James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was born near this site on 12 September 1913 to Henry Cleveland and Emma (Fitzgerald) Owens, sharecroppers and the offspring of freed slaves. Although he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, at age 9, his early years in Lawrence County, Alabama, helped mold his character. After high school, he enrolled at Ohio State, where on 25 May 1935 at a Big Ten Conference meet, he broke and tied various world track and field records, beginning his legend. He married Minnie Ruth Solomon on 10 August 1935. In August 1936 at the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, he set and tied several world records while winning four gold medals. Adolph Hitler, because of his racial views, stormed out of the arena and refused to present him with his medals. He returned to the U.S. to a hero's welcome and a ticker tape parade, but because of the prevalent racism of the time, he obtained financial security only in later years. Four U.S. presidents honored him. He died on 31 March 1980 in Tucson, Arizona, and his memory endures.