Sports columnist, writer. Ringgold (Ring) Wilmer Lardner, Sr. was born in Niles, Michigan, a mere 10 miles from South Bend, Indiana. He was the youngest of nine children of Henry Lardner and Lena Bogardus Phillips. His first name ultimately came from a friend of his uncle's, Rev. Admiral Cadwalader Ringgold. He didn't like his first name, so he shortened it to Ring. Niles resident Bascom Parker, Jr., who at one time owned a gas station in the small town, gave Ring his first job out of high school, which was handling complaints from gas company customers. He stated, "Ring was so soft-hearted he couldn't hurt their feelings." As a result, he didn't do well in that position, but Parker read Ring's comical remarks about local baseball players, observations from the games Ring attended, and he took the writing to South Bend newspapers. The South Bend Times hired Ring as a staff writer, but he was hesitant to go, afraid he wouldn't be successful. Parker held his gas company job open for him in case things didn't work out there or even when he later went to Chicago. There would be no need as Ring's writing career took off when he went to Chicago. In addition to sports and humor writing, he also wrote songs by drumming on a piano or playing the saxophone. According to his obituary by the Associated Press, his most famous book was "You Know Me, Al: A Busher's Letters" (1916), which was a writing collection in the form of letters written by the fictional Jack Keefe, to a friend back home. He published sequels to that in the next few years, "Treat 'Em Rough: Letters From Jack the Kaiser Killer" (1918) and "The Real Dope" (1919). Throughout his career, he wrote for the South Bend Times, the Inter-Ocean, the Chicago Examiner, and the Chicago Tribune, among other publications. His work at the Sporting News in St. Louis served as the basis for "You Know Me, Al." In addition to sports writing, he was also a short story writer. His credits include, "Some Like Them Cold," "Haircut," and "The Golden Honeymoon." Ring wrote for the Ziegfeld Follies, in addition to co-authoring a Broadway three-act play, "Elmer the Great" (1928), alongside George M. Cohan, and "June Moon" (1929), a comedy co-authored with George S. Kaufman. He also composed music and wrote lyrics for plays such as "Zanzibar" (1903). Among the admirers of his writing were Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, and John O'Hara. Ring had reportedly been ill since 1931, battling tuberculosis, and was confined to bed for the last two years of his life. He died at 11 P. M., on September 25th, 1933, at his home in East Hampton, Long Island, New York. He had four sons with wife, Ellis Abbott: John Lardner, also a sports columnist, newspaper and magazine writer; James Lardner, who was killed in the Spanish Civil War; David Lardner, a reporter and war correspondent who was killed during World War II by a landmine near Aachen, Germany, on October 19, 1944, less than a month after arriving in Europe; and Ring Lardner, Jr., who was a student at Princeton University at the time of his father's death. He would become a screenwriter who was a part of the Hollywood Ten, ten writers and directors who refused to answer questions about alleged Communist activities before the House Un-American Activities Committee, led by infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI). The Lardner family was the subject of Ring, Jr.'s book, "The Lardners, My Family Remembered" (1976). Author J.D. Salinger referenced the senior Ring in his books, "The Catcher in the Rye" (1951) and "Franny and Zooey" (1961). Playwright Neil Simon referenced him in his 1983 play, "Brighton Beach Memoirs," and columnist Will Rogers in his nationally syndicated column, "Will Rogers Says," wrote the day after his death, "Ring Lardner died. You can always get better planes, better trains, but we can't get another Ring Lardner."