Outta Here

There are some well-known people in the arts from The Lou who checked out as soon as the opportunity presented itself (although I went in the opposite direction). There are busts of two of them on the corners of Euclid and McPherson in the Central West End.

Above, Tennessee Williams. This one, I think, is more successful. Williams was born in Mississippi and got his nickname from the origins of his father's family. He arrived in STL at age 8 when dad got a job at International Shoe Company, still headquartered here. 

T. S. Elliott, below, looks rather frumpy by comparison. I suppose he was. He left STL at 16 and eventually became a British subject, renouncing his American citizenship. He was very High Anglican. And, I hear, he ended not with a bang but a whimper.

But, hey, Chuck Berry has stayed here his whole life.