A Third Generation view of the King

By Jean Gruss

Editor's Note: Jean Gruss, the author of this article, is the grandson of Stuttering Foundation founder Malcolm Fraser and Mark Logue is the grandson of Lionel Logue.

For decades, Lionel Logue's name was an obscure footnote in biographies of British King George VI.

But thanks to his grandson and a blockbuster movie, he's quickly become the most famous speech therapist in history.

The King's Speech

Reviewed by John M. Williams

I was very slow to see the movie The King's Speech. I had wanted to see it for many months after I read my first review in late 2010. I am overjoyed with having seen it. It is a movie I will watch many times. I enjoyed it that much.

As I watched the movie, I drew many parallels between the sometimes despicable ways speech therapists and others treated the future King and me.

Movie Star Talks about Stuttering

In the final week of March 2009, the public at large may have been surprised to learn that actress Emily Blunt struggled with stuttering early in her life when an article from the newswire circulated around the world about how the actress is grateful to her teacher for encouraging her to act in a school play at age twelve despite her stuttering. Also, Blunt's March 25 appearance on the Ellen show in which she spent the first six minutes of the interview discussing her childhood stuttering received some coverage as well.

Singer Withers Overcame Stuttering

While Bill Withers has long been on the SFA list of "Famous People Who Stutter," many people probably didn't realize he stuttered. He passed away March 30, 2020.

The April/May 2006 issue of the magazine Waxpoetics sheds some light on the brilliant career of the famed singer and songwriter.

Born in 1938 in Slab Fork, W.V., Withers was the youngest of six children. When his father died when Withers was small, he was raised by his mother and grandmother, both of whom worked as domestics.