If anyone believes someone should be included here please email me at:
george@eaglefreeenterprises.com Famous West Virginians
George Brett baseball player, Glendale
George Howard Brett (born May 15, 1953 in Glen
Dale, West Virginia) is a former Major League Baseball player for the Kansas
City Royals. He is considered one of the greatest third basemen in Major League
Baseball history.
Early life and
baseball career
Brett was the youngest of four sons of a
sports-minded family which included his oldest brother Ken, a major-league
pitcher who had pitched in the World Series in 1967 at just barely 19 years old.
(Brothers John & Bobby had brief careers in the minor leagues.) Although George
was born in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, the Brett family moved to
the Midwest and later to El Segundo, a modest suburb of Los Angeles, just south
of LAX airport. George grew up here, hoping to follow in his three older
brothers' footsteps. He graduated from El Segundo High School in 1971 and was
drafted by the fledgling Kansas City Royals in the second round (29th overall)
of the 1971 baseball draft. Interestingly, Hall of Fame third baseman Mike
Schmidt was drafted with the next pick (30th) by the Phillies.
Brett began his professional baseball career as a
shortstop, but had trouble going to his right defensively and was soon shifted
to third base. As a third baseman, his powerful arm remained an asset, and he
remained at that spot for well over 15 years. Brett's minor league stops were in
Billings, Montana (1971) for Rookie League, San Jose, California (1972) for
Single-A, and Omaha, Nebraska in 1973 for Triple-A with the Omaha Royals,
batting .291, .274, and .284 respectively. The K.C. Royals promoted him to the
major leagues on August 2, 1973, where he played in 13 games and was 5 for 40
(.125).
Brett won the starting third base job in 1974,
but struggled at the plate until he asked for help from Charlie Lau, the Royals'
hitting instructor. Spending the 1974 All-Star break working together, Lau
taught Brett how to protect the entire plate and cover up some holes in his
swing that experienced big-league pitchers were taking advantage of. Armed with
this knowledge, Brett developed rapidly as a hitter, and finished the year with
a .282 batting average in 113 games.
Brett topped the .300 mark for the first time in
1975 with a .308 mark, then won his first batting title in 1976 with a .333
average. The four contenders for the batting title that year were Brett and
Royals teammate Hal McRae, and Minnesota Twins teammates Rod Carew and Lyman
Bostock. In dramatic fashion, Brett went 2 for 4 in the final game of the season
against the Twins, beating out his three rivals, all playing in the same game.
His lead over second-place McRae was less than .001. The title was marred by
accusations of a racial angle as Twins defender Steve Brye dropped a fly ball
leading to one of Brett's hits and his win of the title over McRae.
Early career success
From May 8 through May 16, 1976, Brett had 3 base
hits in 6 consecutive games, a Major League record. That year, the Royals won
the first of three straight West Division titles, beginning a great rivalry with
the New York Yankees — whom they faced in the American League Championship
Series each of those three years. In the fifth and final game of the 1976 ALCS,
Brett hit a three-run homer in the top of the eighth inning to tie the score at
six — only to see the Yankees' Chris Chambliss launch a solo shot in the bottom
of the ninth to give the Royals' rivals a 7-6 win.
A year later, Brett emerged as a power hitter
with 22 home runs helping the Royals to another American League Championship
Series, 1977. In 1978 Brett batted "only" .294 (the only time between 1976 and
1983 in which he did not bat at least .300) in helping the Royals win a third
consecutive American League West title. However, Kansas City once again lost to
the Yankees in the ALCS, but not before Brett hit three home runs off Catfish
Hunter in Game Three, becoming only the second player (after Bob Robertson in
Game Two of the 1971 National League Championship Series) to hit three home runs
in an LCS game.
Brett proceeded to have an incredible 1979
season, in which he finished third in MVP voting. He became the sixth player in
league history to have at least 20 doubles, triples and homers all in one season
(42-20-23) and led the league in hits, doubles and triples while batting .329,
with an on-base percentage of .376 and a slugging percentage of .563.
1980
All these impressive statistics were just a
prelude to 1980, when Brett nearly matched Ted Williams' feat of batting .400 in
1941. Brett was at or above .400 as late in the season as September 19 before
settling at .390, the modern record for the highest average ever by a third
baseman. This time, there was no doubt Brett was the league MVP. George Brett's
1980 batting average of .390 is second only to Tony Gwynn's 1994 average of .394
for the highest single season batting average in the last 65 years (next at .388
are Rod Carew (1977) and Ted Williams (1957)). Brett also recorded 118 RBI,
while appearing in just 117 games.
Brett started out slowly, hitting only .259 in
April. In May, he hit .329 to get his season average to .301. In June, the 27
year-old third baseman hit .472 (17-36), raising the season's average to .337,
but played his last game for a month on June 10, not returning to the line-up
until after the All-Star Break on July 10.
In July, after being off for a month, he played
in 21 games & hit a spectacular .494 (42-85), raising his season average to
.390. Brett started a 30 game hitting streak on July 18, which lasted until he
went 0-3 on August 19 (the following night he went 3-3). During these 30 games
Brett hit .467 (57-122). His high mark for the season came a week later, when
the batting average was at .407 on August 26, after he went 5-5 on a Tuesday
night in Milwaukee. He batted .430 for the month of August (30 games), and his
season average was at .403 with 5 weeks to go. For the three hot months of June,
July, & August 1980, George Brett played in 60 American League games and hit an
astounding .459 (111-242), most of it after a return from a month-long injury.
For these 60 games he had 69 RBI's and 14 home runs.
Brett missed another 10 days in early September
and hit just .290 for the month. His average was at .400 as late as September
19, but he then had 4 for 27 slump, and the average dipped to .384 on September
27, with a week to play. For the final week, Brett went on a 10-19 tear, which
included going 2 for 4 in the final regular season game on October 4. His season
average ended up at .390 (175 hits in 449 at-bats = .389755), and he averaged
more than one RBI per game. Brett led the league in both on-base percentage
(.454) and slugging percentage (.664) on his way to capturing 17 of 28 possible
first-pace votes in the MVP race.
More importantly, the Royals won the American
League West, and would face the Eastern champion Yankees in the ALCS.
1980 post-season
In the 1980 post-season, Brett led the Royals to
their first American League pennant, sweeping the playoffs in three games from
the rival Yankees who had beaten K.C. in the 1976, 1977 and 1978 playoffs. In
Game 3, Brett hit a ball well into the third deck of Yankee Stadium off
superstar closer Goose Gossage. Long-time ABC broadcaster Howard Cosell
commented "...it looked like Gossage let up on that pitch that Brett hit out,
and Brett made him pay for it." A few seconds later the ABC radar gun showed
the pitch's speed at 98 mph, Gossage's fastest pitch of the game.
George Brett then hit .375 in the 1980 World
Series, but the Royals lost in six games to the Philadelphia Phillies. During
the Series, Brett made headlines for reasons other than his play on the field.
After leaving Game 2 in the 6th inning due to hemorrhoid pain, Brett had minor
surgery the next day, and in Game 3 returned to hit a home run as his Royals
wound up winning in 10 innings by the score of 4-3. (In 1981 he would miss two
weeks of Spring training to have his hemorrhoids removed.)
The Pine Tar Incident
Brett had injuries on-and-off for the next four
years, during which his most notable event in his career was the notorious "Pine
Tar Incident". On July 24, 1983, the Royals were playing the Yankees at Yankee
Stadium. In the top of the ninth inning, Brett came up to bat against Goose
Gossage, his old rival. Brett hit a two-run homer, to put the Royals up 5-4.
After Brett rounded the bases, Yankees manager Billy Martin came out of the
dugout and used home plate to measure the amount of pine tar, a legal substance
used by hitters to improve their grip, on Brett's bat. Martin cited an obscure
rule that stated the pine tar on a bat could extend no further than 18 inches.
Brett's pine tar extended about 24 inches. Earlier in the season, the Yankees
had taken note Brett's habit of adding pine tar further than the allowed 18
inches, but waited until a crucial time to point it out to the umpires.
"I've never seen this," said sportscaster
and ex-Yankee Bobby Murcer on WPIX as he watched McClelland measure the bat
across the plate. "I never have either," said Murcer's partner, Frank
Messer. A few moments later, the home plate umpire, Tim McClelland, signaled
Brett out.
The normally mild-mannered Brett charged out of
the dugout, enraged, and was immediately ejected. An incredulous Messer:
Years later, Brett explained his outburst by
saying "It was just such an extraordinary thing to hit a homer off [Gossage],
the thought of losing it was too much". In the same interview he also humorously
chided his teammate Hal McRae (who was on deck) for not removing the bat from
home plate before Billy Martin could have it inspected. "If Hal had [taken the
bat], then I'd only be known for hemorrhoids," Brett quipped.
The Royals protested the game, and their protest
was upheld by AL president (and former Yankees chief executive) Lee MacPhail,
who ruled that the bat was not "altered to improve the distance factor", and
that the rules only provided for removal of the bat from the game, and not
calling the batter out.
The game was continued later that season,
starting after Brett's homer. Billy Martin had one last trick up his sleeve,
appealing the play before, saying the umpires had no way of knowing Brett and
the other runner had touched all the bases. Martin was stunned when the umpires
produced affidavits saying he had. The game had virtually no effect on 1983's
pennant race, but was in many ways the closing chapter on a heated rivalry. The
video of the enraged Brett is replayed often on the anniversary date of July 24,
and the Pine Tar Game has become part of baseball folklore. Brett's famous pine
tar bat is now on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
1985
In 1985, Brett had another brilliant season in
which he helped to propel the Royals to their second pennant. He batted .335
with 30 home runs and 112 RBI, finishing in the top 10 of the league in 10
different offensive categories. Defensively, he won his only Gold Glove. In the
final week of the regular season, he went 9-for-20 at the plate with 7 runs, 5
homers, and 9 RBI in six crucial games, five of them victories, as they Royals
closed a gap and won the division title at the end. He was MVP of the 1985
playoffs against the Toronto Blue Jays, with an incredible game 3. With KC down
in games 2-0, Brett homered in his first two at bats against Doyle Alexander,
and doubled to the same spot in right field in his third at bat, leading the
Roayls comeback. Brett then batted .370 in the World Series against the St.
Louis Cardinals, as the Royals again rallied from a 3-1 deficit to become World
Series Champions for the first and so far only time in Royals history.
Later career
In 1988, Brett moved across the diamond to first
base in an effort to reduce his chances of injury and had another MVP-calibre
season with a .306 average, 24 homers and 104 RBI. But after batting just .290
with 16 homers the next year, it looked like his career might be slowing down.
He got off to a terrible start in 1990 and at one point even considered
retirement. But his manager, former teammate John Wathan, encouraged him to
stick it out. Finally, in July, the slump ended and Brett batted .386 for the
rest of the season. In September, he caught Rickey Henderson for the league
lead, and in a battle down to the last day of the season, captured his third
batting title with a .329 mark. This made him the first player in history to
date to win batting titles in three decades.
Brett played three more seasons for the Royals,
mostly as their designated hitter, but occasionally filling in for injured
teammates at first base. He passed the 3,000-hit mark in 1992 and retired after
the 1993 season. In his final at-bat, he hit a single up the middle against
Rangers closer Tom Henke and scored on a home run by teammate Gary Gaetti.
The Kansas City Royals have retired Brett's
number 5.
He was voted the Hometown Hero for the Royals in
a 2-month fan vote. This was revealed on the night of September 27, 2006 in an
hour-long telecast on ESPN. He is one of the few players to receive over 400,000
votes.
Legacy
His 3,154 career hits are the most by any third
baseman in major league history, and 15th all-time. Baseball historian Bill
James regards him as the second-best third baseman of all time, trailing only
his contemporary, Mike Schmidt. Brett was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1999,
with what was then the fourth-highest voting percentage in baseball history
(98.2%), trailing only Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, and Ty Cobb. In 2007, Cal Ripken
Jr. passed Brett with 98.5% of the vote. He received the highest percentage for
an infielder ever, higher than all-time outfielders Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron,
Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggio. That same year, he
ranked Number 55 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball
Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball
All-Century Team. Brett is one of four players in MLB history to accumulate 3000
hits, 300 home runs, and a career .300 batting average (the others are Stan
Musial, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron). Most indicative of his hitting style,
Brett is fifth on the career doubles list, with 665 (trailing Tris Speaker, Pete
Rose, Stan Musial, and Ty Cobb). Combining his superior hitting skill with his
great defensive ability and team focus (& humility), George Brett is arguably
one of the most complete baseball players of all time.
Post baseball
activities
Following the end of his baseball career, Brett
became a vice president of the Royals and has worked as a part-time coach, as a
special instructor in spring training, filling in as the batting coach, and as a
minor league instructor dispatched to help prospects develop. In 1998, an
investor group headed by Brett and his older brother, Bobby, made an
unsuccessful bid to purchase the Kansas City Royals.
In 1992, Brett married the former Leslie
Davenport and they currently reside in the Kansas City suburb of Prairie
Village, KS. The couple has three children: Jackson (named after his father),
Dylan, and Robin (named for fellow Hall of Famer Robin Yount of the Milwaukee
Brewers).
Trivia
He owns a restaurant on the Country Club Plaza
in Kansas City, MO, aptly titled George Brett's Restaurant.
Brett's former Royals manager Whitey Herzog
commented on Brett: "...he's the only guy I've ever seen who could literally
fall out of bed on January 1 and get a base hit."
Brett is a close friend of radio personality
(and former Royals front office employee) Rush Limbaugh, who stood up in
Brett's wedding.
Brett takes particular pride in the contents
on the back of his baseball cards: "It means something to me and hopefully the
fans for a kid to flip my card over and see only one team and one city listed.
That doesn't happen a lot anymore, but it should."
He is reported to be the coiner of the phrase
"the Mendoza line".
He holds the record for consecutive games with
3 or more base hits, with 6.
Elected to Hall of Fame by Baseball Writers in 1999, Player
488 votes on 497 ballots 98.2%
Born: May 15, 1953, in Glen Dale, West Virginia ML Debut: 8/2/1973
Primary Position: Third Baseman
Bats: L Throws: R Primary Uniform #: 5 Played For: Kansas City Royals (1973-1993)
Primary Team: Kansas City Royals Post-Season: 1976 ALCS, 1977 ALCS, 1978 ALCS, 1980 ALCS, 1980 World Series,
1981 ALDS, 1984 ALCS, 1985 ALCS, 1985 World Series
Awards: All-Star (12): 1976-1986, 1988; American League Most Valuable Player
1980; Gold Glove: 1985; 1985 ALCS Most Valuable Player
Bruce Bosley, Pro Football Player,
Green
Bank, 1933-1995
Bruce played 13 years for the San
Francisco 49rs and 1 year for the Atlanta Falcons
Watching his father spend long hours treating leather
working in a tanning company in tiny Durbin, W.Va., young Bruce Bosley made up
his mind that there was something better out there for him to do. As it turned
out, his way out of the tanning business happened to be a football scholarship
to West Virginia University. Bosley, a third team Class B all-state fullback at
Green Bank High School, caught the sharp eye of West Virginia football coach Art
“Pappy” Lewis and he was offered a full scholarship to play for the
Mountaineers. Even though Lewis knew all about him, others in the state
weren’t as quick to notice. Bosley was not one of the 50 high school players invited to
play in the 1952 West Virginia North-South all-star game. After the first day of
practice, one player got hurt and another got sick and the high school coaches
went scrambling to find a replacement. Lewis, watching the two teams practice, finally spoke up:
“Hell, I can get you the best damn player in the state. His name is Bruce Bosley.” Quarterback Fred Wyant, who later became a teammate of
Bosley's at WVU, spotted the husky Green Bank native the minute he walked out
onto the practice field. “We were out on the field and all of the sudden here came
this guy who looked like a Greek god,” Wyant remembered. A big, strong country boy, Bosley was the type of player
physically capable of playing college football right away. “Bruce was extremely strong, had great football instincts
and was intelligent,” recalled Gene Corum -- WVU’s line coach at the time. “I
called him a gentle giant. I had seen his tremendous strength on the field and
then I had seen him baby sit my two daughters and he was so gentle with them.
They loved him.” Not only was Bosley a gifted athlete, he was also a
top-rate student who took the hardest courses at WVU. “I don’t remember Bruce practicing very much,” said
teammate and NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Sam Huff. “He was in engineering and
had a lot of labs.” As it turned out, Bosley didn’t need that much practicing. The 6-foot-2, 240-pound lineman quickly developed a
reputation for manhandling opposing players in the trenches. Bosley was an
immediate starter and was one of the primary reasons West Virginia went from 5-5
in 1951 to 7-2 in 1952.In 1954, after a dominating performance against Penn State,
Bosley was considered one of the country’s top linemen. He was named AP player
of the week after West Virginia’s 19-14 victory at Penn State and went on to
earn consensus All-America honors as a senior in 1955. West Virginia won 31 of
38 games Bosley played in during his four seasons from 1952-55. Bosley, also an Academic All-American with a degree in
chemical engineering, was invited to play in the College Football All-Star Game,
the North-South Game and the Senior Bowl. Based on his performances in those games, new San Francisco
49ers coach Norman Stader decided to make Bosley the team’s second pick in the
second round of the 1956 draft as a defensive end. By 1957, Bosley switched to line and was the team’s
starting left guard, earning his first pro bowl berth in 1961. Two years later
in 1963 when the team was searching for a center after an injury to starter
Frank Morze, all-pro guard Bosley stepped in and learned that position. In 1965, Bosley was named to the pro bowl again and was
honored two more times in 1966 and 1967. Detroit Lions all-pro middle linebacker Joe Schmidt says
Bosley was one of the league’s most underrated snappers of the mid-1960s.
According to Bosley’s 49er teammate “Tiger” Bill Johnson, Schmidt always voted
him to the pro bowl. “(Schmidt) is one of the smartest linebackers in the
business,” Johnson once said, “and he thinks Bosley is the greatest center going
in the game today.” Even though many of the 49er teams Bosley played on had
losing records, San Francisco was always known for its innovative offenses led
by quarterback John Brodie and running back Ken Willard. Bosley also had a part in Coach Howard “Red” Hickey’s
shotgun offense first introduced in the NFL in 1961. Bosely played in two of the more memorable games in NFL
history. The first came on Dec. 22, 1957, at old Kezar Stadium when San
Francisco blew a 24-7 halftime lead and lost 31-27 to the Detroit Lions in a
one-game playoff to determine the Western Conference championship. Playing without injured quarterback Bobby Layne, the Lions
still managed to score three touchdowns in a span of 4:29 in one of the greatest
comebacks in NFL history. “At halftime I was thinking about the $5,000 we’d get for
winning the game,” said Bosley after the game. Seven years later on Oct. 25, 1964, Bosley was involved in
one of the strangest plays in NFL history when Minnesota Vikings defensive
lineman Jim Marshall picked up a Billy Kilmer fumble and ran the wrong way to
his own end zone. Chasing Marshall all the way to the Viking goal line was
Bosely, who greeted Marshall in the end zone with a friendly tap on the shoulder
to record the safety and an ear-to-ear grin: “Thanks Jim,” he said. By 1967, Bosely was cultivating his other passion:
restoring old homes. NFL Films visited his Hillsbrough W.S. Crocker
Estate carriage house for a show called “They Lead Two Lives,” which chronicled
his career as both a star football player and respected home builder. During the next 11 years he remodeled two other estates in
Hillsborough as president of Interior Design, a home building, remodeling,
interior decorating, furnishing and real-estate company. Meanwhile, Bosley spent another season with the 49ers in
1968 and a year with the Atlanta Falcons in 1969 before retiring. Bosley became part-owner of a wholesale electrical supply
house in addition to his home remodeling business and was also well-known for
his civic and charitable activities in San Francisco. Among his most prominent roles was membership on the board
of directors for the San Francisco Annex for Cultural Arts, membership on the
mayor’s committee for the San Francisco Council for the Performing Arts, and a
long-time volunteer role with both the San Francisco Film Festival and the San
Francisco Ballet. Bosley also served a stint as the president of the NFL
Alumni Association. He lived and thrived in San Francisco until his death from
a heart attack on April 26, 1995. Despite spending nearly 40 years of his life in northern
California, Bosley never forgot his West Virginia roots.
“Things may change and your career may take you away in a
different direction but there are things you never forget. I’ve never left my
roots. They are in West Virginia,” Bosley told Charleston Daily Mail
sports editor Bill Smith several years ago. Bosley is listed on the San Francisco 49ers “Golden Era”
team from 1946-69 and he was named to the college football’s 75th
Silver Anniversary Team in 1981. Bosley, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, was
a part of West Virginia University’s second hall of fame induction class of
1992. More recently, he was named the state of West Virginia’s 30th
greatest sports figure in a poll conducted by CNNSI.com.
Pearl S. Buck author, Hillsboro, 1892-1973
Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker was
born on June 26, 1892, in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Her parents, Absalom and
Caroline Sydenstricker, were Southern Presbyterian missionaries, stationed in
China. Pearl was the fourth of seven children (and one of only three who
would survive to adulthood). She was born when her parents were near the end of
a furlough in the United States; when she was three months old, she was taken
back to China, where she spent most of the first forty years of her life.
The Sydenstrickers lived in Chinkiang (Zhenjiang), in Kiangsu (Jiangsu)
province, then a small city lying at the junction of the Yangtze River and the
Grand Canal. Pearl's father spent months away from home, itinerating in the
Chinese countryside in search of Christian converts; Pearl's mother ministered
to Chinese women in a small dispensary she established.
From childhood, Pearl spoke both English and Chinese. She was taught
principally by her mother and by a Chinese tutor, Mr. Kung. In 1900, during the
Boxer Uprising, Caroline and the children evacuated to Shanghai, where they
spent several anxious months waiting for word of Absalom's fate. Later that
year, the family returned to the US for another home leave.
In 1910, Pearl enrolled in Randolph-Macon Woman's College, in Lynchburg,
Virginia, from which she graduated in 1914. Although she had intended to remain
in the US, she returned to China shortly after graduation when she received word
that her mother was gravely ill. In 1915, she met a young Cornell graduate, an
agricultural economist named John Lossing Buck. They married in 1917, and
immediately moved to Nanhsuchou (Nanxuzhou) in rural Anhwei (Anhui) province. In
this impoverished community, Pearl Buck gathered the material that she would
later use in The Good Earth and other stories of China.
The Bucks' first child, Carol, was born in 1921; a victim of PKU, she proved
to be profoundly retarded. Furthermore, because of a uterine tumor discovered
during the delivery, Pearl underwent a hysterectomy. In 1925, she and Lossing
adopted a baby girl, Janice. The Buck marriage was unhappy almost from the
beginning, but would last for eighteen years.
From 1920 to 1933, Pearl and Lossing made their home in Nanking (Nanjing), on
the campus of Nanking University, where both had teaching positions. In 1921,
Pearl's mother died and shortly afterwards her father moved in with the Bucks.
The tragedies and dislocations which Pearl suffered in the 1920s reached a
climax in March, 1927, in the violence known as the "Nanking Incident." In a
confused battle involving elements of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops,
Communist forces, and assorted warlords, several Westerners were murdered. The
Bucks spent a terrified day in hiding, after which they were rescued by American
gunboats. After a trip downriver to Shanghai, the Buck family sailed to Unzen,
Japan, where they spent the following year. They then moved back to Nanking,
though conditions remained dangerously unsettled.
Pearl had begun to publish stories and essays in the 1920s, in magazines such
as Nation, The Chinese Recorder, Asia,
and Atlantic Monthly. Her first novel, East Wind, West Wind,
was published by the John Day Company in 1930. John Day's publisher, Richard
Walsh, would eventually become Pearl's second husband, in 1935, after both
received divorces.
In 1931, John Day published Pearl's second novel, The Good Earth.
This became the best-selling book of both 1931 and 1932, won the Pulitzer Prize
and the Howells Medal in 1935, and would be adapted as a major MGM film in 1937.
Other novels and books of non-fiction quickly followed. In 1938, less than a
decade after her first book had appeared, Pearl won the Nobel Prize in
literature, the first American woman to do so. By the time of her death in 1973,
Pearl would publish over seventy books: novels, collections of stories,
biography and autobiography, poetry, drama, children's literature, and
translations from the Chinese.
In 1934, because of conditions in China, and also to be closer to Richard
Walsh and her daughter Carol, whom she had placed in an institution in New
Jersey, Pearl moved permanently to the US. She bought an old farmhouse, Green
Hills Farm, in Bucks County, PA. She and Richard adopted six more children over
the following years. Green Hills Farm is now on the Registry of Historic
Buildings; fifteen thousand people visit each year.
From the day of her move to the US, Pearl was active in American civil
rights and women's rights activities. She published essays in both Crisis,
the journal of the NAACP, and Opportunity, the magazine of the
Urban League; she was a trustee of Howard University for twenty years, beginning
in the early 1940s. In 1942, Pearl and Richard founded the East and West
Association, dedicated to cultural exchange and understanding between Asia and
the West. In 1949, outraged that existing adoption services considered Asian and
mixed-race children unadoptable, Pearl established Welcome House, the first
international, inter-racial adoption agency; in the nearly five decades of its
work, Welcome House has assisted in the placement of over five thousand
children. In 1964, to provide support for Amerasian children who were not
eligible for adoption, Pearl also established the Pearl S. Buck Foundation,
which provides sponsorship funding for thousands of children in half-a-dozen
Asian countries.
Pearl Buck died in March, 1973, just two months before her eighty-first
birthday. She is buried at Green Hills Farm.
Phyllis Curtin soprano, Clarksburg
Born: December 3, 1921 - Clarksburg, West Virginia, USA The
esteemed American soprano and teacher, Phyllis Curtin (née Smith), studied at
Wellesley College (B.A., 1943) and received vocal instruction from Olga Avierino,
Joseph Regnaeas, and Goldovsky.
In 1946 Phyllis Curtin made her operatic debut as Lisa in The Queen of Spades
with the New England Opera Theatre in Boston. Her recital debut followed in 1950
at New York’s Town Hall. In October 1953 she made her first appearance with the
New York City Opera, as Fräulein Burstner in Gottfried von Einem's The Trial;
where she remained on the roster until 1960; then returned in 1962, 1964, and
1975-76. She also made appearances at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (1959),
the Glyndebourne Festival (1959), the Vienna State
Opera (1960-1961), and at La Scala in Milan (1962). In November 1961 she
made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York as Fiordiligi, remaining on its
roster for the season; she returned for the 1966-1970 and 1972-1973 seasons. Her
tours as a soloist with orchestras and as a recitalist took her all over the
globe until her retirement in 1984.
Phyllis Curtin taught at the Aspen (Colorado) school of Music and the Berkshire
Music Center in Tanglewood. After serving as professor of voice at the Yale
University School of Music (1974-1983), she was professor of voice and dean of
the school of the arts at Boston University (from 1983); in 1992 she retired as
its dean but continued to teach there.
Phyllis Curtin became well known for such roles as Mozart's Countess, Donna
Anna, Rosalinde, Eva, Violetta, Alice Ford, Salome, and Ellen Orford. She also
created Floyd’s Susannah (1955) and Cathy in Wuthbering Heights (1958).
Little Jimmy Dickens,
Country Entertainer, Bolt
Little Jimmy Dickens, born in Bolt, West Virginia on
December 19,
1925, is the master of the country novelty song, as well as a
renowned ballad singer. He also known for his diminutive stature -- he's less
than five feet tall -- and his affection for flamboyant, rhinestone-studded
outfits and country humor. Although he never had a consistent presence on the
charts, he managed to have hits in every decade between the 1940s and the 1970s,
and he became one of the Grand Ole Opry's most popular performers. Dickens was
the 13th child of a West Virginian farmer. During his childhood, he fell in love
with music and had a dream of performing on the Grand Ole Opry. He began
performing professionally while he was a student at the University of West
Virginia in the late '30s, singing on a local radio station. Dickens left school
shortly after he received his regular radio job. He began traveling around the
country, singing on radio shows in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan under the name
Jimmy the Kid. Roy Acuff heard Dickens sing on a radio show in Saginaw, MI, and
invited him to sing on the Grand Ole Opry. In 1949,
Dickens -- who was now using the name
Little Jimmy Dickens -- became a permanent member of the Grand Ole Opry.
That year, he also signed a record contract with Columbia Records, releasing his
first single, "Take an Old Cold Tater and Wait," in the spring of 1949. The song
became a Top Ten hit and launched a string of hit novelty, ballad, and honky
tonk singles that lasted for a year, including "Country Boy," "A-Sleeping at the
Foot of the Bed," "Hillbilly Fever," and "My Heart's Bouquet." Early in the
'50s, he formed a band called
the Country Boys, which featured a steel guitar, two lead guitars, and
drums. With their spirited traditional country approach and vague rockabilly
inflections, the band didn't sound like their Nashville contemporaries. Perhaps
that's why
Dickens only had one hit between 1950 and 1962: 1954's "Out Behind the
Barn."Dickens bounced back to the Top Ten with the ballad "The Violet and the
Rose" in 1962. Three years later, he had his biggest hit, "May the Bird of
Paradise Fly up Your Nose." The single topped the country charts and crossed
over to number 15 on the pop charts. Although his next single, "When the Ship
Hit the Sand," was moderately successful,
Dickens wasn't able to replicate the success of "May the Bird of Paradise
Fly up Your Nose." In 1968, he stopped recording for Columbia, signing with
Decca Records, where he had three minor hits in the late '60s and early '70s. In
1971, he moved to United Artists, which resulted in two more small hits, but by
that time he had begun to concentrate on performing as his main creative outlet.
Dickens continued to tour and perform at the Grand Ole Opry into the '90s,
becoming one of the most beloved characters in country music.
Joanne Dru actress, Logan, 1922-1996
Joanne Dru (January 31, 1922 – September 10, 1996) was an American film
actress. She also was the elder sister of Peter Marshall, best known for being
the host of Hollywood Squares.
Born Joanne Letitia LaCock in Logan, West Virginia, Dru came to New York City
in 1940, aged 18, and after finding employment as a model, was chosen by Al
Jolson to appear in the cast of his Broadway show Hold Onto Your Hats.
During this time Dru met and married the popular singer, Dick Haymes, and when
they moved to Hollywood she found work in theater. Dru was spotted by a talent
scout and made her first film appearance in Abie's Irish Rose (1946). Over
the next decade Dru appeared frequently in films, most often cast in westerns
such as the John Wayne films Red River (1948) and She Wore a Yellow
Ribbon (1949). She also gave a well received performance in the dramatic
film All the King's Men (1949). She later lamented that she had been typecast in western films, commenting
that once an actress became typecast, that was the end, and adding that she had
never liked horses. She also appeared in the Martin and Lewis film 3 Ring
Circus. Her film career began to fade by the end of the 1950s but she
continued working frequently in television, and played the female lead in the
1960 ABC sitcom Guestward, Ho!. Although regarded as a capable and popular film actress, it was for her
contributions to television that Dru was awarded a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. Dru died in
Los Angeles, California at the age of 74 from lymphedema,
a disease "which is especially common after surgery or radiation therapy were
used in combination to treat
cancer", which
indicates that she probably had undergone these treatments for cancer (likely
breast cancer) prior to her death.
George Friel, U.S. Army Major General, Marlinton
Major General Friel (Ret.) served in the U.S. Army from
1960 to 1998. He was the commanding general of the U.S. Army Chemical and
Biological Defense Command, at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland from
August 1992 to August 1998 and deputy chief of staff for Chemical and Biological
Matters of the Army Material Command in Virginia, during the same time. MG.
Friel was also responsible for a $600 million annual budget for the Nuclear,
Biological, and Chemical Defense Command for six years and directed over 1,100
scientists and engineers. MG. Friel has also served as chairman of the boards of
the Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Enterprise at the Edgewood Arsenal
in Maryland and the U.S. Army Material Command, Acquisition and Procurement
Enterprise. MG. Friel earned an M.B.A. from Northwest Missouri State University
and a B.S. from the University of Nebraska. He is a graduate from the U.S. Army
Chemical School, The Army Command and General Staff College and The Industrial
College of the Armed Forces.
John S. Knight publisher, Bluefield, 1894-1981
John Shively Knight, founder of Knight Newspapers, was considered a visionary
of journalism in the sense that he belonged to a breed of publishers, comparable
to William Randolph Hearst, who were strong-willed, competitive, and politically
conscious. Their major interest was to buy newspaper competitors and create
newspaper groups. To the city of Akron, Ohio, he signified a "mover and shaker,"
because he was instrumental to the area's growth and development, observing and
contributing to Akron's metamorphosis from a canal town to a heavy industrial
center, to finally a post- industrial city. Knight parlayed the Akron Beacon
Journal, which he inherited from his father, into Knight-Ridder Newspapers,
Inc., which by 1981 consisted of 32 newspapers in 17 states, employed 15,000
workers and boasted a circulation of 3.6 million daily.
Born October 26, 1894, in Bluefield, West Virginia, as the second son
of Charles Landon and Clara Irene Scheifly Knight, John Shively grew up in
Akron, Ohio, where his outspoken father worked his way up from advertising
manager to editor and publisher of the Beacon Journal in 1909. By 1915,
"C. L.," as he preferred to be known, acquired full control of the newspaper and
continued to write his trademark fiery editorials. Young John Knight attended
Crosby Elementary and was sent to Tome School at Port Deposit, Maryland, to
prepare for college. He completed his senior year at Akron's Central High
School, graduating in 1914. During summer vacations from school, Knight worked
in his father's newspaper office. His college education at Cornell University
was interrupted in 1917 as he left to enlist in the Army, eventually seeing
action in the Argonne. Upon his return to the United States, Knight traveled to
California with $5,000 won in crapshooting to contemplate going into the cattle
business. Instead, he followed his father's wishes, returned to Akron and became
a sports journalist, writing under the pseudonym "Walker," because, he
confessed, "I was ashamed of the stuff. I didn't write well enough." In 1921,
Knight married Katherine "Kitty" McLain, who died unexpectedly in 1929 and left
him three sons--John Shively Jr., Charles Landon, and Franklin. Already Managing
Editor of the Beacon Journal by 1925, he married a second time (in 1932)
to Beryl Zoller Comstock. In 1933, the elder Charles Landon Knight died and John
Knight inherited the positions of editor and publisher of the Beacon Journal.
The Akron paper was the first of a chain of newspapers under Knight's
ownership. Upon purchasing the Miami Herald in 1937 for $2 million, he
bought and subsequently closed the Miami Tribune and the Scripps-Howard
Akron Times Press. Very quickly he acquired control of the Detroit
Free Press and the Chicago Daily News. Despite the rapid growth of
his newspaper group, Knight was firmly opposed to the centralized management
characteristic of the large Hearst newspaper chain. The Akron editor and
publisher was an ardent advocate of preserving the uniqueness of a region. The
Beacon Journal claimed to be nonpartisan during a time when newspapers
generally stated political preferences forthrightly. Knight expressed his
personal views and critical acceptance of Akron in "The Editor's Notebook," a
weekly column he wrote for almost 40 years. His major journalistic concern was
editorial integrity and the preservation of a free press in the United States
and abroad. As the 1944 President of the American Society of Newspaper Editors,
he sent representatives on a worldwide tour, interviewing editors and
governmental officials in the interest of journalistic freedom. Observations and
final reports disclosed that in practically all cases the press was used as an
instrument of government propaganda and social control. Knight believed that a
free and honest press would help to reduce the chances for future wars.
During World War II, Knight temporarily departed from the newspaper circuit
to become director of the United States Office of Censorship in London, where he
served for one year as liaison for Great Britain and North Africa. Representing
Akron's journalistic link to the war, Knight witnessed Japan's capitulation and
was present with the first occupation troops in the country. His eldest son,
John Shively, a lieutenant in the paratroopers, was killed in a March, 1945,
ambush in Germany.
Upon returning to the United States and the world of professional
journalism, Knight's weekly "Editor's Notebook," along with the Detroit Free
Press and the Charlotte Observer, won Pulitzer Prizes in 1968, making
him the first publisher to be granted three such awards in a single year. By
1973, Knight owned 15 newspapers, including the Tallahassee Democrat, the
Springfield Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia
Daily News. In the following year the Knight Newspapers merged with the
California-based Ridder Publications.
Personal tragedy struck Knight again as he was widowed for a second time in
1974 and his grandson, John Shively III, was stabbed to death during a robbery
the following year. In 1976, Knight married Mary Elizabeth Augustus and retired
as editorial chairman of Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Inc., having accumulated 26
Pulitzer Prizes altogether. During his retirement, Knight concentrated his
efforts on raising thoroughbred race horses at his Fourth Estate Stables in
Miami. He also excelled in golf, winning links championships at his many golf
clubs. In honor of his father, Knight established the Knight Foundation (1940),
which continues to provide major funding for worthy projects.
On June 16, 1981, Knight succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 86, only 7
months after his third wife had passed away. At the time of his death,
Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Inc., consisted of 32 newspapers and four television
stations, and had been estimated to be valued at $245 million, the bulk of which
went to the Knight Foundation.
Knight belonged to many organizations and societies, including the Veterans
of Foreign Wars, American Legion, and the American Society of Newspaper Editors,
where he twice served as president. He also held the positions of committee
chairman, executive committee member, director of finance and vice president
(1956) of the Associated Press.
In addition to the Pulitzer Prizes, Knight received numerous awards and
honors, including the Elija Parish Lovejoy Award for journalistic achievement,
the John Peter Zenger Award, the William Allen White Foundation Award, the
National Press Award, the Poor Richard Gold Medal of Achievement Award, and
honorary doctorates from The University of Akron, Northwestern, Kent State, Ohio
State, University of Michigan, Oberlin, and Colby College.
Don Knotts actor, Morgantown, 1925-2006
Don Knotts, the rail-thin comic actor who was perhaps best known to millions
of television viewers as the bungling Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife in "The Andy
Griffith Show" and the squirrelly landlord in "Three's Company," died of lung
cancer Feb. 24 at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 81.
Mr. Knotts,
who often played high-strung characters, won five Emmys for Best Supporting
Actor in the 1960s as the swaggering but hapless Fife. Mr. Knotts developed
the idea of the deputy sheriff when he heard that Andy Griffith, with whom he
had worked in the play "No Time for Sergeants," was putting together a TV
pilot set in the fictional North Carolina town of Mayberry.
The series was a huge success when it aired, from 1960 to 1968,
consistently ranking in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings.
Fife, who grew into one of the most beloved comic characters in American
popular culture, generated sympathy and laughs in scenes in which he fumbled
to load his service revolver with the single bullet Griffith allotted him.
"Don meant everything," Griffith said in a telephone interview. "Don made
the show. I've lost a lifetime friend."
The two actors remained close friends over the years and reprised their
roles in the 1986 television movie "Return to Mayberry."
Mr. Knotts's wife, actress Francey Yarborough, said in a statement that
Griffith visited Mr. Knotts at the hospital shortly before his death to say
goodbye.
"Don was an actor who played comedy as opposed to a comedian who does
stand-up," said Mr. Knotts's longtime manager, Sherwin Bash, in a telephone
interview. "He was one of a kind."
Mr. Knotts, who lived in West Los Angeles, left television in 1965 to
devote more time to family-oriented film comedies that featured his zany,
bugged-eyed expressions, high-pitched voice and perfect slapstick timing.
His movie credits include "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" (1964), "The Ghost
and Mr. Chicken" (1966), "The Reluctant Astronaut" (1967), "The Shakiest Gun
in the West" (1968) and "The Love God?" (1969).
In the 1970s, Mr. Knotts teamed with fellow comic actor Tim Conway in the
Disney movies "The Apple Dumpling Gang" and "The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides
Again."
"It's because of Don that I'm in this business," Conway said in an
interview last year with the Kansas City Star. "When I used to watch the old
'Steve Allen Show,' with Don Knotts and Louie Nye and Tom Poston -- the 'Man
on the Street' stuff -- I just thought Don was the funniest guy I'd ever seen.
And I used to wait for that show at night."
Mr. Knotts returned to television in the late 1970s, joining the cast of
ABC's popular sitcom "Three's Company" as the cad landlord Ralph Furley, a
swinger who usually donned an ascot and bright, colorful leisure suits. He
remained with the show until its final season in 1984.
In recent years, he had recurring roles on television, including a part on
Griffith's show "Matlock" and the series "Pleasantville." He also performed in
dinner theaters and did voice-over for animated films. Most recently, he was
the voice of Mayor Turkey Lurkey in last year's "Chicken Little."
He was born Jesse Donald Knotts on July 21, 1924, in Morgantown, W.Va.,
where he grew up with three brothers. As a young man, he gravitated to the
world of entertainment, starting as a ventriloquist. He lived in New York
briefly before returning home and enrolling at West Virginia University.
He joined the Army during World War II and served as an entertainer. After
the military, he returned to West Virginia University to finish his degree.
He worked in radio before getting his big break in the 1950s, when he won a
spot to perform on "The Steve Allen Show." He drew howls from the audience
playing a weatherman. The skit featured Mr. Knotts as a television weatherman
forced to ad-lib the forecast without any information on the weather. As he
wrote on a map about a weather system in California, stumbling over his words,
it became clear he was writing "h-e-l-p."
His marriages to Kay Knotts and Loralee Knotts ended in divorce.
Survivors also include a son and a daughter.
Peter Marshall TV host, Huntington
Peter Marshall (born Ralph Pierre LaCock on March 30, c 1927), in Huntington,
West Virginia, is an actor, singer and television personality. Although he has
almost fifty television, movie, and Broadway credits, he is best known as the
original host and "The Master" of The Hollywood Squares from 1966 to
1981. His stage name, Marshall, came from the name of the college in his home
town (Marshall College became Marshall University in 1961).
Marshall came from a show business family, moving to New York City at the age
of 12 after his father's death to be with his mother, an aspiring costume
designer and later the president of the Motion Picture Mothers.
His elder sister, Joanne Dru, was a successful actress who made a number of
westerns in the 1950s.
