Our Famous People
Walnut claims a few famous people as its own.
Earl Caddock
A World Champion Wrestler from 1917 to 1920, Earl was born in South Dakota but moved to Walnut as a young man and married a Walnut girl. He is buried in the Walnut cemetery.
Abe Baker
Baker had a grocery store in Walnut for many years before expanding to the Omaha area. Baker's Supermarkets is now part of the Kroger company.
Stan and Ron Olsen
The Olsen Brothers got their start in Walnut in 1951, before moving on to larger ventures in the Omaha area.
Arnold Jacobsen
Arnold W. Jacobsen was a high-ranking officer with the United States Marine Corps during world war II. He was born in Walnut in 1892, but his family moved away prior to 1900.
Carl Herrmann
Charles H. Carstensen was a native of Walnut, who went on to become a world-famous violinist during the early 1900s, under the stage name of Carl Herrmann. He showed such promise with the violin at the age of 12 that his parents, Peter and Anna Carstensen (of the famed Carstensen Harrow built in Walnut), decided to send him to Chicago to learn from the legendary Professor A.E. Jacobsen at the Chicago Conservatory. In 1887, at age 14, young Charlie's correspondence with his parents makes for interesting reading.
Paul and mother Margaret
Elizabeth and Paul Corey
Brother and sister, the Coreys were born on a farm 7 1/2 miles northeast of Walnut, and both would go on to become noted authors, whose works are still in print today.
Dr. Robert Larsen
Larsen is Walnut's most accomplished graduate in the arts. After receiving a doctorate in opera from Indiana University, he went on to fame as the founder of the Des Moines Metropolitan Opera in 1973. He reached full professor and chairman status at Simpson College in Indianola, and created a professorship of opera there in his parents' name: Dewey and Maine Larsen, which still endures today.
Dr. Larsen passed away in March 2021.
