Irvin S. Cobb, "Duke of Paducah"
Paducah, McCracken County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
"Duke of Paducah". Irvin Shrewsburg Cobb, 1876-1944. One of Paducah's famous sons. "A first-class humorist from a conversational gesture to a book wit who made all the world laugh with him." Author of more than sixty books, short story writer, recipient of O'Henry Award, movie actor, lecturer. Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, France, 1918. Paducah Rotary Club, sponsor.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
Paducah proudly claimed Irvin S. Cobb, the newspaperman turned humorist whose folksy Kentucky stories made him one of America's most popular writers in the early 20th century. A prolific author of more than sixty books, an O. Henry Award winner, and later a Hollywood actor and lecturer, Cobb was decorated by France with the Legion of Honor in 1918. His hometown Rotary Club raised this tribute to its most quotable son.
Why it matters
Cobb's warm regional humor carried small-town Kentucky into the national imagination during the golden age of American magazines and early film.
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