Emmy-award winner: ‘I am proud and grateful beyond words to be from Dayton’

“I don’t think I ever could have done what I did in my life If I didn't have my start here.”

The Emmy-winning cartoonist was one of seven people inducted Wednesday, Sept. 28 into the Dayton Region’s Walk of Fame.

>> MORE: 7 Daytonians join the Dayton Walk of Fame

The 2017 class also includes actress Allison Janney, the star of CBS' "Mom,"  Oscar Boonshoft and Marjorie Boonshoft; Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis Sr.; David L. Hobson and Shawnee Chief Tecumseh. 

Guisewite, who is working on a humor book,  was born in Dayton and lived here until she was 5 years old until her family moved to Michigan.

Her parents moved back to Kettering when she was in college, and she has always considered the Gem City home.

Guisewite said she is proud and grateful to be from Dayton and cherishes the foundation laid here for her during her formative years.

"To know now that a little piece of our family will be enshrined in cement in the Dayton Walk of Fame is an unbelievable honor," she said.  "I am proud and grateful beyond words to be from Dayton."   

Her comic strip was featured in the “Dayton Daily News” during all of its 34 years (1976-2010).

“To know that my work was being delivered to Dayton homes meant so much to me,” she told us.

WHERE IS THE WALK OF FAME? 

Since 1996, more than 160 people and groups have been recognized by the Dayton Region’s Walk of Fame for their contributions to the Miami Valley.

Commemorative stones are on West Third Street in the Wright Dunbar Historic Business District between Broadway and Shannon and along Williams Street as part of the effort sponsored by Wright Dunbar, Inc.

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>> PHOTOS: Dayton Region’s Walk of Fame 2017 induction ceremony 

DIVERSE GROUP OF HONOREES ADDED

Raised in Oakwood, Janney is perhaps best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the NBC series “The West Wing,” for which she received four Emmy awards and four Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards.

The former  Miami Valley School student and star of stage and screen thanked her parents and a long list of Dayton people and institutions for influencing her and supporting her.

“I feel incredibly grateful, and I will never forget being cemented into the fabric of Dayton, Ohio,”  she said.

A dozen members of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, including several U.S. military veterans, accepted the honor on behalf of Tecumseh, who lived from 1768 to 1813.

Edwina Butler-Wolfe, the tribe's governor, said Tecumseh is still talked about and is a important historical figure to her tribe.

She said she hopes that children here are also taught about his leadership and vision to unify the Shawnee people.

Robert Stewart of the National Park Service's Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument  in Wilberforce accepted the honor for General Davis.

Musician David Boonshoft accepted the honor for his parents, Oscar Boonshoft and Marjorie Boonshoft.

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The couple’s numerous philanthropic endeavors included: the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, Boonshoft Center for Medical Sciences at Kettering College, Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, and the Marjorie and Oscar Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education.

Boonshoft said his parents would have been uncomfortable with the attention if they were alive to accept the award.

The couple wanted to see the results of their actions, Boonshoft said.

 “They felt that the best thing they could do with their lives is improve the lives of others,” he said.

Hobson, a Republican, was elected to Congress to represent the 7th Congressional District and served from 1991 to 2009.

During his acceptance speech, he said he tried to work with others for the betterment of the people he served.

He and Tony Hall, a Dayton Democrat who served in the U.S. House of Representatives more than 20 years, made it a point to send out joint press releases as part of their effort to improve lives here.

 "Yelling and screaming doesn't really work in the long run," Hobson said. He said people have to have consensus in the end.