Marshall started his career at 15 as a singer with big bands. In the 1950s,
Marshall earned his living as part of a comedy act with Tommy Noonan, and they
appeared in night clubs and on television variety shows. Although Marshall
occasionally worked in film and television, he could not find regular work in
the industry until his friend Morey Amsterdam recommended him to Bert Parks to
host the game show Hollywood Squares in 1966.
The show had a long run on daytime TV and in syndication, making Marshall as
familiar to viewers as the celebrities who appeared on the show. The easy-going
and unflappable Marshall was a perfect foil for the wicked wit of such panelists
as Amsterdam and his Dick Van Dyke Show castmate Rose Marie, Paul Lynde,
Jan Murray, and Wally Cox. The Hollywood Squares was cancelled by NBC in
1980, but daily production continued for syndication into 1981.
Interestingly, Marshall grew tired of hosting the show after several years
and wanted to leave. Toward that end, he would make outrageous salary demands
whenever his contract was up for renewal, hoping that he would be fired for
doing so, but much to his surprise, his demands were always met.
After the demise of Hollywood Squares, Marshall continued to work on
the game shows Fantasy (with cohost Leslie Uggams), All Star Blitz,
Yahtzee, and The Reel to Reel Picture Show. However, none of these
met with the success of the original Squares. He stayed in television and
movies playing character parts. One of his memorable post-Squares roles was a
cameo in the 1981 musical Annie playing radio personality Bert Healy.
His last film credit was the 1993 film Sista Dansen (The Last Dance),
but he continued to work in television after that. He wrote a book about his
experience, Backstage with the Original Hollywood Square.
Marshall's Broadway credits include Skyscraper and La Cage aux
Folles.
In the quarter century since Marshall hosted the original Hollywood
Squares the program has refused to leave the public consciousness. Two
attempts to revive it in the 1980s (the first, a short-lived version hosted by
Jon "Bowzer" Bauman from Sha-Na-Na; the second, a better-received edition emceed
by John Davidson), met with mixed results, but a parody version in In Living
Color hosted by Marshall showed a glimpse of the magic displayed in the
original (since then, another attempt at reviving the game show, this time
emceed by Tom Bergeron, reflected the success rate of the Davidson edition).
Despite the various different versions between 1980 and 2004, Hollywood
Squares remains most strongly identified with Marshall.
As of 2000, Marshall was back on the travelling circuit, this time as a
singer with big bands. His website actively promotes his CDs.
In 2002, Marshall came back to the show as a panelist during a Game Show Week
on the Tom Bergeron version, even hosting it for one day.
He is currently married to his third wife, Laurie Stewart, and has four
children and two stepchildren from his previous marriages. He is also currently
a host on the Music Of Your Life radio network.
His son, Pete LaCock, is a former Major League Baseball player. The retired
first baseman spent nine years playing for the Kansas City Royals and Chicago
Cubs before finishing up his career in Japan.
In 2006, Peter Marshall, who had already won an Emmy for Best Game Show Host,
was the recipient of the annual Bill Cullen Award for Lifetime Achievement, from
the non-profit organization, Game Show Congress.
Kathy Mattea country music, South Charleston
Kathy Mattea, full name Kathleen Alice Mattea (born June 21, 1959 in South
Charleston, West Virginia), is a female country music and bluegrass performer
who often brings celtic sounds to her music, particularly with her release of
Love Travels, one of her most critically popular albums.
She was born in South Charleston because it had the nearest hospital to her
parents' home in Cross Lanes, where she grew up, graduating from nearby Nitro
High School. In 1976, while in college, she joined the bluegrass band Pennsboro,
and two years later dropped out of school to move to Nashville. She worked as a
tour guide at the Country Music Hall of Fame, did backup vocal work for Bobby
Goldsboro , and sang demos for several Nashville songwriters and publishers
including Nashville songwriter/producer Byron Hill, who brought her to the
attention of Frank Jones (then head of Mercury Records), who signed her to her
first record deal in 1983.
Mattea's third album, 1986's folky Walk the Way the Wind Blows, proved
to be her breakthrough both critically and commercially. Her cover of Nanci
Griffith's "Love at the Five and Dime" was her first major hit, reaching #3 (and
in addition, earned Griffith notice as a songwriter); and the album produced
three other top ten songs: "Walk the Way the Wind Blows" (#10), "You're the
Power (#5), and "Train of Memories" (#6).
Further hit songs include her first #1, "Goin' Gone"; the truck-driving song
"Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" (1988); "Come From the Heart" and "Burnin'
Old Memories" (both #1 hits in 1989); "She Came From Fort Worth" (1990);
"Lonesome Standard Time" (1992); "Walking Away a Winner" (1994); "Nobody's Gonna
Rain on Our Parade" (1994); "Maybe She's Human" (1994); and "455 Rocket" (1997).
"Eighteen Wheels," in late May 1988, became the first single by a solo female to
spend multiple weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard country singles chart since Dolly
Parton's "You're the Only One" in August 1979; both singles were on top of that
chart for two weeks.
The heart-wrenching "Where've You Been," which Mattea's husband Jon Vezner
co-wrote with singer/songwriter Don Henry, reached #2 on the country chart and
won her a 1990 Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal. Mattea is a repeat winner
of the County Music Associations Female Vocalist of the Year, which she won on
the success of "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" and "Where've You Been."
The following year, Mattea took part in Voices That Care, a
multi-artist project that featured other top names in music for a one-off single
to raise money for the allied troops in the Gulf War. The project included
fellow country singers Garth Brooks, Kenny Rogers and Randy Travis. She has also
been heavily involved in HIV/AIDS-related charities beginning in the early
1990s, and is often credited with leading the country music community, commonly
regarded as the last segment of the entertainment industry to address the AIDS
epidemic, to finally do so. She performed with Mary Chapin Carpenter on VH1's
very first Save The Music concert, which also starred Bette Midler.
Mattea won another Grammy in 1993 for her gospel-oriented Christmas album
Good News. Her first single from the album, "Mary, Did You Know?" went on to
be covered by Kenny Rogers with Wynonna, as well as Reba McEntire.
Mattea subsequently moved to MCA and, in 2000, released the ballad-heavy
The Innocent Years, a heartfelt tribute to her ailing father. Wanting to
explore her taste for Celtic folk, Mattea hopped labels to Narada, for whom she
debuted in 2002 with the eclectic Roses.
With her social activism and her taste for songs with introspective lyrics,
it has been often said that Mattea owes as much to the traditions of folk music
as mainstream country.
Though her recent work has failed to make the country charts, Mattea
continued to enjoy a strong following throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s;
her albums are critically well received, and she continues to tour and perform.
She continues to have strong support from a very active fan club, whose members
refer to themselves as MatteaHeads.
Arch
Alfred Moore jurist, Moundsville
Arch Alfred Moore, Jr. (born April 16, 1923) was
the Governor of West Virginia from 1969 until 1977 and from 1985 until 1989. He
was a Congressman from 1957 until entering the governor's office. He is a member
of the United States Republican Party. He ran for reelection in 1988 but was
defeated by Gaston Caperton. Allegations of corruption were a major reason for
his defeat. He was eventually prosecuted for corruption and pled guilty to five
felony charges. He was sentenced to five years and ten months in prison in 1990.
He served over three years before his release. As a result of his conviction,
Moore was disbarred and forfeited his state pension. In 1995, he paid a
settlement of $750,000 to the state.
Moore was born in Moundsville, West Virginia in
the state's industrial northern panhandle. He briefly attended Easton College in
Easton, Pennsylvania before joining the United States Army during World War II.
He received a disfiguring wound in the jaw during fighting in Germany. Moore was
left for dead for two days in a German farmer's beet field after 33 of the 36
members of his platoon died in battle.
He then entered West Virginia University
graduating in 1948 and then from its law school in 1951. While at WVU he was
involved with student government and founded "Mountaineer Week" a celebration of
West Virginia culture in response to his perception that the growing number of
out-of-state students at the school were changing its character. The event has
become a permanent part of the school's calendar. He was also a member of the
Beta Psi chapter of Beta Theta Pi at West Virginia University and is a recipient
of the fraternity's Oxford Cup.
Moore was elected to the West Virginia House of
Delegates in 1952. In 1954, Moore made his first run for Congress, challlenging
incumbent Democratic Congressman Robert Mollohan. Moore lost. In 1956, Mollohan
vacated the seat to run for Governor of West Virginia, a race he lost to
Republican Cecil Underwood. In 1956, Moore ran for the open congressional seat,
winning by a margin of just 762 votes. Moore would subsequently be re-elected
through the 1966 election, before seeking the governor's office in 1968. His
terms in the House were marked by strong support for public works projects and
for civil rights.
The state's Constitution, which had formerly had
a one-term term limit and provided for a weak governor system, was amended in
1968 to strengthen the powers of the Governor and in 1970 to provide for a
two-term limit. Moore became the first person re-elected governor in 1972,
defeating Jay Rockefeller. Moore's first two terms as governor are best
remembered for improvements in the state's highway system and for the Buffalo
Creek Flood disaster. During Moore's first two terms as Governor, West Virginia
built over 225 miles of interstate highways through mountainous terrain and the
New River Gorge Bridge, once the world's longest steel arch bridge.
In 1976 Moore was term limited from seeking a
third term and declined to challenge Robert C. Byrd for a seat in the United
States Senate. He rather began a two-year campaign for the state's other Senate
seat, which was expected to be vacated by the aging Jennings Randolph in 1978.
To the surprise of almost all observers, the obviously declining Randolph stood
for re-election. His campaign was entirely financed by then-governor
Rockefeller, as Randolph's six-year term as Senator and a theoretical second
Rockefeller term as governor would both expire in 1984, permitting Rockefeller
to run for an open seat. Moore was outspent by 5 to 1 in this election, and lost
by 4717 votes.
In 1980 Moore sought his third term as governor.
Rockefeller outspent him by a figure of 20 to 1, and Moore again lost a close
race.
In 1984 Moore again ran for governor and was
returned by a very large margin, becoming the only West Virginia governor to be
elected to three terms in office. He again turned his attention to highways, and
saw the completion of last major section of interstate highway in the country,
which had been left unbuilt during the Rockefeller terms, in 1988. He was
defeated for re-election in 1988 and subsequently pled guilty to receiving a
bribe relative to a refund of a workers compensation tax from a coal executive
and served over three years in federal prison. Moore has always maintained that
his plea was a part of a legal strategy and his attempts to withdraw it and
stand trial on the matter were denied. As of 2005 he continues to maintain his
innocence.
Moore now lives in Glen Dale.
His daughter Shelley Moore Capito is currently a
member of the United States House of Representatives from West Virginia's 2nd
Congressional district.
Mary Lou Retton gymnast, Fairmont
Born: 24 January 1968, Fairmont, West Virginia,
Best Known As: Gold medalist in the 1984 Olympics
In 1984 Mary Lou Retton became the first American
woman to win an Olympic gold medal for the all-around competition in gymnastics.
The Summer Olympics were held that year in Los Angeles, California, with the
Soviet Union boycotting the competition in retaliation for a United States
boycott of the Moscow Olympics four years earlier. Besides her gold in the
all-around competition, Retton also won 2 silver medals and 2 bronze, making her
the single biggest medal winner of any athlete at that year's competition. Her
Olympic success made her an instant celebrity, launching her career on the
lecture circuit and getting her a few small roles in movies such as Scrooged
and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult. She also has appeared frequently
as a gymnastics commentator on TV.
Walter Reuther labor leader, Wheeling, 1946-1970
Walter Reuther was president of the United
Automobile Workers (UAW) from 1946 until his death in 1970. Under his
leadership, the UAW grew to more than 1.5 million members, becoming one of the
largest unions in the United States. Reuther was widely admired as the model of
a reform-minded, liberal, responsible trade unionist—the leading labor
intellectual of his age, a champion of industrial democracy and civil rights who
used the collective bargaining process and labor's political influence to
advance the cause of social justice for all Americans.
Walter Reuther was born in Wheeling, W.V., on
Sept. 1, 1907, the son of Valentine Reuther, a German socialist, and his wife,
Anna Stocker. Reuther received an early education in socialism and union
politics from his father. A visit to the prison where Socialist Party leader
Eugene V. Debs was being held for his resistance to World War I made an
indelible impression on the young Reuther, who became a committed Debsian
socialist. Bored with his studies, Reuther dropped out of Wheeling High School
at 16 and eventually became an apprentice tool-and-die maker. Fired for trying
to organize a union, Reuther moved to Detroit in 1927, drawn by the Ford Motor
Company's promise of high wages and a shorter workweek. He quickly established
himself as one of the most skilled and respected mechanics at Ford's River Rouge
plant. Working nights, Reuther earned his high school diploma at the age of 22
and took classes at Detroit City College (now Wayne State University), where he
was joined by his younger brothers Victor and Roy.
The Great Depression consolidated the political
and social activism of the Reuther brothers. Together with friends, they formed
a Social Problems Club on campus and affiliated with the Socialist League of
Industrial Democracy. They organized protests against establishing a Reserve
Officer Training Corps (ROTC) unit on campus and against the segregationist
policies of a local swimming pool leased by the college. In 1932, Walter
campaigned for Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas. The
following year, Walter and Victor began a nine-nation tour of Europe in Nazi
Germany, ending it with a two-year stay in the Soviet Union, where the Reuther
brothers worked at a massive automobile factory.
Reuther returned in 1935 and eventually decided
to stay in Detroit, where he had fallen in love with May Wolf, a physical
education teacher, Socialist Party activist and devotee of modern dance. Reuther
and Wolf married in March 1936 after a brief courtship and raised two daughters
together in the modest Detroit home they purchased in 1941.
Reuther began organizing for the UAW, the new
auto workers union under the auspices of the Committee on Industrial
Organization. Eager to make his mark in the labor movement, Reuther joined the
fledgling UAW Local 86, representing employees at GM's Ternstadt parts plant,
even though he was not employed by the company. Reuther was elected a delegate
to the 1936 UAW national convention. His credentials were challenged daily by
conservative delegates and, as a result, his name was constantly before the
assembly.
Never shy and already an accomplished public
speaker, Reuther emerged as the floor leader of the Michigan delegation and was
elected to the UAW's national Executive Board.
Returning to Detroit a paid UAW official, Reuther
set out to organize an amalgamated local on the city's west side. Within eight
months, UAW Local 174, of which Reuther was the president, represented 30,000
workers and 76 shops. Reuther played a key role in planning the successful 1937
sit-down strike against GM in Flint, Mich., then joined others in the effort to
secure similar UAW recognition from Ford. Reuther's organizing at Ford brought
him national attention when newspaper photographers captured him being beaten
bloody by Ford security men as he passed out leaflets outside Ford's River Rouge
plant.
In 1939, Reuther became director of the UAW's
General Motors department, and in 1942 he was elected the union's first vice
president. During World War II, Reuther also served with the Office of
Production Management, the War Manpower Commission and the War Production Board.
As director of the UAW's GM division, Reuther won the respect of industry
executives as well as the loyalty of the rank and file. When a wildcat strike
movement swept GM's shops in 1944–1945, Reuther skillfully handled the crisis,
championing the cause of the workers without running afoul of the government or
the company. Then, in 1946, after the war's end, Reuther led a 116-day strike
against GM, calling for a 30 percent wage increase without an increase in the
retail price of cars, and he challenged GM to "open its books" to prove the
demand impossible. GM refused both demands but did offer an 18 percent wage
increase, which Reuther accepted.
In 1946, Reuther was elected president of the UAW.
Although his postwar political agenda of national health care, economic
redistribution and job security for all met defeat, Reuther continued to press
these issues at the bargaining table. In 1948, GM agreed to a historic contract
tying wage increases to the general cost-of-living and productivity increases.
Over the next two decades, the union negotiated model grievance procedures,
safety and health provisions, pensions, health benefits and "supplemental
unemployment benefits" that enabled UAW members to earn up to 95 percent of
their regular paycheck even if they were laid off.
An ally of the Communist Party in the 1930s,
Reuther turned against the Communists in the 1940s, in part because he believed
they subordinated the interests of the union and its members to that of the
party and its Soviet sponsors. He supported the anti-communist provisions of the
1947 Taft-Hartley Act and in 1948 was a founding member of the staunchly
anti-communist Americans for Democratic Action. Reuther became president of the
Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1952 after the death of Philip Murray;
he immediately joined with George Meany, president of the American Federation of
Labor (AFL), to negotiate a merger between the two groups, which took effect in
1955.
Unwilling to surrender the presidency of the UAW
to become an elected AFL-CIO official, Reuther instead opted to be director of
the federation's Industrial Union Department (IUD). As head of the IUD, Reuther
called for large-scale 1930s-style organizing drives and broad-based grassroots
political action committees. He fought tirelessly for civil rights protections
and an enhanced welfare state that would benefit all Americans. Reuther stood
beside Martin Luther King Jr. when he delivered his famous "I have a dream"
speech at the 1963 March on Washington, and he met weekly with President Lyndon
Johnson throughout 1964–1965 to discuss legislative and political initiatives.
In 1968, frustrated at what he perceived to be an
unwillingness or an inability to seize opportunities for action, Reuther pulled
the UAW out of the AFL-CIO. He formed a short-lived Alliance for Labor Action
with the Teamsters, which had been expelled from the AFL-CIO for corruption in
the 1950s. Before the new group could launch any initiatives, however, Reuther;
his wife, May; and two others were killed in a private plane crash. Reuther left
a legacy of reform-minded unionism, civil rights activism and social justice
idealism upon which the labor movement continues to draw.
Eleanor Steber soprano, Wheeling, 1916-1990
Born: July 17, 1916 - Wheeling, West Virginia, USA
Died: October 3, 1990 - Langhorne, Pennsylvania, USA
The eminent American soprano, Eleanor Steber, grew
up in a musical family. Her mother was an accomplished amateur singer and taught
her voice and piano, took her to concerts, arranged for coaching, and strongly
encouraged her to study and to sing in school and community shows. Eleanor later
studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston, originally intending to major
in piano, but her voice teacher, William Whitney, persuaded her to focus on
singing, instead. She received Bachelor of Music in 1938. At the beginning she
did a lot of radio, oratorio, and church work. Steber’s opera debut was in 1936,
appearing as Senta with the Commonwealth Opera in a WPA production of Wagner's
The Flying Dutchman, a demanding role indeed for a 21-year-old. In 1939,
she went to New York to study with Paul Althouse who had a great influence on
her. In 1940 she won first prize at the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air,
earning a Met contract.
Eleanor Steber's first role at the Met was Sophie in
Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier in October 1940. During the next years she
benefited from conductors such as Bruno Walter, Sir Thomas Beecham, Erich
Leinsdorf and George Szell. She was a versatile artist and appeared in Italian,
French and German operas. Things began to change for her at the Met when Rudolf
Bing took over the company in 1950. By this time, her career extended well
beyond New York (San Francisco, Chicago and Europe). At the Met, though, she
began to feel that she was being passed over for mainstream Italian roles in
favour of Tebaldi and Callas. Altogether she appeared 286 times in New York and
118 times on tour. She sang 28 leading roles in an extremely large repertoire.
Her easy upper range, coupled with a rich, smoothly produced lower voice made
her a natural for Mozart roles. Which she sang brilliantly, such as the Countess
in Le nozze di Figaro, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Donna Anna in
Don Giovanni, and even Konstanze in the Abduction from the Seraglio,
with its vocal pyrotechnics, as well as in other Mozart operas. As her voice
matured, she sang some of the spinto roles in both the German and Italian
repertoire. Her roles in this repertoire included Violetta, Elisabetta,
Desdemona, Marguerite, Manon Lescaut, Mimi, and Tosca, and the
Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. In Wagner’s operas she sang Eva in
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Elsa in Lohengrin. She was also
the company’s first Arabella in 1955, and in 1959 was the first to perform at
the Met the challenging part of Marie in Berg’s opera Wozzeck. Steber was
perhaps most famous for her creation of in January 1958 of the title role in
Samuel Barber’s opera Vanessa (but it was first offered to Maria Callas
and Sena Jurinac who both declined), and for commissioning his Knoxville:
Summer of 1915. Steber was one of the most important sopranos in the USA
during the 1940’s and 1950’s, with a sweet and yet full voice, and outstanding
versatility (her recitals were practically vocal pentathlons for their wide
range of styles and vocal demands, and the day she sang Desdemona in Verdi's
Otello for a Met matinee and Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte
that evening is still a legend). Her European engagements included appearances
at Edinburgh (1947), Vienna (1953), and Glyndebourne. In 1953 she was the first
American to appear at the Bayreuth Festival after the Second World War.
In addition to opera and recitals, Eleanor Steber
was a frequent guest on The Voice of Firestone's television broadcasts.
However, her career outlasted her voice, and most of her later appearances and
recordings were gravely technically flawed.
Eleanor Steber's relationship with the Met was not an easy one, for many reasons
on both sides. In 1961, when Bing offered her a contract that only provided
“covering” roles, she declined. After several years of absence from the
Metropolitan Opera, she took part in the final gala performance of the old opera
building in April 1966.
Eleanor Steber was not very happy in private life
either, two marriages had fallen apart and she got into problems with alcohol
and asthma. After partial retirement in 1962, she turned her attention more and
more towards recitals and concerts. She made some appearances on Broadway,
mostly in supporting parts, and also gave one of the notorious bathhouse
concerts in New York in 1973. She and her husband opened and managed a record
label, ST/AND (combining their names), but when they attempted to expand, it was
a dismal flop.
Eleanor Steber was head of the voice department at the Cleveland Institute of
Music from 1963 to 1972. She taught at the Juilliard School in New York, and at
the New England Conservatory of Music (both from 1971), also at the American
Institute of Music Studies in Graz (1978-1980; 1988). She established the
Eleanor Steber Music Foundation in 1875 to assist young professional singers.
With R. Beatie, she published study ‘Mozart Operatic Arias’ (New York,
1988). Her autobiography, written in collaboration with M. Sloat was published
posthumously (New Jersey 1992).
Thomas Stonewall Jackson Confederate
general, Clarksburg, 1824-1863
Next to Robert E. Lee himself, Thomas J. Jackson is
the most revered of all Confederate commanders. A graduate of West Point (1846),
he had served in the artillery in the Mexican War, earning two brevets, before
resigning to accept a professorship at the Virginia Military Institute. Thought
strange by the cadets, he earned "Tom Fool Jackson" and "Old Blue Light" as
nicknames.
Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he was commissioned a colonel in the
Virginia forces and dispatched to Harpers Ferry where he was active in
organizing the raw recruits until relieved by Joe Johnston. His later
assignments included: commanding lst Brigade, Army of the Shenandoah (May - July
20, 1861); brigadier general, CSA June 17, 1861); commanding 1st Brigade, 2nd
Corps, Army of the Potomac July 20 - October 1861); major general, CSA (October
7, 1861); commanding Valley District, Department of Northern Virginia (November
4, 1861 - June 26, 1862); commanding 2nd Corps, Army of Northern Virginia June
26, 1862-May 2, 1863); and lieutenant general, CSA (October 10, 1862).
Leaving Harpers Ferry, his brigade moved with Johnston to join
Beauregard at Manassas. In the fight at 1st Bull Run they were so distinguished
that both the brigade and its commander were dubbed "Stonewall" by General
Barnard Bee. (However, Bee may have been complaining that Jackson was not coming
to his support). The 1st Brigade was the only Confederate brigade to have its
nickname become its official designation. That fall Jackson was given command of
the Valley with a promotion to major general.
That winter he launched a dismal campaign into the western part of the
state that resulted in a long feud with General William Loring and caused
Jackson to submit his resignation, which he was talked out of. In March he
launched an attack on what he thought was a Union rear guard at Kernstown.
Faulty intelligence from his cavalry chief, Turner Ashby, led to a defeat. A
religious man, Jackson always regretted having fought on a Sunday. But the
defeat had the desired result, halting reinforcements being sent to McClellan's
army from the Valley. In May Jackson defeated Fremont's advance at McDowell and
later that month launched a brilliant campaign that kept several Union
commanders in the area off balance. He won victories at Front Royal, 1st
Winchester, Cross Keys, and Port Republic. He then joined Lee in the defense of
Richmond but displayed a lack of vigor during the Seven Days.
Detached from Lee, he swung off to the north to face John Pope's army
and after a slipshod battle at Cedar Mountain, slipped behind Pope and captured
his Manassas junction supply base. He then hid along an incomplete branch
railroad and awaited Lee and Longstreet. Attacked before they arrived, he held
on until Longstreet could launch a devastating attack which brought a second
Bull Run victory.
In the invasion of Maryland, Jackson was detached to capture Harpers
Ferry and was afterwards distinguished at Antietam with Lee. He was promoted
after this and given command of the now-official 2nd Corps. It had been known as
a wing or command before this. He was disappointed with the victory at
Fredericksburg because it could not be followed up. In his greatest day he led
his corps around the Union right flank at Chancellorsville and routed the 11th
Corps. Reconnoitering that night, he was returning to his own lines when he was
mortally wounded by some of his own men.
Following the amputation of his arm, he died eight days later on May 10,
1863, from pneumonia. Lee wrote of him with deep feeling: " He has lost his left
arm; but I have lost my right arm." A superb commander, he had several faults.
Personnel problems haunted him, as in the feuds with Loring and with Garnett
after Kernstown. His choices for promotion were often not first rate. He did not
give his subordinates enough latitude, which denied them the training for higher
positions under Lee's loose command style. This was especially devastating in
the case of his immediate successor, Richard Ewell. Although he was sometimes
balky when in a subordinate position, Jackson was supreme on his own hook.
Stonewall Jackson is buried in Lexington, Virginia.
Lewis L. Strauss naval officer and scientist, Charleston, 1896-1974
Admiral Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss (1896-1974)
Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss (b. January 31, 1896,
Charleston, West Virginia – d. January 21, 1974, Culpeper, Virginia) was a
wealthy businessman who later became a U.S. administrator. He was the chairman
of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission between 1953 and 1958. He was Acting
Secretary of Commerce between 1958 and 1959; then-President Eisenhower nominated
him for the permanent position, but his nomination was narrowly rejected (by a
49-46 vote).
Strauss is perhaps most remembered as the driving
force in the McCarthy-era hearings in which J. Robert Oppenheimer's security
clearance was revoked. Strauss' failure to be confirmed as Secretary of Commerce
was largely due to his role in the Oppenheimer matter.
Cyrus Vance government official, Clarksburg, 1917-2002
Cyrus Roberts Vance (Clarksburg, West Virginia,
March 27, 1917 – January 12, 2002) was the United States Secretary of State
under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980. He approached foreign policy
with an emphasis on negotiation over conflict and a special interest in arms
reduction. In April of 1980, Vance resigned in protest of Operation Eagle Claw,
the secret mission to rescue American hostages in Iran.
Vance was the nephew (and adoptive son) of 1924
Democratic Presidential Candidate and noted lawyer John W. Davis.
Military and legal career
Vance graduated from Kent School in 1935 and
received a bachelor's degree in 1939 from Yale University, where he was a member
of the secret society, Scroll and Key. After graduating from Yale Law School in
1942, Vance served in the Navy as a gunnery officer on the destroyer USS Hale
until 1946 and then joined the prestigious law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
in New York City before entering the government.
Political career
Vance was the Secretary of the Army in the
Kennedy administration. He worked on sending United States Army units into
Northern Mississippi in 1962 to protect James Meredith and put down the
resistance to the court ordered integration of the University of Mississippi. As
Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Lyndon Johnson, he at first
supported the Vietnam War but changed his views by the late 1960s, advising the
president to pull out of South Vietnam. In 1968 he served as a delegate to peace
talks in Paris. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969.
As Secretary of State in the Carter
administration, Vance pushed for negotiations and economic ties with the Soviet
Union and clashed frequently with the more hawkish National Security Advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski. Vance tried to advance arms limitations by working on the
SALT II agreement with Russia, which he saw as the central diplomatic issue of
the time. He was heavily instrumental in Carter's decision to return the Canal
Zone to Panama and in the Camp David Accords agreement between Israel and Egypt.
After the Accords, Vance's influence in the
administration began to wane as Brzezinski's rose. His role in talks with
People's Republic of China was marginalized and his advice for a response to the
Shah of Iran's collapsing regime was ignored. Shortly thereafter, when
fifty-three American hostages were held in Iran, he worked actively in
negotiations but to no avail. Finally, when Carter ordered a secret military
rescue, Vance resigned in opposition. The rescue attempt failed.
Later life and death
Vance returned to his law practice at Simpson
Thacher & Bartlett in 1980, but was repeatedly called back to public service
throughout the 1980s and 1990s, participating in diplomatic missions to Bosnia,
Croatia, and South Africa.
In 1993, he was awarded the prestigious United
States Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award.
He died aged 84 after a long battle with
Alzheimer's disease and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
Vance also was a member of the Trilateral
Commission.
Cyrus Vance was Secretary of State under U.S.
president Jimmy Carter, holding the office from 1977 until he resigned in 1980.
Vance resigned his post because he disagreed with a military plan to rescue U.S.
citizens being held hostage in Tehran, Iran (the plan was carried out and
failed). A lawyer, Vance had also been a long-time official in the Department of
Defense, a veteran of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations (1960-68). After
leaving Carter's cabinet, Vance returned to his law practice, but in the early
1990s he again participated in diplomatic missions in Croatia and Bosnia. Before
his death he suffered from Alzheimer's Disease.
Steve Yeager baseball player, Huntington
Stephen Wayne Yeager (born November 24, 1948 in
Huntington, West Virginia) is an American baseball player; catcher. Yeager spent
14 of 15 seasons of his Major League Baseball career, from 1972 through 1985,
with the Los Angeles Dodgers. His last year, in 1986, was with the Seattle
Mariners.
Minor League Career
Yeager, who was Jewish, was drafted by Los
Angeles on 6 June 1967, in the 4th round of the 1967 amateur draft.
After one game with Ogden, Utah (in the Rookie
League-Pioneer Division), Yeager was sent to Dubuque (Iowa - Single-A
league-Midwest Division), for 14 games.
The following season, 1968, he played 59 games in
Daytona Beach (Florida - Single-A Florida Southern League).
In 1969 he played 22 games in Bakersfield
(California - Single-A - California League), and 1 game in Albuquerque (New
Mexico - Double-A - Texas League).
He spent the next two seasons in Albuquerque.
1970 & 1971 in "AA" - Texas League, for 162 games, were he batted .276, with 77
RBIs in 490 at bats. For 1971 he was named to the All Star team as a member of
the Texas League, or Dixie Association - Western Division, catching for the
Albuquerque Dukes (67-75), along with teammates Lee Lacy (2B) and Paul Johnston
(OF).
The following season, 1972, he played 82 games in
Albuquerque (Triple-AAA - Pacific Coast League), with 45 RBIs in 257 at bats,
while hitting .280.
Major League Career
In the beginning of August, 1972, he would get
"the call" to the majors, and make his major league debut on the 2nd.
In that first-third of a season he would make 106 plate appearances in 35 games,
batt .274, and drive in 15 runs on 29 hits, while scoring 18 total runs. He
contributed to four World Series appearances with the Dodgers, in 1974, 1977,
1978 and 1981. In the latter, Yeager shared the World Series Most Valuable
Player award with Dodger teammates Pedro Guerrero and Ron Cey.
Lou Brock called Yeager "the best-throwing
catcher in the game." Steve's specialty was defense and his command of the game
on the field. He was very good at controlling the game defensively, especially
with young pitchers. His batting, however, was not spectacular; in his best
year, 1974, he batted .266 in fewer than 100 games. Yeager is famous for having
invented the catcher's throat protector flap, which he began wearing after a
life-threatening incident in which a shattered bat pierced his neck and he
needed added protection.
In 1999, Yeager was the hitting coach for the
Dodgers’ Single-A San Bernardino club, which won the California League
championship. Steve is currently coaching for the Dodgers at Double-A
Jacksonville. In 2006, Steve was named the hitting instructor/coach for the
Dodgers AAA farm club, Las Vegas 51's. Currently, he serves as the hitting coach
for the Inland Empire 66ers.
Outside baseball
Yeager is the nephew of pilot Chuck Yeager. When
Steve got married, then Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley was best man at his
wedding. Yeager was infamous for having posed nude for Playgirl magazine
in their October 1982 issue.
The Yeager family once appeared as contestants on
the television game show Family Feud.
Yeager served as technical advisor and also had a
small role, as a pitcher/coach named "Duke", in three movies: Major League,
Major League II and Major League: Back to the Minors.
Stats
Height: 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight: 190 lb (86 kg)
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Uniform number: 7
World Series teams: 1974, 1977, 1978 & 1981
Dodgers (.298 in 21 games, 17 for 57, 10 RBI's)
MLB Career
15 Seasons
Debut:
2 August 1972 (LA)
Final Game:
29 August 1986 (Seattle)
Games: 1269 batting; 1230 catching
Putouts: 6110
Assists: 674
Errors: 88 (catching)
Double Plays: 75 (catching)
Fielding Percentage: .987
Batting average: .228
Hits: 816
RBI's: 410
Home runs: 102
Transactions
6 June 1967: Drafted by Dodgers in the 4th
round, 80th pick, of the amateur draft
12 November 1985: Granted Free Agency
26 November 1985: Signed as a Free Agent with
the Los Angeles Dodgers
11 December 1985: Traded by the Los Angeles
Dodgers to the Seattle Mariners for Ed Vande Berg
12 November 1986: Granted Free Agency
Hawkshaw Hawkins. country musician
and singer, Huntington
b. Harold Franklin Hawkins, 22 December 1921,
Huntingdon, West Virginia, USA, d. 5 March 1963, Camden, Tennessee, USA. Hawkins
started on guitar but became proficient on many instruments. Success in a talent
contest in 1937 led to paid work on radio stations in Huntingdon and Charleston.
In 1942, he performed on radio in Manila when stationed in the Phillippines.
After his discharge, he signed with King Records and did well with "Sunny Side
Of The Mountain", which became his signature tune. He was a regular member of
the WWVA's Wheeling Jamboree from 1946-54, which he left to join the Grand Ole
Opry. In 1948 he became one of the first country artists to appear on network
television. He had US country hits with "Pan American", "I Love You A Thousand
Ways", "I'm Just Waiting For You" and "Slow Poke". The tall, handsome country
singer married fellow artist Jean Shepard, and they lived on a farm near
Nashville where Hawkins bred horses. Their first son, Don Robin, was named after
their friends Don Gibson and Marty Robbins. In 1963 Hawkins released his
best-known recording, Justin Tubb's song "Lonesome 7-7203". The song entered the
US country charts three days before Hawkins died on 5 March 1963 in the plane
crash that also claimed Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas. "Lonesome 7-7203" was his
only number 1 record in the US country charts. Shepard was pregnant at the time
and their son was named Harold Franklin Hawkins II in his memory.
Charlie McCoy, country musician and
singer, Oak Hill
b. Charles Ray McCoy, 28 March 1941, Oak Hill, West
Virginia, USA. When McCoy was eight years old, he ordered a harmonica for 50
cents and a box-top, but he was more interested in the guitar. He played in rock
'n' roll bands in Miami, where Mel Tillis heard him and suggested that he visit
Nashville to work as a singer. Although his singing career did not take off, he
played drums for US hitmakers Johnny Ferguson and Stonewall Jackson. In 1961,
McCoy recorded as a singer for US Cadence Records and entered the charts with
"Cherry Berry Wine". He then formed a rock 'n' roll band, Charlie McCoy And The
Escorts, which played in Nashville clubs for several years. During this period,
McCoy played harmonica on Ann-Margret's "I Just Don't Understand" and Roy
Orbison's "Candy Man", and the success of the two records led to further offers
of session work. McCoy became the top harmonica player in Nashville, playing up
to 400 sessions a year, and was a regular on Elvis Presley recordings. He worked
with Bob Dylan at the infamous Blonde On Blonde sessions, playing harmonica on
"Obviously Five Believers", trumpet on "Rainy Day Women Nos 12 & 35', and bass
on several other tracks. The success of Dylan and other rock musicians in
Nashville prompted McCoy and other sessionmen to form the critically acclaimed
Area Code 615. McCoy later joined Area Code 615"s successor Barefoot Jerry and
was featured on the band's 1974 US country hit, "Boogie Woogie".
McCoy revived his recording career in the late 60s
and had a US chart hit in 1972 with a revival of "Today I Started Loving You
Again", but, considering his love of blues harmonica player Little Walter, his
records are comparatively unadventurous and middle-of-the-road. Nevertheless, he
has often reached the US country charts with instrumental interpretations of
overworn country songs, and has won a Grammy Award and several country music
accolades. After his contract with Monument Records ended in 1982, McCoy
recorded freely for a number of different labels, releasing a number of European
only albums. He later limited his session appearances, largely because of his
work as musical director of the television series Hee-Haw, an association that
lasted 19 years. However, he did appear with other Nashville session men on US
indie band Ween's oddball 1996 recording, 12 Golden Country Greats. Two years
later he was elected to the German-American Country Music Federation Hall Of
Fame.
Jon A. McBride
(Captain, USN, Ret.) NASA former Astronaut, Charleston
PERSONAL DATA: Born August 14,
1943, in Charleston, West Virginia, but considers Beckley, West Virginia, to be
his hometown. Four children (one deceased). Married to the former Sharon Lynne
White of Nacogdoches, Texas. Recreational interests include flying, basketball,
golf, softball, racquetball, gourmet cooking, numismatics, gardening, carpentry.
EDUCATION: Graduated from Woodrow
High School, Beckley, West Virginia in 1960; attended West Virginia University
1960-1964; received a bachelor of science degree in Aeronautical Engineering
from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1971. Graduate work in Human Resource
Management at Pepperdine University.
ORGANIZATIONS: Member of the
Association of Naval Aviation; Veterans of Foreign Wars; the American Legion;
and the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. Life member of Phi Delta Theta; the
National Honor Society; the Golden Key National Honor Society. Member of the
West Virginia University Engineering Visiting Committee (Chairman 1990-92) and
member of the University System of West Virginia Board of Trustees (1992-1995);
Co-Chairman (with wife), American Cancer Society fund-raising (State of West
Virginia) 1990; Executive Committee, Boy Scouts of America; Spokesperson for
March of Dimes; American Red Cross Disaster Relief; and Shawnee Hills Mental
Health Group. Member of the Executive Committee, Association of Space Explorers
(Co-President 1995-1996). President, Association of Space Explorers (USA)
(1997-1998).
SPECIAL HONORS: Awarded the Legion
of Merit (LOM); the Defense Superior Service Medal (DSSM); 3 Air Medals; the
Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V; a Navy Unit Commendation; the National
Defense Medal; the Vietnamese Service Medal; and the NASA Space Flight Medal.
Recipient of West Virginia Secretary of State's "State Medallion" and appointed
"West Virginia Ambassador of Good Will Among All Men" (1980). Received Honorary
Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering from Salem College (1984); Honorary Doctorate
of Science from West Virginia University (1985); Honorary Doctorate of Science
from University of Charleston (1987); Honorary Doctorate of Science from West
Virginia Institute of Technology (1987); West Virginia Society's
"Son-of-the-Year" (1988), City of Beckley; West Virginia "Hall of Fame";
Distinguished Alumni; West Virginia University (1988); West Virginia's "Honorary
Italian-American" (1988); Kanawha County West Virginia's "Famous Person Award"
(1988); West Virginia Broadcasters' "Man-of-the-Year" (1989); City of Hope's
"Spirit of Life Award Winner" (1991); DAR "Medal of Honor" (1993).
EXPERIENCE: McBride's naval
service began in 1965 with flight training at Pensacola, Florida. After winning
his wings as a naval aviator, he was assigned to Fighter Squadron 101 based at
Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, for training in the F-4 "Phantom II"
aircraft. He was subsequently assigned to Fighter Squadron 41 where he served 3
years as a fighter pilot and division officer. He has also served tours with
Fighter Squadrons 11 and 103. While deployed to Southeast Asia, McBride flew 64
combat missions.
He attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base prior
to reporting to Air Test and Development Squadron Four at Point Mugu,
California, where he served as maintenance officer and Sidewinder project
officer. He has flown over 40 different types of military and civilian aircraft
and piloted the Navy "Spirit of '76" bicentennial-painted F-4J "Phantom in
various air shows during 1976, 1977, and 1978. He holds current FAA ratings
which include commercial pilot (multi-engine), instrument, and glider; and he
previously served as a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI).
He has logged more than 8,800 hours flying
time--including 4,700 hours in jet aircraft. 1979.
NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected as an
astronaut candidate by NASA in January 1978, McBride became an astronaut in
August 1979. His NASA assignments have included lead chase pilot for the maiden
voyage of Columbia; software verification in the Shuttle Avionics
Integration Laboratory (SAIL); capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for STS-5, STS-6,
and STS-7; Flight Data File (FDF) Manager, and orbital rendezvous procedures
development.
McBride was pilot of STS 41-G, which launched from Kennedy Space Center,
Florida, on October 5, 1984, aboard the Orbiter Challenger. This was the
first crew of seven. During their eight day mission, crew members deployed the
Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, conducted scientific observations of the earth
with the OSTA-3 pallet and Large Format Camera, and demonstrated potential
satellite refueling with an EVA and associated hydrazine transfer. Mission
duration was 197 hours and concluded with a landing at Kennedy Space Center,
Florida, on October 13, 1984.
McBride was scheduled to fly next in March 1986, as the commander of STS 61-E
crew. This flight was one of several deferred by NASA in the wake of the
Challenger accident in January 1986.
On July 30, 1987, McBride was assigned to NASA Headquarters to serve as
Assistant Administrator for Congressional Relations, with responsibility for
NASA's relationship with Congress, and for providing coordination and direction
to all Headquarters and Field Center communications with Congressional support
organizations. He held this post from September 1987 through March 1989. In 1988
McBride was named to command the crew of the STS-35 (ASTRO-1) mission, scheduled
for launch in March 1990.
In May 1989, Captain McBride retired from NASA and the Navy, in order to pursue
a business career. He is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of the
Flying Eagle Corporation in Lewisburg, West Virginia; and President of the
Constructors’ Labor Council of West Virginia (heavy/highway construction
contractors).
