Six to be inducted into the ’24 Hall of Legends

FROM STAFF REPORTS

A quilter, music festival organizer, radio host and restaurateur are among the newest batch of Howard County Hall of Legends inductees.

The honorees will be officially recognized for their work at local, state and national levels in April. The 14th Hall of Legends class includes:

• Bob Auth, a Howard County native who hosted the Koh-Koh-Mah and Foster Living History Encampment for 20 years on his property west of Kokomo. He now helps organize the Winding Creek Bluegrass Festival.

• Xenia Cord, a native of Norway who became a preeminent collector, scholar and author in the world of quilting and was inducted into the Quilting Hall of Fame in 2018.

• John Grant, a Kokomo transplant who owns and operates radio station Power 104.9 WTSX and was recently inducted into the Hip Hop Hall of Fame.

• Jane Ann Noble Luljak, a Kokomo High School graduate who, as a 24-year-old co-ed at DePauw University, was elected in 1948 to serve in the Indiana House of Representatives. Luljak died in 2011 at the age of 87.

• Angela Martino, a native of Italy, was owner and operator of Martino’s Italian Villa for 60 years and was inducted into the Pizza Hall of Fame in 2020.

• Frank Stein, a Pennsylvania native who became a celebrated physicist and left his mark in the world of solid state electronics and semiconductors as well as Kokomo culture via Kokomo Community Concerts. Stein died in 2014 at the age of 93.

The Howard County Historical Society leads the Hall of Legends. Honorees are selected by a volunteer committee of community leaders from a wide range of organizations.

Anne Shaw, executive director of the Historical Society, pointed out in a press release sent to the Tribune that several threads connect the new batch of inductees.

Cord and Martino both came to America as children, fleeing the impact of World War II in their home countries. Luljak married a man who fled Eastern Europe.

Cord, Grant and Martino have each been inducted into national halls of fame.

Since Auth in the only inductee this year who was born and raised in Howard County, the remaining five honorees brought their talent to Howard County from elsewhere.

Also of note, Stein is posthumously joining his wife, Judge Eleanor Stein, in the Howard County Hall of Legends. They are the first husband and wife to be honored.

“The 2024 honorees join a list of nearly 80 truly exceptional people and organizations with Howard County connections who have been honored in the first 13 years of this program,” Shaw wrote. “Some were born in Howard County and have made their mark here or in the broader world. Some came here and made outstanding contributions in their ‘adopted’ home.”

A video tribute to the Class of 2024 will premiere during the banquet.