----Claudette Evert, the polite mother of Chris Evert, with Mrs. Claudette Evert stating to me at least twice on her own initiative in 1979 during separate visits of mine to the Holiday Park public tennis center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that "The Miami Herald is a good newspaper" (exact quote).
----Billie Jean King, a female former American tennis champion, this during a brief conversation I had with Ms. King in 1989 at a clay court professional women's tennis tournament in the Houston area of Texas. "Freedom of choice!" Billie Jean King repeatedly and emphatically stated to me, with herself thereby defending to me in person the involvement of professional women's tennis during that time period with a tobacco company, Virginia Slims, that at that time was an official sponsor of numerous women's professional tennis tournaments in the United States. Ms. King emphasized to me repeatedly during my brief conversation with her that Americans who associated professional women's tennis with the Virginia Slims tobacco company still had the freedom to decide for themselves whether they would ever smoke any tobacco cigarette at any time, Ms. King indicated. The cited official relationship with Virginia Slims by professional women's tennis has since been terminated.
----Francoise Durr, a female professional tennis player from France, who kindly and politely herself referred to a women's professional tennis tournament in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during a brief in-person conversation I had with her in 1989 at the country club in the Houston area where Ms. Durr and Billie Jean King were among the outstanding female former professional tennis players being honored at that time.
---Andy Roddick, a professional men's tennis champion from the United States and, like me, a native of Nebraska who also resides in the Austin area of Texas. I met Andy Roddick in person several years ago this 21st Century during a ceremony I attended inside a golf and tennis store in northwest Austin in which Andy Roddick handed out signed photographs of himself to myself and numerous other tennis fans. I was very surprised to note that Andy Roddick in person looked very different, and much more handsome, than the television image of him from professional tennis matches of his I had viewed on a television set inside my rental apartment unit in Austin. "I've already signed it," Mr. Roddick succinctly commented to me in person, with himself offering me a warm smile after I asked him to please inscribe the photograph that one of his associates had handed me as a present.
----Russell Baker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times oped columnist who met me in person at his home in Nantucket Island off the coast of Massachusetts in 1986. Mr. Baker very kindly gave me a brief tour of Nantucket Island, with himself volunteering to me that he especially admired examples of Greek Revival architecture at Nantucket. "Got a family?" (exact quote) Mr. Baker asked me toward the end of my outing with himself.
---Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, who during a brief one-to-one outdoor conversation I had with him one day in 1984 answered a polite question from me about what he admires the most about Worcester, Massachusetts. I spoke with and met Mr. Dukakis for the first time ever that day in my capacity as a full-time reporter for "Worcester Magazine". Governor Dukakis spoke with me outdoors after emerging from a helicopter that had just landed in Central Massachusetts. Governor Dukakis was and is the ONLY governor of any U.S. state whom I myself ever spoke with in person on at least one occasion, with the possible exception of one possible former or then-governor of the U.S. state of Minnesota.
----Texas Attorney General Dan Morales, who in the early 1990s politely spoke with me and answered public-policy-related questions from me after a speech Mr. Morales gave at a public event I attended as a newspaper reporter in either West Texas or the Panhandle region of Texas. Attorney General Morales was the ONLY attorney general of ANY U.S. state whom I myself ever met in person, from what I can recall.
----Sarah Weddington, the Austin-based private attorney who won the landmark "Roe Versus Wade" Supreme Court case resulting in liberalization of government policies toward abortions. Ms. Weddington rode in an automobile with me and my mother, Phyllis McMillan, in Austin on one total occasion in the 1960s or early 1970s. Ms. Weddington had been asked by my mother to give a speech inside the First Unitarian Church of Austin, a Unitarian Universalist Association-affiliated church in which my mother was an adult member. I am sure that Ms. Weddington made a brief friendly comment to me from the front passenger side seat of the car or as she entered the car. I myself rode in the back seat of the car as Mother drove. The Unitarian church to which Mother drove myself and Ms. Weddington that Sunday morning was situated along Grover Avenue in central Austin. Ms. Weddington was a featured speaker at that church that day.
----Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the famous atheist leader, spoke with me several times during the multi-week period in which I held a full-time proofreading job in 1988 inside her American Atheist Press office in north Austin. My tenure as an employee of Ms. O'Hair ended abruptly a matter of minutes after I heard her shouting from her own office area inside that workplace along Cameron Road in Austin, Texas: "I (Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair) CAN'T HANDLE THESE VOICES (exact quote)! GET HIM OUT OF HERE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!" (exact or near-exact quote).
Shortly after that outburst from Dr. O'Hair, Ms. Robyn Murray O'Hair, my immediate work supervisor, called me into her own office and dismissed me from my job there that same day. Robyn Murray O'Hair stated to me that a telephone call I made during a work break of mine at my own work station to the Travis County Lawyer Referral Service in Austin, a phone call in which I had politely requested an attorney relating to alleged violations of my own privacy rights in Austin, was completely unacceptable to my American Atheist Association employer, Ms. Robyn Murray O'Hair stated to me. I myself am NOT an atheist. I had applied for the proofreading job at that workplace only after my 1988 application for employment at the "Austin (TX) American-Statesman" as a copy-editor there did not result in my getting hired by that Cox Newspapers-owned publication.
---Berke Breathed, a cartoonist coworker of mine at "The Daily Texan" student newspaper on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, habitually greeted me in a polite and respectful and gentlemanly manner whenever I entered the "Daily Texan" newsroom in the late 1970s to myself begin a workshift there as a part-time UT-Austin Administration-beat reporter. I appreciated the manner in which Berke consistently conveyed a hospitable and respectful welcome to myself inside that Texas Student Publications-owned workplace in the basement of a journalism building at UT-Austin. Berke Breathed later became a famous professional cartoonist residing in Colorado. I myself have not spoken with Berke, whether on the telephone or in person, on any occasion since the late 1970s.
---James Lileks, a colleague of mine at "The Minnesota Daily" and humor columnist for that student newspaper on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, did share one lunch outing with me one day in 1984 or 1983. During that two-person meal we had together inside a restaurant near or in the campus-area district known as "Dinkytown", James Lileks advised me to myself pursue a full-time career as a journalism instructor. 'You (John Kevin McMillan) lack the capacity for fictional narration (exact phrasing), but you would make a good journalism instructor," James Lileks stated (approximate quote) to me over lunch in Minneapolis in 1983 or 1984. James Lileks later became a famous professional newspaper columnist, and I have not spoken with him or heard from him on any occasion since 1984.
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