David Selby,
Actor, Morgantown
(born February 5, 1941 in Morgantown, West
Virginia) is an American character actor, best known for playing Quentin Collins
from 1968-1971 on the ABC-TV cult serial Dark Shadows, and as Jane
Wyman's evil and compassionate TV son, Richard Channing, on the long-running,
primetime CBS soap opera Falcon Crest (from 1982 to 1990).
Biography
The son of Clyde Ira Selby and Sarah E. McIntyre
Selby, he attended West Virginia University in his hometown, earning Bachelor of
Science and Master's degrees in theater, followed by a Ph.D. from Southern
Illinois University. He would eventually bring his Dark Shadows character
to film with the second Dark Shadows movie, Night of Dark Shadows,
released in 1971 after the TV series' cancellation. A year before joining
Falcon Crest in 1982, he played the villainous Michael Tyronne on the final
season of the NBC primetime serial Flamingo Road. Selby's movie credits
include co-starring roles with Barbra Streisand in Up the Sandbox (1972)
and with Ron Leibman in The Super Cops (1974),White Squall, D3:
The Mighty Ducks, Raise the Titanic, and Surviving Christmas
(2004). He has recently reprised the role of Quentin Collins for a new series of
Dark Shadows audio dramas from Big Finish Productions.
His writing includes the plays Lincoln and
James and Final Assault as well as the poetry collections My
Mother's Autumn and Happenstance.
Awards
West Virginia University in 1998 awarded Selby
its the first Life Achievement Award from the College of Creative Arts, and an
honorary doctorate in 2004.
Jerry West,
Pro Basketball Player and Manager, Chelyan
Jerry Alan West (born May 28, 1938, in Chelyan,
West Virginia) has had one of the most successful careers ever in professional
basketball, first as a player, then as a coach, and finally as an executive.
He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980, and his dribbling
silhouette has long been used in the National Basketball Association's
official logo.
Like most NBA players,
West was a standout in high school and at college, attending West Virginia
University and leading it to the 1959 NCAA championship game (of which he was
named Most Valuable Player) before embarking on a 14-year career with the Los
Angeles Lakers. He also played for, and co-captained with Oscar Robertson, the
1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome.
His nicknames included "Mr. Clutch," for his
skill and ability to make a shot in a clutch situation, and "Zeke from Cabin
Creek," given to him by teammate Elgin Baylor, and one West was not
particularly fond of. The latter name is somewhat of a misnomer, but not
completely; Cabin Creek is the name of both a stream and a community near
West's hometown of Chelyan. The community of Cabin Creek is on the opposite
side of the stream from Chelyan as it enters the Kanawha River.
For a period of time in certain parts of West
Virginia, West's home state, pee-wee basketball was known as Jerry West
basketball. It was used in the same context that youth baseball leagues use
with Babe Ruth baseball, or youth football leagues use Pop Warner football.
In the summer of 2000, the city of Morgantown,
West Virginia, and West Virginia Governor Cecil Underwood, dedicated the road
outside of the West Virginia University Basketball Coliseum, "Jerry West
Boulevard." The same road is shared on the south end of Morgantown with Don
Knotts Boulevard, in honor of another WVU alumnus.
On November 26, 2005, his number 44 became the
first basketball number to be retired by West Virginia University.
On February 17, 2007, a bronze statue of him
was honored outside of the WVU Coliseum.
Early life and
sports
Jerry West attended East Bank, West Virginia,
High School from 1952-1956. He was named an All-State from 1953-56, and an
All-American in 1956, when he was also named West Virginia Player of the Year
after becoming the state's first high-school player to score more than 900
points in a season (32.2 ppg, 1956). He also led East Bank to a state
championship that same year. Due to West's tremendous play in the state
championship, the school of East Bank changes its name every year on that same
day to West Bank.
He played for the West Virginia University
Mountaineers, in Morgantown, West Virginia, from 1956-1960. Among his college
highlights, he was named to the All-Southern Conference (1958-60),
All-American Second Team (1958), and The Sporting News All-America
First Team (1959-60). In his WVU career, he averaged 24.8 points and 13.3
rebounds per game.
In addition to the Olympic Games, he was a
member of the U.S. Pan American Games gold medal-winning team (1959).
NBA career
Drafted in the NBA, West spent his entire
professional career (1960-74) with the Los Angeles Lakers franchise. Although
he was teamed with Hall-of-Fame scorer Elgin Baylor for most of his career,
West still averaged more than 30 points per game in four different seasons and
led the league in scoring during the 1969-70 season. An excellent playmaker,
West also led the league in assists per game during the 1971-72 season.
Although steals weren't recorded by the NBA until West's final season, at age
35 West became the first player in the league to ever record 10 steals in a
single game — still the Lakers franchise record.
Heralded as one of the most legendary clutch
shooters in the NBA's history, West averaged 29.1 points per game in 153
playoff games, including 40.6 in 11 playoff games in 1965, and sank one of the
most famous shots in NBA history: a 60-footer with no time remaining to send a
1970 championship game against the New York Knicks into overtime, a game the
Lakers ultimately lost.
West played in nine NBA Finals, but finished
his career with only one championship, won in the 1971-72 season, the year the
Lakers established a modern North American professional sports record of 33
straight wins. He retired two years later, after leading the Lakers to yet
another Pacific Division title in the 1973-74 season — this, in spite of the
loss of legendary center Wilt Chamberlain to retirement. As a testimony to
West's on-court leadership and presence, the Lakers fell to the Pacific
Division cellar the year after he retired, posting a 30-52 record. West later
became a coach who carried the Lakers into the playoffs in his three seasons
1976-1979, after which he was hired as an executive for the club in various
positions.
When he retired, West had scored 25,192 points,
averaged 27.0 points per game, and made 7,160 free throws and 6,238 assists.
During his career, West was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team four
times (the NBA All-Defensive Team did not exist until West's ninth season), to
the All-NBA First Team 10 times, and played in the All-Star Game 13 times.
West was named the All-Star Game MVP in 1972. West is still the only player
ever to be named NBA Finals MVP when on a losing team. He accomplished this in
the 1969 NBA Finals against Boston, the first year the award was given. In
1980 he was named to the NBA's 35th Anniversary All-Time Team and in 1996 was
selected as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History.
Management
In 1982, Jerry West was named general manager
of the Lakers, and through shrewd trades and draft picks, maintained the
Lakers' status in the NBA elite for the rest of the decade. These teams were
built around the core of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy,
and would go on to win four more championships in 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988,
becoming the first team to win back-to-back championships since the great
Boston Celtics dynasty did so in 1968 and 1969.
Following a slump in the early 1990s, West
received the NBA Executive of the Year Award in 1995 after his Lakers reached
the playoffs with a team built around Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones, Cedric
Ceballos, and Vlade Divac. West is credited for bringing Kobe Bryant onto the
team, trading Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for Bryant's draft rights, and
signing free agent Shaquille O'Neal to the team, which would later go on to
win three consecutive NBA titles.
In 2002 he was hired as president of basketball
operations by the Memphis Grizzlies. Although it was the worst team in the NBA
at that time, West quietly rebuilt the squad. In 2004, the Grizzlies won 50
games for the first time in their history, and West was named NBA Executive of
the Year for the second time.
He currently lives in Memphis with his wife.
His son, Jonnie, is a freshman on the West Virginia University basketball
team.
West recently put his Memphis home up for sale
for just under $4 million. Rumor has it that he and his wife are looking for a
smaller home.
Curt Warner, Pro Baseball Player,
Pineville
(born March 18, 1961 in Pineville, West Virginia)
was the Seattle Seahawks first-round draft pick in 1983. A running back out of
Penn State University, Warner led the AFC in rushing yards his rookie season,
helping his team to the franchise's first Conference Championship game which
they lost to the Los Angeles Raiders. The following year Warner suffered a torn
ACL in the season opener against Cleveland and was sidelined for the rest of the
year. He came back in 1985 and had a number of successful seasons before ending
his career with the Los Angeles Rams.
Warner finished his 8 NFL seasons with 6,844
rushing yards, 193 receptions for 1,467 yards, and 63 touchdowns. He made the
pro bowl 3 times (1983, 1986, 1987).
Warner was raised in Pineville, West Virginia, a
small town of less than 1,000. He helped his high school football team to
several state championship games. He was a multisport athlete, perhaps excelling
in baseball more than football. He was predicted as an early first-round draft
pick out of high school but was convinced by coach Joe Paterno of Penn State
University to play college football rather than play professional baseball.
He currently owns a car dealership named Curt
Warner Chevrolet in Vancouver, Washington.
Selva Lewis Burdette, Jr., Pro
Baseball Player, Nitro. 1926-2006
b. November 22, 1926 d. February 6, 2007) was an
American right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played
primarily for the Boston and Milwaukee Braves. The team's top righthander during
its years in Milwaukee, he was the Most Valuable Player of the 1957 World
Series, leading the franchise to its first championship in 43 years, and the
only title in Milwaukee history. An outstanding control pitcher, his career
average of 1.84 walks per nine innings pitched places him behind only Robin
Roberts (1.73), Carl Hubbell (1.82) and Juan Marichal (1.82) among pitchers with
at least 3000 innings since 1920.
Born in Nitro, West Virginia, Burdette was signed
by the New York Yankees in 1947, and after making two relief appearances for the
team in September 1950, he was traded to the Braves in August 1951 for four-time
20-game winner Johnny Sain. Along with left-hander Warren Spahn and hardworking
Bob Buhl, he gave the Braves one of the best starting rotations in the majors
during the 1950s, winning 15 or more games eight times between 1953 and 1961.
When Milwaukee won the 1957 World Series against the Yankees, Burdette became
the first pitcher in 37 years to win three complete games in a Series, and the
first since Christy Mathewson in 1905 to pitch two shutouts (Games 5 and 7). In
the 1958 Series, however, the Yankees defeated Burdette twice in three starts.
In addition to winning 20 games in 1958 and 21 in 1959, Burdette won 19 in 1956
and 1960, 18 in 1961, and 17 in 1957. In two All-Star games, he allowed only one
run in seven innings pitched, and in 1956 he topped National League pitchers
with a 2.70 earned run average. He also led the NL in shutouts twice, and in
wins, innings and complete games once each.
Burdette was the winning pitcher on May 26, 1959
when the Pittsburgh Pirates' Harvey Haddix pitched a perfect game against the
Braves for 12 innings, only to lose in the 13th. Burdette threw a 1-0 shutout,
scattering 12 hits. In the ensuing offseason, he joked, "I'm the greatest
pitcher that ever lived. The greatest game that was ever pitched in baseball
wasn't good enough to beat me, so I've got to be the greatest!" The next year,
facing the minimum 27 batters, Burdette pitched a 1–0 no-hitter against the
Philadelphia Phillies on August 18, 1960. Tony González, the only opposing
batter to reach base after being hit by a pitch in the fifth inning, was retired
on a double play. Burdette helped himself by scoring the only run of the game.
Following up his no-hitter, five days later he pitched his third shutout in a
row.
As a hitter, he compiled a .183 batting average
with 75 RBI and 12 home runs; his first two home runs came in the same 1957
game, and he later had two more two-homer games.
In 1963 Burdette was traded to the St. Louis
Cardinals (1963-64), and was later sent to the Chicago Cubs (1964-65) and
Phillies (1965). Signing with the California Angels, he pitched exclusively in
relief for the team in 1966-67 before retiring. In an 18-year career, Burdette
posted a 203-144 record with 1074 strikeouts and a 3.66 ERA in 3067.1 innings,
compiling 158 complete games and 33 shutouts. His totals of wins, games and
innings with the Braves ranked behind only Spahn and Kid Nichols in franchise
history.
Burdette also cut a record in the 1950s entitled
"Three Strikes and Then You're Out".
Burdette died of lung cancer at age 80 at his
home in Winter Garden, Florida.
Rod Thorn,
NBA Basketball Player, Coach, President and General Manager. Princeton
Rodney King "Rod" Thorn (born May 23,
1941 in Princeton, West Virginia) is the president and general
manager of the NBA's New Jersey Nets. A highly-regarded high school
athlete in both basketball and baseball, Thorn attended West
Virginia University, where he was an All-American guard in
basketball, as well as playing three seasons on the WVU baseball
team. In the 1963 NBA Draft, Thorn was the second player selected
overall, drafted by the Baltimore Bullets. He was named to the NBA
All-Rookie Team, but was traded by the Bullets following his first
season. After brief stints with Detroit and St. Louis, he concluded
his career as a player with the Seattle SuperSonics (1967-71).
After retiring, he stayed with the SuperSonics
as assistant coach and graduated from the University of Washington with a
degree in political science. In 1973, former teammate Kevin Loughery hired
Thorn as assistant coach of the New Jersey Nets. The Nets won the 1973-74 ABA
championship, led by Julius Erving. Thorn then became head coach of the
Spirits of St. Louis (another ABA team) in 1975, but returned to the Nets
coaching staff after the NBA-ABA merger in 1976, when the Spirits team was one
of two surviving ABA teams to be discontinued. In 1978, Thorn became the
general manager of the Chicago Bulls and was instrumental in the team's
selection of Michael Jordan in the 1984 draft. He served briefly as interim
head coach of the Bulls in 1981-82. From 1986 to 2000 he was the NBA's
Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations.
Thorn rejoined the Nets organization on June 2,
2000, and he was named the NBA Executive of the Year in 2002 after the Nets
advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.
Rod
Hundley, NBA Basketball Player and Broadcaster, Charleston
Rodney Clark Hundley (born October 26, 1934 in
Charleston, West Virginia) is a former professional basketball player and
television broadcaster. Hundley's life has revolved around the game of
basketball. His love and talent for the game led him to achieve honors in high
school and most notably during his college years. At West Virginia University
Hundley played to packed crowds at the Old Field House. His dribbling antics
and daredevil maneuvers on the floor led to his popular nickname - Hot Rod
Hundley. He has most recently been known as the sports announcer for the
A native of Charleston, West Virginia,
Hundley’s talent for the game was evident during his youth. In high school, he
averaged 30 points per game, breaking the state’s four-year scoring record in
just three years. He was named a high school All-American and was offered
scholarships to many of the nation’s major universities.
College and pro
basketball career
Hundley played for WVU from 1954 to 1957. The
Mountaineers made their first NCAA appearance and three total appearances
between 1955 and 1957. During his junior year, Hundley averaged 26.6 points
and 13.1 rebounds per game. He scored more than 40 points per game six times,
which led to the Mountaineers scoring over 100 points in nine games. The
Mountaineers were ranked No. 20 in the nation in 1955 and No. 4 in 1956.
Hundley holds a varsity school record with 54 points in a single game against
Furman and holds a freshmen team record of 62 points against Ohio University.
Hundley was the fourth player in NCAA history
to score more than 2,000 points during his career. He averaged 24.5 points per
game for three seasons and finished his collegiate career with 2,180 points.
He was a two-time, first team All-American and currently holds eight school
records. In 1957, the Cincinnati Royals made Hundley the first pick of the NBA
Draft and immediately traded his rights to the Minneapolis Lakers. Hundley
played for the Lakers in Minneapolis and Los Angeles from 1957 until 1963,
averaging 8.4 points per game and recording over 1,400 assists. He also played
in two All Star games.
Broadcasting career
Prior to becoming the voice of the Jazz in
1974, Hundley worked four seasons for the Phoenix Suns. He was an announcer
for five years for CBS where he called four All-Star Games and worked two
All-Star Games on ABC Radio.
Hundley had been the only voice for the Jazz
until the 2005-2006 season, when Craig Bolerjack took over television duties.
Hot Rod continues to provide the radio voice for the Jazz.
In 2000, Hundley graduated from WVU with a
bachelor’s degree in arts and sciences, 43 years after leaving his alma mater
to play in the NBA. In 1982, he received the NCAA Silver Anniversary
All-America Team for distinguished service for his life’s accomplishments, and
in 1992, he was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame. He received the
NBA’s Distinguished Broadcaster award in 1994. In 2003, Hundley received the
Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame -
the only former professional player to achieve such an honor. In June 2004, he
was voted into the Utah Broadcast Hall of Fame. He is the author of 'Hot Rod
Hundley: The Man With A Lot to Smile About' and 'You Gotta Love It Baby'.
Personal
During the off-season, Hundley conducts
basketball clinics around the country and works with charities in the Salt
Lake City area. Previously, he hosted the Hot Rod Hundley Celebrity Golf
Tournament to benefit the Salt Lake Shriner’s Hospital.
Hundley, who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah,
has three daughters: Kimberly, Jacquie and Jennifer.
Lonnie Warwick, Pro Football Player
No other information at this time
Dennis Harrah, Pro Football Player
No other information at this time
Sam Huff, Pro Football Player,
Farmington
Robert Lee Huff (born October 4, 1934, Farmington,
West Virginia) is a former American football linebacker who played for the New
York Giants and the Washington Redskins after earning All-America honors at
West Virginia University. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
in 1982.
Long considered one of the most
physical defensive players in the annals of NFL history, Huff ended his
professional career with 30 interceptions, hauling in at least one
interception during each season he played.
One of six children, Huff was born in a West
Virginia mining camp called Edna Gap and watched his family struggle
through the depths of the Depression. Motivated by these hurdles, Huff took up
football at Farmington High School and earned a scholarship to West Virginia
University.
Huff majored in physical education in college,
expecting to use his degree in a teaching capacity. However, his skills on the
football field helped lead the Mountaineers to a 31-7 record during his
collegiate career. On an individual level, Huff garnered not only a berth on
the 1955 All-America squad, but a third round draft selection by the New York
Giants as well.
When Giants head coach Jim Lee Howell couldn't
decide where to play him, Sam almost left the team before he was stopped by
assistant coach Vince Lombardi. When middle linebacker Ray Beck was injured in
the season's third game, Huff stepped in and excelled, a factor that led to
Beck's retirement soon afterwards. Huff's work on defense played a major role
in helping the Giants win their first NFL Championship since 1938.
After being dethroned by the Cleveland Browns
the following year, the Giants would return to the Championship Game in five
of the next six seasons, but came up on the short end of the stick on each
occasion.
Those disappointments failed to limit Huff's
image in the national spotlight. Playing in the media capital of the world,
Huff would be featured on the November 30, 1959 edition of Time Magazine, and
was also the subject of an October 31, 1960 CBS special, "The Violent World of
Sam Huff." At one point, Huff was making more for his off-the-field duties
than on the gridiron. (New York-based comedian Alan King talked about the CBS
program in one of his books, in mock wonderment about how the sound in his set
was good enough to hear bones crunching).
Huff earned a host of honors during his time
with the Giants, including being named Top NFL Linebacker in 1959, four
consecutive Pro Bowl selections (1958-1961), and winning a spot on the All-NFL
team three times. During his 13-year career, Huff's most memorable on-field
duels came against a pair of running backs, Cleveland's Jim Brown, and Green
Bay's Jim Taylor
Allie Sherman, who had taken over as Giants
head coach for Howell in 1961, traded Huff to the Washington Redskins on April
10, 1964 as part of a five-player deal, one of a series of moves that sent the
once-proud Giants into a tailspin. In 1964, Huff went to his fifth, and final,
Pro Bowl.
When Huff arrived, the Redskin defense had
given up the most points in the NFL in 1963, and had been a perennial also-ran
in that category since 1958. After his first season, the Redskins improved to
seventh, but after four seasons with the team, he retired from football,
primarily due to differences with Washington head coach Otto Graham. When
Vince Lombardi returned to coach football in 1969, Huff returned to the
Redskins as a player-coach for two seasons.
Upon his final retirement as a player, Huff
entered the broadcast booth, spending one season as part of the Giants radio
team. He then went on to the Redskins, having spent the last three decades
working in the same capacity.
In 1999, he was ranked number 76 on The
Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.
On November 24, 2005, Huff's uniform number 75
was retired by West Virginia University.
Booker Taliaferro Washington,
Educator, Lost Creek
(April 5, 1856, – November 14, 1915) was an
American educator, author and leader of the African American community.
Washington was born into slavery to a white
father and a black slave mother on a rural farm in southwestern Virginia. After
the slaves were freed there in 1865, he worked in West Virginia in a variety of
menial labor jobs for several years before making his way to Hampton Roads
seeking an education. He worked his way through the school which is now Hampton
University and attended college at Wayland Seminary. After returning to Hampton
as a teacher, upon recommendation of Hampton's president, Sam Armstrong, he was
named in 1881 as the first leader of the new normal school which became Tuskegee
University in Alabama.
Washington was the most dominant figure in the
African American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915, especially
after he achieved prominence for his Atlanta Address of 1895. To many
politicians and the public in general, he was seen as a popular spokesperson for
African American citizens. Representing the last generation of black leaders
born into slavery, he was credible when speaking publicly and seeking
educational improvements for those freedmen who had remained in the New South in
an uneasy modus vivendi with the white southerners. Throughout the final 20
years of his life, he maintained this standing through a nationwide network of
core supporters in many communities, including educators, ministers, and
businessmen, especially those who were black and/or liberal-thinking on social
and educational issues. He gained access to top national leaders in politics,
philanthropy and education, and was awarded honorary degrees including a
doctorate. Critics called his network of supporters the "Tuskegee Machine."
Late in his career, Dr. Washington was criticized
by the leaders of the NAACP, which was formed in 1909, especially W.E.B. DuBois,
who demanded a harder line on civil rights protests. After being labeled "The
Great Accommodator" by DuBois, Dr. Washington replied that confrontation would
lead to disaster for the outnumbered blacks, and that cooperation with
supportive whites was the only way to overcome pervasive racism in the long run.
However, while he did some aggressive civil rights work secretively, such as
funding court cases,. in general, he seemed to truly believe in skillful
accommodation to many of the social realities of the age of segregation. While
apparently resolved to many undesirable social conditions in the short term, he
also clearly had his eyes on a better future for blacks. Through his own
personal experience, he knew that good educations were a major and powerful tool
for individuals to collectively accomplish that.
Washington's philosophy and tireless work on
education issues helped him enlist both the moral and substantial financial
support of many philanthropists. He became friends with such self-made men from
modest beginnings as Standard Oil magnate Henry Huttleston Rogers and Sears,
Roebuck and Company Chairman Julius Rosenwald. These individuals and many other
wealthy men and women funded his causes, such as supporting the institutions of
higher education at Hampton and Tuskegee. Each school was originally founded to
produce teachers. However, many had often gone back to their local communities
to find precious few schools and educational resources to work with in the
largely impoverished South. To address those needs, through provision of
millions of dollars and innovative matching funds programs, Dr. Washington and
his philanthropic network stimulated local community contributions to build
small community schools. Together, these efforts eventually established and
operated over 5,000 schools and supporting resources for the betterment of
blacks throughout the South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The local
schools were a source of much community pride and were of priceless value to
African-American families during those troubled times in public education. This
work was a major part of his legacy and was continued (and expanded through the
Rosenwald Fund and others) for many years after Washington's death in 1915.
In addition to his substantial contributions in
the field of education, Dr. Washington did much to improve the overall
friendship and working relationship between the races in the United States. His
autobiography, Up From Slavery, first published in 1901, is still widely
read today.
Brad Paisley, Country Music
Performer, Glen Dale
(born October 28, 1972) is an American
country music singer, virtuoso guitarist, and songwriter from Glen Dale, West
Virginia.
Biography
Brad Paisley has stated that his love of country
music stems from his maternal grandfather, who gave Paisley his first guitar at
age 8 and taught him how to play. At age 12, Paisley wrote his first song, and
by 13 he was the opening act for country singers such as Ricky Skaggs and George
Jones.
Paisley graduated from John Marshall High School
in Glendale, WV, and was rewarded a full-paid ASCAP scholarship to Belmont
University in Nashville, Tennessee (from 1993 to 1995). While in college, he met
Frank Rogers, a fellow student who went on to serve as his producer. Paisley
also met Kelley Lovelace, who became his songwriting partner.
After graduating from Belmont, Paisley signed a
songwriting contract with EMI Music Publishing and he wrote David Kersh's top 5
hit, "Another You", as well as cuts by Tracy Byrd and David Ball. His debut as a
singer was with the label Arista Nashville, with the song, "Who Needs Pictures"
(released February 22, 1999). In May of that same year, he made his first
appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. Seven months later he had his first #1 hit
with, "He Didn't Have To Be", which detailed the story of Lovelace and
Lovelace's stepson.
In 2000, Paisley was exposed to his first
national non-country music oriented audience when producer, Todd Baker, tapped
him to appear on the TLC special, "Route 66: Main Street America". This show
featured Brad and band doing rare live and acoustic versions of Route 66 (song).
The international and home video versions of this program end with a full,
un-cut acoustic rendition of the piece, which was performed live on Rainbow
Bridge in Riverton, KS.
Later in 2000 Paisley won the Country Music
Association's (CMA) Horizon Award and the Academy of Country Music's best new
male vocalist trophy. He received his first Grammy Award nomination a year
later. On February 17, 2001, after forty appearances on the show, he was
inducted into the Opry Hall of Fame.
In 2002, he won the CMA Music Video of the Year
for "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)." Several celebrities made notable
guest appearances in the video, including Little Jimmy Dickens, Kimberly
Williams, Dan Patrick, and Jerry Springer.
Paisley released his third album, Mud on the
Tires (2003), following Who Needs Pictures and Part II. The
album features the hit song "Celebrity," the video of which parodies reality
shows such as Fear Factor and American Idol and included such
celebrities as Jason Alexander, Jim Belushi, Little Jimmy Dickens, Trista Rehn,
and William Shatner. The album's title track, "Mud on the Tires," reached
Billboard #1 in 2004.
In 2005, after touring with Reba McEntire and
Terri Clark on the critically acclaimed "Two Hats and a Redhead Tour," he
released Time Well Wasted, containing 15 tracks, including "Alcohol", a
duet ("When I Get Where I'm Going") with Dolly Parton, another ("Out in the
Parking Lot") with Alan Jackson, and a bonus track, "Cornography". On November
6, 2006, the album "Time Well Wasted won the Country Music Association CMA
Award for Best Album.
Gear: Paisley uses custom made Crook Telecaster
Guitars and Dr. Z Amplifiers for his signature twang sound.
Paisley contributed two original songs to the
Disney film Cars. These can be found on the film's soundtrack. This was in
recognition of his contribution to the "Route 66: Main Street America"
television special.
Personal Life
Paisley began dating actress Kimberly Williams in 2001, who he'd had a crush
on since watching the movie Father of the Bride which, ironically enough,
had been the inspiration of his "Part II' song and album since it was the movie
he'd seen with an ex-girlfriend. The two married on March 15, 2003. They live in
Franklin, Tennessee with another home in Los Angeles.
Paisley and Williams welcomed their first child, a son named William
Huckleberry Paisley, on February 22, 2007.
Hal Greer,
NBA Basketball Player, Hunington
Harold Everett Greer (born June 26, 1936, in
Huntington, West Virginia) is a former professional basketball player.
He played college basketball at Marshall
University and was drafted by the Syracuse Nationals of the NBA in 1958. Greer
played for Syracuse for five seasons, raising his scoring average to 22.8
points a game in 1961. He was selected for the NBA All-Star team that year. In
1963, the Syracuse Nationals moved to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia
76'ers. There, Greer became well-known as a teammate of Wilt Chamberlain, and
starred on the powerful 1966-67 team that ended the eight-year championship
reign of the Boston Celtics). In the 76ers' 15 playoff games that season,
Greer averaged a team-best 27.7 points. Greer had an unusual but highly
effective free-throw technique, shooting a jump shot from the charity stripe.
He is usually considered the third-best guard of the 1960s, behind Oscar
Robertson and Jerry West.
Greer played in 10 NBA All-Star Games and was
the MVP of the 1968 game when he went 8-for-8 from the field and scored 21
points, a record-breaking 19 in one quarter. He also was chosen to the All-NBA
Second Team seven times, and scored more than 20,000 points during his NBA
career. His hometown has honored his success by renaming 16th Street, which
carries West Virginia Route 10 as the main artery between the campus/downtown
area and Interstate 64, as "Hal Greer Boulevard." Hal Greer is recognized as
the only African-American athlete enshrined in a major sports hall of fame
from West Virginia.
Greer is sometimes confused with Hal Lear,
another star guard who played alongside Guy Rodgers for Temple University in
the mid-1950s.
College
Accomplishments
Two-time All-Conference (1957, 1958)
Team high scorer and Conference MVP (1958)
AP All-America Honorable Mention (1958)
Led Marshall in 71 games as its first black
scholarship athlete
Averaged 19.4 ppg and 10.8 rpg
At the time of graduation, held the school's
career record for field goal percentage (54.6 percent), hitting 531 of 974
attempts
Accolades
Averaged 22 ppg to lead 76ers to NBA
Championship (1967)
Played in 10 consecutive NBA All-Star Games
(1961-70)
NBA All-Star Game MVP (1968)
Set record for most points scored in a
quarter (19) during an All-Star Game (1968)
Seven-time All-NBA Second Team (1963-69)
Scored 21,586 career points, including 50 in
one game vs. Boston Celtics
Scored 1,876 points in 92 playoff games and
120 points in 10 All-Star Games
NBA 50th Anniversary Team (1996)
His jerseys were retired by Marshall
University (#16) and the Philadelphia 76ers (#15)
A one-and-one-half-mile stretch of road in
Huntington, W.Va., was renamed "Hal Greer Boulevard"
Homer H. Hickam, Jr., Engineer
and Author, Coalwood
born on February 19, 1943, the second son of Homer
and Elsie Hickam, and was raised in Coalwood, West Virginia. He graduated from
Big Creek High School in 1960 and from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Virginia Tech) in 1964 with a BS degree in Industrial Engineering. A U.S. Army
veteran, Mr. Hickam served as a First Lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry Division
in Vietnam in 1967-1968 where he won the Army Commendation and Bronze Star
medals. He served six years on active duty, leaving the service with the rank of
Captain.
Hickam has been a writer since 1969 after his return from Vietnam. At
first, he mostly wrote about his scuba diving adventures for a variety of
different magazines. Then, after diving on many of the wrecks involved, he
branched off into writing about the battle against the U-boats along the
American east coast during World War II. This resulted in his first book,
Torpedo Junction (1989), a military history best-seller published in 1989 by
the Naval Institute Press.
In 1998, Delacorte Press published Hickam's second book, Rocket Boys: A
Memoir, the story of his life in the little town of Coalwood, West Virginia. It
became an instant classic. Rocket Boys has since been translated into
eight languages and also released as an abridged audio book and electronic book.
Among it's many honors, it was selected by the New York Times as one of its
"Great Books of 1998" and was an alternate "Book-of-the-Month" selection for
both the Literary Guild and Doubleday book clubs. Rocket Boys was also
nominated by the National Book Critics Circle as Best Biography of 1998. In
February, 1999, Universal Studios released its critically-acclaimed film
October Sky, based on Rocket Boys (The title October Sky is an
anagram of Rocket Boys). Delacorte subsequently released a mass market
paperback of Rocket Boys, re-titled October Sky. October Sky
reached the New York Times # 1 position on their best-seller list.
Mr. Hickam's first fiction novel was Back to the Moon (1999) which
was also simultaneously released as a hardcover, audio book, and eBook. It has
also been translated into Chinese.
The Coalwood Way (2000), a memoir of Homer's hometown he calls "not a
sequel but an equal," was published by Delacorte Press and is available in
abridged audio, eBook, large print and Japanese. It was an alternate
"Book-of-the-Month" selection for Doubleday book club. His third Coalwood
memoir, a true sequel, was published in October 2001. It is titled Sky of
Stone (2001). Sky of Stone is presently under development as a
television movie. His final book about Coalwood was published in 2002, a self
help/inspirational tome titled We Are Not Afraid: Strength and Courage from
the Town That Inspired the #1 Bestseller and Award-Winning Movie October Sky.
His latest work is The Ambassador's Son (2005), published by St.
Martin's Press. It is the second of his series of popular novels about Josh
Thurlow, a Coast Guard officer during World War II. The series began with
The Keeper's Son (2003), and will continue with The Far Reaches in
2007.
While working on his writing career, Mr. Hickam was employed as an engineer for
the U.S. Army Missile Command from 1971 to 1981 assigned to Huntsville, Alabama,
and Germany. He began employment with the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration at Marshall Space Flight Center in 1981 as an aerospace engineer.
During his NASA career, Mr. Hickam worked in spacecraft design and crew
training. His specialties at NASA included training astronauts on science
payloads, and extravehicular activities (EVA). He also trained astronaut crews
for many Spacelab and Space Shuttle missions, including the Hubble Space
Telescope deployment mission, the first two Hubble repair missions, Spacelab-J
(the first Japanese astronauts), and the Solar Max repair mission. Prior to his
retirement in 1998, Mr. Hickam was the Payload Training Manager for the
International Space Station Program.
In 1984, Mr. Hickam was presented with Alabama's Distinguished Service
Award for heroism shown during a rescue effort of the crew and passengers of a
sunken paddleboat in the Tennessee River. Because of this award, Mr. Hickam was
honored in 1996 by the United States Olympic Committee to carry the Olympic
Torch through Huntsville, Alabama, on its way to Atlanta.
In 1999, the governor of the state of West Virginia issued a proclamation in
honor of Mr. Hickam for his support of his home state and his distinguished
career as both an engineer and author and declared an annual "Rocket Boys
Day."
For recreation, Mr. Hickam still loves to SCUBA dive. He also jogs nearly every
day. A new avocation is amateur paleontology. He works with Dr. Jack Horner in
Montana every summer. Most of all, however, he loves to write.
Mr. Hickam is married to Linda Terry Hickam, an artist and his first
editor and assistant. They love their cats and share their time between homes in
Alabama and the Virgin Islands.
John C. Norman, Surgeon,
Charleston
Noted thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon and
researcher John C. Norman Jr. was born May 11, 1930, in Charleston, West
Virginia. His mother Ruth Stephenson Norman was a longtime educator in Kanawha
County; his father John Norman Sr. was an architect and structural engineer.
After graduating valedictorian from Garnet High School in 1946, John Norman
entered Howard University. He later transferred to Harvard and graduated magna
cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1950.
John Norman received his M. D. from Harvard
Medical School in 1954. Following an internship and residency in New York, he
served aboard the aircraft carrier Saratoga in 1957 and 1958 before
completing his cardiac surgical training at the University of Michigan. In 1962,
Norman was a National Institutes of Health fellow at the University of
Birmingham, England.
Norman became an associate professor of surgery
at Harvard Medical School and joined the surgical staff at Boston City Hospital
in 1964. In addition to his teaching and surgical duties, Norman undertook
several medical research projects involving organ transplants. In 1967, he
successfully transplanted the spleen of a healthy dog into a hemophiliac beagle.
As a result of their research on the liver, Norman and his associates were able
to use a pig's liver to keep a patient alive for eighteen days.
It was while in Boston that Norman also began
important research into a left ventricular assist device for cardiac patients.
This research took him to the prestigious Texas Heart Institute in 1972. For the
next several years, Norman worked on development of the first abdominal left
ventricular assist device (ALVAD), which could be implanted temporarily in
patients suffering cardiac failure after open-heart surgery. Between 1975 and
1978, Norman and institute founder Dr. Denton Cooley implanted a number of these
devices. Norman also researched potential power sources and materials for
artificial hearts.
Norman later worked as a surgeon at Newark Beth
Israel Medical Center in New Jersey before returning to West Virginia in 1986 to
serve for several years as chairman of the surgery department at Marshall
University School of Medicine. For his work in medical research, Norman was
awarded the 1985 Congressional High Technology Award. He previously was honored
as the Charleston Gazette-Mail's West Virginian of the Year for 1971.
David Adair, Rocket
Scientist and UFO Researcher
David Adair tells the story of the U.S. space
program through the eyes of a child prodigy turned top rocket scientist.
Building his first rocket at the age of 11, David soon had progressed to the
point that he was drawing attention to his exploits by people such as General
Curtis LeMay and Werner Von Braun.
His complicated mathematical formulas found their
way to the eminent scientist, Dr. Stephen Hawking, who at that time had just
received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Astrophysics and was at the beginning of his
own career. When they met and David was asked for the source of his formulas, he
sheepishly replied that many came to him in dreams. To that Stephen Hawking
replied, "I get a lot of my ideas through dreams also. We dream on the same
wavelength; therefore, that makes us brothers."
David Adair is an internationally recognized
expert in space technology spinoff applications for industry and commercial use.
At age 11 he built his first of hundreds of rockets which he designed and test
flew. At 17 he won "The Most Outstanding in the Field of Engineering Sciences"
from the US Air Force. At 19 he designed and fabricated a state-of-the-art
mechanical system for changing jet turbine engines for the US Navy that set
world record turnaround times that still stand today.
He is a world class presenter and keynote
speaker, seminar and workshop leader and consultant. David is not only
knowledgeable, he is a lot of fun. His charismatic style and down-to-earth
humour, make David a speaker that is intriguing, informative, entertaining and
memorable.
His presentations include little known facts and
anecdotes from his involvement with the space program, commercial technology
development, films and "the things he has seen" at Area 51.
His presentations have inspired many
organisations and his list of clients include the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers, Carolina Power & Light Company, Clemson University, Consolidated
Freightways, Edison Electric, Georgia Power Company, Hades Corporation, Hoechst-Salines
Corporation, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Reynolds Aluminium, R.J. Reynolds,
Thomasville Furniture Industries, Union Electric Company, and the United States
Army, Air Force and Navy to name but a few.
Bob Adkins, Pro Football Player,
Point Pleasant
Robert Grant Adkins
Position: E/G/HB/QB
Height: 6' 0'' Weight: 214
Born: 2/7/1917, in Point Pleasant, WV, USA
High School: Point Pleasant (WV)
College: Marshall
Hasil Adkins, Entertainer,
Boone County. 1937-2005
(pronounced "Hassil," not "Haysil") (April
29, 1937 - April 26, 2005), One-man band, was an Appalachian country, rock and
roll, blues musician though frequently considered rockabilly and sometimes
primitive jazz.
Hasil was born desolate in Boone County, West
Virginia, where he lived throughout his life. He was the youngest of 10
children, and was both severely depressive and hyperactive.
Nicknamed "The Haze", Adkins, claimed a
repertoire of over 9000 songs including over 7000 original compositions,
recorded scores of small, micro-label 45s and is responsible for the birth of
Norton Records, Psychobilly and a dance called "The Hunch".
His music can be sad, humorous and/or frantic. He
was well known for shrieking certain catchphrases, such as "commodity meat", "I
want your head", and "AaaaaaaaaaaaaHeeeeeeeeeeee-Wooo!!!!"
Recurring themes in Adkins' work include love,
heartbreak, hunchin', police, death, decapitation, commodity meat, aliens, and
chicken. Adkins' often noted in many interviews that his primary heros and
influences were Hank Williams, Sr., Jimmie Rodgers, Little Richard and Col.
Harlan Sanders the inventor of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Some of his best known songs are "She Said," "No
More Hot Dogs," "My Blue Star," "The Hunch," "Beautiful Hills," "We Got A Date,"
and "Chicken Walk".
Adkins recorded an entire album devoted to
chickens entitled Poultry in Motion also including such songs as "Chicken
Run," "Chicken Hop," "Chicken Flop," "Chicken Wobble," and "Chicken On The
Bone".
After the mid-1990s, he began performing less
though remained dear to music critics and celebrants of all things outsiderish,
such as Joe Coleman, and John Zorn. Hasil Adkins is a very strong influence on
the band The Cramps. Adkins's cult status is kept alive to the present day by
the growing appreciation of, and demand for the work of mavericks and misfits.
He retains a fan base, particularly amongst followers of outsider music.
Jon Adkins, Pro
Baseball Player, Hunington
Jonathan Scott Adkins (born August 30, 1977
in Huntington, West Virginia) is a Major League Baseball pitcher. A graduate
of Oklahoma State, the right-hander was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in
the 9th round of the 1998 amateur draft, and has played in parts of three
seasons with the Chicago White Sox. (2003-2005) In April of 2006, he pitched
in three games for the San Diego Padres, and was then optioned to the Padres'
Triple-A affiliate, the Portland Beavers. On November 15, 2006, Jon was traded
to the New York Mets.
Daniel Boone, Frontiersman
he lived near Point Pleasant from 1788 to1798
Sara Alexander, Actress,
Wheeling
(c. 1839-1926) was an actress who appeared in
several silent films from 1916 to 1919. She was born in Wheeling.
Date of birth
c. 1839, Wheeling, West Virginia, USA
Date of death
24 December 1926, New York,
New York, USA.
Michael Ammar, Magician, Logan
(b. June 25, 1956) is one of America's best-known
close-up magicians, and is famous within the worldwide magical community.
Ammar was born in Logan, West Virginia, and is
the youngest of four children.
His interest in magic began when he read a comic
book and noticed an advertisement which read "500 tricks for 25 cents!". Ammar
sent his quarter and received a catalog. He began ordering tricks and
practicing. Before long, he had a full magic show, complete with doves and a
teenage assistant. The community, small as it was, supported him and booked him
for local shows for schools and birthdays.
While in college at West Virginia University,
Ammar developed friendships with others involved in magic. He began to publish
his ideas in the early 1980s, and performed for Johnny Carson, as well as at the
Magic Castle.
In 1983, Ammar entered the FISM magic competition
and was awarded the Gold Medal for Close-Up Magic. In doing so, he became the
second American in the history of the competition to do so.
After winning at FISM, Ammar travelled west and
became friends with the great Dai Vernon who became Ammar's mentor throughout
the following years.
He has produced over forty video titles, also
books and magazines. In 1999 The Magic Magazine named him one of 100 most
influential magicians of the century.
Earl E. Anderson, USMC General,
Morgantown
(1919- ) was named a member of the American Bar Association Board of
Governors in 2001. He was formerly the assistant commandant of the U. S. Marine
Corps. At the time of his appointment to four-star rank, he was the youngest
active-duty Marine and first aviator promoted to that rank. Following his
retirement from the military, Anderson served several years with the State
Department and United Nations. He was born in Morgantown and graduated from
Morgantown High School and WVU.
