New Jersey Hall of Fame

New Jersey Hall of Fame welcomes first-ever class

If you ask the Boss, New Jersey doesn't often get the respect it deserves.

But Sunday night, as he took his place among the first-ever inductees to the New Jersey Hall of Fame, Bruce Springsteen thanked his fellow honorees for helping to show the world what the Garden State's got.

"Even with this Hall of Fame, we know another bad Jersey joke is around the corner ... (so we try) not just to do our best, but to stick it in your face," he said, getting an appreciative laugh from the crowd. "That's the fighting spirit of New Jersey."

Springsteen and 14 other honorees were inducted into the Hall of Fame at a star-studded ceremony at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

One by one, famous locals or their representatives took the stage to remind their neighbors, and the world, of New Jersey's contributions.

"It's amazing what we've accomplished, and people just don't know it," said Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who presented several of the evening's awards. "This is the chance for New Jersey itself to recognize who we are."

Ol' Blue Eyes joined the Boss among the musical members of the Hall of Fame's first class.

"I always said that Sinatra owned New Jersey, but he'd rent me a little bit of it down the Shore," Springsteen said as he presented some of Frank Sinatra's family with an engraved crystal plaque.

Other inductees included Yankee Yogi Berra and astronaut Buzz Aldrin, now neighbors in Montclair, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, and writer and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison.

Posthumous awards went to Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi and publisher Malcolm Forbes, represented last night by his son Steve Forbes, the publisher and former presidential candidate.

Gen. Robert Wood Johnson II, familiar to many through the philanthropic foundation that bears his name, was represented by his grandson, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson.

For Underground Railroad pioneer Harriet Tubman, organizers made an exception to the rule all inductees must live in New Jersey for at least five years. Booker presented Tubman's award to the head of the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, N.Y.

"Her memory still serves us. Her statues sit on my desk in the mayor's office," he said.

Actress Meryl Streep and former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley also were among those honored, but they were unable to attend the ceremony.

New Jersey gave the country and the world some impressive individuals.

Wisconsin has some luminaries of its own.

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Charlotte Rae
Spencer Tracy
Zucker Brothers
Gene Wilder
Chris Farley
Jane Kaczmarek
Liberace
Orson Welles
Daniel J. Travanti
Bob Uecker
William H. Rehnquist
Harry Houdini
Bradley Whitford
Don Ameche
Mark Ruffalo (from "You Can Count on Me")
Ellen Corby
Jerry Harrison
Eric Benet
John Ridley (author, wrote "Stray Dogs")
Willem Dafoe
Douglas MacArthur
Campbell Scott
Joe McCarthy
Oprah Winfrey
Iceberg Slim
Kato Kaelin
Jackie Mason
Latrell Sprewell
Nick Van Exel
Kristen Johnston
Chris Noth (Mr. Big in Sex & the City)
Al Molinaro
Les Paul
Steve Miller
Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum)
Al Jarreau
Tony Shalhoub
Tom Snyder
Kurtwood Smith (dad on That '70s Show)
D.B. Sweeney
Howie Epstein (one of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers)
Frank Lloyd Wright
Joe Puerta (of '70s popsters Ambrosia)
Tom Wopat
Peter Weller (Robocop!)
Chip Zein (Howard the Duck!)
Jane Hamilton
Jacquelyn Mitchard
Larry Watson
Tyne Daly
Fred MacMurray
Psychic Jeane Dixon
Lynn Fontaine
Alfred Lunt
Uta Hagen
Deidre Hall
Susan Hawk (from Survivor)
Julie Stoffer (of Real World)
Kathy Kinney (of Drew Carey Show)
Timbuk 3 (The Future's So Bright...)
Miss America Terry Meeusen (1973)
Gena Rowlands
Concetta Tomei (from Providence)
B-movie star Shannon Whirry
Da Crusher
Georgia O'Keeffe
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Judge William H. Renquist
Golda Meir
John Muir
Thornton Wilder
Owen Gromme
Amy Pietz (of Caroline in the City)
Father James Groppi
Leland Sklar (Jackson Browne's bassist)
Bill Berry (REM)
Chordettes (Mr. Sandman)
Butch Vig and Garbage
Bobby Hatfield (Righteous Brothers)
Woody Herman
Kevn Kinney (Drivin' N Cryin')
Speech (Arrested Development)
Jane Wiedlin (The Go Go's)
Colleen Dewhurst
Sean Duffy (The Real World)
Jill Eikenberry (LA Law)
Peter Graves
Robert Bloch (he wrote Psycho)
Ron Kovic (Born on the Fourth of July)
Aldo Leopold
Carl Sandburg
Peter Straub
Greta Van Susteren (Fox News Network)
James Lovell
NPR's Jackie Lyden
Skater Dan Jansen
Racing driver Dick Trickle
Golfer Andy North
Tom Hulce (Amadeus Oscar nominee)
The Ringling Brothers
Edna Ferber
Skater Eric Heiden
Red Wilson
Allen Ludden