was born in St. Louis in 1928. She has published more than 10 books and written a variety of plays, movies, and television shows. Her debut memoir “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” tells the story of her childhood and struggles with both abuse and prejudice she experienced. She was a major activist during the Civil Rights Movement and is known as one of the largest literary figures in the 20th century. She served as a consultant for building the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and received the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama.

Bob Costas:
Born in 1952 in New York, Bob Costas found his way to the Lou in his early 20’s when he started his broadcasting career at KMOX radio. It was his job to announce St. Louis Spirits basketball games, and he did so for seven years. There, Costas learned skills that he would use in his long career as a sports broadcaster, becoming one of the famous faces of NBC Sports. In his career he has won 29 Emmys (the most of any sportscaster) and was the prime-time host of 12 different Olympic Games. Though he no longer resides in Missouri, he still refers to St. Louis as his home.

Miles Davis:
One of the most important jazz musicians ever, Davis expanded and redefined the entire genre writing hit albums like “Kind of Blue” and classic songs like “Bitches Brew.” He was known as an innovator and pioneered techniques, such as modal improvisation, that many musicians still use to this day. Davis played in the jazz band at East St. Louis Lincoln High School, but by 1948 his reputation had outgrown the city, and he moved to New York to continue performing.

Chuck Berry:
He basically invented rock and roll. Need we say more? He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first class in 1986. Berry wrote hit songs like “Johnny B. Goode,” which was famously played by Marty McFly in “Back to the Future.” Over the course of his 62-year career, he performed 200 times at Blueberry Hill on the Delmar Loop. His music might seem out of style now, but it served as the musical foundation for an entire genre and new sound.

William Danforth:
Chancellor Danforth led WashU for 24 years from 1971 to 1995. He was an embodiment of the University and earned the nickname “Chan Dan” from the students. By the time he retired, he had established around 70 professorships, helped build dozens of buildings on campus, and tripled the number of student scholarships. Not so long ago, the place where undergrads go to class was named the “Hilltop Campus.” In 2006 it was renamed Danforth Campus after this WashU legend. It is hard to think of any one person who has done more in recent history for WashU, and the greater St. Louis community, than Chancellor Danforth.

Joseph Pulitzer:
Born in 1847, this Hungarian-American politician and former newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch is best remembered for the awards named after him. While the Pulitzer Prizes were first handed out in 1917 to reward excellence in journalism, they now include categories for achievements in music, drama, poetry, literature, and history. The Pulitzer family also built the Pulitzer Art Foundation, a museum for modern and contemporary art that remains free to the public.

Katherine Dunham:
Katherine Dunham was an incredible dancer, choreographer, and activist. Born in Chicago and raised in Joliet, Illinois, Dunham always gravitated toward dance. At The University of Chicago, she studied anthropology — more specifically, different cultures of dance from across the African diaspora and the Caribbean. During that time, she was also spending time onstage and formed her own dance company. She pursued the arts after graduating and went on to be a renowned performer, even creating a specific dance foundation called the “Dunham Technique.” She later opened the Dunham School of Dance in New York City where she taught dance, performance arts, and cultural studies. Dunham moved to East St. Louis in 1964 where she continued her arts and cultural education initiatives as an artist-in-residence atSouthern Illinois University. The Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanitiesin East St. Louis is home to her massive collection of African and Caribbean art and displays that her impact on the arts continues to live on today.

Tennesse Williams:
This 20th century playwright is considered to be one of the greats in modern literary history. Williams went to the University of Missouri in Columbia where he began writing plays for the first time. He came to fame at 33 years old after writing “The Glass Menagerie” in 1944. In addition, his 1947 play, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” is frequently referenced as one of the greatest American plays of the 20th century. Williams is remembered as a legendary playwright and champion of the arts.

Tina Turner:
Rock and roll legend and 12-time Grammy winner Tina Turner got her start in St. Louis. Early in her career, she and her sister would perform in St. Louis nightclubs. It was at one such club, in East St. Louis, that she first saw Ike Turner’s band play. She and Ike would get married and release several records together before they split, and Turner began her successful solo career as an R&B artist. She has since released 9 studio albums, has numerous Billboard chart toppers, and her autobiography “I, Tina” is a bestseller. Turner has been inducted into various halls of fame, has numerous books, and even a musical based on her life.

Ntozake Shange:
Shange is an renowned American playwright and poet best known for her award-winning play “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.” As a result of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, she was bussed to White schools where she was a target of racist attacks. Some of her artistic inspirations include, W.E.B. DuBois, John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, and St. Louis legend Miles Davis. She created a number of works that include poetry, dance, and music known as choreopoems.

Our nomination for next star:
SZA:
One of the biggest R & B stars today, she hails from St. Louis Missouri. Some of her biggest songs are “Good Days,” “Kill Bill,” “Luther,” and “All the Stars.” She has won five Grammy Awards and recently performed at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show alongside Kendrick Lamar. We hope she gets a star as soon as possible.

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A walk along the Delmar Loop will provide you with a whole who’s who of famous St. Louisans: Scott Joplin, Chuck Berry, T. S. Eliot—the list goes on. But there are also plenty of younger, more contemporary celebrities who are from St. Louis. Here, Cadenza looks into some celebrities whose St. Louis roots aren’t so well-publicized.

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We often associate cities with style—think New York, Paris, London, Milan. Unfortunately, St. Louis doesn’t generally make that list. For those of us that live in the slightly dream-like place that is the world of fashion, we like to pretend that our Wash. U. classmates don’t complain about dressing up for class or that the DUC hallways are our runways.

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