John James Abert,
Topographical Engineer, Shepherdstown 1788-1863
John James Abert was born in Shepherdstown,
Virginia, 17 September 1788, and died in Washington. District of Columbia, 27
September 1863. He was the son of John Abert, who came to this country with
Rochambeau in 1780. Young Abert was graduated at West Point in 1811, but at once
resigned, and was then employed in the War Office. Meanwhile he studied law, and
was admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia in 1813. in the War of 1812
he volunteered as a private soldier for the defense of the capital. He was
reappointed to the army in 1814 as topographical engineer, with the rank of
major. In 1829 he became Chief of the Topographical Bureau at Washington, and
in 1838 became colonel in command of that branch of the engineers. He was
retired in 1861 after "long and faithful service." Col. Abert was associated in
the supervision of many of the earlier national works of engineering, and his
reports prepared for the government are standards of authority. He was a member
of several scientific societies, and was one of the organizers of the national
institute of science, which was subsequently merged into the Smithsonian
Institute. His son, James W. Abert, served with distinction in the Corps of
Topographical Engineers from 1843 through the Civil War.
George H. Anderson, Oil Pioneer,
Williamstown. 1852-1921
(1852-1921) was a pioneer in the oil business in
New York State and Canada and later in northern West Virginia. He is credited
with creating several innovative devices used in drilling for oil, including a
new type of sand pump, for which he received a patent in 1914. He sold the
rights for the pump to a New York syndicate for $30,000. He is said to have been
a boyhood friend of Thomas Edison. Anderson was living in Williamstown, West
Virginia, at the time of his death.
David Anthony, Author,
Weirton. 1930-1986
He wrote the novel which was made into the 1974 movie The Midnight Man.
He was born William Dale Smith in Weirton.
Tony Anthony, Actor,
Clarksburg
Born 16 October 1937, Clarksburg, West Virginia. Tony Anthony is largely
credited with the revival of the 3-D concept in the early 1980s. Anthony did,
however work for many years on Spaghetti Westerns (some with co-production
company Lupo-Anthony-Quintano Productions). He produced and starred in two
3-Dimensional movies, both of which enjoyed a modest theatrical release. After
making these two films, Anthony effectively retired from the movie industries
(except from the occasional production work with friend Gene Quintano).
Sometimes Credited As Frank Pettito / Tony Pettito
Allen Appel, Author, Parkersburg
Allen Appel, born January 6, 1945, in Parkersburg,
West Virginia, is a novelist best known for his series about time traveler
Alex Balfour. In the series, fictional characters are interwoven with actual
historical people and events.
Appel grew
up in Parkersburg, West Virginia, graduated from West Virginia University in
1967 and moved to Washington, D.C., where he found work as an illustrator and
photographer. He made his mark with a series of collage illustrations for the
Sunday magazine section of The Washington Post, and this work led to
his first book, Proust's Last Beer (1979), descriptions of how famous
historical and literary figures died, illustrated with his imaginative
black-and-white collages.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he wrote a
half-dozen genre novels, but all six went unpublished. He finally scored with
Time After Time, published in 1985 by Carroll & Graf. The story follows
New School history professor Alex Balfour as he is tossed back and forth
between present-day New York City and the Russian Revolution of 1917. While
seeking an explanation for his unusual situation, Alex attempts to save Czar
Nicholas and his family. In the course of the novel, he encounters Ivan
Pavlov, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Grigory Rasputin. Along with
favorable reviews, the novel received recognition from the American Library
Association as one of the Best Young Adult Novels of the Year . The novel
gained more readers in a Dell Laurel Edition with cover art by renowned
illustrator Fred Marcellino, and it was reprinted again as a Dell mass-market
paperback in 1990.
Time After Time is the first of what
became known as the Alex Balfour series, although the author usually
refers to it as the "Pastmaster" series. The appearance of real-life
historical figures became an expected device in the series. Mark Twain and
George Armstrong Custer are featured prominently in Twice Upon a Time
(1988), an American Library Association nominee in the Best Young Adult Novels
of the Year category. Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth and Franklin D. Roosevelt
are characters in Till the End of Time (1990), another ALA nominee.
In Time of War (2003) takes place during the American Civil War, and
Ambrose Bierce is a major character. Sea of Time, set aboard the
Titanic, was written in 1987 but never published.
Jodi Applegate News Commentator,
Wheeling
She joined NBC News in 1996 as co-anchor of Weekend Today. In January
1999 she was named host of NBC's Later Today. In 2001 she was employed by
WFXT in Boston. "I enjoyed NBC, but I had been getting up at 3 a.m. for years
and was ready for a change," she said. In 2006 she was a co-anchor of Good
Day New York on WNYW-TV, the Fox affiliate in New York. Applegate was born
in Wheeling, but grew up in Pittsburgh.
Karen Austin, Actress, Welch
(born 1954) is an American actress from Welch,
West Virginia. Austin has made many TV appearances since the mid 1970s. Played
Carrie Welby on the TV series The Quest (1982) and played court clerk
Lana Wagner on the TV series Night Court (1984). She has also appeared in
over 25 films. She was born in Welch.
Filmography
1974 - The Ottawa Valley - Lena
1979 - Fish Hawk - Mrs. Gideon
1983 - The Taming of the Shrew -
Katherina
1985 - Summer Rental - Sandy Chester
1985 - Jagged Edge - Julie Jensen
1986 - The Clan of the Cave Bear - Aba
1986 - The Ladies Club - Joan Taylor
1987 - Housekeeping - Mrs Paterson
1989 - Far From Home - Louise
1990 - A Girl To Kill For - Karen/Bag
Lady
1994 - Lazarus - Anne
1994 - Lightning Jack - Mama Wheeler (uncredited)
1997 - Breast Men - Dr. Tammy (uncredited)
Hugh G. Aynesworth, Author and
Journalist, Nutter Fort
(born August 2, 1931 in Nutter Fort, West Virginia) is an American
journalist. He was a reporter for the Dallas Morning News at the time of
the John F. Kennedy assassination and was the first print reporter to interview
the assassin's widow, Marina Oswald. He later co-wrote the book The Only
Living Witness about serial killer Ted Bundy.
He co-wrote Ted Bundy: Conversations With A Killer. He has fifty years
experience as a reporter, writer, editor, and publisher and currently is
Southwest bureau chief for the Washington Times. Aynesworth was the
Dallas-Houston correspondent for Newsweek following the assassination of
President Kennedy in 1963. He was in Dealey Plaza when Kennedy was killed.
Aynesworth grew up in Nutter Fort, W. Va., and graduated from Roosevelt-Wilson
High School in 1949.
Nnamdi
Azikiwe, president of the Republic of Nigeria
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe
(1904-1996), the first president of the Republic of Nigeria, finished high
school and began his college education at Storer College in Harper's Ferry.
Azikiwe, popularly known as "Zik," was the father of modern Nigerian nationalism
and chief architect of the country's independence.
Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, usually referred to
as Nnamdi Azikiwe, or, informally and popularly, as "Zik", was the founder of
modern Nigerian Nationalism and the first President of Nigeria. Born on 16
November 1904 in Zungeru, northern Nigeria to Igbo parents from the eastern
part of the country. He died on 11 May 1996 at the University of Nigeria
Teaching Hospital, Enugu, after a protracted sickness.
Early in his academic career, Azikiwe attended
Storer College, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, but later enrolled and graduated
from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) in 1930, where he became a member of
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe had a stint as an instructor
at Lincoln before returning to Africa, first to Accra in Ghana where he became
the founding editor of The West African Pilot. He later returned to Nigeria to
found the Zik Group of Newspapers publishing different titles with different
editors and editorial teams in different cities across the country. Some of
the renowned post-independent journalists in Nigeria got their training from
working with Zik whose newspapers were generally anti-colonialism. After a
successful journalism enterprise, Zik entered into politics Co-founding the
NCNC alongside Herbert Macaulay in 1944, and in 1954 became Premier of
Nigeria's Eastern Region. Very soon after the granting of Nigeria's
independence in 1960 he gained the office of Governor-General, and with the
proclamation of a republic in 1963 he became the first and only ceremonial
President of Nigeria, while Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the Prime Minister.
He and his civilian colleagues were removed from power in the military coup of
January 15, 1966. During the Biafran (1967–1970) war of secession, Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe became a spokesman for the nascent republic and an adviser to its
leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. After the war, he served as Chancellor of
Lagos University from 1972 to 1976. He joined the Nigerian People's Party in
1978 and made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1979 and again in
1983. He left politics involuntarily after the military coup on December 31,
1983.
His time in politics spanned most of his adult
life and he was referred to by admirers as "The Great Zik of Africa". His
motto in politics was "talk I listen, you listen I talk".
Zik has a lot of places in Nigeria named after
him such as the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, the federal
capital of Nigeria and the Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Anambra. His
portrait adorns Nigeria's five hundred naira currency note.
John
"Sheriff" Blake, Pro Baseball Player, Anstead
born in 1899. He was the losing pitcher in the famous
game in the 1929 World Series in which his Cubs lost to Philadelphia 10-9 after
leading 9-2 after the seventh inning.
Ralph "Joe Meadows, Country
Entertainer, Basin 1934-2003
Ralph Joe Meadows was born on the last day of 1934 in the small coal town of
Basin in southern West Virginia. As a child growing up listening to WSM's Grand
Ole Opry and WCYB's “Farm and Fun Time” radio programs, Joe's ear became attuned
to the sounds of the fiddlers who performed with Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs,
the Stanley Brothers, and others. At the age of sixteen, Joe began performing
with Melvin and Ray, the Goins Brothers, around Bluefield, West Virginia, where
he worked until the fall of 1952, when he joined the Stanley Brothers. He stayed
until the spring of 1955 and recorded some thirty songs with Carter and Ralph,
including “Orange Blossom Special.” As
a child growing up listening to 1955 and recorded some thirty songs with Carter
and Ralph, including “Orange Blossom Special.” After leaving the Stanley
Brothers, Joe performed briefly with the Lilly Brothers, and then joined Jim and
Jesse at the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree, moving with them to Live Oak, Florida. Then
in 1956 Bill Monroe asked Joe to become a Blue Grass Boy; “of course that just
thrilled me to death,” Joe remembers. He toured with Bill Monroe for about a
year until returning home to West Virginia in 1957. Joe continued to perform
closer to home first with Bill and Mary Reed, and then with Buddy Starcher. In
1974 Joe began touring and recording with the Goins Brothers. It wasn't long
before Jim and Jesse hired Joe for a second stint, this one lasting from 1974
to1980. After 1983, Joe lived in the Washington, DC area, where he continued to
perform until his passing in 2003. Joe was joined by his grandson, Brandon
Farley, on mandolin on the album, "Cotton Eyed Joe.".
Wilbur
Cooper, Pro Baseball Player, Bearsville. 1892-1973
Arley Wilbur Cooper (February 24, 1892 - August 7, 1973) was an American
left-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played most of his
career for the Pittsburgh Pirates. A four-time winner of 20 games in the early
1920s, he was the first National League lefthander to win 200 games. He
established NL records for lefthanders – second only to Eddie Plank among all
southpaws – for career wins (216), innings pitched (3466 1/3) and games
started (405); all were broken within several years by Eppa Rixey. His career
earned run average of 2.89 is also the lowest of any lefthander with at least
3000 innings in the NL. He still holds the Pirates franchise records for
career victories (202) and complete games (263); he also set club records,
since broken, for innings (3201), strikeouts (1191), and games pitched (469).
Cooper was born in Bearsville, West Virginia, and his family moved to
Waterford, Ohio when he was a boy. He began his professional career in 1911
with a Marion, Ohio minor league team partially owned by future U.S. President
Warren G. Harding; some reports suggested that Harding was the person who
recommended Cooper to the Pirates, although he pitched for another minor
league team before reaching the majors. In his first start with Pittsburgh in
1912, he pitched a shutout against the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1916 he set a
team record, still unbroken, with a 1.87 earned run average. He won at least
17 games each year from 1917 through 1924, peaking with seasons of 24, 22 and
23 wins from 1920-1922, and led the league in starts and complete games twice
each, and in wins, innings and shutouts once each. He worked quickly in his
starts, often not getting the signal from his catcher until he had already
begun his windup. Also known as an excellent fielder, in 1920 he became the
only pitcher in major league history to begin two triple plays in a single
season (on July 7 and August 21), and in 1924 he picked off a record seven
runners at third base; that year the Pirates finished within three games of
first place, the closest he would come to a championship.
In October 1924 Cooper was traded to the Chicago Cubs, along with Charlie
Grimm and Rabbit Maranville, in a decidedly unpopular six-player deal; he was
greatly disappointed to leave the Pirates, and never pitched as effectively
again. In 1925, while Pittsburgh won the NL pennant for the first time since
1909, he surpassed Rube Marquard for the NL career innings record for
lefthanders; the following year, he broke Marquard's league record for career
starts. In June 1926 he was picked up by the Detroit Tigers, and he ended his
major league career after eight games with the team, though he played in the
minor leagues through 1930. Over his career, he was 216-178 with a 2.89 ERA in
517 games, and struck out 1252 batters in 3480 innings. In addition to his NL
career records for lefthanders in wins, starts and innings, he also ranked
second among league southpaws to Marquard in strikeouts (1250) and games
pitched (509), second to Ted Breitenstein in complete games (279), and second
to Nap Rucker in shutouts (35). His Pirates team records for innings and
strikeouts were later surpassed by Bob Friend, and his record for games
pitched was broken by teammate Babe Adams in 1926. Cooper, who batted
right-handed, was also a fine hitter, and teammate Pie Traynor recalled that
he would often bat in the #8 slot when he was starting; in 1924, he batted
.346 in 104 at bats. He had a career .239 average with 6 home runs.
Cooper died of a heart attack at age 81 in Encino, California.
Cora Sue
Collins, Actress, Beckley. 1927
Cora Sue Collins was born April 19, 1927 in Beckley, West Virginia. She was a
beautiful child actress who was in very much demand during the thirties. Her
first film was at the age of five in THE STRANGE CASE OF CLARA DEANE in 1932.
The highly talented little girl appeared in small roles throughout the early
part of the decade. One of her roles that stand out was as the illegitimate
daughter of Colleen Moore in THE SCARLET LETTER in 1934. She performed well,
particularly when she is picked on by the many children in the village where she
lived. Cora remained active in films until she played Elinor Randall in 1945's
ROUGHLY SPEAKING. She retired from cinema at the age of eighteen.
Filmography
Week-End at the Waldorf (1945) .... Jane Rand
Roughly Speaking (1945) (uncredited) .... Elinor Randall as a girl
Youth on Trial (1945) .... Cam Chandler
Johnny Doughboy (1942) .... Cora Sue
Get Hep to Love (1942) .... Elaine Sterling
... aka She's My Lovely (UK)
Blood and Sand (1941) .... Encarnacíon as a Child
All This, and Heaven Too (1940) (uncredited) .... Louise de Rham
Bad Little Angel (1939) (scenes deleted) .... Clarabella Dodd
Stop, Look and Love (1939) .... Dora Haller
The Greener Hills (1939) (uncredited) .... Miller Daughter
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) .... Amy Lawrence
Three Married Men (1936) .... Sue Cary
Devil's Squadron (1936) .... Mary
The Harvester (1936) .... Naomi Jameson
Magnificent Obsession (1935) .... Ruth
Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935) .... Little girl
Harmony Lane (1935) .... Marian Foster
Two Sinners (1935) .... Sally Pym
... aka Two Black Sheep
The Dark Angel (1935) .... Kitty Vane, as a Child
Anna Karenina (1935) .... Tania
Mad Love (1935) (uncredited) .... Gogol's Lame Child Patient
... aka The Hands of Orlac (UK)
Public Hero #1 (1935) (uncredited) .... Little Girl
Without Children (1935) .... Carol Cole as a Child
Naughty Marietta (1935) (uncredited) .... Felice
Little Men (1934) .... Daisy
The World Accuses (1934) .... 'Pat' Collins
Evelyn Prentice (1934) .... Dorothy Prentice
Caravan (1934/I) (uncredited) .... Child
The Spectacle Maker (1934) (uncredited) .... The Little Princess
The Scarlet Letter (1934) .... Pearl
Treasure Island (1934) (uncredited) .... Young girl at the inn
Black Moon (1934) .... Nancy Lane
As the Earth Turns (1934) (uncredited) .... Marie
Elinor Norton (1934) (uncredited) .... Betty, Little Girl
Queen Christina (1933) (uncredited) .... Christina (younger)
The Sin of Nora Moran (1933) .... Nora Moran, as a child
... aka Voice from the Grave (USA)
Torch Singer (1933) .... Sally at 5 Years
... aka Broadway Singer
Mary Stevens, M.D. (1933) (uncredited) .... Jane Simmons
Jennie Gerhardt (1933) (uncredited) .... Vesta at age 6
The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933) (uncredited) .... Farmer's Daughter
... aka Every Woman's Man
Picture Snatcher (1933) (uncredited) .... Jerry's Little Girl
Man of Action (1933) (uncredited) .... Maria
The Mysterious Rider (1933) .... 'Jo-Jo' Foster
... aka The Fighting Phantom (USA: reissue title)
They Just Had to Get Married (1933) .... Rosalie
Silver Dollar (1932) (uncredited) .... Maryanne Silver-Dollar Echo
Honeymoon Martin, as a Girl
Smilin' Through (1932) (uncredited) .... Young Kathleen
The Strange Case of Clara Deane (1932) .... Nancy (child)
The Unexpected Father (1932) .... Judge
Chris
Sarandon, Actor, Beckley
Chris Sarandon (born July 24, 1942) Sarandon was
born and raised in Beckley, West Virginia, the son of a Greek immigrant and
restauranteur. In his teens, he played drums and sang back-up with a local
band called The Teen Tones which later went on to tour with such musical
legends as Bobby Darin and Gene Vincent.
He earned his master's degree in theater from The Catholic University of
America in Washington, DC, where met his first wife, actress Susan Sarandon.
After graduation, he toured with numerous improv companies and became heavily
involved in regional theatre, making his professional debut in The Rose
Tattoo in 1965. In 1968, Sarandon moved to New York, where he landed his
first television role as Dr. Tom Halverson on The Guiding Light
(1969-1973). He also appeared in the primetime TV movies The Satan Murders
(1974) and Thursday's Game before landing the role of Al Pacino's
overwrought transsexual lover in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), a
performance which earned him nominations for Best New Male Star of the Year at
the Golden Globes and the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.
In spite of his recent success in film and
television, Sarandon chose to focus on stage work for most of the next decade,
appearing in The Rothchilds and The Two Gentlemen of Verona on
Broadway, as well making regular appearances at numerous Shakespeare and
George Bernard Shaw festivals in the United States and Canada. He also
appeared in a series of television roles, some of which (such as A Tale of
Two Cities in 1980) mirrored his affinity for the classics. He also took
roles in horror films, this time in co-leads, opposite the late Margaux
Hemingway in the thriller Lipstick (1976) and as a demon in the shocker
The Sentinel (1977). To avoid being type cast as creepy characters,
Chris took on various roles in the years to come, portraying the title role in
the made for television movie The Day Christ Died (1980). He received
accolades for his portrayal of Sydney Carton in a made for television version
of A Tale of Two Cities (1980), co-starred with Dennis Hopper in The
Osterman Weekend (1983), which was based on the Robert Ludlum novel of the
same name and co-starred with Goldie Hawn in Protocol (1984). These
were followed by another mainstream success as the hypnotic vampire-next-door
in the teen horror classic Fright Night (1985).
He is best known in the film industry for his
role as Prince Humperdinck in Rob Reiner's 1987 film The Princess Bride,
though he also has had supporting parts in some other successful films such as
the original Child's Play (1998). He also provided the voice of Jack
Skellington, the main character in Tim Burton's animated film The Nightmare
Before Christmas (1993), and has since reprised the role in many other
spinoff productions, including the Squaresoft/Disney video games Kingdom
Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II and the Capcom sequel to the original
film, Oogie's Revenge. Sarandon also reprised his role as Jack
Skellington for the "Haunted Mansion Holiday", a three-month overlay of
the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, where Jack and his friends take over the
Mansion in an attempt to run Christmas, much like his character in the film.
Sarandon would later find work on television
again with a recurring role as Dr. Burke on NBC's long-running medical drama
ER. In recent years Chris has been seen on stage, film and TV but with
fewer roles and without leading roles.
He divorced from Susan Sarandon in 1979, after
which he was married and divorced from model Lisa Ann Cooper during the 1980s.
They had 3 children.
In 1991 he performed on Broadway in the
short-lived musical Nick and Nora (based on the Thin Man film)
with Joanna Gleason, the daughter of Monty Hall. Sarandon married Gleason in
1994. They have appeared together in a number of films, including American
Perfekt (1997), Edie & Pen (1996) and Let the Devil Wear Black
(1999).
In the 2000s he has done a bit of TV work by
making guest appearances on quite a few series, notably as superior court
judge Barry Krumble and love interest for Judge Amy Gray in six episodes of
the hit television show "Judging Amy."
He is on the Advisory Board for the Greenbrier
Valley Theatre in Lewisburg, West Virginia.
As of 2006, he was on Broadway playing "Signor
Naccarelli" in the new 6-time Tony award-winning Broadway musical The Light
in the Piazza at the Lincoln Center in Manhattan.
Quote
Being on stage is a seductive lifestyle. My
advice to aspiring actors is think twice. People sometimes go into acting for
the wrong reasons - as a shortcut to fame and fortune. If these goals are not
attained, they feel a bitter disappointment. Acting should be an end in
itself.
Filmography
The Chosen One (2006) - Zebulon 'Zeb'
Kirk (voice)
Loggerheads (2005) - Rev. Robert
Austin
Perfume (2001) - Gary Packer
Reaper (2000) - Luke Sinclair
Let the Devil Wear Black (1999) -
Jack's father
Road Ends (1997) - Esteban Maceda,
Co-producer
American Perfekt (1997) - Deputy
Sammy
Little Men (1997) - Fritz Bhaer
Bordello of Blood (1996) - Rev.
'J.C.' Current
Edie and Pen (1996) - Max
Just Cause (1995) - Lyle Morgan
Terminal Justice (1995) - Reginald
Matthews
Temptress (1994) - Matt
Christianson
The Nightmare Before Christmas
(1993) - Jack Skellington (voice)
Dark Tide (1993) - Tim
The Resurrected (1992) - Charles
Dexter Ward/Joseph Curwen
Forced March (1989) - Ben Kline/Miklos
Radnoti
Collision Course (1989) - Philip
Madras
Slaves of New York (1989) - Victor
Okrent
Whispers (1989) - Tony
Child's Play (1988) - Mike Norris
The Princess Bride (1987) - Prince
Humperdinck
Fright Night (1985) - Jerry
Dandrige
Protocol (1984) - Michael Ransome
The Osterman Weekend (1983) -
Joseph Cardone
Cuba (1979) - Juan Pulido
The Sentinel (1977) - Michael
Lerman
Lipstick (1976) - Gordon Stuart
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) - Leon
Shermer
Television
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -
"Rivals"
Charmed- "Necromancer/Armand"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
in episode: "Choreographed" (episode # 8009)
Spyder Turner, Entertainer,
Beckley
Spyder Turner was born in West Virginia, but grew up in the shadow of Motown in
Detroit. He became a polished performer at an early age, forming a doo-wop
group called the Nonchalants and individually entering talent shows in Detroit
and beyond. He won a talent show at the Apollo Theatre at age 16. Two years
later, a demo tape he recorded landed him a contract with MGM Records. The
recording, a unique cover of "Stand By Me," featuring Turner's impersonations of
Smokey Robinson, David Ruffin, Jackie Wilson and others singing the Ben E. King
classic, took Pop and Soul Radio by storm and started a professional career for
Turner that is still going on to this day.
Turner never scored another major national hit as a singer, but continued to
record solid albums throughout the 70s. He also began working with songwriting
legend Norman Whitfield, penning Rose Royce's "Do Your Dance," and also appeared
and or performed in a number of movies, including Motown's The Last Dragon,
Agent Secret 00 Soul and Street Wars.
After working with legendary Detroit bandleader Johnny Trudell in the 90s,
Turner has now assembled a crackerjack band of Detroit musicians and is touring,
performing an entertaining show of his past hits as well as more impersonations
of classic soul stars. He is also working on a new album, cuts from which are
featured on his website.
b 11 October 1903 d. 25 April 1945) was a jazz pianist.
Weatherford was born in Pocahontas, Virginia and was raised in neighboring
Bluefield, West Virginia. From 1915 through 1920 he lived in New Orleans,
Louisiana, where he learned to play jazz piano. He then moved to Chicago,
Illinois, where he worked with such bands as that of Erskine Tate through the
1920s, and worked with such jazz notables as Louis Armstrong and Johnny Dodds.
Weatherford then traveled, first to Amsterdam, then around Asia playing
professionally. In the early 1930s he led a band at the Taj Mahal Hotel in
Bombay (now Mumbai), India He joined Cricket Smith's band in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Weatherford took over leadership of Smith's band in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in
1937.
In the early 1940s he led a band in Calcutta, where he made radio
broadcasts for the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service. Performers with
Weatherford's band included Jimmy Witherspoon, Roy Butler and Gery Scott.
Teddy Weatherford died of cholera in Calcutta, aged 41.
Evans Evans, Actress,
Bluefield
Date of birth 26 November 1936, Bluefield, West
Virginia, USA
"Are You Afraid of the Dark?" ....
Security Guard (1 episode, 1994)
- The Tale of the Quiet Librarian (1994) TV Episode
.... Security Guard
Dead Bang (1989) .... Mrs. Gebhardt
... aka Dead-Bang (USA: poster title)
Prophecy (1979) .... Cellist
... aka Prophecy: The Monster Movie (USA: video box title)
The Iceman Cometh (1973) .... Cora
Story of a Love Story (1973) ....
Elizabeth
... aka Impossible Object
... aka Impossible objet, L' (France)
... aka Questo impossibile oggetto (Italy)
"Mannix" .... Phyllis Judson Garth
(1 episode, 1969)
- Death in a Minor Key (1969) TV Episode
.... Phyllis Judson Garth
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) .... Velma Davis
... aka Bonnie and Clyde... Were Killers! (UK)
Grand Prix (1966) (uncredited) .... Mrs.
Randolph
"The Reporter" .... Sherwood
(1 episode, 1964)
- He Stuck in His Thumb (1964) TV Episode
.... Sherwood
"Redigo" .... Hope (1 episode,
1963)
- Man in a Blackout (1963) TV Episode
.... Hope
"Death Valley Days" (1 episode,
1963)
... aka Call of the West (USA: syndication title)
... aka The Pioneers (USA: syndication title)
... aka Trails West (USA: syndication title)
... aka Western Star Theater (USA: syndication title)
- Thar She Blows (1963) TV Episode
"The Virginian" .... Phyllis Carter
(1 episode, 1963)
... aka The Men from Shiloh (USA: new title)
- Strangers at Sundown (1963) TV Episode
.... Phyllis Carter
"Wagon Train" .... Melody Drake
(1 episode, 1963)
... aka Major Adams, Trail Master
- The Hollister John Garrison Story (1963)
TV Episode .... Melody Drake
"The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" .... Penny
Sanford (1 episode, 1962)
- I Saw the Whole Thing (1962) TV Episode
.... Penny Sanford
"Kraft Mystery Theater" (1 episode,
1962)
- Change of Heart (1962) TV Episode
All Fall Down (1962) .... Hedy
"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" .... Dora
(1 episode, 1962)
- The Big Score (1962) TV Episode
.... Dora
"77 Sunset Strip" .... Moxie Miller
(1 episode, 1962)
- Mr. Bailey's Honeymoon (1962) TV Episode
.... Moxie Miller
"Cain's Hundred" .... Lynne Roberts
(1 episode, 1961)
- Cain's Final Judgment (1961) TV Episode
.... Lynne Roberts
"Target: The Corruptors" .... Sunshine
(1 episode, 1961)
- Prison Empire (1961) TV Episode
.... Sunshine
"The Defenders" .... Eleanor Dunn
(1 episode, 1961)
- The Accident (1961) TV Episode
.... Eleanor Dunn
"The Twilight Zone" .... Mary Lou
(1 episode, 1961)
... aka Twilight Zone (USA: new title)
- A Hundred Yards over the Rim (1961) TV Episode
.... Mary Lou
"Play of the Week" (2 episodes, 1960)
- Volpone (1960) TV Episode
- Juno and the Paycock (1960) TV Episode
The Style & Sound of Speed (2006) (V) ....
Herself
Pushing the Limit: The Making of 'Grand
Prix' (2006) (V) .... Herself
"The Directors" .... Herself
(1 episode)
- The Films of John Frankenheimer (????) TV Episode
.... Herself
Charlie
Barnett, actor, Bluefield. 1954-1996
Charlie Barnett (September 23, 1954–March 16, 1996) was an African-American
actor and comedian.
Barnett was born in Bluefield, West Virginia, USA. He
first made a name for himself in the late 1970s and early 1980s, performing
several shows of raunchy comedy a day at outdoor parks in New York City, most
notably in Washington Square Park. In September 1980, Barnett auditioned for
Saturday Night Live and producer Jean Doumanian was ready to hire him, but
after a last-minute audition, Barnett's spot in the cast was given to Eddie
Murphy.Barnett went on to appear in film and on television. In the 1983 comedy
film D.C. Cab, he played the role of Tyrone. He had a recurring role on
the hit 1980s TV series Miami Vice as Neville 'Noogie' Lamont.
He also appeard on Def Comdey Jam although the episode was not aired on TV his
performances, on the DVD releases of Def Comedy Jam there is a extra DVD with
"2 Raw 4", TV Charlie Barnett is on that.
Barnett's last film role was in 1996 in the film They Bite. He died
that year of AIDS.
Filmography
They Bite (1996)
Mondo New York (1988)
Nobody's Fool (1986)
Charlie Barnett's Terms of Enrollment
(1986) (TV)
My Man Adam (1985)
D.C. Cab (1983)
Phil Brito, Entertainer,
Boomer. 1915-2005
Date of birth 15 September 1915, Boomer, West Virginia
Date of death 28 October 2005, Newark, New Jersey.
Singer, songwriter ("Mama"), composer, author,
educated in high school, then a singer with the dance orchestras of Jan Savitt
and Lloyd Huntley. He appeared on radio, in films, on theatre stages and
television, and in night clubs, and made many records. Joining ASCAP in 1960,
his other song compositions include "I Could Swear It Was You".
Charlie 'Humps" Cowan,
Braeholm.
1938-1998
Charles Edward Cowan (Humps)
Position: OG/OT
Height: 6' 4'' Weight: 264
Born: 6/19/1938, in Braeholm, WV, USA
High School: Buffalo (WV)
College: New Mexico Highlands
an offensive lineman for the Los Angeles Rams
from 1961 until he retired in 1975. He played in four consecutive Pro Bowl games
from 1967 to 1970. Cowan died of kidney failure in Whittier, California, in 1998
at age 59. He was a native of Braeholm, West Virginia, and graduated from
Buffalo High School near Accoville in Logan County, where he was a teammate of
Lionel Taylor. At home he was known as Little Humps and his dad was "Big Humps."
The nickname was applied to his father, a pitcher; pitchers are know to "hump
the ball".
Date of birth 19 October 1941, Jane Lew, West Virginia, USA
(2005) Lives in Kern Valley, California.Trivia
Sometimes Credited As Mayf Nutter Adamson
If a man is the sum of his experiences, Mayf
Nutter has attained enough success to fill several lifetimes. Here's a quick
scan of just a few highlights in his career (or should we say careers). Let's
start with MUSIC. Mayf was the youngest honoree in the Nashville Country
Music Hall Of Fame, Walkway of Stars. On their opening day celebration, The
Bakersfield Country Music Museum inducted Mayf Nutter and Buck Owens as their
first honorees. Mayf won the "Video Of The Year" award two years in a row
performing as Artist, Songwriter, Director, and Producer. He invented the
technique of "acting a role" (not just being the singer); and was the first,
perhaps only singer, to never use lip synchronization for a single line of the
song; and introduced the use of dialog in Music Videos. His "Rock-a-Billy
Money " video marked the first time an artist, not supported by a major record
label, reached the #I spot on CMT. Nhyl Henson, who conceived the idea and
started CMT said, " Mayf Nutter is the definition of Recording Artist. He
writes the songs, produces the records, writes the video script, hires the
actors and crew, directs the videos, acts in them, and produces the whole
project. There are lots of singers, Mayf Nutter is an ARTIST." Mayf has been a
performer at Jamboree In The Hills nine times, beginning with the first one in
1977. Inspired by that first event and encouraged by a fan to write a song
about that first weekend, Mayf wrote the song that has been used as the Theme
Song for this event for the past 24 years, Before beginning his solo career,
and just out of high school, Mayf was the guitarist for Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame Member, Del Shannon (Classic Hit Song "Runaway", etc.). Later Mayf became
the leader, front man, and Columbia records producer for the internationally
acclaimed folk singing group, "The New Christy Minstrels". Rock icon, Frank
Zappa formed a new record label, just for Mayf Nutter. He called it Straight
Records and the first release, Everybody's Talkin' from the movie MIDNIGHT
COWBOY, hit the top of radio play lists across the U.S. and in Europe. The
musicians were Merle Haggard's STRANGERS. The song was cut in a horse barn
that Merle had converted into a studio at his Bakersfield home. Soon Capitol
Records released more Mayf Nutter Hits including Never Ending Love, Green
Door, Party Doll and The Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy. Next Mayf wrote the crowd
pleasing songs, Goin' Skinny Dippin' and " Jamboree In The Hills" (the song),
and others. Mayf also has the distinction of writing and recording the first
environmental impact song. "Simpson Creek Won't Never Run Clean Again".
Directly influenced by the message in the song, mining companies yielded to
public outcry and restored life to every stream in Mayf's native county in
West Virginia. All life forms had been previously killed by pollution. A Mayf
Nutter Week Celebration resulted. While flying over miles of the now famous,
Alaskan oil slick, on his way to a concert in Anchorage, Mayf witnessed the
environmental devastation brought on by the tragic oil spill caused by the
tanker ship, Exxon Valdez. That night, as he often does in live performances,
he decided to write a song on stage using suggestions from the audience.
Moments later "The Ballad Of Valdez" had the audience laughing hysterically.
Within a week the song was recorded and being played on all formats of radio
from Country to Talk shows. It was featured on ABC TV, CBS TV and was used on
network News shows for months. 100% of Artist Royalties went to restore fish
and wildlife in Alaska. All this music was somehow scattered between MOVIES:
Starring opposite Sally Field, Jeff Bridges, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert
Duvall, Glenn Close, James Stewart, Rock Hudson, and others, with directors
such as Oscar Winner Stanley Kramer, Bob Rafelson, Chris Cain, (more on
resume). Mayf's roles as a TELEVISION actor, Spans 30 years, from Gunsmoke
and Bonanza to The Waltons, (3yrs.) and Knots Landing (Valene Ewing's Fiancée,
Parker Winslow), from The Dukes Of Hazzard to Murder She Wrote. Mayf Nutter
and James Stewart were the only regular characters on the CBS TV series
HAWKINS. Those 90 minute episodes were expanded into full length feature films
for theaters outside the USA. Then there was The Fall Guy (with Lee Majors),
Falcon Crest, Airwolf, seven TV Movies for SHOWTIME (Starring as Buddy Tyler
in LONESTAR BAR AND GRILL). Mayf also played three different characters on
Days Of Our Lives plus 58 episodes of The Buck Owens TV Ranch shows and too
many others to list. For Walt Disney, Mayf has been the Narrator for Animal
Movies and "Wonderful World Of Disney" films since 1968. His LIVE
PERFORMANCES range from Las Vegas Headliner to Carnegie Hall. From the Los
Angeles Coliseum (65,000 fans) to The Grand Ole Opry. From the WWVA World's
Original Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial
Center in the Peoples Republic Of China in 1982 (the concert was broadcast
"live" on China National TV). Thus, Mayf became, historically, the very First
American to ever sing on China National Television. Mayf now resides in the
Sequoia National Forest in the Sierra Mountains of California with his wife of
22 years, the former Lindsay Bloom (a former Miss USA and star of "Mike
Hammer", "Dallas", and movies, singer/dancer/comedy actress on The Dean Martin
Show). They love their country home lifestyle and raising their 3 children
(ages 13, 11, and 7) together. Mayf's "Secret for Happiness and Success" is:
"Find something you would do for nothing, and find someone to pay you for it".
His life's goal is to "Go about doing Good" as Jesus did.
Date of birth 28 February 1923, Charleston, West
Virginia, USA
Date of death 2 November 2005, Palm Springs, California, USA. (complications
from stroke)
All this shapely character "broad" had to to
was open her mouth to induce laughter -- and so she did, primarily on TV
during the 50s and 60s. And although she milked those unmistakeable raspy
tones for all its worth, she also showed great comedy sense. Born Jean Leete
on February 23, 1923 in Charleston, West Virginia, actress Jean Carson (not to
be confused with pert British actress Jeannie Carson of "Hey, Jeannie!" (1956)
TV fame) was trained in music and dance and started performing by age 12. With
high aspirations of becoming an actress, she subsequently studied at
Carnegie-Mellon University.
She was first discovered appearing on Broadway in 1948 in George S. Kaufman's
"Bravo!" with a cast including Kevin McCarthy and Oskar Homolka. Set in New
York, the show was a bust (running only 44 performances) but Jean made a
wonderful comic impression and earned a Theatre World Award in the process.
She followed this with another Kaufman-staged play "Metropole" in 1949, as
well as "The Bird Cage" (1950) with Melvyn Douglas and Maureen Stapleton and
"Men of Distinction" (1953) with Robert Preston, but these shows fared even
worse. A hit Broadway comedy finally came her way with "Anniversary Waltz" in
1954, which ran 544 performances. Jean stood out among the cast just for her
hilariously deep tones alone.
She was typically displayed on many of the popular shows of the day including
"The Red Buttons Show," "The Tom Ewell Show," "Wagon Train," "Sugarfoot,"
"Perry Mason," "The Untouchables" and "Gomer Pyle." Surprisingly she never had
her own TV sitcom although she did appear as a regular on the short-lived "The
Betty Hutton Show" (1959) playing a girlfriend to the star. A single standout
episode of "The Twilight Zone" had Jean and Fred Clark as a pair of thieves
who discover that a camera they've stolen takes pictures of the future. Jean
essayed a number of bleached blonde floozies, jail birds, party girls and
golddiggers over the course of her career, but was never better than as
convict Jalene Naomi and good time girl Daphne on the "The Andy Griffith Show"
(1960). In one classic episode, her character Jalene was paired up with sexy
cohort Joyce Jameson as two dames- hiding out from the law who hold both
Sheriff Andy and Deputy Barney hostage while putting designs on them at the
same time.
An unfortunate alcohol problem dogged Jean's
career for many years. Active with Alcoholics Anonymous, she eventually
retired from Hollywood in the early 1980s and moved to the Palm Springs area
to be closer to family. There she appeared occasionally in such local theater
productions as "The Elephant Man" and "Steel Magnolias". Jean had been in
spiraling health since suffering a paralytic stroke in September of 2005. She
died in a Palm Desert convalescent home on November 2, 2005, at age 82. Two
sons survive.
Sara Jane
Moore, Tried to assassinate President Ford, Charleston.
Sara Jane Moore (born Sara Jane Kahn
on February 15, 1930 in Charleston, West Virginia) attempted to
assassinate US President Gerald Ford on September 22, 1975 outside
the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, just seventeen days after
Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme had attempted to assassinate Ford. Moore
was 40 feet away from the President when she fired a single shot at
him. The bullet missed the President because bystander Oliver Sipple
grabbed Moore's arm and then pulled her to the ground, using his
hand to keep the gun from firing a second time.[
Sipple said at the time: "I saw [her gun] pointed out there and I
grabbed for it. [...] I lunged and grabbed the woman's arm and the
gun went off."[The
single shot which Moore did manage to fire from her .38-caliber
revolver ricocheted off the entrance to the hotel and slightly
injured a bystander.
Moore had been evaluated by the Secret Service
earlier in 1975, but they had decided she presented no danger to the
President. She had been picked up by police on an illegal handgun charge the
day before the Ford incident but was released. Police kept the .44 pistol and
113 rounds of ammunition.
A former nursing school student, Women's Army
Corps recruit, and accountant, Moore had five husbands before she turned to
revolutionary politics in her forties.
Moore's friends said she was obsessed with
Patty Hearst. After Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army,
her father Randolph Hearst created the organization People in Need (P.I.N.) to
feed the poor, in order to answer S.L.A. claims that the elder Hearst was
"committing 'crimes' against 'the people.'" Moore was a bookkeeper for P.I.N.
and an FBI informantwhen she attempted to assassinate Ford.
Moore pleaded guilty to attempted assassination
and was sentenced to life in prison. She is currently serving at the federal
women’s prison in Dublin, California.
In an interview in 2004, former President Ford
described Moore as "off her mind" and said that he continued making public
appearances, even after two attempts on his life within such a short time,
because "a president has to be aggressive, has to meet the people."[
In popular culture
In Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's musical
Assassins, Moore is portrayed as a flaky accident-waiting-to-happen who
can't wield a gun properly; in the Gun Song (the only song she sings outside
of the Assassins as a group) when she "squeezes her little finger to change
the world" along with the boys, hers goes off although theirs do not, and in
Everybody's Got the Right the Proprietor reminds her "Don't forget that guns
can go boom," when she accidentally aims hers at him. Along with Fromme, she
serves as a bit of comic relief before major events in the musical, such as
Guiteau's assassination of James Garfield.
Quotes
“I do regret I didn't succeed, and allow the
winds of change to start. I wish I had killed him. I did it to create
chaos.”
“I didn’t want to kill anybody, but there
comes a point when the only way you can make a statement is to pick up a
gun.”[
“The government had declared war on the
left. Nixon's appointment of Ford as vice president and his resignation
making Ford president seemed to be a continuing assault on America.”
“I know now that I was wrong to try. Thank
God I didn't succeed. People kept saying he would have to die before I could
be released, and I did not want my release from prison to be dependent on
somebody, on something happening to somebody else, so I wanted him to live
to be 100.”
