Notable Streator Natives: Inventors, Artists, Musicians and…

Our History of Streator page lists some of the city’s best-known natives. This page profiles others who grew up in or had strong ties to Streator and went on to make their mark in science, music, art, business and public life.

Edward Hebern: Pioneer of Machine Encryption

Edward Hugh Hebern was born in Streator on April 23, 1869. After a hard childhood, part of which he spent at the Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ home in Normal, he became fascinated with secret codes. He invented an electro-mechanical cipher machine using rotating wired wheels and received a U.S. patent in 1918, shortly before inventors in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden patented similar machines. One of those rival inventors, Arthur Scherbius, went on to design Germany’s Enigma machine, which shows how important the rotor idea Hebern helped pioneer became. Hebern died in 1952.

Burt Baskin: The Baskin in Baskin-Robbins

Burton “Burt” Baskin was born in Streator in 1913. His father ran a clothing store in town for many years. Baskin graduated from Streator Township High School in 1931 and the University of Illinois in 1935. After serving in the Navy in the South Pacific during World War II, he opened an ice cream shop in Pasadena, California. In 1953 he and his brother-in-law Irv Robbins merged their shops under the name Baskin-Robbins, deciding the order of the names with a coin toss, and introduced the “31 flavors” idea. Baskin died in 1967.

Doriot Anthony Dwyer: Breaking the Orchestra Barrier

Flutist Doriot Anthony Dwyer was born in Streator on March 6, 1922, to musical parents. Her mother was an accomplished flutist. In 1952 she won the principal flute chair of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, becoming one of the first women to hold a principal chair in a major American orchestra. She held the post until 1990 and was inducted into Streator Township High School’s “Worthy” Hall of Fame in 2014. A 2025 steel silhouette honors her in Streator. She died in 2020.

Charles Turzak: Woodcut Artist

Charles Turzak, a modernist printmaker known for Abraham Lincoln: Biography in Woodcuts (1933), had Slovak immigrant parents. His father worked as a coal miner first in Streator and later in Nokomis, Illinois, where Charles grew up. His family history is typical of the Slovak mining community described on our St. Stephen’s page.

Julia A. Ames: Journalist and Reformer

Julia A. Ames, born near Odell in 1861, moved to Streator with her family at age seven and entered Streator Township High School in 1873. She became associate editor of the Union Signal, published by the Woman’s Temperance Publishing Association. She died in 1891 at age 30 and is buried in Riverview Cemetery in Streator.

Thurlow Essington: Mayor and Senator

Streator native Thurlow G. Essington (1886-1964) graduated from Streator Township High School, the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago Law School. He served as city attorney and mayor of Streator and later as a Republican Illinois state senator.

Kevin Chalfant: Rock Vocalist

Singer Kevin Chalfant, also a Streator native, fronted the band 707, whose “Mega Force” was a 1982 rock radio hit. He later co-founded The Storm with former Journey members and won a BMI award for “I’ve Got a Lot to Learn About Love.”

Related Streator History

Sources

Edward Hebern – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hebern
Burt Baskin – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Baskin
Doriot Anthony Dwyer – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doriot_Anthony_Dwyer
Charles Turzak – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Turzak
Julia A. Ames – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_A._Ames
Thurlow Essington – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurlow_Essington
Kevin Chalfant – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Chalfant
Streator Public Art – silhouettes. https://www.streatorpublicart.com/art

Notable Streator Natives: Inventors, Artists, Musicians and Leaders