I suppose that I am not the only person who had heard the urban "legend" that McLean Stevenson had adopted the name of the county of his birth for a stage name. This legend is untrue, because he was named Edgar McLean Stevenson Jr. after his father. The McLean was most likely a reference to his maternal grandmother, who was Charlotte Belle McLean before she married Charles Turner Stevenson.
The wedding of Charles Turner Stevenson was quite the event in Bloomington. Charles Turner was the brother of Harry Adlai Stevenson, the Vice President of the United States at that time (1894). He was himself the Assistant Treasurer of the Illinois Commerce Commmission. His grandmother was a Ewing who had moved to Bloomington in 1852. The wedding took place at 910 N Main Street, the home of Charlotte's mother, Mrs. M E Carmichael. The Vice President was one of the guests, as well as a slew of Stevensons, Ewings and Smiths. The bride wore ivory corded silk, with a demi train, decorated with diamonds and carried white carnations. The room was decorated in blue and white, with a bank of chrysanthemums and ferns in the bay window, before which the bridal couple took their vows.
Who was this Charlotte McLean who was marrying into the influential family of the Stevensons and Ewings? Her obituary in August of 1964 stated that her father was Lee McLean and her mother Mary Smith. (26 Aug 1964) When Mary McLean and her eleven month old daughter appeared in the census of 1870, they were living with Mary's parents, John R and Charlotte Smith. Mary's husband, Leland Homer McLean, had tragically died 13 Dec 1869 at the age of 27, just months after Lottie's birth. (14 Dec 1869) Leland was born in Virginia, and his father was Mr W McLean and his mother Mary. In the 1850 census he lived in Virginia with his parents, who were hotel keepers. According to the census of deaths of 1869, Leland was a clerk in a store in Bloomington and died of typhoid fever.
But Mary and Lottie were not without means. Her grandfather was apparently a very successful merchant in Bloomington and had been noted as a grocer (1870 census) and a wholesale shoe dealer. (19 Aug 1874) Although the Smiths had left Kentucky, when the time came, Lottie was sent to college in Kentucky. She was an accomplished singer and sang at informal gatherings all around McLean County. Perhaps Charles and Lottie met at one of these gatherings and they fell romantically in love. In any case, their son Edgar was a cardiologist in Bloomington who raised two actors, McLean and Ann (Whitney).