Robert V.
Barron, Actor, Writer and Director. Charleston. 1932-2000
Robert V. Barron (December 26,
1932-December 1, 2000) was an American actor best known as the voice
of Admiral Donald Hayes in Robotech. He is also known for playing
the role of Abraham Lincoln in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure in
1989.
He was also a songwriter, collaborating with
Bert Long on the 1956 hit "Cindy, Oh Cindy," which charted in two versions,
one by Vince Martin and The Tarriers and another by Eddie Fisher.
Anime
Robotech - Donald Hayes
Wicked City - Black Guard president
Live Action
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - Abraham Lincoln
Honkytonk Man - Undertaker
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - Additional voices
Jeramie Rain, Actress,
Charleston
Date of birth 23 August 1948, Charleston, West
Virginia, USA
Height 5' 5" (1.65 m)
Spouse Richard Dreyfuss March 20, 1983 to August, 1995
Has three children with Dreyfuss, daughter
Emily (b. November 1983), sons Benjamin (b. June 1986) and Harry Spencer (b.
August 1990).
Used to work as a production assistant for NBC
and for the daytime soap opera "The Doctors" (1963).
(2004) Works as a script writer and producer
for daytime TV shows in Los Angeles.
Sometimes Credited As Susan Davis / Jeramie Dreyfuss
James Jett.
Pro Football Player, Charleston
James S. Jett (born December 28, 1970 in
Charleston, West Virginia), is a former American football wide receiver and
Olympic sprinter who played nine seasons for the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders
from 1993 to 2002 in the National Football League.
Jett attended Jefferson High School where he
earned his diploma through a special IEP completion program. He played college
football at West Virginia University where he was a seven time All-American in
track and competed for the gold medal winning 4x100 relay team in the 1992
Olympic Games. Jett signed with the Raiders as an undrafted free agent.
Jett was second among NFL receivers with 12
touchdowns in the 1997 season, and finished his career with 256 receptions for
4417 yards and 30 touchdowns.
Babe Barna,
Pro Baseball Player, Clarksburg. 1915-1972
Herbert Paul (Babe) Barna (March 2, 1915 - May 18,
1972) was a left fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the
Philadelphia Athletics (1937-1938), New York Giants (1941-1943) and Boston Red
Sox (1943). Barna batted left handed and threw right handed. He was born in
Clarksburg, West Virginia.
In a
five-season career, Barna was a .232 hitter with 12 home runs and 96 RBI in
207 games played.
Barna died in Charleston, West Virginia, at the
age of 56.
Sherilyn
Wolter, Actress, Clarksburg
Sherilyn Wolter (born November 30, 1961 in
Clarksburg, West Virginia, USA) is an actress who has appeared in such
television soap operas as General Hospital as Celia Quartermaine from
1983 to 1986 and Santa Barbara as Elena Nikolas in 1987. She also
briefly replaced Hunter Tylo as Taylor Hayes in The Bold and the Beautiful
in 1990.
Wolter has also made numerous
guest appearances on several television series.
Dave Vineyard, Pro Baseball Player.
Clay
Dave Vineyard was born on Tuesday, February 25,
1941, in Clay, West Virginia. Vineyard was 23 years old when he broke into the
big leagues on July 18, 1964, with the Baltimore Orioles.
Birth
Name:
David
Kent Vineyard
Nickname:
Dave
Born
On:
02-25-1941
Born
In:
Clay,
West Virginia
College:
None
Attended
Bats:
Right
Throws:
Right
Height:
6-03
Weight:
195
First
Game:
07-18-1964 (Age 23)
Last
Game:
09-20-1964
Jeff Copley, Country Entertainer,
Crum
b. 1969, Crum, West Virginia, USA. Copley was raised
on country and bluegrass music in the Appalachian Mountains. He has been singing
since he was five and he was discovered as a young adult at a talent showcase in
Nashville. He is yet another good-looking country singer being marketed with CMT
in mind and over 2,000 songs were considered for his debut. Released in late
1995, this proved not to be an evergreen. One of the better songs, "Out Where
God Is", reflected his feelings for the great outdoors.
Lee Maynard,
Author, Crum
Biographical Information
Novelist Lee Maynard was born and raised in Wayne
County, West Virginia, in the small mining town of Crum (population at the
time, 219), where his father was a teacher and coach and his warmest memories
were of out-of-town football trips (Maynard played offensive tackle). He
graduated from Ceredo-Kenova High School and then earned a BA from West
Virginia University. He published his first novel, Crum, in 1988. Since
then, he has been published many times in periodicals, including Reader's
Digest, The Saturday Review, and the Columbia Review of Literature.
He has also worked as an editor and screenwriter. In 1995, he received a
National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship in Fiction for his
yet-unpublished novel Screaming with the Cannibals. Lee Maynard lives
in New Mexico.
Critical Responses
Writing about the reprinting of Crum by the West
Virginia University Press in the October 21, 2001, Charleston Gazette,
Dave Peyton commented that "Lee Maynard and I have something in common.
Neither of us in welcome in Crum, WV. If there is ever a Crumfest, we won't be
invited to be parade grand marshals."
Originally published in 1988, Crum was
received angrily by many residents of the small town who objected to Maynard's
depictions of the town and its people, despite a disclaimer from Maynard
himself on the first page of the book that "Other than the town of Crum,
nothing in this book is real. The people do not exist, the events never
happened." As James Casto of the Herald-Dispatch remarked: "[Maynard's
disclaimer] didn't stop the people in Crum from seeing themselves and their
town in Maynard's book. Many didn't like what they saw." Despite this
unfavorable reaction, the book is considered a cult classic by scholars of
Appalachian literature. Highly prized by collectors, copies of the originally
$6.95 paperback sell for over $100.
Critics have compared the novel to classic
coming-of-age tales Tom Sawyer and The Catcher in the Rye. The
Charleston Gazette's David Peyton calls the book "brilliantly written,
carefully crafted, and downright funny. Most of all, it is real." Meredith Sue
Willis, who writes the Introduction to the new edition of the novel
from West Virginia University's Vandalia Press, writes "Each time I read Lee
Maynard's Crum, I ask myself why this foul-mouthed, sexist,
scatological, hillbilly-stereotyping novel is one of my favorites." Her answer
to that question explores the honesty of Maynard's prose, the complexity of
his thoughts, and the honesty of his portrayals of young people coming of age
and growing out of the box where they've been planted.
Works Published
Lee Maynard has also published articles in such periodicals as
Readers Digest and The Saturday Review.
Fred Reed,
Journalist, Crumpler
Fred Reed (born 1945 in Crumpler, West Virginia)
is a technology columnist for The Washington Times, and the author of
Fred on Everything, a weekly independent column. He also writes books
and other material. He has also written for The American Conservative and
LewRockwell.com. A former Marine, Reed is a police writer, an occasional war
correspondent, and an aficionado of raffish bars. His work, written in a
unique and articulate style, is often satirical and opinionated.
He got his start doing military columns and
retired from national syndication to write travel books. He is now back as a
columnist.
Reed notes that his columns are often
provocative, and calls himself "an equal-opportunity irritant."
Fred's output defies characterization as his
articles include those attacking feminism (generally the proviso of the
right), George W. Bush (generally the proviso of the left) and evolution
(generally the proviso of religious fundamentalists). Many of Reed's articles
speak of a yearning for a simpler time, and urge the reader to forgo the
pursuit of money and comforts in favor of a cultured life of the mind. Reed is
currently living in Mexico as an American expatriate.
Eddie Baker, Actor,
Davis. 1897-1968
Born: Nov 17, 1897 in Davis, VW
Died: Feb 04, 1968 in Los Angeles, California
Occupation: Actor
Active: '20s-'30s, '50s
Major Genres: Comedy, Drama
Career Highlights: Honk Your Horn
First Major Screen Credit: Honk Your Horn (1930)
Biography
Gangly, 6'1" screen comic Eddie Baker acted in
his father's stock company before obtaining a position as a prop boy with
the old Biograph Company in 1913. He went in front of the camera for the
first time not as a Keystone Kop, as is often reported, but in Joker
comedies starring comedian Gale Henry. Baker later worked for Hal Roach,
often as a sheriff (Laurel & Hardy's Bacon Grabbers from 1929, in which he
sends the boys off to serve a summons on dour Edgar Kennedy is a good
example) or police detective. Offscreen, Baker became the first
secretary/treasurer of the Screen Actors Guild. He continued to play minor
bits in talkies through the mid-'60s, often playing a motorcycle cop, a
reporter, or billed simply as "man." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
He was one of the original
Keystone Kops.
Foge Fazio,
Football Coach, Dawmont
Serafino "Foge" Fazio (born 1938 in Dawmont, West
Virginia) is a former NFL defensive assistant and college football head coach.
Fazio played linebacker and center at the
University of Pittsburgh, and was drafted by the Boston Patriots of the AFL
but never played professionally. He returned to his hometown in Western
Pennsylvania to being his coaching career at the high school level, and
eventually moved to the college ranks. He was hired as head coach by his alma
mater in 1982, having previously been defensive coordinator, leading the team
to a 25-18-3 record in four seasons before being fired. Lou Holtz then hired
Foge Fazio to serve as the defensive coordinator at the University of Notre
Dame.. At the college level, Fazio also coached at Boston University, Harvard
University and the University of Cincinnati.
He moved to the NFL, coaching for the Atlanta
Falcons and New York Jets before becoming the defensive coordinator of the
Minnesota Vikings in 1995. He left the Vikings in 1999 and spent a year as the
linebackers coach of the Washington Redskins before his hiring as the
defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns in 2001. He retired from the
Browns in 2003, but was hired as a defensive consultant by Mike Tice of the
Vikings in the 2005 season; his influence helped the team turn around a dismal
season.
Fazio now lives in Pittsburgh with his wife,
Norma. They have two children: Kristen (resides in Pittsburgh) and Vincent
(resides in Salt Lake City).
Will Hare,
Actor, Elkins. 1916-1997
Will Hare (March 30, 1916 - August
31, 1997) is an American actor who has appeared on television and
film's, often playing old crusty figures and father/grandpa roles.
Hare was born in Elkins, West Virginia he had
appeared on stage, screen, and television since he was 17. Becoming a veteran
of stage for over a half of a century, Hare's film debut was Alfred
Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956) and his final theatrical appearance was "Me
and Veronica" in 1992. Hare's other distinctive film credits include Black Oak
Conspiracy (1977), The Electric Horseman (1979), Eye of Fire (1983), Silent
Night, Deadly Night (1984), The Aviator (1985) he also had a small appearance
in the 1985 film, Back to the Future as Old Man Peabody. Hare was also an
active member of the Screen Actor's Guild for several years and also of the
Actors Studio, where he passed away of a heart attack on August 31, 1997
during a rehearsel.
Marshall
Goldberg, Pro Football Player, Elkins. 1917-2006
Marshall Goldberg (October 25, 1917 –
April 3, 2006) was an American football running back with the
Chicago Cardinals in the National Football League.
Goldberg was born in Elkins, West Virginia. At
the University of Pittsburgh under coach Jock Sutherland, he led his team to
back-to-back national championships in 1936 and 1937. Goldberg's 1936 team won
the Rose Bowl. He was runner-up for the 1938 Heisman Trophy and a two-time
All-American. During his Pitt career he amassed 1,957 rushing yards, a school
record that stood until 1974 when Tony Dorsett surpassed it. Later Sports
Illustrated named him a member of the 1930s College Football Team of the
Decade. In 1958 he was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.
After college he played professional football
for the Chicago Cardinals from 1939-43, interrupted by his service during
World War II in the U.S. Navy, then again from 1946-48. The Cardinals won the
1947 NFL Championship and captured the Division title in 1948. He was a
four-time All-Pro.
He worked in the insurance industry after his
football career ended. In 1965 he took over a machine parts company, Marshall
Goldberg Machine Tools Ltd., of Rosemont, Illinois.
Goldberg died at age 88 at a nursing home in
Chicago.
John McKay,
Football Coach, Everettsville. 1923-2001
John Harvey McKay (July 5, 1923 – June 10, 2001)
was an American football coach. He was the head coach of the USC Trojans from
1960 to 1975, and of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1976 to 1984.
McKay was born in the now-defunct town of
Everettsville, West Virginia. After graduating from high school he worked in
the coal mines for a year before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force. He finally
entered college at the age of 23, attending both Purdue University and the
University of Oregon and playing at both schools. He turned down the
opportunity to play in the NFL, deciding on a coaching career. McKay was an
assistant coach at Oregon for 8 years before moving to USC in 1959, and he
became USC's head coach the following year.
USC won four national championships (1962,
1967, 1972 and 1974) during McKay's tenure as head coach. His 1972 squad is
regarded as one of the best teams in NCAA history. Two of his players, Mike
Garrett (1965) and O.J. Simpson (1968), won the Heisman Trophy. He popularized
the I-formation, emphasizing a power running game. An Irish Catholic, McKay
admitted he was a Notre Dame fan while growing up, then ironically presided
over the worst defeat in USC history, a 51-0 loss to the Irish on November 26,
1966.
After turning down several offers from NFL
teams, including the Cleveland Browns, New England Patriots and Los Angeles
Rams, McKay finally was lured to Tampa Bay to become the Buccaneers' first
head coach in 1976. What finally intrigued him enough was the combined
five-fold salary increase (totaling $2m per year) and the prospect of building
a franchise from the ground up, as opposed to the previous offers at
established programs[The
Buccaneers lost all 14 games in 1976 and the first 12 games of 1977 before
winning their first game against the New Orleans Saints. They would also win
the last game of the 1977 season.
In 1979, the Buccaneers posted their first
winning season. The Bucs won the NFC Central Division title in the final week
of the 1979 season by beating the Kansas City Chiefs 3-0 in a driving Tampa
rainstorm to advance to the NFC Championship, where they lost to the Los
Angeles Rams in a defensive battle 9-0. The Bucs would make two more playoff
appearances in 1981 and 1982, but by then they were a damaged team. With their
star quarterback Doug Williams going to the USFL, the Bucs suffered through
two losing seasons, and in 1985, McKay stepped down as head coach of the team.
In the end, McKay forever regretted his decision to leave the Trojans. His son
noted that he knew "within the first week he got to Tampa that he'd made a
mistake"
McKay often came up with humorous one-liners
during press conferences. One of the best known quips came when he was asked,
"What do you think about your team's execution?" McKay responded, "I'm all for
it!" When he was asked why his tailbacks carried the ball so much, he replied,
"Why not? It's not heavy and he doesn't belong to any union."
John McKay is the father of former Buccaneers
general manager Rich McKay, who is now the president and general manager of
the Atlanta Falcons. His son J.K. McKay played wide receiver under him twice:
first for the Trojans from 1972-75, including two championship teams, 1972 and
as a starter on the 1974 team, and later in the NFL for the Buccaneers from
1976-1979.
Fuzzy Knights, Actor,
Fairmont. 1901-1976
Born: May 09, 1901 in Fairmont, West
Virginia, Died: Feb 23, 1976 in Hollywood, California, Occupation: Actor,
Active: '30s-'50s,Major Genres: Western, Action, Career Highlights:
Rimfire, Frontier Gal, The Silver Bullet, First Major Screen Credit: The
Last Round-Up (1934)
Biography
To western fans, the nickname "Fuzzy" invokes fond
memories of two first-rate comedy sidekicks: Al "Fuzzy" St. John and John Forest
"Fuzzy" Knight. Knight inaugurated his career at age 15 with a tent minstrel
troupe. His skill as a musician enabled him to work his way through West
Virginia University, after which he headed his own band. Among Knight's
theatrical credits in the '20s was the 1927 edition of Earl Carroll's Vanities
and the 1928 "book" musical Here's How. Mae West caught Knight's act on the
Keith vaudeville circuit and cast the bucolic entertainer in her 1933 film
vehicle She Done Him Wrong; he would later show up playing West's country cousin
in the actress' last important film, My Little Chickadee (1940). Usually
essaying comedy roles, Knight was effective in the his dramatic scenes in
Paramount's Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936), wherein he tearfully sings a
mountain ballad at the funeral of little Spanky McFarland. Knight's B-western
comedy sidekick activity peaked in the mid '40s (he appeared most often with
Johnny Mack Brown), after which his film roles diminished as his fondness for
the bottle increased. Promising to behave himself (at least during filming),
Fuzzy Knight signed on in 1955 for Buster Crabbe's popular TV adventure series
Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion; for the next two years, Knight played a
semi-serious legionnaire -- named Private Fuzzy Knight. ~ Hal Erickson, All
Movie Guide
Johnnie Johnson, Musician, Fairmont.
1924-2005
Johnnie Johnson (July 8, 1924 – April 13, 2005)
was a piano player and blues musician whose work with Chuck Berry led to his
induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
He was born in Fairmont, West Virginia near
Pittsburgh and began playing piano in 1928. He joined the United States Marine
Corps during World War II where he was a member of Bobby Troup's all
serviceman jazz orchestra, The Barracudas. After his return, he moved to
Detroit and thenChicago, Illinois, where he sat in with many notable artists,
including Muddy Waters and Little Walter. He moved to St. Louis in 1952 and
immediately put together a jazz and blues group, The Sir John Trio with
drummer Ebby Hardy and saxophonist, Alvin Bennett. The three scored a regular
gig at the Cosmopolitan Club in East St. Louis. On New Years Eve 1952, Alvin
Bennett had a stroke and could not perform. Johnson, searching for a last
minute replacement, called a young man named Chuck Berry, an ex-convict and
the only musician Johnson knew who because of his inexperience, would likely
not be playing on New Years Eve. Johnson was right. Although a limited
guitarist, Berry added vocals and showmanship to the group. Since Bennett
would not be able to play again because of his stroke, Johnson hired Berry as
a permanent member of the Trio. They would remain the Sir John's Trio until
Berry took one of their tunes, a reworking of the Bob Wills' classic, Ida Red
to Chess records in Chicago. The Chess brothers liked the tune and soon the
Trio were in Chicago recording Maybellene named after the mascara and Wee Wee
Hours a song Johnson had been playing as an instrumental for years for which
Berry penned quick lyrics. By the time the trio left Chicago, Berry had been
signed as a solo act and Johnson and Hardy became part of Berry's band. Said
Johnson, "I figured we could get better jobs with Chuck running the band. He
had a a car and rubber wheels beat rubber heels any day." Over the next twenty
years, the two collaborated in the writing and arrangements of many of Berry's
songs including "School Days", "Carol", and "Nadine." The song "Johnny B.
Goode" though about a guitarist, was actually a tribute to Johnson. It was
also one of the few recordings Johnson did not play on as Berry recorded it as
a surprise for him. The pianist on the "Johnny B. Goode" session was Lafayette
Leake, a gifted pianist who could mimic any style. Leake has been credited
with playing on quite a few Berry songs that were actually originally recorded
with Johnson, including "Sweet Little Sixteen", the original Johnson version
of which can be heard on the album Rock and Roll Rarities. Berry supporters
often cite Chess discography and personnel listings that credit Leake and Otis
Spann's playing on some recordings as evidence that Johnson did not
collaborate with Berry on the music. In doing so, they neglect to consider the
fact that Johnson and Berry collaborated on the music prior to the actual
recording or, as in the case with Sweet Little Sixteen, the song was
re-recorded and the second version released with the piano pushed more up
front (showing obvious editing as the piano was often very low in the original
mixes). Secondly, and Phil Chess readily admits this, the listings were often
wrong as they were done well after the fact. Evidence of this is that for many
years, Jaspar Thomas, not Ebby Hardy, was listed as the drummer on the first
Berry session. Berry and Johnson didn't even know Thomas, a St. Louis jazz
drummer hired after Ebby Hardy left the group, until 1957! Berry and Johnson
played and toured together until 1973. Although never on his payroll after
1973, Johnson played occasionally with Berry until his death in 2005.
Johnson was known to have a serious drinking
problem. In Chuck Berry's autobiography, Berry tells of how he declared there
would be no drinking in the car, while on the road. Johnson and band-mates
complied with the request by putting their heads out the window. Johnson
denied the story but said he did drink on the road. Johnson quit drinking
entirely in 1991 after nearly suffering a stroke on stage with Eric Clapton.
Johnson received very little recognition until
the Chuck Berry concert/documentary Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll
in 1987. During the documentary, Keith Richards observed that Berry's songs
were in piano keys or Johnnie Johnson keys and that it was obvious that
Johnnie had collaborated on the music with Berry. That attention helped
Johnson, who was a bus driver in St. Louis, Missouri at the time, return to
music. He recorded his first solo album, Blue Hand Johnnie, that same
year. He later performed with Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, John Lee Hooker
and Bo Diddley. In 1996 and 1997, Johnson toured with Bob Weir's (of the
Grateful Dead) Ratdog, playing 67 shows.
In 1999, Johnson's biography was released,
Father of Rock and Roll: The Story of Johnnie B. Goode Johnson by 23-year-old
Travis Fitzpatrick. The book was nominated for a Pulitzer prize by Congressman
John Conyers and garnered Johnson more recognition.
In November 2000, Johnson sued Berry, alleging
he deserved co-composer credits (and royalties) for dozens of songs, including
"No Particular Place To Go", "Sweet Little Sixteen", and "Roll Over
Beethoven", that credit Berry alone. Despite solid evidence backing Johnson
and Berry's admission of Johnson's role as co-writer in mediation, the case
was dismissed in less than a year because too many years had passed since the
songs in dispute were written.
In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame after a tireless and unprecedented campaign by businessman George
Turek, author Travis Fitzpatrick and Rolling Stone guitarist, Keith Richards.
He also has his on star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
A documentary about Johnson by St. Louis
newsman and filmmaker, Art Holliday, is currently in production
Discography
1991 : Johnnie B. Bad (Warner) with
Eric Clapton, Keith Richards...
1991 : Rockin' eighty-eights (Modern
Blues recordings) with Jimmy Vaughn and Clayton Love
1993 : Blue hand Johnnie (Evidence
Music) with Oliver Sain
1993 : That'll work (Elektra) with
The Kentucky Headhunters and Jimmy Hall
1995 : Johnnie be back (MusicMasters)
with Buddy Guy, Al Kooper, John Sebastian...
1997 : Johnnie Be Live (Father of
Rock and Roll Music) with Jimmy Vivino and Al Kooper
1999 : Father of Rock and Roll" (Father
of Rock and Roll Music) Accompanying CD with the book Father of Rock and
Roll: The Story of Johnnie B. Goode Johnson featuring all new recordings of
Johnson and Berry songs.
2005 : Johnnie Be Eighty And Still Bad!
(Cousin Moe Music, BMI) with Rich McDonough
Sonny Turner, Entertainer,
Fairmont
b. 1941 at Fairmont, West Virginia
In late 1959, Sonny Turner
replaced Tony Williams as the lead singer of the original Platters. Chosen out
of 100 singers who auditioned, Sonny at the young age of 19, toured the world
with "The Platters" bringing their music to people of all nations.
Sonny brought The Platters back
to the pop charts in the 1960's with such hits as "I love you 1000 Times", "With
this ring" and "Washed Ashore"; as well as re-recording major Platter hits like
"Only You", "The Great Pretender" and "The Magic Touch." You can hear Sonny's
voice in various movies such as "The Nutty Professor II" starring Eddie Murphy.
"Hearts in Atlantis" starring Anthony Hopkins and "Prince of the City" starring
Robert DiNiro.
There are only three surviving
members of The Platters still alive today that can be heard on the hundreds of
recordings and hit records that made The Platters one of the most successful
vocal groups of all time. They are Herb Reed who founded the group in 1953 and
sang bass. Zola Taylor, the female vocalist and Sonny Turner. Sonny remained
with The Platters from late 1959 until 1970 when he left to pursue a solo
career.
In 2005, Mr. Turner received The
Lifetime Excellence in Entertainment Award here in Las Vegas where he currently
resides. He was also inducted into The Vocal Group Hall Of Fame for his
achievements with The Platters. Today Sonny performs all over the world
The group's lineup has changed many times. The
original lineup in 1953 was lead Cornell Gunter, bass Herb Reed, Alex Hodge, Joe
Jefferson, and David Lynch. This lineup changed when the group signed with Ram,
who built the group around Tony Williams' voice and his ability to bring life to
Ram's songs. Within a year, Hodge, Jefferson, and Gunter were out, and Paul Robi,
Zola Taylor, and new lead Tony Williams were in. This lineup lasted until 1960.
At that time Williams left for a solo career and was replaced by Sonny Turner.
Mercury refused to issue further Platters releases without Williams on lead
vocals, provoking a lawsuit between the label and manager Ram. The label spent
two years releasing old Williams-era material until the group's contract
elapsed.
Sonny brought "The Platters" back to the pop
charts in the 1960's with such hits as "I love you 1000 times", "With This
Ring", and "Washed Ashore" as well as re-recording The Platters major hits like
"Only You", "The Great Pretender", "The Magic Touch" (recently heard in the "The
Nutty Professor II" starring Eddie Murphy).
Sonny was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame located in Cleveland
Ohio, Sonny's home town.
Sonny was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his own home town,
Cleveland Ohio! In late 1959, Sonny Turner replaced Tony Williams as the lead
singer of the original Platters. Chosen out of 100 singers to audition, at the
young age of 19, Sonny toured the world with "The Platters" bringing their music
to people of all nations Sonny brought The Platters back to the pop charts in
the 1960's with such hits as "I love you 1000 times", "With This Ring", and
"Washed Ashore"; as well as re-recording The Platters major hits like "Only
You", "The Great Pretender", "The Magic Touch" (recently heard in the "The Nutty
Professor II" starring Eddie Murphy).
Nick Saban,
Football Coach, Fairmont
Nick Lou Saban (born October 31, 1951 in
Fairmont, West Virginia) is the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide
football team. He is married to Terry Saban (formerly Constable) from West
Virginia; they have two children, Nicholas and Kristin.
Assistant football
coach
Saban was an assistant coach at Kent State,
Syracuse, West Virginia, Ohio State, Navy and Michigan State in NCAA Division
I-A, and with the Houston Oilers and Cleveland Browns in the National Football
League. Having worked under Bill Belichick in Cleveland, he is considered part
of the Parcells-Belichick coaching tree.
Head football coach
Toledo
Saban was hired to lead the Toledo Rockets in
1990. Coming off of a 6-5 season in both 1988 and 1989, the Rockets found
quick success under Nick Saban by going 9-2. The two games that the Rockets
lost all season came by narrow margins: one point to Central Michigan, and
four points to Navy. With the 9-2 season, Toledo was co-champions of the
Mid-American Conference. Saban left Toledo after one season.
Michigan State
Saban arrived in East Lansing, Michigan for the
1995 season.
1995-1998 - From 1995 to 1998, Saban's
Michigan State teams were consistently mediocre. They finished 6-5-1, 6-6,
7-5, and 6-6, respectively.
1999 - Saban led the Spartans to a 9-2
season that included wins over Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn
State. In the end, it would be the best season in terms of wins for the
Spartans since 1965, and it would see the Spartans reach their highest
ranking since the 1966 team.
Louisiana State
In December of 1999, Saban accepted an offer
from LSU to become their next head coach.
2000 - In 2000, the Tigers went 8-4 and won
the Peach Bowl. The season marked a major turnaround, as Saban and his LSU
Tigers pulled off a big upset of Tennessee, and beat rival Ole Miss in
Oxford. Also, the Alabama Crimson Tide had their 31-year winning streak in
Tiger Stadium snapped when the Bayou Bengals held on to defeat the Tide
30-28.
2001 - Saban enjoyed his best season thus
far on the Bayou, as he led LSU to a 10-3 record, including an SEC
Championship and a Sugar Bowl victory. After a disappointing loss to Eli
Manning and the Ole Miss Rebels, the Tigers and quarterback Rohan Davey went
on a tear. They closed out the year with six straight wins, including a
major upset of Tennessee in the 2001 SEC Championship Game, where a win
would likely have given the Vols a birth in the national championship game,
and a 47-34 win over Illinois in the 2002 Sugar Bowl. It was the first
outright SEC championship for LSU since 1986, and the first time the Tigers
had won the Sugar Bowl since 1985.
2002 - This season was a bit of a
disappointment after 2001. The season opened with high expectations, but a
26-8 thrashing at the hands of Virginia Tech raised serious questions about
their outlook. However, the Tigers would rebound to win their next six
straight. Unfortunately, quarterback Matt Mauck, who replaced the departed
Rohan Davey, went down for the year with a broken foot against South
Carolina, and the Tigers limped to the finish of the season. Back-up
quarterback Marcus Randall played admirably, but the offense nevertheless
struggled. LSU lost four of their last six games to close the season,
including a 35-20 loss to Texas in the Cotton Bowl, and finished 8-5.
2003 - Disappointment would not be a part of
this season. Quarterback Matt Mauck returned healthy, and the Tigers jumped
out of the gate with five straight wins, including a 17-10 upset in Tiger
Stadium over the defending SEC champion, and then undefeated, Georgia
Bulldogs. The following week, though, would see the Tigers stumble at home
to a mediocre Florida team, 19-7, that was led by a true freshman
quarterback, Chris Leak, and a new head coach, Ron Zook. However, the loss
to Florida would be the last stumble of the season for LSU. On the heels of
their hot streak, they were selected to play the Oklahoma Sooners in the
Sugar Bowl, which was the site of the BCS Championship Game in 2003. In a
great game with the BCS national championship on the line, the Tigers
prevailed with a strong defense and an efficient offense, 21-14. LSU became
national champions for only the second time in school history, and for the
first time since Paul Dietzel and Billy Cannon led the Tigers to the
national championship in 1958.
2004 - Saban and LSU sought to defend their
national championship. However, LSU lost to the Auburn Tigers 10-9 in
Jordan-Hare Stadium. LSU finished the regular season 9-2, and lost to the
Iowa Hawkeyes in the Capital One Bowl 30-25.
At the end of the 2004 season, Saban left LSU
to coach the Miami Dolphins.
Miami Dolphins
Nick Saban accepted the job of head coach for
the Miami Dolphins on Christmas Day, 2004.
2005 - The season and the Nick Saban tenure
officially kicked off with a crushing 34-10 blowout of the Denver Broncos.
From there, however, the Dolphins struggled, losing seven of their next nine
games to fall to 3-7. The two wins came over the Carolina Panthers and the
New Orleans Saints, a game that ironically took place in Tiger Stadium due
to Hurricane Katrina. The main culprit to the Dolphins' struggles was an
underperforming offense that struggled to put points on the board. After a
frustrating two months, however, the Dolphins would rally late in the
season, as they won their final six games, including a win to end the season
in Foxboro over the New England Patriots. The team finished the year 9-7,
and narrowly missed the playoffs in Saban's first season.
2006 - Going into the 2006 season, the
Dolphins were expected to contend for a playoff spot. The season, however,
turned out to be a major disappointment. Quarterback Daunte Culpepper never
recovered from his devastating knee injury from the previous season, and was
ultimately benched after the fourth game of the season, when the Dolphins
lost to the Houston Texans. Culpepper was eventually put on Injured Reserve,
and it is still uncertain if he can ever return to his previous form.
Meanwhile, as Culpepper was unable to play, Drew Brees, who doctors feared
would never be the same again and who Saban had also considered signing, had
an incredible year for the New Orleans Saints. After starting the season
1-6, however, the Dolphins got hot. They won four straight games, including
wins over the Chicago Bears, who were then unbeaten, and the Kansas City
Chiefs. Suddenly, the Dolphins were back in the playoff hunt at 5-6, but a
24-10 loss the following week to the Jacksonville Jaguars all but ended
their playoff hopes. The Dolphins would rebound the following week to
administer a 21-0 shelling to the New England Patriots, a game which shocked
commentators over the fashion in which the Dolphins easily dominated the
heavily favored Patriots. Unfortunately, the win would be the last bright
spot for the Dolphins. Quarterback Joey Harrington was playing worse and
worse, and was eventually benched in favor of third-string quarterback Cleo
Lemon. While the defense was very good, the offense was anemic, with the
only bright spot being Ronnie Brown, Saban's first draft choice, who gained
over 1,000 rushing yards on the season. The Dolphins would lose their next
two games to the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets to fall to 6-9 on the
season. Changes outside Miami, however, were brewing. On November 18th,
2006, The University of Alabama lost to its arch-rival Auburn University in
the Iron Bowl, marking their fifth consecutive loss to its hated in-state
foe. A little over a week later, Alabama fired head coach Mike Shula, and
began to search for a new coach. Nick Saban, it became apparent, was at the
top of their wish list, and after Rich Rodriguez turned down the Alabama job
to stay at West Virginia University, it seemed Alabama would wait out the
NFL season to take a chance with Saban. The rumor mill repeatedly stated
that Saban could possibly be going to Alabama, but Saban repeatedly denied
the rumors in his weekly press conferences. Many in the Dolphins'
organization were said to be glad of Saban's departure, having complained of
his authoritative ways, although some were upset of his repeated denials up
to the day of his acceptance.
Alabama
Nick Saban announced on January 3, 2007
that he accepted an offer to become Alabama's 27th head coach, following a
meeting with Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga.
On January 4, 2007, Nick Saban was officially
introduced as the head football coach of The University of Alabama at a press
conference on the Alabama campus.
Criticisms and
defenses
Saban's decision to return to college football
was met with a great deal of criticism from both the NFL and college football
realms. Saban was referred to as a "liar," by ESPN's Pat Forde and "shameless"
by the Chicago Sun-Times[.
Anti-Saban websites appeared practically overnight, created by fans of teams
that Saban had formerly coached.
On the other hand, many come in defense of
Saban as well. Much of the criticism, particularly with the anti-Saban
websites, has come from LSU fans, who now have to compete against their former
coach in the SEC West, as well as from the Tide's arch rivals, Auburn
University.
On January 4, 2007, Saban met with
members of the Miami media following his introductory press conference at the
University of Alabama. During an off-the-record portion of this meeting, Saban
used the term "coonass" while relaying a story told to him by a member of the
LSU board of trustees. It is unclear whether the term was used by the LSU
official, then quoted by Saban, or Saban used the term in an effort to put the
story in proper context. The term coonass is regarded as a badge of ethnic
pride by some members of the cajun community, however it is considered an
epithet by others. Therefore, Saban soon explained, "The term in question is
not language that I use or condone, and I can understand how some would take
offense."
Robert Tinnell, Movie
Director, Fairmont
Date of birth: 27 April 1961, Fairmont, West Virginia,
USA
Awards: 3 wins & 1 nomination more
Sometimes Credited As: Bob Tinnell
Monster Kid Home Movies (2005) (V)
(segment "Scream of the Vampire")
Believe (2000/I)
Airspeed (1998)
Frankenstein and Me (1996)
... aka Frankenstein et moi (Canada: French title)
Fielding
Yost, Football Coach, Fairview. 1871-1946
Fielding Harris Yost (April 30, 1871–August 20,
1946) was an American football coach best known for his long tenure at the
University of Michigan. He was born in Fairview, West Virginia.
Coaching career
After three single-season stints at Nebraska,
Kansas, and Stanford, Yost served as the head football coach for the Michigan
Wolverines football team from 1901 through 1923, and again in 1925 and 1926.
He was a resounding success at Michigan, winning 165 games, losing only 29,
and tying 10 for a winning percentage of .833. Under Yost, Michigan won four
straight national championships from 1901-04 and two more in 1918 and 1923.
Yost's first Michigan team in 1901 outscored
its opposition by a margin of 550-0 en route to a perfect season and victory
in the inaugural Rose Bowl on January 1, 1902 over Stanford, the school Yost
had coached the year before. From 1901 to 1904, Michigan did not lose a game,
and was tied only once in a legendary game with the University of Minnesota
that led to the establishment of the Little Brown Jug, college football's
oldest trophy. Before Michigan finally lost a game to Amos Alonzo Stagg's
University of Chicago squad at the end of the 1905 season, they had gone 56
straight games without a defeat, the second longest such streak in college
football history. During their first five seasons under Yost, Michigan
outscored its opponents 2,821 to 42, earning the nickname "Point-a-Minute."
Legacy
After retiring from coaching, Yost remained at
Michigan as the school's athletic director, a position he held until 1942.
Under his leadership, Michigan Stadium and Yost Fieldhouse, now Yost Ice
Arena, were constructed. Yost invented the position of linebacker, co-created
the first ever bowl game, the 1902 Rose Bowl, with then legendary UM athletic
director Charles Baird, and invented the fieldhouse concept that bears his
name.
Arguably no one has left a larger mark on
University of Michigan athletics than Fielding Yost. A longtime football coach
and athletic director, his career was marked with great achievements both on
and off the field. He reportedly has the most defensive shutouts of any coach
in collegiate history and is thus responsible for the Michigan tradition of
solid swarming defenses that have made the Wolverines famous and the
winningest team in college football history. Yost was also a successful
business person, lawyer, author, and a leading figure in pioneering the
explosion of college football into a national phenomenon. A devout Christian,
he nevertheless was among the first coaches to allow Jewish players on his
teams, including star Benny Friedman.
Yost, along with coaches like Alonzo Amos
Stagg, and Walter Camp were accused by the Carnegie Foundation of numerous
recruiting violation during their tenures at their respective colleges. He was
a part of the influx of professional coaches near the turn of the century. The
professionalization of coaches that started with Walter Camp at Yale
symbolized how "win-oriented" sports were becoming, and Yost symbolized this
moreso than many of his peers.
Yost was also known for a series of admonitions
to his players beginning with the words, "Hurry up," for example, "Hurry up
and be the first man down the field on a punt or kick-off." This inclination
earned him the nickname, "Hurry up" Yost. A native of West Virginia, Yost's
unusual pronunciation of the school's name, "MEE-she-gan," is affectionately
carried on by many Michigan football fans and often referenced by ESPN
sportscaster Chris Fowler.
Yost died at age 75 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and
was among the inaugural class of inductees to the College Football Hall of
Fame in 1951.
Frank
Gatski, Pr0 Football Player, Farmington. 1919-2005
Frank Gatski (March 13, 1919 –
November 22, 2005) was an American football player.
Gatski was born on March 13, 1919 in
Farmington, West Virginia.
Gatski attended Marshall University and Auburn
University and played as a center and linebacker. In the 1940s and 1950s he
played center for the NFL teams Cleveland Browns (1946–56) and Detroit Lions
(1957). In 12 seasons, Gatski's teams played for the league title 11 times.
After his playing career, he was a scout for
the Boston Patriots and coach for the West Virginia Industrial School for Boys
from 1961 to 1982.
He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
in 1985, in a class that included Joe Namath, Pete Rozelle, O.J. Simpson, and
Roger Staubach.
Marshall University retired Gatski's number,
#72, on October 15, 2005 during their homecoming game against the University
of Alabama at Birmingham, the first Marshall football player to be so honored.
Gatski died on November 22, 2005 in Morgantown,
West Virginia.
On November 18,
2006 the East End
Bridge was remamed the Frank Gatski Memorial Bridge during halftime of the
Marshall-UTEP football game.
Tunney
Hunsaker, Pro Boxer, Fayetteville. 1930-2005
Tunney Morgan Hunsaker (January 1, 1930—April 27,
2005) was the police chief of Fayetteville, West Virginia in 1960 when
Hunsaker was Muhammad Ali's (then Cassius Clay) first opponent in a
professional boxing bout. Hunsaker lost a six round decision to the young
challenger. Both of his eyes were swollen shut by the end of the bout. After
the fight Hunsaker said " Clay was as fast as lightining ... I tried every
trick I knew to throw at him off balance but he was just too good". In his
autobiography, Ali said Hunsaker dealt him one of the hardest body blows he
ever took in his career. Ali and Hunsaker became good friends and stayed in
touch over the years. Hunsaker said he did not agree with Ali's decision to
refuse military service, but praised him as a great humanitarian and athlete.
In his boxing career, Hunsaker was 15-15, and 7 by
knockout. His career ended after a head injury in 1962. Hunsaker was in a coma
for nine days and suffered the physical effects for the rest of his life. He
was 75 when he died after a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease.
In his private life, Hunsaker was active in the
Oak Hill Church of the Nazarene for many years, teaching a Sunday School class
for fifth and sixth grade boys. At the time of his death in 2005, he had been
married to wife Patricia for over thirty years.
Hunsaker was the youngest police chief in the
history of West Virginia. He was later inducted into the Law Enforcement Hall
Of Fame.
Paul
Popovich, Pro Baseball Player, Flemington.
Paul Edward Popovich (born August 18, 1940 in
Flemington, West Virginia) was an infielder for the Chicago Cubs (1964,
1966-67 and 1969-73), Los Angeles Dodgers (1968-69) and Pittsburgh Pirates
(1974-75).
He helped the Pirates win the
1974 and 1975 National League Eastern Division and was nicknamed Supersub for
his utility work for the Cubs in 1969. The quality of his contribution did not
stop manager Leo Durocher from commenting on one occasion, "Sit down, Paul, we
ain't giving up yet."
In 11 seasons he played in 682 Games and had
1,732 At Bats, 176 Runs, 403 Hits, 42 Doubles, 9 Triples, 14 Home Runs, 134
RBI, 4 Stolen Bases, 127 Walks, .233 Batting Average, .286 On-base percentage,
.292 Slugging Percentage, 505 Total Bases, 25 Sacrifice Hits, 17 Sacrifice
Flies and 14 Intentional Walks.
Lou Holtz,
Football Coach, Follansbee
Louis Leo Holtz (born on January 6, 1937 in
Follansbee, West Virginia) is a former NCAA football head coach, and is
currently an author and a motivational speaker who has spoken to the likes of
Fortune 500 companies on topics such as the importance of teamwork and goal
setting. Holtz grew up in nearby East Liverpool, Ohio, and graduated from East
Liverpool High School. He attended and graduated from Kent State University,
where he was a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. Holtz led six teams
that he helmed as a head football coach to a bowl game within two years of
joining each program. To date, Holtz is also the only coach to ever guide four
different programs to final top 20 rankings. In 2005 Holtz joined ESPN as a
college football analyst.
