Grant from Iowa board will help build museum honouring actor John Wayne

WINTERSET, Iowa – An Iowa economic development board has awarded a $400,000 grant to help build a museum that will honour the legendary actor John Wayne near his birthplace.

The Vision Iowa Board approved the grant Wednesday for the John Wayne Birthplace Museum in Winterset, a $1.4 million project that will feature an interactive museum and learning centrehonouring the life and work of Wayne.

The award is contingent on project supporters completing private fundraising.

Wayne was born as Marion Robert Morrison in 1907 in Winterset, where his father was a pharmacist. His family moved West when he was a boy.

The John Wayne Birthplace Society is raising money for the museum. It currently operates the modest home where Wayne was born. He died in 1979.