Dorothy Constance Stratton (March 24, 1899 - September 17, 2006) was the director of the SPARS, the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve during World War II. She is the namesake of the Coast Guard's third National Security Cutter, the USCGC Stratton (WMSL-752).

Stratton was born in 1899 in Brookfield, Missouri. She graduated from Ottawa University in 1920 and received her Master's degree from the University of Chicago. She received a Ph.D. from Columbia University. She taught at public high schools in Brookfield, Missouri, Renton, Washington and San Bernardino, California (she was dean of girls at San Bernardino High School) before joining the faculty at Purdue University as dean of women and assistant professor of psychology.

She served on the selection board for the Women's Army Corps V Corps Area. In 1942, she took a leave of absence from Purdue and joined the WAVES, and was commissioned a lieutenant.

In late 1942, she was ordered to Washington, DC to the office of the Commandant of the Coast Guard to organize the Coast Guard Women's Reserve, and was transferred from the Navy to the Coast Guard. She developed the name SPARS using a contraction of the Coast Guard motto Semper Paratus and its English translation Always Ready. She was appointed its first director with a rank of lieutenant commander.

Dorothy Stratten (February 28, 1960 – August 14, 1980) was a Canadian model and actress. Stratten was the Playboy Playmate of the Month for August 1979, Playmate of the Year in 1980 and was the second Playmate (after Lee Ann Michelle) born in the 1960s. Stratten appeared in three comedy films and at least two episodes of shows broadcast on US network television. She was murdered at age twenty by her estranged husband/manager Paul Snider, who committed suicide the same day. Her death inspired two motion pictures.

Stratten was born Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten in a Salvation Army hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, to Simon and Nelly Hoogstraten, who were Dutch immigrants. In 1961 her brother John Arthur was born. Her sister Louise Stratten followed in May 1968.

In 1977 she was attending Centennial High School in Coquitlam when, while working part-time at a local Dairy Queen, she met twenty-six year old Vancouver-area club promoter and pimp, Paul Snider, who romanced her. Snider later had professional nude photos taken of her which were sent to Playboy magazine. She was under age 18 at the time, and when her mother refused to sign the model release, Nelly Hoogstraten's signature was forged.

Candi Staton ( /ˈsteɪtən/; born Canzetta Maria Staton; March 13, 1940, Hanceville, Alabama) is an American soul and gospel singer, best known for her 1970 remake of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" and her 1976 disco hit "Young Hearts Run Free". In 2007, Staton was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame.

At the age of eleven or twelve, Staton and her sister Maggie were sent to the Jewell Christian Academy in Nashville, Tennessee. Her vocal abilities quickly set her apart from the crowd; the school's pastor teamed the two sisters with a third girl to form the Jewell Gospel Trio. As teenagers, they toured the traditional gospel circuit in the 1950s with The Soul Stirrers, C. L. Franklin, and Mahalia Jackson. They recorded several sides for Nashbro, Apollo, and Savoy Records between 1953 and 1963.^{[citation needed]}

Tim Holt (February 5, 1919 – February 15, 1973) was an American film actor perhaps best known for co-starring in the 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Born Charles John Holt III in Beverly Hills, California, he was the son of actor Jack Holt and his wife, Margaret Woods. Holt was sent to study at Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, from which he graduated in 1936. Immediately afterward, he went to work in the Hollywood film business.

In 1938 at the age of 19, Holt, after five minor roles, landed a major role under star Harry Carey in The Law West of Tombstone. It was the first of the many Western films he made during the 1940s. During this time his sister, Jennifer Holt, also became a leading star in the western film genre.

After playing young Lieutenant Blanchard in the 1939 classic Stagecoach, Tim Holt had one of the leading roles in Orson Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). He also starred as a Nazi in Hitler's Children (1943). After making this film, he became a decorated combat veteran of World War II, flying in the Pacific Theatre with the United States Army Air Force as a B-29 bombardier. He returned to films after the war, appearing as Virgil Earp to Henry Fonda's Wyatt Earp in the John Ford western My Darling Clementine. Holt was next cast in the role that he is probably most remembered for (in a film in which his father also appeared in a small part)—that of Bob Curtin to Humphrey Bogart's Fred C. Dobbs in John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Before the film was released, Holt did another four westerns and afterward made two dozen more up until 1952. He was then absent from the screen for five years until he starred in a less-than-successful horror film, The Monster That Challenged the World, in 1957. Over the next 16 years, he appeared in only two more motion pictures.

Virginia Gilmore (July 26, 1919 – March 28, 1986) was an American film, stage, and television actress.

Virginia Gilmore was born as Sherman Virginia Poole in El Monte, California. Her father was a retired officer of the British Army. Gilmore began her stage career in San Francisco at the age of 15, but moved to Los Angeles in 1939 to pursue work in films. When her movie career was not progressing, Gilmore mustered the nerve to approach Samuel Goldwyn at his home. As a result of their meeting, he promised her a screen test. She did soon land some small movie roles. Her better known film appearances both occurred in 1941: Western Union, directed by Fritz Lang, and Swamp Water directed by Jean Renoir.^{[citation needed]}

When her movie role options began to dwindle, Gilmore left Los Angeles for New York City and started working on Broadway. In 1943, Gilmore played in "Those Endearing Young Charms" and “The World’s Full of Girls”. In 1944, she played the title role in “Dear Ruth”, which was directed by Moss Hart. Starting in the late 1940s, Gilmore had many television roles. In 1949, she and Brynner were featured on “We’re On”, a TV series on NBC. Between 1966 and 1968, Gilmore taught drama at Yale University. In her later years, Gilmore was a leader in Alcoholics Anonymous.