Career
Holtz's first job as head coach was at William
& Mary, then playing in the Southern Conference, starting in 1969. Before
becoming head coach at William & Mary, Holtz served as an assistant coach at
the University of Iowa (1960), William & Mary (1961-63), Connecticut
(1964-65), South Carolina (1966-67), and Ohio State (1968).
In 1970, the Holtz-led Tribe won the Southern
Conference title, and played in the Tangerine Bowl—as of 2007 the only bowl
game a William & Mary team has ever played in (since Holtz's tenure there,
William & Mary has dropped to Division I-AA). In 1972, Holtz moved to North
Carolina State University and had a 31-11-2 record in four seasons. His team
played in four bowl games, winning two, losing one, and tying one.
After an unsuccessful 13 game tenure (3-10; he
resigned with one game remaining in the season), as an NFL head coach with the
New York Jets, Holtz went to the University of Arkansas in 1977. In his seven
years there, the Razorbacks compiled a 60-21-2 record and reached six bowl
games.
In his rookie season with the Razorbacks, he
led Arkansas to a berth in the Orange Bowl against Oklahoma, coached by
Arkansas alumnus Barry Switzer. The Sooners were in position to win their
third national championship in four seasons after top-ranked Texas lost to
Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl earlier in the day, and Holtz had suspended his
team's top two running backs for the Orange Bowl for disciplinary reasons.
However, behind 205 yards rushing from reserve running back Roland Sales, the
Hogs defeated the Sooners 31-6.
Holtz accepted the head coach job at the
University of Minnesota before the 1984 season. The Golden Gophers had won
only four games in the previous two seasons but had a winning record in 1985,
and was invited to the Independence Bowl, where they defeated Clemson 20 to
13. Holtz did not coach the Gophers in that bowl game, as he had already
accepted the head coaching position at Notre Dame.
In 1986, Holtz left Minnesota to take over the
then-struggling Notre Dame program and wasted no time turning it around.
Although his 1986 squad posted an identical 5-6 mark that the 1985 edition
had, five of their six losses were by a combined total of 14 points. In the
season finale against archrival USC, the Irish overcame a 17-point
fourth-quarter deficit and pulled out a 38-37 win over the stunned Trojans. In
his second season, Holtz led the Fighting Irish to an appearance in the Cotton
Bowl. The following year, Notre Dame won all their 11 regular season games and
defeated third-ranked West Virginia 34-21 in the Fiesta Bowl, claiming the
national championship. The 1989 squad also won their first 11 games (and in
the process, set a school record with a 23-game winning streak) and remained
in the #1 spot all season until losing to Miami in the season finale. A 21-6
win over Colorado in the Orange Bowl gave the Irish a second-place ranking in
the final standings. Holtz's 1993 Irish team ended the season with an 11-1
record and ranked second in the final AP poll.
First retirement
Holtz left Notre Dame after the 1996 season and
walked away from a lifetime contract for reasons that were never fully
disclosed. When pressed, all he would say was that "it was the right thing to
do." It is widely believed that concerns about his wife's health (she had been
diagnosed with throat cancer) prompted him to step down. There is also
speculation that Holtz did not leave on his own accord, but rather was pushed
out by then-athletic director Mike Wadsworth. Holtz himself indicated he did
not wish to move past Knute Rockne in career victories at Notre Dame (his
overall record at Notre Dame was 100-30-2). He was succeeded by defensive
coordinator Bob Davie. After two seasons as a commentator for CBS Sports, he
came out of retirement in 1999 and returned to South Carolina, where he had
been an assistant in the 1960s. Taking over a team that had gone 1-10, his
Gamecocks went 0-11 during his first year, but then rebounded to go 8-4 and
9-3 in his second and third seasons and had two victories in the Outback Bowl,
both over Ohio State.
Second retirement
On November 18, 2004, Holtz announced that he
would retire a second time, at the end of the current season. His retirement
was marred by a brawl between South Carolina and Clemson players during a game
on November 21, 2004, resulting in the two universities announcing they would
decline any post-season bowl game invitations. At the press conference, Holtz
commented on the irony that both he and former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes
would both be remembered for "getting into a fight at the Clemson game". He
was referring to an incident at the 1978 Gator Bowl where Hayes punched a
Clemson player in the neck after making an interception.
Controversy
While Holtz has clearly been a successful
coach, his career has been followed with controversy. Minnesota, Notre Dame,
and South Carolina were placed on probation shortly after he left. It should
be noted that in none of these cases did the NCAA find Holtz culpable.
Books
Holtz is the author of five books. His
first, The Fighting Spirit: A Championship Season at Notre Dame, was
written with John Heisler and came out in September of 1989. It's an insider
account of the 1988 dream season that shocked college football experts.
His next book, The Kitchen Quarterback,
came out in 1980. It outlines the basics of the game for beginning football
fan.
Then he wrote Winning Every Day ,
which was published in August 1999 and was a New York Times bestseller.
In it, Holtz writes:"Your talent determines
what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do.
Your attitude determines how well you do it."
He followed this in 2002 with A Teen's
Game Plan for Life, which draws on his own experience and determination
and encourages teens to be the best they can be.
Most recently, in August 2006, he released
his autobiography, Wins, Losses, and Lessons . Holtz details his
youth and his greatest wins -- and losses:
"When I die and people realize that I will
not be resurrected in three days, they will forget me. That is the way it
should be. For reasons known only to God, I was asked to write an
autobiography. Most people who knew me growing up didn't think I would ever
read a book, let alone write one."
The autobiography is a revealing look into
what shaped the child of such humble beginnings into a legendary college
football coach and sought-after motivational speaker. His now-famous "Do
Right" Rule and other philosophies on making youngsters into people of
strong character serve not only as a methodology to his coaching success but
a testimony to parenting skills that will stand the test of generation after
generation. His life story intertwines with the lives other well-known
individuals, such as President Bill Clinton, entertainer Bob Hope,
Pittsburgh Steelers Coach Bill Cowher and Steeler legend Jerome Bettis, Ohio
State Coach Woody Hayes, golf great Arnold Palmer and Pope John Paul II.
Broadcasting career
Holtz currently works as a College Football
analyst for the cable network ESPN. His main duty is to provide analysis for
College Gameday Final.
Personal life
Holtz was married to the former Beth Barcus on
July 22, 1961. They are parents of four children, three of whom are Notre Dame
graduates. Their eldest son, Skip, is currently head football coach at East
Carolina.
Trivia
The Lou Holtz/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame
in East Liverpool, Ohio, is where much of Lou Holtz's memorabilia is
displayed. It also serves as a means for raising scholarship funds for Upper
Ohio Valley area residents to attend trade school and seeks to preserve the
cultural history of the valley, recognizing those who have made outstanding
contributions in the fields of sports, entertainment, commerce, industry,
medicine and education. To view the web site, visit
www.louholtzhalloffame.com .
While at Kent State Holtz was a member of
the Delta Upsilon Fraternity.
Dave Augustine, Pro Baseball Player,
Follansbee
Dave Augustine was born on Monday, November 28,
1949, in Follansbee, West Virginia. Augustine was 23 years old when he broke
into the big leagues on September 3, 1973, with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Birth
Name:
David
Ralph Augustine
Nickname:
Dave
Born
On:
11-28-1949
Born
In:
Follansbee, West Virginia
College:
Miami-Dade Community College
Bats:
Right
Throws:
Right
Height:
6-02
Weight:
174
First
Game:
09-03-1973 (Age 23)
Last
Game:
10-02-1974
Draft:
1968
: 33rd Round (729th)
Andrew Summers Rowan, Army
Officer, Gap Mills. 1857-1943
1857–1943, American army officer, b. Monroe co.,
Va. (now W.Va.). At the outbreak (1898) of the Spanish-American War he was sent
to communicate with the Cuban revolutionary leader General García y Iñigues in
order to find out the strength of the revolutionary army. His exploit was
described in Elbert Hubbard’s essay “A Message to Garcia”; Rowan wrote his own
account in How I Carried the Message to Garcia (1923). After the war he
served in the Philippines and the United States, retiring in 1909.
Ward Hill
Lamon, Attroney and Bodyguard for President Licoln, Gerrardstown. 1828-1893
Ward Hill Lamon (January 6, 1828 - May 7, 1893)
was a personal friend and frequent bodyguard of the American President Abraham
Lincoln. Lamon was famously missing the night Lincoln was assassinated, having
been sent by Lincoln to Virginia.
His
association with Lincoln started in the 1850s, when he became a law partner
and traveled with Lincoln. The two had a law office in Danville, Illinois up
until 1858. While Lamon had Southern sympathies and his hatred of abolitionism
set him apart from Lincoln, they remained friends, despite their very
different characters. Lamon joined the then-young Republican Party and
campaigned for Lincoln in 1860.
Lamon was a physically imposing man, and often
guarded Lincoln. He accompanied Lincoln when the President-elect sneaked into
Washington on a midnight train ride through Baltimore. Lamon later supervised
security at the White House and was aware of many death threats against the
President. He often slept on the floor outside Lincoln's bedroom door, wrapped
in a blanket and armed to the teeth. Lincoln appointed Lamon United States
Marshal of the District of Columbia; he served until June 1865. Lamon was not
in Washington on the night of Lincoln's assassination, being on assignment in
Richmond.
Lamon is known for the re-telling of one of
Lincoln's dreams of an assassination, frequently cited as evidence that
Lincoln believed in the paranormal. Typically, only a partial account of the
dream is offered:
"About ten days ago, I retired very late.
I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not
have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon
began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I
heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left
my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same
pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room;
no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met
me as I passed along. I saw light in all the rooms; every object was
familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their
hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of
all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious
and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I
entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque,
on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were
stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of
people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others
weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of
the soldiers, 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an
assassin.' Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which woke me
from my dream. I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream,
I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since." (Lamon 1895, 115-116)
It is worth noting that, according to Lamon,
Lincoln didn't believe the dream was of his own death:
Once the President alluded to this
terrible dream with some show of playful humor. "Hill," said he, "your
apprehension of harm to me from some hidden enemy is downright foolishness.
For a long time you have been trying to keep somebody—the Lord knows
who—from killing me. Don't you see how it will turn out? In this dream it
was not me, but some other fellow, that was killed. It seems that this
ghostly assassin tried his hand on some one else." (Lamon 1895, 116-117)
Lincoln, of course, was a highly controversial
figure, and many people wanted him dead. He was also superstitious, and had
other odd dreams throughout his time in the White House. Some contend,
therefore, that Lincoln's assassination dream cannot be taken as evidence of
prophetic dreams. However, there were eerie similarities between his dream and
what actually transpired shortly thereafter, including the fact that Lincoln's
body lay in state in the East Room. Further, the fact that Lincoln downplayed
to Lamon the significance of the dream does not mean that Lincoln was not
deeply troubled by it. His assertion that "it was not me, but some other
fellow, that was killed" was illogical, considering that his dream was about
the President being assassinated, and he—not some other fellow—was the
President.
After Lincoln's death, Lamon published several
works about the late President. The most famous is a biography that was
largely ghostwritten by Chauncey Black, the son of former Attorney General of
the United States Jeremiah Black. The book, published in 1872 by James R.
Osgood and Company of Boston under the title "The life of Abraham Lincoln;
from his birth to his inauguration as president", contained many revealing
allegations and pieces of personal information about Lincoln that were deemed
scandalous by nineteenth century society, and it was thus a financial failure.
Lamon himself penned a second volume about Lincoln after falling out with
Black, though it was deemed to be of poor quality and remains unpublished in
the collections of the Huntington Library to this day. Lamon authored several
smaller anecdotes and excerpts about Lincoln for newspapers and magazines.
Shortly after his death Lamon's daughter collected and edited many of his
unpublished writings about Lincoln into a posthumous biography of the
president. This book is generally received with higher regard to its
authenticity by the scholarly community than the earlier volume by Lamon and
Black.
Today, in the town of Danville, Illinois,
Lamon's former house is a museum in Lincoln Park that is open to the public
during the warmer months.
George
Preston Marshall, Former Owner of the Washington Redskins, Grafton. 1896-1969
George Preston Marshall (1896 – 1969) was the long-time owner and president of
the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL).
Biography
Marshall was born in Grafton, West Virginia on
October 11, 1896 to Thomas Hildebrand Marshall and Blanche Preston Marshall.
In 1932, while he was the owner of a chain of laundries in Washington, DC,
founded by his father, he and three other partners were awarded an NFL
franchise for Boston. This team became known as the Boston Braves, as they
played on the same field as baseball's Boston Braves. Marshall's partners left
the team after one season, leaving him in control. In 1936 he moved the team
from Braves Field to Fenway Park, changing the team nickname to the Redskins.
In 1937 he moved the team to Washington. He was married to film actress-author
Corinne Griffith from 1936 to 1958.
Although his team enjoyed great success,
Marshall is known more for many of the frills which now mark the modern
football game. During the early days of the NFL, college football was more
popular. Marshall decided to incorporate elements of the college atmosphere
into the pros. Innovations which he introduced include gala halftime shows, a
marching band, and a fight song. The Redskins marching band is currently the
only one officially sanctioned by any NFL team. The fight song, "Hail to the
Redskins" is one of the most famous in the NFL. Marshall also suggested two
major rules changes designed to open up the game and increase scoring which
were subsequently adopted. One was to allow a forward pass to be thrown by any
player who was behind the line of scrimmage at the time at which he released
the pass, rather than a minimum of five yards behind the line as had been the
previous rule. Another was the move of the goal posts from the end line to the
goal line, where they were (and are) located in Canadian football, to
encourage the kicking of field goals. This change remained in place for about
four decades until NFL goal posts were returned to the end line in the
mid-1970s as part of an effort to lessen the influence on the game of kicking
specialists, many of whom were by that point foreign-born soccer players
frequently derided by self-styled purists.
Marshall did many things to try and endear the
team to the people of Washington. During the 1937 season, Marshall rented a
train and brought 10,000 fans to New York to watch the team play the New York
Giants. These actions paid off, and even today, Redskins fans are considered
among the league's most loyal, and some of the most likely to travel in large
numbers to away games. The Redskins also hold the NFL record of most
consecutively sold out seasons.
In the 1950s, Marshall was the first NFL owner
to embrace the new medium of television. He initiated the first network
appearances for any NFL team, and built a huge television network to broadcast
Redskins games across the South.
Controversies
According to professor Charles Ross, "For 24
years Marshall was identified as the leading racist in the NFL". Though the
league had previously had a sprinkling of black players, just one year after
Marshall entered the NFL, blacks were excluded from all its teams. While the
rest of the league began signing individual blacks in 1946 and actually
drafting blacks in 1949, Marshall held out until 1962 before signing a black
player. That only came when Interior Secretary Stewart Udall issued an
ultimatum--unless Marshall signed a black player, the government would revoke
the Redskins' 30-year lease on the year-old D.C. Stadium (now RFK Stadium),
which had been paid for by government money. Marshall's chief response was to
make Ernie Davis, Syracuse's all-American running back, his number one draft
choice for 1962. Ernie Davis's response was: "I won't play for that S.O.B." He
demanded a trade and got one, to Cleveland for All-Pro Bobby Mitchell.
Mitchell was the first African American football player to play a game for the
Redskins, and he played with the team for several years, initially at running
back, but he made his biggest impact at wide receiver.
Ross asserts that Marshall propelled the NFL to
institute a "color barrier" akin to that of its baseball brethren. As a
result of Marshall's prodding, owners like Art Rooney and the fabled George
Halas fell into line. Of course, no one openly admitted that a racial line
existed, but it was apparent that it did. Indeed, years later, Halas remained
defensive of the thinly veiled policy. "The game," claimed the
legendary league founder and coach, "didn't have the appeal to black
players at the time." Hence, from 1934 through the 1945 season, blacks,
excluded from the NFL, were forced to settle for less than
financially-rewarding exhibitions or semi-pro leagues.
An entertaining incident involving Marshall
came during the 1940 NFL Championship Game, when the 'Skins lost to the Bears
73-0. A fan began cussing Marshall out. Marshall then got the man's seat
number, found he was a season-ticket holder, and denied him tickets the next
season. The man turned out to own a building that housed one of Marshall's
laundry stores. He refused to renew the lease and kicked Marshall out.[
Marshall suffered a debilitating stroke in
1963, soon after his induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He died in October, 1969, and his funeral was
held at the National Cathedral in Washington with a huge crowd in attendance.
Marshall is buried in Indian Mound Cemetery, Romney, WV.
His legacy includes the George Preston Marshall
Foundation which serves the interests of children in the Washington, DC area.
Quotes
"The Bears are front-runners. Quitters. They
are not a second-half team, just a bunch of cry-babies."
"We'll start signing Negroes when the Harlem
Globetrotters start signing whites."
"Mr. Marshall was an outspoken foe of the
status quo when most were content with it. His fertile imagination and vision
brought vital improvements to the structure and presentation of the game. Pro
football today does in many ways reflect his personality. It has his
imagination, style, zest, dedication, openness, brashness, strength and
courage. We all are beneficiaries of what his dynamic personality helped shape
over more than three decades." - NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle
"Marshall was totally involved in all aspects
of his team’s operation and endured his share of criticism for not integrating
his team until being forced to do so in 1962." - Pro Football Hall of Fame,
as part of Marshall's qualifications for induction.
Bernard H. Hyman, Movie
Producer, Grafton. 1897-1942
Date of birth 20 August 1897, Grafton, West
Virginia
Date of death 7 September 1942, Hollywood, California
Awards Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win more
Sometimes Credited As Bernard Hyman / Bernie Hyman
Filmography
I Take This Woman (1940) (producer)
(uncredited)
The Great Waltz (1938) (producer) (uncredited)
Conquest (1937) (producer)
... aka Marie Walewska (UK)
Saratoga (1937) (producer)
Camille (1936) (producer) (uncredited)
Tarzan Escapes (1936) (producer) (uncredited)
San Francisco (1936) (producer)
I Live My Life (1935) (producer)
Escapade (1935) (producer)
... aka Masquerade
One New York Night (1935) (producer)
... aka The Trunk Mystery (UK)
After Office Hours (1935) (producer)
Forsaking All Others (1934) (producer)
The Girl from Missouri (1934) (producer)
... aka 100 Per Cent Pure (UK)
... aka Born to Be Kissed (USA)
Stamboul Quest (1934) (producer)
Tarzan and His Mate (1934) (producer)
The Cat and the Fiddle (1934) (producer) (uncredited)
The Solitaire Man (1933) (producer) (uncredited)
Hold Your Man (1933) (producer) (uncredited)
The Barbarian (1933) (associate producer)
... aka A Night in Cairo (UK)
... aka Man of the Nile
... aka The Arab
Rasputin and the Empress (1932) (producer)
(uncredited)
... aka Rasputin the Mad Monk (UK)
Tom Wilson (born August 1, 1931) is an American cartoonist.
Born in Grant
Town, Marion County, West Virginia, he is the creator of the comic strip Ziggy,
and drew it from 1971 to 1988. After that it was continued by his son, Tom
Wilson II.
Mel Street,
Country Singer, Grundy. 1933-1978
King Malachi Street (October 21, 1933 – October
21, 1978), commonly known as Mel Street, was an American country music singer.
Street was born in Grundy, West Virginia to a coal
mining family in 1933, although his family maintains that he was born in 1935.
He began performing on western Virginia and West Virginia radio shows at the
age of sixteen. Street subsequently worked as a radio tower electrician in
Ohio, and as a nightclub performer in the Niagara Falls area. He moved back to
West Virginia in 1963 to open up an auto body shop.
From 1968 to 1972, Street hosted his own show
on a Bluefield, West Virginia television station. He recorded his first single
"Borrowed Angel" in 1970 for a small regional record label. A larger label,
Royal American Records, picked it up in 1972, and it became a top-10 Billboard
hit. He recorded the biggest hit of his career, "Lovin' on the Back Streets"
in 1973.
Street continued to flourish throughout the
mid-1970s, recording several hits, such as "You Make Me Feel More Like a Man,"
"Forbidden Angel," "I Met a Friend of Yours Today," "If I Had a Cheatin'
Heart," and "Smokey Mountain Memories." He signed with Mercury Records in
1978, but he gave in to clinical depression and alcoholism, committing suicide
on October 21, 1978, his 45th birthday.
Stoney
Cooper, Country Music Preformer, Harmon. 1918-1977
Stoney Cooper (October 16, 1918 -
March 22, 1977), was a country musician from Harmon, West Virginia.
He played the fiddle and guitar. He was married to Wilma Lee Leary,
and they had one daughter, Carol Lee Cooper.
While in high school, Cooper was a member of
the Leary Family Singers.
1947: performing with his wife as "Wilma Lee
and Stoney Cooper", they were cast members of the WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling,
West Virginia until 1957. Their band was called "The Clinch Mountain Clan"
1948: Obtained a recording contract with
Columbia with the help of Fred Rose that lasted to 1955.
1954: Joined the Grand Ole Opry.
Recorded for Rich-R-Tone, Hickory Records,
Decca, and Columbia Records.
Vern
Bickford, Pro Baseball Player, Berwind. 1920-1960
Vernon Edgell (Vern) Bickford (August
17, 1920 - May 6, 1960) was a starting pitcher in Major League
Baseball who played with the Braves in Boston (1948-52) and
Milwaukee (1953), and for the Baltimore Orioles (1954). Born in
Hellier, Kentucky and raised in Berwind, McDowell County, West
Virginia, he batted and threw right handed.
In a seven-season career, Bickford posted a
66-57 record with 450 strikeouts and a 3.71 ERA in 1076.1 innings pitched.
Bickford reached the major leagues with the
Boston Braves in 1948 and played on their pennant-winning team. He finished
with an 11-5 mark and a 3.27 ERA but lost to the Cleveland Indians in his only
World Series appearance.
In 1949, Bickford went 16-11 and made the
National League All-Star team. His most productive season came in 1950, when
he went 19-14 and led the NL in games started (39), complete games (27),
innings pitched (311.2) and batters faced (1,325). The high point of his
career was his no-hitter game against the Brooklyn Dodgers on August 11. He
struck out slugger Duke Snider for the final out of the game, with what
Brickford later described as "the prettiest curveball I ever threw".
Bickford broke a finger in 1951 and never
regained all of his prior form. He played for the Braves when the team moved
to Milwaukee before the 1953 season. In 1954 he was sold to the Baltimore
Orioles, but a pinched nerve in his throwing arm and an eventual elbow surgery
shortened his career. In 1955, he unsuccessfully tried a brief comeback with
the Triple-A Richmond Virginians in the International League.
Following his playing career, Bickford worked
as an automobile dealer, a travelling salesman and a carpenter. He died of
cancer in Concord, Virginia, at age of 39.
Doran Cox, Movie Movie
Director, Hinton. 1881-1957
Date of birth 12 April 1881, Hinton, West Virginia
Date of death 2 May 1957, Los Angeles, California,
USA.
Jack
Warhop, Pro Baseball Player, Hinton. 1884-1960
John Milton Warhop (July 4, 1884 -
October 4, 1960) born in Hinton, West Virginia was a pitcher for the
New York Highlanders/New York Yankees (1908-15).
Warhop led the American League in hit batsmen
in 1909 (26) and 1910 (18). He led the American League in home runs allowed
in 1914 (8) and 1915 (7). His 114 career hit batsmen is a Yankees team
record and ranks 37th on the MLB All-Time Hit Batsmen List. He also holds
the Yankees single season record for most hit batsmen (26 in 1909).
Warhop died in Freeport, Illinois.
John Davis Chandler, Movie
Actor, Hinton
Date of birth 28 January 1937, Hinton, West Virginia,
USA
Sometimes Credited As John D. Chandler / John Chandler
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" ....
Flith (1 episode, 1998)
... aka DS9 (USA: promotional abbreviation)
... aka Deep Space Nine (USA: short title)
... aka Star Trek: DS9 (USA: short title)
- Honor Among Thieves (1998) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Flith
"Walker, Texas Ranger" ....
Homeless Man (1 episode, 1996)
- Cyclone (1996) TV Episode (as
John Chandler) .... Homeless Man
"Chicago Hope" .... Mr. Ray
(1 episode, 1995)
- The Ethics of Hope (1995) TV Episode
.... Mr. Ray
Carnosaur 2 (1995) .... Zeb
"ER" .... Thornberg (1 episode,
1995)
- The Birthday Party (1995) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Thornberg
Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994)
.... Henry
... aka Phantasm III (UK: video title)
... aka Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead - The Never Dead Part III
(Australia: video box title)
... aka Phantasm III: The Third Power (Philippines: English title)
... aka Phantasm: Lord of the Dead
"In the Heat of the Night" ....
Barton Stone (1 episode, 1993)
- A Baby Called Rockett (1993) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Barton Stone
"Renegade" (1 episode, 1993)
- The Two Renos (1993) TV Episode
(as John Chandler)
Body of Evidence (1993) (as John
Chandler) .... Dr. Novaro
... aka Body of Evidence (Canada: English title)
... aka Deadly Evidence
Inside Out II (1992) (V) (as John
Chandler) .... segment 'The Freak'
... aka Double Vision (UK)
Trancers II (1991) .... Wino #1
... aka Future Cop II
... aka Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth (USA: video box title)
... aka Trancers II: The Two Faces of Death
Only the Lonely (1991) (as John
Chandler) .... Tyrone
Crash and Burn (1990) (V) .... Bud
Double Revenge (1990) .... Big Charlie
"Simon & Simon" .... Arnie
Roberts / ... (3 episodes, 1984-1988)
- Bad Betty (1988) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Harry Brookmueller
- For Old Crime's Sake (1987) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Charlie
- What Goes Around Comes Around (1984) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Arnie Roberts
Adventures in Babysitting (1987) (as
John Chandler) .... Bleak
... aka A Night on the Town (UK)
Love Among Thieves (1987) (TV) ....
Hotel clerk
"Hunter" (1 episode, 1986)
- Death Machine (1986) TV Episode
(as John Chandler)
"Murder, She Wrote" .... Gilbert
Stoner / ... (2 episodes, 1985-1986)
- Trial by Error (1986) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... John Detweiler
- Murder Takes the Bus (1985) TV Episode
.... Gilbert Stoner
"Matt Houston" .... Hank / ...
(2 episodes, 1982-1985)
- Company Secrets (1985) TV Episode
.... Roman Petrovich
- The Good Doctor (1982) TV Episode
.... Hank
"Hill Street Blues" .... Harvey
Foster (1 episode, 1984)
- Ewe and Me, Babe (1984) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Harvey Foster
"T.J. Hooker" .... Waylon Gilbert
(1 episode, 1984)
- Psychic Terror (1984) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Waylon Gilbert
The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) ....
Guard #1
Triumphs of a Man Called Horse (1982)
(as John Chandler) .... Mason
... aka Triunfo de un hombre llamado Caballo, El (Spain)
"Fantasy Island" .... Barker / ...
(3 episodes, 1978-1981)
- Perfect Husband, The/Volcano (1981) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Barker
- Hard Knocks/Lady Godiva (1981) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Eddie Gunn
- The Prince/The Sheriff (1978) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Ed Larson
"Flamingo Road" (1 episode, 1981)
- The Hostages (1981) TV Episode
The Little Dragons (1980) (as John
Chandler) .... Carl
... aka Dragons (UK: video title)
... aka Karate Kids USA
"B.J. and the Bear" .... Marsh
(1 episode, 1980)
- Bear Bondage (1980) TV Episode
.... Marsh
"The Incredible Hulk" .... Eric
(1 episode, 1979)
- Behind the Wheel (1979) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Eric
"Lucan" (1 episode, 1978)
- You Can't Have My Baby (1978) TV Episode
"Police Woman" .... Nolan
(1 episode, 1977)
- Guns (1977) TV Episode (as
John Chandler) .... Nolan
Whiskey Mountain (1977) (as John
Chandler) .... Rudy
The Shadow of Chikara (1977) (as John
Chandler) .... Rafe
... aka Demon Mountain
... aka Diamond Mountain (USA)
... aka Shadow Mountain (USA: reissue title)
... aka The Ballad of Virgil Cane
... aka The Curse of Demon Mountain
... aka Thunder Mountain
... aka Wishbone Cutter
"Quincy M.E." .... Robert Gideon
(1 episode, 1977)
... aka Quincy (International: English title: informal title)
- ...The Thigh Bone's Connected to the Knee Bone... (1977)
TV Episode (as John Chandler) .... Robert
Gideon
Chesty Anderson, USN (1976) .... Don
Cheech
... aka Anderson's Angels
... aka Chesty Anderson, US Navy
Scorchy (1976) .... Nicky
Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976) ....
Charlie
... aka Killer Jaws (Philippines: English title)
... aka The Jaws of Death
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) (as John
Chandler) .... Bounty hunter #1
Doc Hooker's Bunch (1976)
.... Roy
Walking Tall Part II (1975) (as John
Chandler) .... Ray Henry
... aka Legend of the Lawman (UK)
... aka Part 2, Walking Tall
... aka Walking Tall, Part II: The Legend of Buford Pusser (USA: long
title)
Capone (1975) .... Hymie Weiss
The Desperate Miles (1975) (TV) ....
Truck driver
"Police Story" .... Lou Denbo
(1 episode, 1975)
- War Games (1975) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Lou Denbo
"Lincoln" (1 episode, 1974)
... aka Sandburg's Lincoln (USA: complete title)
- The Unwilling Warrior (1974) TV Episode
The Ultimate Thrill (1974) .... Evans
... aka The Ultimate Chase
Columbo: Publish or Perish (1974) (TV)
(as John Chandler) .... Eddie Kane
"The Rookies" .... Prisoner
(1 episode, 1974)
- Trial by Doubt (1974) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Prisoner
"Cannon" (1 episode, 1973)
- Arena of Fear (1973) TV Episode
"Toma" (1 episode, 1973)
- Frame-Up (1973) TV Episode
(as John Chandler)
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) (as
John Chandler) .... Norris
Chase (1973) (TV) .... Thomas L. Traylor
"Adam-12" .... Robin Sayde / ...
(3 episodes, 1971-1973)
- Killing Ground (1973) TV Episode
.... Steve Deal
- The Radical (1971) TV Episode
.... Robin Sayde
- Log 16: A Child in Danger (1971) TV Episode
.... Wally Barstow
Moon of the Wolf (1972) (TV) .... Tom
Gurmandy Jr.
Shoot Out (1971) (as John Chandler) ....
Skeeter
O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971) (TV) ....
Al Garver, the Henchman
... aka O'Hara, U.S. Treasury: Operation Cobra (USA)
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969)
.... Deuce (Waco gang)
The Hooked Generation (1968) .... Acid
... aka Alligator Alley
"Judd for the Defense" ....
Czawicki (2 episodes, 1968)
- Fall of a Skylark: Part 2 - The Appeal (1968)
TV Episode (as John D. Chandler) .... Czawicki
- Fall of a Skylark: Part 1 - The Trial (1968)
TV Episode (as John D. Chandler) .... Czawicki
"The High Chaparral" .... Kid
Curry (1 episode, 1967)
- The Doctor from Dodge (1967) TV Episode
.... Kid Curry
"Felony Squad" .... Lou Mason
(1 episode, 1967)
- The Savage Streets (1967) TV Episode
.... Lou Mason
Return of the Gunfighter (1967) ....
Sundance
... aka Wyatt
"The Fugitive" .... Kenny / ...
(2 episodes, 1963-1967)
- Run the Man Down (1967) TV Episode
(as John D. Chandler) .... Kenny
- The Other Side of the Mountain (1963) TV Episode
(as John D. Chandler) .... Quimby
"A Man Called Shenandoah" ....
Cassidy (1 episode, 1965)
- Survival (1965) TV Episode
.... Cassidy
Once a Thief (1965) .... James Arthur
Sargatanas, Walter's Henchman
... aka Tueurs de San Francisco, Les (France)
Major Dundee (1965) .... Jimmy Lee
Benteen
Those Calloways (1965) .... Ollie
Gibbons
"The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters"
.... Dick McBride (2 episodes, 1963-1964)
- The Day of the Picnic (1964) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Dick McBride
- The Day of the First Trail (1963) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Dick McBride
"Empire" .... Aflen (1 episode,
1963)
... aka Big G (UK)
- Seven Days on Rough Street (1963) TV Episode
.... Aflen
"Combat!" .... American sergeant
(1 episode, 1962)
- Missing in Action (1962) TV Episode
(uncredited) .... American sergeant
"The Virginian" .... Dog
(1 episode, 1962)
... aka The Men from Shiloh (USA: new title)
- The Brazen Bell (1962) TV Episode
.... Dog
"Route 66" .... Frank (1 episode,
1962)
- Journey to Nineveh (1962) TV Episode
.... Frank
Ride the High Country (1962) .... Jimmy
Hammond
... aka Guns in the Afternoon (UK)
"The Rifleman" (1 episode, 1962)
- The Executioner (1962) TV Episode
"The Detectives Starring Robert
Taylor" .... Starr (1 episode, 1962)
... aka Robert Taylor's Detectives (new title)
... aka The Detectives
... aka The Detectives, Starring Robert Taylor
- Never the Twain (1962) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Starr
"The Dick Powell Show" .... Kelso
(1 episode, 1961)
... aka The Dick Powell Theatre (USA: new title)
- Ricochet (1961) TV Episode
(as John Chandler) .... Kelso
The Young Savages (1961) .... Arthur
Reardon
Mad Dog Coll (1961) .... Vincent (Mad
Dog) Coll
Brad
Dourif, Movie Actor, Huntington
Bradford Claude Dourif (March 18, 1950,
Huntington, West Virginia) is an American Academy Award nominated actor with
a popular reputation for playing deranged or unbalanced character roles.
Director Werner Herzog has called him "one of the greatest living actors".
He was formerly married to businesswoman and
self-proclaimed psychic Joni Dourif with whom he has two daughters, Kristina
and Fiona. He is the uncle of Nat Friedman.
Background
His father owned and operated a dye factory,
and died in 1953. His mother remarried champion golfer Bill Campbell, who
helped raise him and his five siblings (three sisters and two brothers).
From 1963 to 1965, Dourif attended Aiken Preparatory School in Aiken, South
Carolina. There he pursued his interests in art and acting. Although he
briefly considered becoming an artist, he eventually settled on the path to
becoming an actor. This was inspired by his mother's participation as an
actress in a community theater.
Early career
Starting in school productions, he progressed
to community theater, joining up with the Huntington Community Players,
while attending Marshall University of Huntington. At age 19, he quit his
hometown college and headed to New York City, where he worked with the
Circle Repertory Company. During the early 1970s, Dourif appeared in a
number of plays, off-Broadway and at Woodstock, New York, including The
Ghost Sonata, The Doctor in Spite of Himself, and When You
Comin' Back, Red Ryder?, in which he was spotted by director Miloš
Forman who cast him in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).
Although this film is frequently cited as his
film debut, in fact, Dourif made his first big-screen appearance with a bit
part in W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975). Nevertheless, his
portrayal of the vulnerable Billy Bibbit in Forman's film was undoubtedly
his big break, earning him a Golden Globe (Best Actor Debut) and a British
Academy Award (Supporting Actor): he was also nominated for an Academy Award
for Best Supporting Actor. Skeptical of his instant stardom, Dourif returned
to New York, where he continued in theater and taught acting and directing
classes at Columbia University until 1988 when he moved to Hollywood.
Film & Television
Despite his attempts to avoid typecasting, he
frequently plays demented, deranged, or disturbed characters, starting in
Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), John Huston's Wise Blood (1979), and
Forman's Ragtime (1981). Dourif then teamed up with director David
Lynch for Dune (1984) and Blue Velvet (1986).
He has appeared in a number of horror films,
notably as the voice of the evil doll Chucky in Child's Play (1988)
and its sequels. Dourif broke from the horror genre with roles in Fatal
Beauty (1987), Mississippi Burning (1988), Hidden Agenda
(1990), and London Kills Me (1991). He also played Gríma in Peter
Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
On television, Dourif appeared in the
Babylon 5 episode "Passing Through Gethsemane", in the early X-Files
episode "Beyond the Sea" as condemned serial killer Luther Lee Boggs, in the
first season of Millennium as Dennis Hoffman, and in Oliver Stone's
Wild Palms. He played Lon Suder, a murdering psychopath who
eventually redeems himself, in a three-episode story arc on Star Trek:
Voyager. He appeared as Saavedro in Myst III: Exile (2001), the
third game in the popular Myst franchise. He plays Doc Cochran in the
HBO series Deadwood.
Dourif was cast for the role of The Scarecrow
who was set to appear in Batman Forever, whilst Tim Burton was
attached to the project. However, Burton who was unhappy with the script,
instead decided to use The Riddler as the main villain.
According to Rob Zombie's official site, Brad
Dourif will next be seen playing Sheriff Brackett in his adaptation/prequel,
Halloween.
Trivia
Plays the didgeridoo, an Australian
musical instrument.
Appeared in the music video for Toto's
"Stranger in Town".
Played music with the Deviants
Made five trips to New Zealand while the
Lord of the Rings trilogy was being filmed. He had to shave his eyebrows
off each time.
Dourif appeared in a 1987 episode of
Miami Vice in which, coincidentally, Helena Bonham Carter made her
television debut.
Selected
Filmography
Year
Title
Role
Other notes
1975
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Billy Bibbit
Academy Award Nomination
1979
Wise Blood
1980
Heaven's Gate
1981
Ragtime
Younger Brother
1984
Dune
The Mentat Piter De Vries
1986
Blue Velvet
Raymond
1987
Fatal Beauty
Leo Nova
1988
Child's Play
Charles Lee Ray (Chucky)
Mississippi Burning
1990
Child's Play 2
Chucky
(voice only)
Spontaneous Combustion
Sam
Graveyard Shift
Tucker Cleveland, The
Exterminator
The Exorcist III
The Gemini Killer
1991
Child's Play 3
Chucky
(voice only)
1994
'Color
of Night
1995
Death Machine
Dante
1995
Escape to Witch Mountain
1997
Alien: Resurrection
Dr. Gediman
1998
Senseless
Urban Legend (film)
Michael McDonnell, gas station attendant
(uncredited)
Bride of Chucky
Chucky
(voice only)
2001
Myst III: Exile
Saavedro
2002
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Gríma Wormtongue
2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Gríma Wormtongue
(extended version only)
2004
Seed of Chucky
Chucky
(voice only)
2007
Sinner
Caddie
2007
Halloween (2007 film)
Sheriff Brackett
TV
The X-Files - Beyond the Sea as
Luther Lee Boggs
Deadwood - as Doc Cochran
Star Trek: Voyager - as Lon Suder
Rick
Reed, Pro Baseball Player, Huntington
Richard Allen Reed (born August 16,
1964 in Huntington, West Virginia) is a former starting pitcher in
Major League Baseball who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates
(1988-1991), Kansas City Royals (1992-1993), Texas Rangers
(1993-1994), Cincinnati Reds (1995), New York Mets (1997-2001) and
Minnesota Twins (2001-2003). He batted and threw right handed.
Reed was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in
the 26th round of the 1986 amateur draft. He made his major league debut for
Pittsburgh in 1988, but saw only limited playing time each year through
1991. After 1991, he spent several years in the minors. 1995 was his tenth
year of pro ball and he agreed to be a replacement player for the Cincinnati
Reds during the 1994 Major League Baseball strike. After the strike, he was
recalled by Cincinnati to the consternation of several of his teammates who
had gone on strike. Reed did not pitch well and was released.
In 1997, Reed found his major league stride
with the New York Mets, going 13-9 and ending sixth in the National League
with a 2.89 ERA for the New York Mets. His most productive season came in
1998, when he won 16 games and held a 3.48 ERA, striking out 153 batters
while walking just 29. An All-Star in 1998 and 2001, he also was a member of
the Mets team that faced the New York Yankees in the Subway Series.
Reed was traded by the Mets to the Minnesota
Twins for outfielder Matt Lawton in the 2001 midseason. He won 15 games for
Minnesota in 2002 and retired in 2003 after going 6-12.
In a 15-season majors career, Reed posted a
93-76 record with 970 strikeouts and a 4.03 ERA.
In 2005, Reed returned to Marshall University
as the pitching coach for the Thundering Herds baseball team.
Buddy Starcher, Country
Entertainer, Ripley. 1906-2001
b. 1906 d. November 02, 2001
Singer, songwriter and radio and television personality Buddy Starcher died Friday (Nov. 2, 2001) at a nursing home in Harrisonburg, Va. He was 95.
Starcher had two national country hits, both with his own compositions: "I’ll Still Write Your Name in the Sand," which went to No. 8 in 1949
on the 4 Star label, and "History Repeats Itself," which rose to No. 2 in 1966 on Boone Records. The latter compared the similarities between
the deaths of presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Fans of the late Keith Whitley may recognize Starcher’s name from the
1991 RCA album Kentucky Bluebird. The opening cut of the album features an undated segment taken from Starcher’s popular morning show on
WCHS-TV, Charleston, W. Va., in which the seven- or eight-year-old Whitley sings "You Win Again." Starcher himself introduces Whitley.
Oby Edgar Starcher was born March 16, 1906, near Ripley, W. Va. He learned to play guitar under the tutelage of his father, an old-time
fiddler. Starcher took his first job as a radio performer in 1928 at station WFBR in Baltimore. He began writing his own songs -- often
about current events -- and over the next several years worked at stations in Washington, D. C., North Carolina, Virginia, Iowa,
Pennsylvania and his home state. Red Sovine, a fellow West Virginian, counted Starcher as one of his influences, as did such other
entertainers as Mac Wiseman, Lee Moore, Sleepy Jeffers and Smiley Sutter.
In the early 1950s, Starcher turned from radio to television, working at outlets in Miami and Harrisonburg. His show on WCHS-TV ran from 1960
to 1966. Following the success of "History Repeats Itself," Starcher moved briefly to Nashville and then on to television work in Florida,
New York and Texas. He retired in 1976, intially settling near Craigsville, W. Va., and then moving back to Harrisonburg in 1993.
Historian Ivan Tribe notes that despite Starcher’s prominence in radio, he did not begin recording until 1946, when he affiliated with 4 Star.
