On the 23rd of December, 1907---there arrived at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harry McNeill in Galena, Illinois, a 10 lb. son whom they named Donald Thomas---later shortened to Don sometimes spelled D-a-w-n because he has to get up so early in the morning.

Don's mother reports that soon after being born, he had a severe fit of choking, which is his first known gag.

Now he describes himself as the tall, dark and homey type. He says, "I'm just two inches shorter than a bean pole (6 ft. 2 1/2 in., to be exact), my hair is brown since I last washed it, my eyes are blue, I weigh 195 soaking wet, and my favorite hobby, besides fishing and hunting, is chopping down trees, cutting grass and digging in the dirt---or golf to you."

Don's family moved to Sheboygan, Wis., a city noted for "Cheese, chairs and children." Don refuses to state in which category he places himself. He distinguished Sheboygan by moving from there at the age of 17 for Marquette University from which he graduated in 1929. He had already been on the air over a Milwaukee station for a year after which he was fired. "No future for you in the radio business," said the boss. He got a job as radio editor and announcer on another Milwaukee station, then to Louisville, Kentucky, thence to San Francisco, and on to Chicago and the Breakfast Club in 1933.

Return to the 1942 Breakfast Club Family Album index page