Among the other labels he recorded for were Columbia, Deluxe, Starday, Boone and Bear Family. The artist’s life story, written by Robert Cagle
and aptly titled Buddy Starcher Biography, was published in 1986.Starcher is survived by his wife of 55 years, Mary Ann, a stepson and a
sister. He was buried at Eastlawn Memorial Gardens in Harrisonburg.
Steve
Rollins, Songwriter, Keyser. 1943-1973
Walter E. "Jack" Rollins was a
resident of Keyser, West Virginia and along with Steve Nelson
co-wrote Frosty the Snowman in 1950 and Peter Cottontail in 1949.
Jack also wrote Smokey the Bear and co-wrote many country songs for
artists such as Hank Snow and Eddy Arnold.
Jack died on January 1, 1973, and is buried
in Queens Point Memorial Cemetery, Keyser, West Virginia.
"Frosty the Snowman," which was written in
1950, was in several ways an imaginative echo of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer" which appeared the year before. Like Rudolph, Frosty was a magical
new Christmas character who evoked both delight and sadness. Frosty brought
much joy to the children who put the old silk hat on his head, thus bringing
him to life. There also were some tears shed when Frosty began to melt away
and had to leave. But his promise to return ended the tale with the
anticipation of renewed friendship. Like Rudolph, his appearance was
expected to be annual.
The perennial nature of Frosty has greatly
aided his public acceptance and commercial success. The clever story by
Walter E. "Jack" Rollins (1906-1973) and the rather good melody by Steve
Edward Nelson (1907 - ) of course are the key building blocks of "Frosty's"
tremendous popularity (New Yorkers Rollins and Nelson also developed another
musical holiday character, "Peter Cottontail" (1949), which is the
best-known Easter personality.)
Also like Rudolph, Frosty has been
aggressively merchandised and has had three television specials to help
sustain Frosty in the mind's eye of millions. [Since the original writing, a
fourth special has been added.] In 1969, Jimmy Durante narrated an excellent
cartoon version of Frosty's birth, life, and demise. Variant adventures of
Frosty were presented in the 1979 program, Frosty's Winter Wonderland,
presided over by Andy Griffith, and in Rudolph and Frosty
[rebroadcast as Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July]. [Plus
Frosty Returns] But all the borrowing between Rudolph and Frosty was no
one-sided. When the most successful television program about Rudolph was put
on the air in 1964, the jolly host of the show was none other than a
snowman! [Burl Ives]
John
Kruk, Pro Baseball Player, Keyser
John Martin Kruk (born February 9,
1961 in Charleston, West Virginia, raised in Keyser, West Virginia
in Mineral County the state's Eastern Panhandle) is an American
former Major League Baseball player. He played baseball at Keyser
High School in Keyser, West Virginia, at Potomac State College, and
at Allegany Community College, He began his professional career with
the San Diego Padres after being drafted in 1981. He played in such
outposts as Walla Walla, Reno, Beaumont, and Las Vegas, before
making his debut with the Padres in 1986.
The portly outfielder was dealt to the
Philadelphia Phillies during the 1989 season, and he blossomed into an
All-Star as the team used him primarily at first base. Kruk played in the
All-Star Game in 1991, 1992, and 1993. In 1993, he had a memorable at bat
when he flailed wildly at 98 mile per hour fastballs from Seattle Mariners
pitcher Randy Johnson. Johnson's initial "Mr. Snappy" pitch was so far
inside and above his head that the intimidated Kruk (acting like he was
about to have a heart attack) backed up seemingly into the on-deck circle
for the remainder of this plate appearance.
Kruk, who batted .316/.430/.475 in 1993,
was also the leader of the Phillies' "Macho Row" which led the team to the
World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays; in the losing effort, Kruk
batted .348/.500/.391 in the Series.
During spring training in 1994, Kruk was
diagnosed with testicular cancer after an errant pickoff throw from
teammate Mitch Williams hit him in the groin and broke his protective cup.
Additionally, weight gain and the astroturf at Veterans Stadium
exacerbated his knee problems. After the 1994 season, Kruk was granted
free agency.
Moving to the American League to serve as a
designated hitter, Kruk signed with the Chicago White Sox. He was
effective with the "pale hose", batting .308/.399/.390, but he was tired
of the game. On July 30, 1995, Kruk singled and took himself out of the
game. He left the ballpark never to play again. He finished his 10-year
career with exactly a .300 batting average and exactly 100 home runs.
A quotable character throughout his career
who later wrote a book called I Ain't an Athlete, Lady published in
1994, Kruk turned to broadcasting and commenting on the game. He has since
worked for FOX, The Best Damn Sports Show Period, and local telecasts in
Philadelphia. In 2004, he was hired by ESPN as an analyst on Baseball
Tonight. He also writes a column called Chewing the Fat on
ESPN.com.
Rather than be self-conscious about his
decidedly non-athletic-looking body, Kruk would often joke about it. He
once quipped that he needed two hands to haul ass. He also joked that the
number he wore on the back of his uniform (#8) was actually his portrait.
He has recently appeared in commercials for Nutrisystem with other retired
athletes. In the commercials, he claims a weight loss of 32 pounds.
May 6, 2006 John Kruk Field was
dedicated at Keyser High School in Keyser, West Virginia. John threw out
the first pitch at the new field in a game against Beall High School.
Provided funding for improvements to
little league baseball fields in his hometown of Keyser, West Virginia.
He has one testicle (the other was
removed as a result of surgery to treat testicular cancer), hence the
nickname One Nut Kruk. Presumably this is not an over-the-airwaves "Bermanism".
(John "I Am Not A" Kruk is, however.)
Typical of Kruk's (and Phils) roughcut
style in the 1993 season, Kruk tore the seat of his pants in a hard
slide during the final playoff game against Atlanta. He refused to
change and wore the torn pants for the rest of the game. During the 1993
World Series, Kruk wore the same pants (with the tear sewn up), possibly
for good luck.
New Yorker baseball analyst Roger
Angell speaks of Kruk's "batting and fielding and running the bases like
a teenager", and of his "amiable back-fence chats" with opponents who
come to rest on first base. He says Kruk's batting stance, with the bat
held almost bolt upright, makes him look like a surveyor.
The title of his book comes from a time
when a woman chided him for smoking, being overweight, and being a poor
example of a professional athlete. Kruk's response: "I ain't an athlete,
lady, I'm a ballplayer!"
He was hit by a pitch only twice in his
career.
Parents: Frank "Moe" Kruk and Lena Kruk
of Keyser, West Virginia.
Has three older brothers, Thomas Kruk of
Ravenswood, West Virginia, Larry Kruk of Maryland, and Joe Kruk of
Asheville, North Carolina.
Currently resides in Mount Laurel, NJ
with his wife, Melissa Kruk (nee McLoughlin), former Miss New Jersey
1999.
Bimbo
Coles, Pro Baseball Player, Lewisburg
Vernell Eufaye ("Bimbo") Coles (born April 22,
1968 in Covington, Virginia) is a retired American basketball player. Was a
standout at Greenbrier East High School in Lewisburg, West Virginia. While at
Virginia Tech, he was a member of the United States 1988 Olympic basketball
team. His NBA career started and ended with the Miami Heat, and stints with
the Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Boston
Celtics. He was utilised primarily as a backup point guard.
He is currently an assistant coach for the Miami
Heat.
Coles received his nickname ‘Bimbo’ from a
cousin in reference to a country music song.
Was traded by the Sacramento Kings to the Miami
Heat for veteran guard Rory Sparrow after the 1990 NBA Draft.
Was a high school outfielder selected by the
California Angels in the 53rd round of the June 1990 Major League Baseball
Draft.
Willie
Clay, Pro Football Player, Wheeling
Willie Clay (b. September 5, 1970) is a former NFL
player whose career led to stints with the Detroit Lions, New England
Patriots, and the New Orleans Saints. The peak of his career was with the New
England in 1997, when they went to Super Bowl XXXI, and lost to the Green Bay
Packers.
Clay attended Linsly High School
in Wheeling, West Virginia where he earned twelve letters playing football,
basketball, and baseball.
At Georgia Tech, he had gotten 16 interceptions
to break the school record, playing strong safety.
Shane Burton, Pro Football
Player, Logan
Franklin Shane Burton
Position: DE/DT
Height: 6' 6'' Weight: 305
Born: 1/18/1974, in Logan, WV, USA
High School: Bandys (Catawba, NC)
College: Tennessee
NFL Seasons: 9
Drafted by in 1996 (5/18)
Acquired as a free agent in 2006.
Kansas City Chiefs
William
Anderson Hatfield, Hatfied/McCoy Feud, Island Creek, Logan County. 1839-1921
BORN: SEPTEMBER 9, 1839 DIED:
JANUARY 6, 1921
The Hatfield-McCoy feud (1878–1891) is an account
of American lore that has become a metaphor for bitterly feuding rival parties
in general. It has been described as an Appalachian Capulet-Montague rivalry
involving two warring families of the West Virginia-Kentucky backcountry along
the Tug Fork River, off the Big Sandy River.
Family origins
The Hatfields lived on the West Virginia side
of the Tug Fork, and the McCoys lived on the Kentucky side. Both families were
part of the first wave of pioneers to settle the Tug Valley. Both were
involved in the manufacture and sale of moonshine. Both apparently were
involved in pro-Confederate guerrilla activity during the American Civil War.
The Hatfields were led by William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield (1839–1921).
The McCoys were led by Randolph "Ole Ran’l" McCoy (1825–1914).
They had both acquired much land and
respectability. The Hatfields were more affluent than the McCoys and were
well-connected politically, but both families owned a good amount of property.
The Feud
Beginning
According to historian Altina L. Waller, "Most
accounts of the Hatfield-McCoy feud begin with the death of Asa Harmon McCoy
(Randall McCoy's brother) on 7 January 1865." The uncle of Devil Anse, Jim
Vance, and his "Wildcats" felt hatred toward Harmon McCoy because he had
joined the Union army. Harmon had been discharged from the army early because
of a broken leg. Several nights after he returned home, he was murdered in a
cave nearby.
As legends go, the first recorded instance of
violence in the feud occurred after an 1878 dispute about the ownership of a
hog: Floyd Hatfield had it and Randolph McCoy said it was his. But in truth,
the dispute was over land or property lines and the ownership of that land.
The pig was only in the fight because one family believed that since the pig
was on their land, that meant it was theirs; the other side objected. The
matter was taken to the local Justice of the Peace, and the McCoys lost
because of the testimony of Bill Staton, a relative of both families. The
individual presiding over the case was Anderson "Preacher Anse" Hatfield. In
June 1880, Staton was killed by two McCoy brothers, Sam and Paris, who were
later acquitted on the grounds of self-defense.
Escalation
The feud escalated after Roseanna McCoy began
an affair with Johnse Hatfield (Devil Anse's son), leaving her family to live
with the Hatfields in West Virginia. Roseanna eventually returned to the
McCoys, but when the couple tried to resume their relationship, Johnse
Hatfield was kidnapped by the McCoys, and was saved only when Roseanna made a
desperate ride to alert Devil Anse Hatfield, who organized a rescue party.
Despite what was seen as a betrayal of her
family on his behalf, Johnse thereafter abandoned the pregnant Roseanna,
marrying instead her cousin Nancy McCoy in 1881.
The feud burst into full fury in 1882, when
Ellison Hatfield, brother of "Devil Anse" Hatfield, was brutally murdered by
three of Roseanna McCoy's brothers, Tolber, Pharmer, and Bud, stabbed 26 times
and finished off with a shot. The brothers were themselves murdered in turn as
the vendetta escalated.They had been kidnapped after they had murdered
Ellison. They were tied to Paw Paw bushes and shot many times each. Their
bodies were described as "bullet-riddled".
Between 1880 and 1891, the feud claimed more
than a dozen members of the two families, becoming headline news around the
country and compelling the Governors of both Kentucky and West Virginia to
call up the United States National Guard to restore order after the
disappearance of dozens of bounty hunters sent to calm the bloodlust. The
Hatfields claimed more lives than the McCoys did by the time order had been
restored.
Eight Hatfields were kidnapped and brought to
Kentucky to stand trial for the murder of a female member of the McCoy clan,
Alifair. She had been shot after exiting a burning building that had been set
aflame by a group of Hatfields. Because of issues of due process and illegal
extradition, the Supreme Court of the United States became involved.
Eventually, the eight men were tried in Kentucky, and all eight were found
guilty. Seven received life imprisonment, and the eighth was executed in a
public hanging (even though it was prohibited by law), probably as a warning
to end the violence. Thousands of spectators attended the hanging in
Pikeville, Kentucky. The families finally agreed to stop the fighting in 1891.
Althea Todd Alderson, Author,
Malden
A writer of short stories and poetry. Her best
known poem, "The Spirit of Saint Louis," was published in a Doubleday and Doran
anthology in the 1930s. She was born in Malden.
David Hunter Strother, Author,
Martinsburg. 1816-1888
born in Martinsburg, Berkeley
County, Virginia, September 26, 1816, and died at Charles Town, Jefferson
County, March 8, 1888. He was the son of Col. John and Elizabeth Pendleton
(Hunter) Strother. He was married twice, first to Anne Doyne Wolfe, and second
to Mary Elliott Hunter. By his first marriage, he had one daughter, Emily
Strother, who became the wife of John Brisben Walker. By his second marriage, he
had two sons. However, in Norbourne Cemetery, there are six little graves, all
David Hunter's children who died in infancy.
He was one of the most widely
known U.S. authors of that time, adopting the nom-de-plume of “Port Crayon,”
under which he wrote “The Virginia Caanan.” This work was illustrated with
crayon, which at once won the public by their charming originality, terseness
and grace. Soon, the Porte Crayon name was a household word wherever the monthly
Harper's Magazine found its way, from Atlantic to Pacific Shores. One of
his first teachers was Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the electric telegraph. He
studied art with Morse in 1836; for two years in Rome, Italy, 1842-44; and in
New York, 1845-49. He served in the Federal Army during the Civil War and rose
to the rank of Brigadier-General. He was appointed adjutant-general on
McClellan's staff, served on Pope's staff in the Virginia campaign; and was
brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers. He was a war correspondent for
Harper’s Magazine. After the war, he resumed his literary work, and his
"Personal Recollections of the War," written from a notebook kept while at the
front, was very popular. President Hayes appointed him Consul-General to Mexico
in 1877, a position he filled for seven years. He was the author of "The
Blackwater Chronicle" (1853) and "Virginia Illustrated" (1857).
His sister was Mrs. James L.
Randolph, whose husband was James L. Randolph, Chief Civil Engineer for the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for a number of years.
While
traveling in France, David Strother saw a cemetery laid out to suit his artistic
taste and, making a sketch of it, he devised plans for the Green Hill Cemetery
in Martinsburg, precisely as he saw the one in France. Together with the
surveyor, John P. Kearfott, he laid out the grounds with a mausoleum in the
center, surrounded by lots, walks and drives arranged in a circular shape.
Isabelle
Belle Boyd, Confederate Spy, Martinsburg. 1844-1900
Isabelle (Belle) Boyd, actress and Confederate
spy, was born on May 9, 1844, in Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), to
Benjamin Reed and Mary Rebecca (Glenn) Boyd. Her varied career brought her to
Texas at least twice–first to perform in Houston and Galveston theaters, and
later to settle temporarily in Dallas. She graduated from Mount Washington
Female College at the age of sixteen in 1860. The following year, after shooting
a Union soldier who broke into her home and gleaning information from the
sentries who temporarily guarded her, she began smuggling notes to Confederate
officers. Later she served as a courier for generals Pierre G. T. Beauregard and
Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson and their subordinates. Belle was apprehended
aboard ship in May 1864, while carrying dispatches to Confederate agents in
England, and banished to Canada. But she subsequently reached England, where, in
August of the same year, she married Samuel Wylde Hardinge, the Union naval
ensign assigned to guard her after her capture. In 1865 she published an account
of her wartime activities, Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison.
Soon widowed and left with a small daughter, she
went on stage in England in 1866. That same year she made her United States
debut in St. Louis and soon afterward adopted the stage name Nina Benjamin. In
fall 1868 she performed in several plays in Houston, having contracted with
Maurice and Henry Greenwall to appear at their stock houses in Houston and
Galveston. However, a disagreement between Henry Greenwall and members of the
acting company led to cancellation of the bookings. With new manager Thomas P.
Ochiltree, Belle proceeded to Austin, where she gave a series of dramatic
readings. When the new year arrived, she left the state.
On March 17, 1869, she retired from the stage to
marry John Swainston Hammond. They moved to California, where she suffered a
mental collapse and gave birth to a son in a Stockton insane asylum. At Mount
Hope, near Baltimore, she was treated, recovered, and was discharged in 1870.
She had three more children with Hammond, a traveling salesman, and the family
moved to various cities around the country before settling in 1883 in Dallas.
The marriage was dissolved on November 1, 1884.
Two months later Belle married twenty-four-year-old Nathaniel Rue High of
Toledo, Ohio, a stock-company actor, and in order to support her family she
returned to the stage with High as her business manager. She debuted in Toledo
on February 22, 1886, with a dramatic narrative of her own exploits as a
Confederate spy. Until her death she toured the country, performing her show in
a Confederate uniform and cavalry-style hat. Belle Boyd died at the Hile House
in Kilbourn (now Wisconsin Dells), Wisconsin, on June 11, 1900, and was buried
there at Spring Grove Cemetery. Her fashionable house on Pocahontas Street in
Dallas, which she sold on July 29, 1887, was razed in 1963.
Scott
Bullett, Pro Baseball Player, Martinsburg
Scott Douglas Bullett
Bats Left, Throws Left
Height 6' 2", Weight 200 lb.
Debut September 3, 1991
Final Game September 29, 1996
Born December 25, 1968 in Martinsburg, WV
Michael Joseph Owens,
Manufacturer, Mason County. 1859-1923
U.S. manufacturer, invented automatic
bottle-blowing machine (patents in 1895 and 1904), capable of blowing 4
finished bottles a second by 1904. He organized the Owens Bottle Machine
Company in 1903 and later the Libbey-Owen Sheet Glass Company (1916). He
received more than 45 patents for glass blowing apparatus. He was born in
1859, Mason County, Virginia (now West Virginia), and died Dec. 27, 1923,
Toledo, Ohio.
Charles Manson, Criminal,
Raised in McMechen
Charles Milles Manson (born November 12, 1934 as
Charles Milles Maddox) was the founder and leader of the eponymous "family," a
hippie cult he began in San Francisco in 1967. He was convicted of having
commanded certain members of his "family" to commit the August, 1969, Tate-LaBianca
murders in Los Angeles. He is currently an inmate at Corcoran State Prison in
California, having been denied parole 10 times.
Manson has spent most of his adult life in
prison, initially for offenses such as car theft, forgery, credit card fraud and
pimping. In the late 1960s, he migrated to California, wanting to become a
musician; instead, he befriended some of the young, disenfranchised people he
met and began calling them his "family." He ordered them to carry out several
murders, including that of movie actress Sharon Tate (wife of the Polish movie
director Roman Polański), who was eight and a half months pregnant at the time.
He was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. He is serving a life sentence
but will be up for parole in 2007 at the age of 73. Manson has always maintained
his non-involvement in the Tate-LaBianca murders.
Manson was also friends with several notable
musicians before the murders were committed, including Dennis Wilson of The
Beach Boys, and was a marginally successful musician himself who recorded
several albums and whose songs have since been covered by many artists.
Since his trial and conviction, Manson's name and
image have been integrated into American pop culture, typically as a symbol of
evil.
Charles Manson was a person with an unusual
ability to dominate others. He assembled a destructive, doomsday cult around
himself, which the media later called The Family. At one time, it
numbered in excess of 100 individuals at the Spahn Ranch some 30 miles northwest
of Los Angeles CA. Manson was referred to both as "God" and "Satan"
by his followers. As the family's guru, he claimed to be a reincarnation of
Jesus Christ.
Manson was concerned about damage to the
environment and pollution. He once commented: "Your water’s dying. Your
life’s in that cup. Your trees are dying. Your wildlife’s locked up in zoos.
You’re in the zoo, Man. How do you feel about it?"
Mass murders perpetrated by The Family:
The first murder by the family was of Gary Hinman,
a Los Angeles drug dealer and musician. His body was discovered on 1969-JUL-31.
The first series of mass murders, called the "Tate"
homicides, occurred at the home of Sharon (Tate) Polanski on 1969-AUG-9. Three
victims were shot and/or stabbed multiple times on the grounds of the estate.
These were Abigail Folger, Steven Parent and Voiytek Frykowski. Sharon Polanski
and Jay Sebring were murdered inside the house. Sharon, 8 months pregnant at the
time, died from numerous stab wounds, five of which were by themselves fatal;
Jay died of blood loss. Both had their necks loosely attached by a single rope
over a rafter.
The next homicides, called the "LaBianca
murders," occurred two days later in the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.
They were found stabbed to death with dozens of wounds.
Finally, Donald Shea was murdered. He was a
former stuntman and hired hand at the Spahn Ranch.
The police appear to have been stunned by the
horrific details at the mass murder crime scenes. They badly bungled the task of
collecting evidence. They were unable to find the clothing worn by the
murderers. A television news crew was able to locate the clothing later.
Although Manson is not believed to have killed
anyone directly, he ordered his followers to commit the famous Tate, LaBianca
and other murders.
Possible motives for the murders:
The murders were on the surface motiveless and
unconnected to Manson, but some key motives were later identified.
Manson was highly hostile to society,
pathologically so, and wanted revenge.
Manson had been rejected by the music industry
and wanted revenge. One suggestion is that he targeted the Tate house because
it represented his rejection by the show business community he wanted to
enter, and that it was of no interest to him who his actual victims would be.
Manson got a 'kick' out of death and control.
During the trial, one witness commented that "he [Manson] doesn't know
about love... love is not his trip. Death is his trip."
The killers were attempting to clear the blame
from their friend, Bobby Beausoleil, by committing a copycat murder.
Manson had come to believe that Armageddon was
imminent, in the form of race war, and believed he was destined to be the
ultimate beneficiary of it. Manson viewed race war as imminent, describing it
as Helter Skelter, "all the wars that have ever been fought, piled
on top of each other." He told his followers that this was imminent, but
that there was a secret underground world reached by a hole underneath the
desert, where they would wait out the war in bliss. He described this many
times, and it was a part of their communal belief, so much so that they
stocked up supplies and searched for the hole prior to the crimes. Blacks
would win the war, but be unable to run the world through lack of experience,
and the Family would therefore emerge and run it for them as a benevolent
autocracy with Manson at the head of this new world order. The war would be
triggered by "some black people coming out of the ghetto and doing
atrocious crimes... killings... writing things in blood." However, by
summer 1969, Manson was heard to say that blacks did not know how to start its
role in this war, so he would have to show them.
Although all five were possible motives, in
the trial the prosecutor placed the last as the main motive, despite its unusual
nature. The police and DA argued that Manson found sections within the Beatles'
song Helter Skelter and within the last book in the Christian Bible,
Revelation which he felt referred to a devastating future race war between
blacks and whites. By murdering some high-profile people, he expected to trigger
the "final days" conflict.
The arrest and trial:
A major break in the case happened in 1969-NOV
when thirteen Family members were arrested on a charge of grand theft (auto).
Several sources say that it was Susan Atkins alone who was arrested on a charge
of prostitution; this appears to be an error. While in prison, she talked to her
cellmate about having been involved in the Tate murders.
Charles Manson and three of his followers (Krenwinkel,
Atkins, Van Houten) were charged with the Tate/LaBianca murders. The trial was
spectacular. Manson spent much of the time with his back to the judge; his
actions were repeated by his co-defendants and other followers. He shaved his
head and carved an swastika on his forehead; his "family" followed suit.
All four were found guilty and sentenced to execution. Manson and other family
members later received death sentences for the Hinman and Shea killings. The
death penalties were commuted to life imprisonment in the 1970's when California
law was changed.
In 1997-AUG, Manson was transferred from
Corcoran State Prison to the tougher Pelican Bay State Prison as
punishment for a drug bust. He was placed in a segregated Security Housing
Unit where he had little contact with other inmates. In 1998-MAR-26, he was
returned to Corcoran where he remains today. His address is: Charles Manson,
B-33920, 4A 4R-23, P. O. Box 3476, Corcoran, CA 93212. He is currently eligible
for parole, although his chances of being freed are slim.
One source found "at least 100 pages of
information from the faithful" on the Internet. 1 One remarkable
web site compares Manson with the Hindu God Shiva. 2 Another site,
Access Manson, appears to be a semi-official Manson web site. 3
It contains extensive information about ATWA (Air, Trees, Water, Animals) which
is Manson's environmental group.
On 2002-JUN-28, Leslie Van Houten was denied
parole for the 14th time. She had stabbed Rosemary LaBianca sixteen times as a
drug-crazed teen-ager. Since then, she has obtained a bachelor's and master's
degree and has been a model prisoner, who has not accumulated a single
disciplinary report in the past 25 years. She chairs a drug and alcohol
rehabilitation group twice a month. She is now 52. She is not the person she was
at age 19 when she participated in the crimes," Van Houten's attorney, Christie
Webb said: "She has not taken drugs in three decades. She is much more of a
leader than a follower in prison. ... And she has insight into how she could
have participated in these crimes and how she can make amends."
George Wallace, Actor,
McMechen. 1917-2005
Date of birth 8 June 1917, New York, New York, USA
Date of death 22 July 2005, Los Angeles, California,
USA. (complications from a fall)
George Wallace was born in New York and, at age
13, moved with his mom and her new husband to McMechen, West Virginia, a coal
mining town where the 13-year-old began working in the mines. He joined the Navy
in 1936, got out in 1940, then went right back in again when World War II
started. A chief bosun's mate, he ended up in Los Angeles after a total of eight
years in the service. Wallace supported himself with an array of odd jobs, from
working for a meat packer ("knockin' steers in the head") to lumberjacking in
the High Sierras. A stint as a singing bartender attracted the attention of
Hollywood columnist Jimmy Fidler, who helped him get his show-biz start. Wallace
enrolled in drama school in the late 1940s, while earning his living tending the
greens at MGM. He soon began landing jobs in films and TV, most notably as
Commando Cody in the Republic serial _Radar Men From the Moon (1952)_ . He later
made his Broadway debut in Richard Rodgers' "Pipe Dreams", replaced John Raitt
in "The Pajama Game" and was nominated for a Tony for his leading role in "New
Girl in Town" with Gwen Verdon. Other stage roles have included "The Unsinkable
Molly Brown" opposite Ginger Rogers, "Jennie" with Mary Martin, "Most Happy
Fella" (during production, he met his present wife, actress Jane A. Johnston),
"Camelot" (as King Arthur), "Man of La Mancha", "Company" and more. In 1960, his
career was stalled when a horse fell on him and broke his back during the making
of an episode of TV's _"Swamp Fox" (1959)_ . His painful recovery took seven
months. He sometimes bills himself George D.H Wallace, to avoid confusion with
comic George Wallace.
Sometimes Credited As George D. Wallace
Filmography
"Joan of Arcadia" .... God / ...
(1 episode, 2004)
- Anonymous (2004) TV Episode ....
Old Man Walker/God
"Mister Sterling" (1 episode, 2003)
- Pilot (2003) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace)
Minority Report (2002) (as George D.
Wallace) .... Chief Justice Pollard
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" .... Old
Xander Harris (1 episode, 2002)
... aka BtVS (USA: promotional abbreviation)
... aka Buffy
... aka Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Series
- Hell's Bells (2002) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Old Xander Harris
"The X Files" .... Bertram Mueller
(1 episode, 2002)
... aka The X-Files (USA)
- Hellbound (2002) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace) .... Bertram Mueller
Nurse Betty (2000) (as George D. Wallace)
.... Grandfather Blaine
... aka Nurse Betty - Gefährliche Träume (Germany)
"The Practice" .... Judge Andrew Wood
(2 episodes, 2000)
- Liberty Bells (2000) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Judge Andrew Wood
- Death Penalties (2000) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Judge Andrew Wood
"Chicago Hope" .... Miles Harding
(1 episode, 2000)
- Boys Will Be Girls (2000) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Miles Harding
Bicentennial Man (1999) (as George D.
Wallace) .... Male President
... aka 200 Jahre Mann, Der (Germany)
Forces of Nature (1999) (as George D.
Wallace) .... Max
Deal of a Lifetime (1999) .... Coach
Millhaven
"Early Edition" .... Lou Sinclair
(1 episode, 1998)
- Where or When (1998) TV Episode
.... Lou Sinclair
"Alright Already" .... Gil (1 episode,
1997)
- Again with the Funeral (1997) TV Episode
.... Gil
"JAG" .... Chief Petty Officer Walter
Hume (1 episode, 1997)
- Code Blue (1997) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace) .... Chief Petty Officer Walter Hume
Meet Wally Sparks (1997) .... Bartender
"Cybill" .... Father Buchanan
(1 episode, 1996)
- Buffalo Gals (1996) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Father Buchanan
Multiplicity (1996) .... Man in Restaurant
Seduced by Madness: The Diane Borchardt
Story (1996) (TV) .... Tom
... aka Seduced by Madness (USA: short title)
"C-Bear and Jamal" (1996)
TV Series (voice)
"Mad About You" .... The Projectionist
(1 episode, 1994)
- The City (1994) TV Episode ....
The Projectionist
In the Heat of the Night: Who Was Geli Bendl?
(1994) (TV) .... Tommy
"In the Heat of the Night" .... Tommy
(1 episode, 1994)
- Who Was Geli Bendl? (1994) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Tommy
"Walker, Texas Ranger" .... Sheriff
Hugo LeBrun (1 episode, 1994)
- The Road to Black Bayou (1994) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Sheriff Hugo LeBrun
My Girl 2 (1994) .... Gnarly Old Man
Almost Dead (1994) .... Caretaker
Schemes (1994) (V) .... Sam
Miracle Child (1993) (TV) (as George D.
Wallace) .... Grandpa
"Picket Fences" .... Father Joe Lyons
(2 episodes, 1992-1993)
- Fetal Attraction (1993) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Father Joe Lyons
- Sacred Hearts (1992) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Father Joe Lyons
"Civil Wars" (1 episode, 1992)
- Drone of Arc (1992) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace)
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" ....
Admiral Simons (1 episode, 1992)
... aka Star Trek: TNG (USA: promotional abbreviation)
- Man of the People (1992) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Admiral Simons
Child of Rage (1992) (TV) .... Henry
Diggstown (1992) .... Bob Ferris
... aka Midnight Sting
"Nurses" .... Grandpa (1 episode,
1991)
- Reversal of Grandpa (1991) TV Episode
.... Grandpa
The Haunted (1991) (TV) (as George D.
Wallace) .... John
The Boys (1991) (TV) .... Ray
... aka The Guys
Defending Your Life (1991) (as George D.
Wallace) .... Daniel's judge
"Sons and Daughters" (1991)
TV Series .... Grandpa Hank Hammersmith
(unknown episodes)
Working Tra$h (1990) (TV) .... Big Dan
Postcards from the Edge (1990) .... Carl
People Like Us (1990) (TV) .... Max Luby
"Mancuso, FBI" (2 episodes, 1990)
- Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die: Part 1 (1990)
TV Episode (as George D. Wallace)
- Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die: Part 2 (1990)
TV Episode (as George D. Wallace)
"L.A. Law" .... Judge Peter Brosens
(1 episode, 1989)
- Lie Down and Deliver (1989) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Judge Peter Brosens
"Monsters" (1 episode, 1989)
- Reaper (1989) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace)
"Moonlighting" .... Father (1 episode,
1989)
- Lunar Eclipse (1989) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Father
"Gideon Oliver" .... Professor Peter
Douglas (1 episode, 1989)
... aka By the Rivers of Babylon (Europe: English title)
- The Last Plane from Coramaya (1989) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Professor Peter Douglas
Punchline (1988) .... Man With Arm In Cast
Hot to Trot (1988) .... Orson
Prison (1988) .... Joe Reese
Terrorist on Trial: The United States vs.
Salim Ajami (1988) (TV) (as George D. Wallace) .... Shoop
... aka Hostile Witness (UK)
... aka In the Hands of the Enemy (Australia: DVD title)
"Scarecrow and Mrs. King" ....
Congressman Fremont (2 episodes, 1983-1987)
- Suitable for Framing (1987) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace)
- Magic Bus (1983) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace) .... Congressman Fremont
"Nutcracker: Money, Madness & Murder"
(1987) (mini) TV Series .... Bernard
Bradshaw
Native Son (1986) .... Judge
"Dynasty" .... Walt Tyson (1 episode,
1986)
- The Mission (1986) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace) .... Walt Tyson
"Fresno" (1986) (mini)
TV Series .... Judge Henry Bejajian
"Hotel" .... Garrison Snow (1 episode,
1986)
... aka Arthur Hailey's Hotel
- Hearts Divided (1986) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Garrison Snow
Just Between Friends (1986) .... Bob
Chapwick
"Remington Steele" .... Emery Arnok /
... (2 episodes, 1982-1986)
- Steele in the Spotlight (1986) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Jake Slater
- Steele Waters Run Deep (1982) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Emery Arnok
"St. Elsewhere" .... Nelson
(1 episode, 1985)
- The Naked and the Dead (1985) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Nelson
"Knots Landing" .... Judge Phelps
(2 episodes, 1985)
- The Longest Day (1985) TV Episode
.... Judge Phelps
- The Long and Winding Road (1985) TV Episode
.... Judge Phelps
A Death in California (1985) (TV) .... Judge
Roy Ballantyne
... aka Psychopath (USA: video title)
Protocol (1984) .... T.V. Commentator
"Cagney & Lacey" .... Cottman
(1 episode, 1984)
- Baby Broker (1984) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace) .... Cottman
"Night Court" .... Doctor (2 episodes,
1984)
- Quadrangle of Love (1984) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Doctor
- Santa Goes Downtown (1984) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Doctor
"Hill Street Blues" .... Judge Milton
Cole (4 episodes, 1983)
- Honk If You're a Goose (1983) TV Episode
.... Judge Milton Cole
- Midway to What? (1983) TV Episode
.... Judge Milton Cole
- Praise Dilaudid (1983) TV Episode
.... Judge Milton Cole
- Here's Adventure, Here's Romance (1983) TV Episode
.... Judge Milton Cole
"Newhart" .... Ernest McKenna
(1 episode, 1983)
- Don't Rain on My Parade (1983) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Ernest McKenna
"Bare Essence" .... Dr. Barnett
(1 episode, 1983)
- Hour Three (1983) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace) .... Dr. Barnett
"The Edge of Night" (1956)
TV Series .... Dr. Leo Gault (unknown
episodes, 1980)
... aka Edge of Night (USA: last season title)
The Stunt Man (1980) .... Father
"Little House on the Prairie" ....
Perkins (1 episode, 1978)
... aka Little House: A New Beginning (USA: last season title)
- The Godsister (1978) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Perkins
"Fantasy Island" .... Harry Sand
(1 episode, 1978)
- King for a Day/Instant Family (1978) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Harry Sand
"How the West Was Won" (1978) (mini)
TV Series (as George D. Wallace) ....
Davey Wordley
Deadman's Curve (1978) (TV) .... Bill Berry
The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977)
(as George D. Wallace) .... Senator McCarthy
"Barnaby Jones" .... Gus Willison /
... (2 episodes, 1977)
- The Mercenaries (1977) TV Episode
.... Longwood
- Copy-Cat Killing (1977) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Gus Willison
"The Waltons" .... Dean Beck
(2 episodes, 1975-1977)
- The Hawk (1977) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace) .... Dean Beck
- The Genius (1975) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace) .... Dean Beck
Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977) (as
George D. Wallace)
"Most Wanted" (1 episode, 1976)
- The Heisman Killer (1976) TV Episode
Lifeguard (1976) .... Mr. Carlson
Return to Earth (1976) (TV)
"The Bionic Woman" .... Rancher
(1 episode, 1976)
- Claws (1976) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace) .... Rancher
"Kojak" .... Washburn (1 episode,
1975)
- A Long Way from Times Square (1975) TV Episode
.... Washburn
"The Rookies" .... Bracken / ...
(2 episodes, 1975)
- Measure of Mercy (1975) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Bracken
- A Deadly Image (1975) TV Episode
.... Floyd Conroy
"The Streets of San Francisco" ....
Harold 'Hal' Buxton (1 episode, 1975)
- Murder by Proxy (1975) TV Episode
.... Harold 'Hal' Buxton
"Cannon" .... Matt Venner (1 episode,
1975)
- The Deadly Conspiracy (1975) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Matt Venner
"The Manhunter" .... Martin Quinlan
(1 episode, 1975)
- The Seventh Man (1975) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Martin Quinlan
The Towering Inferno (1974) .... Chief
Officer
"Planet of the Apes" .... Talbert
(1 episode, 1974)
- The Cure (1974) TV Episode ....
Talbert
The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974) .... Mr.
Putnam
... aka H.O.T.S. II (USA: video title)
"Emergency!" .... Sgt Thomas
(1 episode, 1974)
... aka Emergencia (USA: Spanish title)
... aka Emergency One (USA: syndication title)
- How Green Was My Thumb? (1974) TV Episode
.... Sgt Thomas
"The Brady Bunch" .... Mr. Binkley
(1 episode, 1973)
- Getting Greg's Goat (1973) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Mr. Binkley
The Six Million Dollar Man (1973) (TV) ....
General
... aka Cyborg: The Six Million Dollar Man
... aka The Six Million Dollar Man: The Moon and the Desert (USA: rerun
title)
"Ghost Story" .... Sheriff (1 episode,
1972)
... aka Circle of Fear (USA: new title)
- Touch of Madness (1972) TV Episode
.... Sheriff
"Gunsmoke" .... Dan Tobin / ...
(3 episodes, 1956-1972)
... aka Gun Law (UK)
... aka Marshal Dillon (USA: rerun title)
- The Wedding (1972) TV Episode
.... Sheriff Henning
- Easy Come (1963) TV Episode ....
Dan Tobin
- Hack Prine (1956) TV Episode ....
Dolph Trimble
"Ironside" .... Judge Amato
(1 episode, 1971)
... aka The Raymond Burr Show (USA: syndication title)
- In the Line of Duty (1971) TV Episode
.... Judge Amato
Skin Game (1971) .... R.J. McGrath (Fair
Shake auctioneer)
In Search of America (1971) (TV) ....
Clarence
"The F.B.I." .... George Ayers / ...
(2 episodes, 1966-1971)
- Eye of the Needle (1971) TV Episode
.... George Ayers
- Ordeal (1966) TV Episode ....
Graham Lockwood
"Bonanza" .... Doctor (1 episode,
1970)
... aka Ponderosa (USA: rerun title)
- Decision at Los Robles (1970) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Doctor
"Premiere" .... Charlie (1 episode,
1968)
- Higher and Higher (1968) TV Episode
.... Charlie
"The Christophers" .... John
(1 episode, 1967)
- The Partner (1967) TV Episode
.... John
Caprice (1967) (uncredited) .... Policeman
"The Big Valley" .... Deputy Otto
McAdoo (1 episode, 1967)
- Days of Grace (1967) TV Episode
.... Deputy Otto McAdoo
"Daniel Boone" .... Philippe Gamet
(1 episode, 1966)
- When a King Is a Pawn (1966) TV Episode
.... Philippe Gamet
"The Road West" .... Chad (1 episode,
1966)
- Lone Woman (1966) TV Episode ....
Chad
Texas Across the River (1966) .... Floyd
Willet
"The Virginian" .... Dixon / ...
(3 episodes, 1963-1966)
... aka The Men from Shiloh (USA: new title)
- The Outcast (1966) TV Episode
.... Sheriff in Portersville
- The Mountain of the Sun (1963) TV Episode
.... Dixon
- The Judgment (1963) TV Episode
.... Wilkie Carewe
Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966) (uncredited)
.... Police Chief Yates
"Perry Mason" .... Stacey Fielding
(1 episode, 1966)
- The Case of the Vanishing Victim (1966) TV Episode
.... Stacey Fielding
"The Defenders" .... Major Thompson
(1 episode, 1964)
- Survival (1964) TV Episode ....
Major Thompson
"Laramie" .... Gip (4 episodes,
1961-1962)
- Double Eagles (1962) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace)
- Justice in a Hurry (1962) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace)
- Deadly Is the Night (1961) TV Episode
- Badge of the Outsider (1961) TV Episode
.... Gip
Six Black Horses (1962) .... Boone
"Tales of Wells Fargo" .... Bedell /
... (2 episodes, 1959-1962)
- Hometown Doctor (1962) TV Episode
.... Cross
- Desert Showdown (1959) TV Episode
.... Bedell
"Cheyenne" .... Blaney Hawker / ...
(2 episodes, 1955-1961)
- The Brahma Bull (1961) TV Episode
.... Blaney Hawker
- Mountain Fortress (1955) TV Episode
.... Plank
"Rawhide" .... Brady / ...
(3 episodes, 1960-1961)
- The Blue Sky (1961) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Brady
- Incident of the Fish Out of Water (1961) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Colonel Somers, Carnival Owner
- Incident of the Night Horse (1960) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Jed Carst
"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp"
.... Frank McLowery (4 episodes, 1961)
... aka Wyatt Earp
- Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1961) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Frank McLowery
- Just Before the Battle (1961) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Frank McLowery
- The Law Must Be Fair (1961) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Frank McLowery
- Doc Holliday Faces Death (1961) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Frank McLowery
"Zane Grey Theater" .... Borkman / ...
(5 episodes, 1957-1961)
... aka Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater (USA: complete title)
... aka The Westerners (USA: rerun title)
- Jericho (1961) TV Episode
- Sundown Smith (1960) TV Episode
.... Borkman
- Heritage (1959) TV Episode ....
Corporal
- The Accuser (1958) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace)
- Village of Fear (1957) TV Episode
(as George D. Wallace) .... Brill
"The Barbara Stanwyck Show" ....
Johnson (1 episode, 1961)
- The Choice (1961) TV Episode ....
Johnson
"Maverick" .... Sheriff Joe Holly /
... (2 episodes, 1960-1961)
- Benefit of the Doubt (1961) TV Episode
.... Sheriff Joe Holly
- A Flock of Trouble (1960) TV Episode
.... Verne Scott
"77 Sunset Strip" .... Sheriff
(1 episode, 1961)
- Old Card Sharps Never Die (1961) TV Episode
.... Sheriff
"Disneyland" .... Mordecai / ...
(6 episodes, 1960-1961)
... aka Disney's Wonderful World (USA: new title)
... aka The Disney Sunday Movie (USA: new title)
... aka The Magical World of Disney (USA: new title)
... aka The Wonderful World of Disney (USA: new title)
... aka Walt Disney (USA: new title)
... aka Walt Disney Presents (USA: new title)
... aka Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (USA: new title)
- Daniel Boone: The Promised Land (1961) TV Episode
.... Mordecai
- Daniel Boone: The Wilderness Road (1961) TV Episode
.... Mordecai
- Daniel Boone: And Chase the Buffalo (1960) TV Episode
.... Mordecai
- Daniel Boone: The Warrior's Path (1960) TV Episode
.... Mordecai
- Texas John Slaughter: Apache Friendship (1960)
TV Episode .... Gus
(1 more)
"The Rebel" .... Aaron Wallace
(1 episode, 1961)
- The Burying of Sammy Hart (1961) TV Episode
.... Aaron Wallace
"Lawman" .... Nat Gruber (2 episodes,
1959-1961)
... aka The Lawman (USA: alternative title)
- Hassayampa (1961) TV Episode (as
George D. Wallace)
- Red Ransom (1959) TV Episode ....
Nat Gruber
"The Tall Man" .... Jim Miles
(1 episode, 1960)
- One of One Thousand (1960) TV Episode
.... Jim Miles
"The Deputy" .... Dan Farrell
(1 episode, 1960)
- Second Cousin to the Czar (1960) TV Episode
.... Dan Farrell
"Surfside 6" .... Jim Elliott
(1 episode, 1960)
- Deadly Male (1960) TV Episode
.... Jim Elliott
"Bourbon Street Beat" .... Peter
Justin (1 episode, 1960)
- Six Hours to Midnight (1960) TV Episode
.... Peter Justin
"The Rifleman" (1 episode, 1960)
- Sins of the Father (1960) TV Episode
"Death Valley Days" .... Jake Handley
(1 episode, 1960)
... aka Call of the West (USA: syndication title)
... aka The Pioneers (USA: syndication title)
... aka Trails West (USA: syndication title)
... aka Western Star Theater (USA: syndication title)
- Pirates of San Francisco (1960) TV Episode
.... Jake Handley
"Sugarfoot" .... John Crain
(1 episode, 1960)
... aka Tenderfoot (UK)
- Blackwater Swamp (1960) TV Episode
.... John Crain
"Overland Trail" .... Matt (1 episode,
1960)
... aka Overland Stage
- High Bridge (1960) TV Episode
.... Matt
"Texas John Slaughter" .... Gus
(2 episodes, 1960)
- Apache Friendship (1960) TV Episode
.... Gus
- Desperado from Tombstone (1960) TV Episode
.... Gus
"Black Saddle" .... Jim House
(1 episode, 1960)
... aka The Westerners (USA: syndication title)
- The Killer (1960) TV Episode ....
Jim House
"The Alaskans" .... Bill Adams
(1 episode, 1959)
- Winter Song (1959) TV Episode
.... Bill Adams
"Captain Grief" .... Wulf (1 episode,
1959)
- The Return of Blackbeard (1959) TV Episode
.... Wulf
"Bronco" .... Sheriff Purdom
(1 episode, 1959)
- Shadow of a Man (1959) TV Episode
.... Sheriff Purdom
"The Millionaire" .... Pete / ...
(2 episodes, 1957-1959)
... aka If You Had a Million
- Millionaire Charlie Weber (1959) TV Episode
.... Pete
- The Charles Wyatt Story (1957) TV Episode
.... Ted Wyatt
Star in the Dust (1956) (uncredited) ....
Joe
... aka Law Man (USA)
Great Day in the Morning (1956) (uncredited)
.... Jack Lawford, Miner
Forbidden Planet (1956) .... Bosun
The Second Greatest Sex (1955) .... Simon
Clegghorn
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
"Those Whiting Girls" .... Professor
(1 episode, 1955)
- You're Driving Me Crazy (1955) TV Episode
.... Professor
Soldier of Fortune (1955) (uncredited) ....
Gunner
"Fireside Theatre" .... Johnny
(3 episodes, 1950-1955)
- Night of Terror (1955) TV Episode
.... Johnny
- Neutral Corner (1951) TV Episode
- Judas (1950) TV Episode
"The Man Behind the Badge" ....
Commando Cody (1 episode, 1955)
- The Case of the Unknown Man (1955) TV Episode
.... Commando Cody
Strange Lady in Town (1955) (uncredited)
.... Curley
Rage at Dawn (1955) (uncredited) ....
Sheriff Mosley
... aka Seven Bad Men
Man Without a Star (1955) .... Tom Carter
"Four Star Playhouse" .... Sam
(1 episode, 1954)
... aka Four Star Theatre (UK: new title)
... aka Star Performance (USA: rerun title)
- Go Ahead and Jump (1954) TV Episode
.... Sam
"Studio 57" .... Hank Howell
(1 episode, 1954)
... aka Heinz Studio 57 (USA: alternative title)
- Rescue at Twelve Lakes (1954) TV Episode
.... Hank Howell
Destry (1954) .... Curly Adams
"Treasury Men in Action" (1 episode,
1954)
... aka Your Treasury Men in Action
- The Case of the Green Feathers (1954) TV Episode
The Human Jungle (1954) .... Det. O'Neill
"The Adventures of Kit Carson" ....
Rafe (3 episodes, 1954)
... aka Kit Carson
- Frontier of Challenge (1954) TV Episode
- Powder Depot (1954) TV Episode
- The Gatling Gun (1954) TV Episode
.... Rafe
Drums Across the River (1954) .... Les
Walker
"Stories of the Century" .... Cole
Younger (1 episode, 1954)
... aka The Fast Guns (USA: reissue title)
- The Younger Brothers (1954) TV Episode
.... Cole Younger
"Hopalong Cassidy" .... Brad Mason /
... (4 episodes, 1952-1954)
- The Emerald Saint (1954) TV Episode
.... Sam Chapman/Jim Forrester
- Copper Hills (1954) TV Episode
.... Judson Rush
- Don Colorado (1952) TV Episode
.... Roger Endicott
- Marked Cards (1952) TV Episode
.... Brad Mason
The French Line (1954) (uncredited) ....
Cowboy
"Dragnet" (1 episode, 1954)
... aka Badge 714 (USA: syndication title)
- The Big Chance (1954) TV Episode
Border River (1954) .... Fletcher
Vigilante Terror (1953) .... Gang leader
Brewer
Arena (1953) .... Buster Cole
Francis Covers the Big Town (1953) (uncredited)
.... Mounted Traffic Cop
The Homesteaders (1953) .... Meade
Pardon My Wrench (1953) .... Gil's Rival
Star of Texas (1953) .... Clampett
The Lawless Breed (1953) (uncredited) ....
Bully Brady
The Great Adventures of Captain Kidd (1953)
.... Buller
Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) (uncredited)
.... Bud Williams (Stunt pilot)
... aka The One Piece Bathing Suit (UK)
Kansas City Confidential (1952) (uncredited)
.... Olson
... aka The Secret Four (UK)
Back at the Front (1952) (uncredited)
... aka Willie and Joe Back at the Front (USA: reissue title)
... aka Willie and Joe in Tokyo (UK)
The Big Sky (1952) (uncredited) .... Thug in
general store
Sally and Saint Anne (1952) (uncredited)
.... Jimmy Mulvaney, Bartender
Meet Danny Wilson (1952) (uncredited) ....
Patrolman
Ghost Buster (1952) .... Bigelow
Japanese War Bride (1952) .... Woody Blacker
Radar Men from the Moon (1952) .... Commando
Cody
"Dangerous Assignment" .... Texas
Ranger (1 episode, 1952)
- The Art Treasure Story (1952) TV Episode
.... Texas Ranger
Submarine Command (1951) .... Chief Herb
Bixby
... aka The Submarine Story (USA)
The Fat Man (1951) (uncredited) .... Carl
Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951) (uncredited)
.... Cellblock Convict
"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" ....
Himself (1 episode, 2006)
... aka Queer Eye (USA: new title)
- Turn a Poker Dud Into a Five Card Stud: Ed M (2006)
TV Episode .... Himself
All Shades of Fine: 25 Hottest Women of the
Past 25 Years (2005) (TV) .... Himself
Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone (1994) ....
Frank McLowery (flashback sequence)
Retik, the Moon Menace (1966) (TV) ....
Commando Cody
Rich
Braham, Pro Football Player, Morgantown
Rich Braham (born November 6, 1970 in Morgantown,
West Virginia) was a National Football League center for the Cincinnati
Bengals.
High school career
Braham attended University High School in Morgantown, West Virginia, where
he lettered in both, football and basketball. In basketball, he won second
team prep All-State honors as a senior.
College career
Braham attended West Virginia University, where
as a senior, he was a second team All-American, an All-Big East selection, and
helped lead the team to a Sugar Bowl berth and an 11 win-1 loss record.
NFL career
Rich Braham was drafted by the Phoenix
Cardinals but then was quickly traded to the Cincinnati Bengals. He played
with the Bengals for 13 seasons. At the end of the 2006 NFL season, Braham
decided to announce his retirement.
Bob
Huggins, Coach, Morgantown
Bob Huggins (born September 21, 1953 in
Morgantown, West Virginia) is the head coach of the men's basketball team at
Kansas State University, and was head coach at University of Cincinnati from
1989 to 2005. His 567-199 record (.740) during his 24 seasons as a head coach
ranks him eighth in winning percentage and 11th in victories among active
Division I coaches. His string of 14 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances
is the third-longest active streak. His teams have won 20 or more games in all
but four of his 24 campaigns and he has averaged 23.5 victories a season; 26.0
wins per campaign over the past nine years.
Playing career
Huggins, who had moved to Gnadenhutten, Ohio
with his family, played basketball for his father, Charles, at Indian Valley
South High School. As a senior, he helped lead his team to a 26-0 season.
Huggins returned to his native West Virginia, playing point guard for the West
Virginia University Mountaineers from 1975 until 1977. Cut after a 1977 tryout
with the Philadelphia 76ers, Huggins subsequently pursued a master's degree
and sold sneakers.
Start of coaching
career
Huggins launched his coaching career as a
graduate assistant on Joedy Gardner's staff at West Virginia University in
1977. He then spent two years as an assistant to Eldon Miller at The Ohio
State University. Huggins was only 27 when he became a collegiate head coach,
accepting the position at Walsh University in 1980. In three seasons at Walsh,
he compiled a 71-26 record, twice earning NAIA District 22 Coach of the Year
honors. Huggins directed the 1982-83 team to a perfect 30-0 regular season
mark and an eventual 34-1 mark. After serving as an assistant at University of
Central Florida for the 1983-84 season, Huggins was named head coach at the
University of Akron where he compiled a 97-46 record and reached post-season
play in three of his five seasons there.
Career at University
of Cincinnati
Huggins compiled a 399-127 record (.759) in his
16 years at Cincinnati, making him the winningest coach in terms of victories
and percentage in the school's rich basketball history. Huggins directed
Cincinnati to ten conference regular-season titles and eight league tournament
titles. The Bearcats appeared in post-season play in each of Huggins' 16
seasons at U.C., advancing to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament two times
and, in 1991-92, appearing once in the Final Four.
Huggins earned the Ray Meyer Award as the
Conference USA Coach of the Year a record three times (1997-98, 1998-99, and
1999-2000), and was a unanimous choice for C-USA Coach of the Decade. He was
selected national coach of the year by ESPN.com in 2001-02. He was named
co-national coach of the year by The Sporting News last season and was
Basketball Times' national coach of the year in 1997-98. He earned national
coach of the year recognition from Hoop Scoop in 1991-92 and Playboy in
1992-93. During this time the program also gained a reputation for a rough
style of play and academic under-performance, as well as numerous criminal
convictions and arrests for many of his players, thus comparing Huggins to
Jerry Tarkanian's successful, yet controversial, UNLV programs. Huggins'
program was put on NCAA probation for lack of institutional control in 1998.
Huggins was suspended indefinitely following a drunken-driving charge before
resigning in 2005.
Huggins is a proven success as a
program-builder, recruiter, game strategist, and inspirational leader, and he
is believed by fans to have demonstrated this in varying situations during his
tenure at Cincinnati. He also has directed star-studded teams, while
developing the individual talents of players such as consensus All-Americans
Danny Fortson, Kenyon Martin, and Steve Logan, to a succession of conference
championships and NCAA tournament runs. Huggins has achieved similar success
on the recruiting trails. He has attracted three No. 1-rated junior college
players and five McDonald's All-Americans, while six of his last nine
recruiting classes have been ranked among the nation's top ten. Inheriting a
team short on numbers upon his arrival at Cincinnati, Huggins coached that
1989-90 squad to a post-season tournament berth. Two seasons later, he
assimilated the talents of four junior-college transfers and a smattering of
seasoned veterans into a cohesive unit, which he directed to successive
finishes in the Final Four and the Elite Eight. However, Huggins had mixed
tournament success after those seasons. He led the Bearcats to the Elite Eight
in 1996 and the Sweet 16 in 2001, but in all other tournaments, his teams were
bounced in the second round, frequently losing to much lower seeds. Some have
pointed out that his 1992 trip to the Final Four was facilitated by a busted
bracket; the top three seeds in the bracket all lost in the second round, and
all of the teams the fourth-seeded Bearcats beat were seeded lower than they
were.
Over the ensuing seasons, he developed young
and inexperienced teams with as many as three freshmen starters into squads
which captured two more league titles and made another pair of NCAA
appearances. Huggins surprised some astute college basketball followers in
1997-98 by directing a team which had only one returning starter to a 27-6
record, conference regular season, and tournament titles, a No. 2 seed in the
NCAA tournament and a Top-10 finish in the polls. The team was then upset by
West Virginia in the tournament. Huggins' 2001-02 team, unranked when the
season began, posted a 31-4 record, setting a U.C. mark for victories, made a
clean sweep of the Conference USA regular season and tournament titles, and
was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, where they lost in double overtime to
No 8 seed UCLA. In 2002-03, Huggins suffered a major heart attack on the last
Saturday of September, but was present for the team's first practice two weeks
later and coached the Bearcats with the same intensity that has become his
trademark. Not surprisingly given the season's rocky start, the team qualified
for the NCAA tournament only as an 8 seed, and were ousted in the first round
by Gonzaga.
The 2003-04 season was business as usual for
Huggins, who piloted U.C. to C-USA regular-season and tournament titles, and
an NCAA tournament berth while amassing a 25-7 record. Despite a favorable
draw -- the team was sent to nearby Columbus, OH, for the first two rounds of
the tournament -- the Bearcats were mauled by the University of Illinois,
losing by 24 points in the second round. The 2004-05 Bearcats posted a 25-8
ledger, the ninth season in the past ten years that U.C. has won 25 or more
games. They received only a 7 seed in the tournament, however, and gave
eventual Elite Eight participant Kentucky a spirited game before falling in
the second round.
Resignation
In August 2005, the University of Cincinnati
bought out the final three years of his contract in exchange for his
resignation. In an interview on ESPN, Huggins admitted that his 2004 arrest
for driving under the influence created the perception that he was not a
proper representative for the University.
Career at Kansas
State; recruiting
After spending a year out of the coaching
profession, on March 23, 2006, Huggins accepted the head coaching job at
Kansas State University , replacing the fired Jim Wooldridge and creating an
immediate buzz in the state of Kansas, the Big 12, and the nation. Since
taking the KSU job, Huggins has generally improved basketball recruiting at
the school. His initial recruiting class featured 7-foot-3, 265-pound center
from Jacksonville, Florida, Jason Bennett. Bennett was a consensus top-50
player for the 2006 recruiting class. The class also featured Blake Young, a
6-foot-2, 180-pound shooting guard, and Luis Colon, a 6-foot-10, 260-pound
center/power forward. Finally, on October 25, 2006, the Kansas City Star
reported that Bill Walker, a highly touted recruit for the 2007 class, had
enrolled at Kansas State after completing his entrance requirements a year
early, and would join the 2006 class. Walker was eligible to play in K-State's
home game against Kennesaw State on December 17, 2006, but following a torn
ACL during the Wildcats' game with the Texas A&M Aggies, Walker has had to sit
out the remainder of the season.
On June 23, 2006, Huggins landed a commitment
for the 2007 season from perhaps the biggest recruit in K-State's history in
6'8" small forward Michael Beasley. Beasley is ranked by many services as one
of the top prospects for 2007.
Huggins' arrival at K-State has created an
excitement for basketball among Wildcat fans not seen since the late 1980s.
Season-ticket sales at Bramlage Coliseum have reached record levels in this
first season alone.
One of Huggins' biggest challenges will be to
make the Wildcats more competitive against their in-state archrivals, the
University of Kansas Jayhawks. Kansas St. has not defeated KU in Manhattan
since 1983, when the Wildcats still played in Ahearn Fieldhouse, and the
Jayhawks have won 32 of the last 33 meetings in the series entering the
2006-07 season. At Kansas State's "Madness in Manhattan" event, Huggins told
the 10,000 fans in attendance that the rivalry would be renewed once Kansas
State began to win the Sunflower Showdown. K-State fell short on ESPN's Big
Monday to rival KU in a 62-71 loss.
Lawrence
Kasdan, movie producer, director and screenwriter, Morgantown
Lawrence Kasdan (born 14 January
1949, Miami, Florida) is an American movie producer, director and
screenwriter. Raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, where he
graduated from Morgantown High School in 1966, he went on to attend
the University of Michigan as an education major.
After working as a freelance advertising
copywriter, Kasdan's introduction into the film business came in the mid-1970s
when he sold his script for The Bodyguard to Warner Bros. as a vehicle
for Diana Ross. The script became stuck in "development hell" and became one
of several scripts successively called "the best un-made film in Hollywood";
it was eventually produced as 1992 film starring Whitney Houston and Kevin
Costner.
George Lucas commissioned Kasdan in 1979 to
complete the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back after the death of
Leigh Brackett. Lucas then commissioned Kasdan to write the screenplay for
Raiders of the Lost Ark and the last installment of the Star Wars trilogy,
Return of the Jedi. Kasdan made his directing debut with Body Heat
in 1981.
He makes a cameo appearance in James L. Brooks'
comedy As Good As It Gets as the fed-up psychiatrist of Jack
Nicholson's novelist.
Kasdan is the father of directors/actors Jake
and Jon Kasdan.
His credits include:
The Risk Pool (2007) (writer,
director) (pre-production)
Dreamcatcher (2003) (writer,
director)
Mumford (1999) (writer, director)
French Kiss (1995) (director)
Wyatt Earp (1994) (director, writer
and producer)
The Bodyguard (1992) (writer and
producer)
Grand Canyon (1991) (writer,
director, and producer)
I Love You to Death (1990) (director)
The Accidental Tourist (1988)
(writer, director, and producer)
Silverado (1985) (writer, director,
and producer)
The Big Chill (1983) (writer,
director, and executive producer)
Return of the Jedi (1983) (writer)
Continental Divide (1981) (writer)
Body Heat (1981) (director and
writer)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
(writer)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
(writer)
Red Sovine, Country Entertainer,
Charleston. 1918-1980
b. Woodrow Wilson Sovine, 17 July 1918, Charleston,
West Virginia, USA, d. 4 April 1980, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Sovine was
taught the guitar by his mother and was working professionally by the time he
was 17 on WCHS Charleston with Johnny Bailes (Bailes Brothers), and then as part
of Jim Pike's Carolina Tarheels. In 1948 Sovine formed his own band, The Echo
Valley Boys, and became a regular on The Louisiana Hayride. Sovine acquired the
nickname of "The Old Syrup Sopper" following the sponsorship by Johnny Fair
Syrup of some radio shows, and the title is apt for such narrations as "Daddy's
Girl". Sovine recorded for US Decca Records and first made the country charts
with "Are You Mine?", a duet with Goldie Hill. Later that year, a further duet,
this time with Webb Pierce, "Why Baby Why", made number 1 on the US country
charts. They followed this with the tear-jerking narration "Little Rosa", which
became a mainstay of Sovine's act. From 1954 Sovine was a regular at the Grand
Ole Opry and, in all, he had 31 US country chart entries. He was particularly
successful with maudlin narrations about truck-drivers and his hits include "Giddyup
Go" (a US country number 1 about a truck-driver being reunited with his son),
"Phantom 309" (a truck-driving ghost story!) and his million-selling saga of a
crippled boy and his CB radio, "Teddy Bear" (1976). Sequels and parodies of
"Teddy Bear" abound; Sovine refused to record "Teddy Bear's Last Ride", which
became a US country hit for Diana Williams. He retaliated with "Little Joe" to
indicate that Teddy Bear was not dead after all.
Among his own compositions are "I Didn't Jump The
Fence" and "Missing You", which was a UK hit for Jim Reeves. Sovine recorded
"The Hero" as a tribute to John Wayne, and his son, Roger Wayne Sovine, was
named in his honour. The young Sovine was briefly a country singer, making the
lower end of the US country charts with "Culman, Alabam" and "Little Bitty Nitty
Gritty Dirt Town". Red Sovine's country music owed nothing to contemporary
trends but his sentimentality was popular in UK clubs. He had no big-time image
and, while touring the UK, he made a point of visiting specialist country music
shops. In 1980 Sovine died of a heart attack at the wheel of his car in
Nashville. The following year, as CB radio finally hit the UK, a reissue of
"Teddy Bear" reached number 5, his first UK chart entry.
Frank DeVol, Entertainer,
Moundsville. 1911-1999
b. Herman Frank De Vol, 20 September 1911,
Moundsville, West Virginia, USA, d. 27 October 1999, Lafayette, California, USA.
Raised in Canton, Ohio, De Vol's father led a local film theatre pit band in
which he played violin and saxophone before graduating from high school in 1929.
A planned career in law took him briefly to university, which he abandoned for a
musical career. De Vol played in various bands, including those of Emerson Gill,
Horace Heidt and Alvino Rey, and toured with the George Olsen-Ethel Shutta
troupe. During the 40s, settled in California, he led his own band on radio and
later on television. The latter included shows headlined by Rosemary Clooney,
Betty White and Dinah Shore. Also active in recording studios, he accompanied
Mel Torme on 1949 sessions and most notably Ella Fitzgerald resulting in several
albums between 1957 and 1964.
Mostly though, from the mid-50s De Vol was composing
scores for films including Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Attack (1956), Pillow Talk
(1959, Oscar nominated), Murder, Inc. (1960), What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?
(1962), McLintock! (1963), Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964, Oscar
nominated), Cat Ballou and The Flight Of The Phoenix (1965, the former
Oscar-nominated), The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), The Dirty Dozen and Guess Who's
Coming To Dinner? (1967, the latter Oscar-nominated), Krakatoa, East Of Java
(1969), Ulzana's Raid (1972), Emperor Of The North Pole (1973), The Longest Yard
aka The Mean Machine (1974), The Frisco Kid (1979), Herbie Goes Bananas (1980),
and ... All The Marbles (1981). De Vol also composed music for the television
shows Family Affair, The Smith Family, My Three Sons and The Brady Bunch. He
also acted in television, including the early 60s sitcom I'm Dickens, He's
Fenster, and in films, The Parent Trap (1961) and The Big Mouth (1967).
After the death of his first wife, Grayce, to whom
he was married for more than 50 years, De Vol married singer Helen O'Connell who
predeceased him. As well as film scores, De Vol wrote popular songs, usually in
collaboration with others who included Mack David and Bobby Helfer: "I've
Written A Letter To Daddy", "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?", "Hush, Hush,
Sweet Charlotte", "I And Claudie", "My Chinese Fair Lady", "The Chaperone".
Sometimes during his career, alternative spelling of his name were used: Frank
DeVol, Frank Devol and Frank deVol. Sometimes, only his surname was used, this
too appearing in alternative spellings: DeVol and De Vol.
Davis Grubb, Author, Moundsville.
1919-1980
(July 23, 1919 - July 24, 1980) was an American
novelist and short story writer.
Born in Moundsville, West Virginia, Grubb wanted
to combine his creative skills as a painter with writing and as such attended
the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, his
color blindess was a handicap he could not overcome and as such gave up on
painting to dedicate himself to writing fiction. He did however do a number of
drawings and sketches during the course of his career, some of which were
incorporated into his writings.
In 1940, Grubb moved to New York City where he
worked at NBC radio as a writer while using his free time to write short
stories. In the mid 1940s he was successful in selling several short stories to
major magazines and in the early 1950s he starting writing a full length novel.
Influenced by accounts of economic hardship by depression-era Americans that his
mother had seen first hand as a social worker, Grubb produced a dark tale that
mixed the plight of poor children and adults with that of the evil inflicted by
others.
His first novel, The Night of the Hunter,
became an instant bestseller and was voted a finalist for the 1955 National Book
Award. That same year, the book was made into a motion picture that is now
regarded as a classic. Deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of
Congress, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National
Film Registry. Davis Grubb went on to write a further nine novels and several
collections of short stories. His 1969 novel Fools' Parade would also be
made into a motion picture starring James Stewart. Some of Grubb's short stories
were adapted for television by Alfred Hitchcock and by Rod Serling for his
Night Gallery series.
Davis Grubb died in New York City in 1980. His
novel Ancient Lights was published posthumously in 1982, and St. Martins
Press published eighteen of his short stories in a book collection titled You
Never Believe Me and Other Stories.
Lonnie Warwick, Pro Football
Player, Mount Hope
Lonnie Preston Warwick
Position: LB
Height: 6' 3'' Weight: 235
Born: 2/26/1942, in Raleigh, WV, USA
High School: Mount Hope (WV)
College: Tennessee, Tennessee Tech
Mike
D'Antoni, NBA Basketplayer and Coach, Mullins
Mike D'Antoni (born May 9, 1951 in Mullens, West
Virginia) is a basketball coach and former basketball player. He holds
American and Italian dual citizenship. D'Antoni is currently head coach of the
Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association. He has worked for the
Phoenix franchise since 2003, and won the NBA Coach of the Year Award
for the 2004-05 after leading the Suns to a 62-20 record and a trip to the
Western Conference Finals.
Player career
After a college career at Marshall University,
D'Antoni was drafted by the Kansas City-Omaha Kings in the 2nd round of the
1973 NBA Draft. He was all-NBA Rookie Second Team choice for 1974. After 3
seasons for the Kings (1974-1976), he Played for St. Louis Spirits of the
American Basketball Association in 1976, and for San Antonio Spurs (again NBA)
in 1977.
D'Antoni was then called by the Italian team of
Olimpia Milano, starting a great European career which turned him later in the
club's all-time leading scorer. He was voted the league’s top point guard of
all time in 1990 and he paced his team to five Italian League titles, two Cups
of Europe, two Cups of Italy, one Korac Cup and one Intercontinental Cup.
Being of Italian origins, D'Antoni was also selected to play on the Italy
national basketball team for the World Cup in 1989.
D'Antoni nickname in Europe was Arsène Lupin
for his ability in stealing balls from other players.
Coach career
D’Antoni began his career as head coach for his
most loyal club, Milan: here he remained for four seasons, from 1990 to 1994,
leading the club to the 1993 Korac Cup. He was then chosen to coach
Pallacanestro Treviso (Benetton), another major Italian basketball club.
During his tenure (1994–1997), the team captured the Cup of Europe and Coppa
Italia (in 1995) and won the domestic league title in 1996-97. Coach
D’Antoni's Italian teams went to the playoffs each season, and he was twice
voted the league’s Coach of the Year.
First NBA coaching job was with the Denver
Nuggets in 1998-99, and was the club’s director of player personnel in
1997-98. He was also an assistant for the Portland Trail Blazers in 2000-01
and a scout for San Antonio Spurs during the 1999-2000 season.
Recently selected to the coaching staff for the
Team USA Olympic Basketball squad under head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Pundits
believe his familiarity with the three point shot and the zone defense,
hallmarks of the international game, will be valuable assets to the team.
D'Antoni has dual citizenship in the United
States and Italy: this made him the first Italian ever to lead an NBA team. He
is fluent in both English and Italian.
Robert Lee "Sam" Huff , Football
Player, Farmington
(born October 4, 1934, Farmington, West Virginia)
is a former American football linebacker who played for the New York Giants and
the Washington Redskins after earning All-America honors at West Virginia
University. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982.
Long considered one of the most physical
defensive players in the annals of NFL history, Huff ended his professional
career with 30 interceptions, hauling in at least one interception during each
season he played.
One of six children, Huff was born in a West
Virginia mining camp called Edna Gap and watched his family struggle through the
depths of the Depression. Motivated by these hurdles, Huff took up football at
Farmington High School and earned a scholarship to West Virginia University.
Huff majored in physical education in college,
expecting to use his degree in a teaching capacity. However, his skills on the
football field helped lead the Mountaineers to a 31-7 record during his
collegiate career. On an individual level, Huff garnered not only a berth on the
1955 All-America squad, but a third round draft selection by the New York Giants
as well.
When Giants head coach Jim Lee Howell couldn't
decide where to play him, Sam almost left the team before he was stopped by
assistant coach Vince Lombardi. When middle linebacker Ray Beck was injured in
the season's third game, Huff stepped in and excelled, a factor that led to
Beck's retirement soon afterwards. Huff's work on defense played a major role in
helping the Giants win their first NFL Championship since 1938.
After being dethroned by the Cleveland Browns the
following year, the Giants would return to the Championship Game in five of the
next six seasons, but came up on the short end of the stick on each occasion.
Those disappointments failed to limit Huff's
image in the national spotlight. Playing in the media capital of the world, Huff
would be featured on the November 30, 1959 edition of Time Magazine, and was
also the subject of an October 31, 1960 CBS special, "The Violent World of Sam
Huff." At one point, Huff was making more for his off-the-field duties than on
the gridiron. (New York-based comedian Alan King talked about the CBS program in
one of his books, in mock wonderment about how the sound in his set was good
enough to hear bones crunching).
Huff earned a host of honors during his time with
the Giants, including being named Top NFL Linebacker in 1959, four consecutive
Pro Bowl selections (1958-1961), and winning a spot on the All-NFL team three
times. During his 13-year career, Huff's most memorable on-field duels came
against a pair of running backs, Cleveland's Jim Brown, and Green Bay's Jim
Taylor
Allie Sherman, who had taken over as Giants head
coach for Howell in 1961, traded Huff to the Washington Redskins on April 10,
1964 as part of a five-player deal, one of a series of moves that sent the
once-proud Giants into a tailspin. In 1964, Huff went to his fifth, and final,
Pro Bowl.
When Huff arrived, the Redskin defense had given
up the most points in the NFL in 1963, and had been a perennial also-ran in that
category since 1958. After his first season, the Redskins improved to seventh,
but after four seasons with the team, he retired from football, primarily due to
differences with Washington head coach Otto Graham. When Vince Lombardi returned
to coach football in 1969, Huff returned to the Redskins as a player-coach for
two seasons.
Upon his final retirement as a player, Huff
entered the broadcast booth, spending one season as part of the Giants radio
team. He then went on to the Redskins, having spent the last three decades
working in the same capacity.
In 1999, he was ranked number 76 on The
Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.
On November 24, 2005, Huff's uniform number 75
was retired by West Virginia University.
Lew
Burdette, Baseball Player, Nitro. 1926-2007
Selva Lewis Burdette, Jr. (November 22, 1926 –
February 6, 2007) was an American right-handed starting pitcher in Major
League Baseball who played primarily for the Boston and Milwaukee Braves. The
team's top righthander during its years in Milwaukee, he was the Most Valuable
Player of the 1957 World Series, leading the franchise to its first
championship in 43 years, and the only title in Milwaukee history. An
outstanding control pitcher, his career average of 1.84 walks per nine innings
pitched places him behind only Robin Roberts (1.73), Carl Hubbell (1.82) and
Juan Marichal (1.82) among pitchers with at least 3000 innings since 1920.
Born in Nitro, West Virginia, Burdette was signed
by the New York Yankees in 1947, and after making two relief appearances for
the team in September 1950, he was traded to the Braves in August 1951 for
four-time 20-game winner Johnny Sain. Along with left-hander Warren Spahn and
hardworking Bob Buhl, he gave the Braves one of the best starting rotations in
the majors during the 1950s, winning 15 or more games eight times between 1953
and 1961. When Milwaukee won the 1957 World Series against the Yankees,
Burdette became the first pitcher in 37 years to win three complete games in a
Series, and the first since Christy Mathewson in 1905 to pitch two shutouts
(Games 5 and 7). In the 1958 Series, however, the Yankees defeated Burdette
twice in three starts. In addition to winning 20 games in 1958 and 21 in 1959,
Burdette won 19 in 1956 and 1960, 18 in 1961, and 17 in 1957. In two All-Star
games, he allowed only one run in seven innings pitched, and in 1956 he topped
National League pitchers with a 2.70 earned run average. He also led the NL in
shutouts twice, and in wins, innings and complete games once each.
Burdette was the winning pitcher on May 26,
1959 when the Pittsburgh Pirates' Harvey Haddix pitched a perfect game against
the Braves for 12 innings, only to lose in the 13th. Burdette threw a 1-0
shutout, scattering 12 hits. In the ensuing offseason, he joked, "I'm the
greatest pitcher that ever lived. The greatest game that was ever pitched in
baseball wasn't good enough to beat me, so I've got to be the greatest!" The
next year, facing the minimum 27 batters, Burdette pitched a 1–0 no-hitter
against the Philadelphia Phillies on August 18, 1960. Tony González, the only
opposing batter to reach base after being hit by a pitch in the fifth inning,
was retired on a double play. Burdette helped himself by scoring the only run
of the game. Following up his no-hitter, five days later he pitched his third
shutout in a row.
As a hitter, he compiled a .183 batting average
with 75 RBI and 12 home runs; his first two home runs came in the same 1957
game, and he later had two more two-homer games.
In 1963 Burdette was traded to the St. Louis
Cardinals (1963-64), and was later sent to the Chicago Cubs (1964-65) and
Phillies (1965). Signing with the California Angels, he pitched exclusively in
relief for the team in 1966-67 before retiring. In an 18-year career, Burdette
posted a 203-144 record with 1074 strikeouts and a 3.66 ERA in 3067.1 innings,
compiling 158 complete games and 33 shutouts. His totals of wins, games and
innings with the Braves ranked behind only Spahn and Kid Nichols in franchise
history.
Burdette also cut a record in the 1950s
entitled "Three Strikes and Then You're Out".
Burdette died of lung cancer at age 80 at his
home in Winter Garden, Florida.
Highlights
Two-time All-Star (1957, 1959)
Third in Cy Young Award voting (1958)
Led league in wins (1959)
Led league in games started (1959)
Led league in complete games (1960)
Twice led league in shutouts (1956, 1959)
5 times in top 4 in wins (1956-58, 1960-61)
Player of the Month for August 1958
Trivia
Nino Escalera, the first black player in
Cincinnati Reds history, singled against Burdette as a pinch hitter in his
major league debut. (Milwaukee County Stadium, April 17, 1954)
On one of his baseball cards, his first name
is misspelled "Lou."
Captain
James Van Pelt Jr., Army Air Corps Navigator, Oak Hill
WWII navigator, was born
here in 1922. He was the navigator aboard the B-29 which dropped an atomic bomb
on Nagasaki, Japan in World War II.
George
Cafego, Football Player, Whipple. 1915-1998
Date of birth
August 29, 1915
Place of birth
Whipple, WV
Date of death
February 9, 1998
Position(s)
Halfback
College
Tennessee
NFL Draft
1940 / Round 1/ Pick 1
1940, 1943
1943
1944-1945
Brooklyn Dodgers
Washington Redskins
Boston Yanks
George Cafego (August 29, 1915 - February 9,
1998) was a star college, and professional football player and coach. Cafego
earned the nickname "Bad News" for his extraordinary play on the field. He was
inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1969.
High school and
collegiate career
Born in rural Whipple, West Virginia, Cafego
attended Oak Hill High School in nearby Scarboro. He went to the University of
Tennessee as a halfback under coach Robert Neyland. While there, he compiled
2,139 total yards and two All-American team selections. In addition to running
and passing the ball, Cafego also served as punter and kick returner,
excelling at both.
Professional career
Cafego was drafted as a number one overall pick
in 1940 by the Brooklyn Dodgers of the NFL. After playing one season, his
career was interrupted by a brief stint of Army service in World War II.
Returning to the Dodgers in 1943, he was traded to the Washington Redskins
after five unspectacular games. For the 1944 and 1945 seasons, Cafego played
for the Boston Yanks before retiring.
Coaching career
After his playing days were over, Cafego served
as an assistant coach at Wyoming, Furman, Arkansas, and 30 years at his alma
mater, the University of Tennessee. He retired from coaching following the
1984 season.
Cafego died in Knoxville, Tennessee at the age
of 82 and was buried in Fayette County, West Virginia.
Jessica
Lynch, U.S.Army Soldier and Prisoner Of War, Palestine
Place of birth
Palestine, West Virginia
Years of service
unknown — August 27, 2003
Rank
Private First Class
Unit
507th Maintenance Company
Battles/wars
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Awards
Bronze Star Medal
Prisoner of War Medal
Purple Heart
Jessica Dawn Lynch (born April 26, 1983 in
Palestine, West Virginia), a Quartermaster Corps Private First Class (PFC)
in the United States Army, was a prisoner of war of the Iraqi military in
the 2003 invasion of Iraq who was rescued by United States forces on April
1, 2003. Lynch, then a 19-year-old supply clerk with the 507th Maintenance
Company (based in Fort Bliss, Texas), was injured and captured by Iraqi
forces after her group made a wrong turn and was subsequently ambushed on
March 23, 2003 near Nasiriyah, a major crossing point over the Euphrates
River northwest of Basra. She was initially listed as missing in action.
Eleven other soldiers in the company were killed in the ambush. Five other
soldiers, later rescued, were captured and held as prisoners of war.
Accounts of the events in between Lynch's
capture and her rescue were incomplete and contradictory, and Lynch herself
has no clear recollection of this period. Dr. Greg Argyros, assistant chief
of the Department of Medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where Lynch
was treated, stated that, "Anytime anybody goes through a traumatic event of
any kind, there is the risk that they may have a period that they don't
remember what happened."
Prisoner of War
After some time in the custody of the Iraqi
army regiment which captured her, Lynch was taken to a hospital in Nasiriya.
Iraqi hospital staff, including Doctors Harith Al-Houssona and Anmar Uday,
claim to have shielded Lynch from Iraqi military and government agents who
were using the hospital as a base of military operations. U.S. forces were
tipped off as to Lynch's whereabouts by an Iraqi, sympathetic to her plight,
who told them she had been tortured and injured but was still alive. The
Iraqi was described as a 32-year-old lawyer, initially described only as
"Mohammed" and later identified as one Mohammed Odeh al Rehaief. In light of
Mohammed's role in Lynch's rescue, Mohammed and his family were granted
refugee status by American forces.
Initial reports indicated that Mohammed's
wife was a nurse by the name of Iman in the hospital where Lynch was being
held captive, and that while visiting his wife at the hospital, Mohammed
noticed that security was heightened and inquired as to why. However,
hospital personnel later confirmed only part of Mohammed's story, indicating
that while Mohammed had indeed visited the hospital, his wife was not a
nurse there, nor was there any nurse by the name of Iman working there.
While visiting the hospital from which Lynch was eventually extracted,
Mohammed claimed that he observed an Iraqi colonel slapping Lynch. "My heart
stopped," said Mohammed, "I knew then I must help her be saved. I decided I
must go to tell the Americans."
Mohammed's story has been disputed by doctors
working at the hospital, who claim that Lynch was shielded and protected
from Iraqi military personnel by hospital staff and was cared for well
throughout her stay at the hospital. Moreover, according to reports, on
March 30, Dr. Al-Houssona reportedly attempted to have Lynch delivered to
the U.S. forces, an attempt which had to be abandoned when the Americans
fired on the ambulance carrying her.
According to Mohammed's version of the events
leading up to Lynch's rescue, he walked six miles to a United States Marine
checkpoint to inform American forces that he knew where Lynch was being
held. After talking with the Marines, Mohammed was then sent back to the
hospital to gather information that was used to plan Lynch's rescue.
Allegedly Mohammed returned to the checkpoint with five different maps of
the hospital and the details of the security layout, reaction plan, and
shift changes.
The U.S. military reportedly learned of
Lynch's location from several informants, one of whom was Mohammed. After
Mohammed came forward and confirmed Lynch's location, officials with the
Defense Intelligence Agency equipped and trained an unnamed person, possibly
Mohammed, alternatively listed as an Iraqi informant and as a Central
Intelligence Agency agent, with a concealed video camera. On the day of the
raid, the informant walked around the hospital, secretly videotaping
entrances and a route to Lynch's room. Ultimately, Mohammed was reportedly
paid for his services.
On April 1, 2003, U.S. Marines staged a
diversionary attack, besieging nearby Iraqi irregulars to draw them away
from Saddam Hospital in Nasiriyah. Meanwhile, a joint unit assault element
of Delta Force, the Navy's SEALs, Air Force Pararescue Jumpers (PJs), and a
security force of Army Rangers launched the nighttime raid of the hospital
and successfully rescued Lynch along with the bodies of 8 other american
soldiers.
After the operation, a large amount of
criticism was levied on the American forces that raided the hospital. Some
tabloids claimed the event to be staged, and there are many who beleive the
event was misused to put positive spin on an unpopular war. According to the
doctors, they were herded into groups, treated like insurgents and valuable
hospital property was needlessly damaged and destroyed. Additionally, the
doctors claimed that the Iraqi military had left the hospital the day
before, and no one in the hospital offered any resistance to the American
forces during the raid. Many military and Special Forces experts have
defended the tactics of the operators who led the raid, saying that the men
are trained to expect the worst and move quickly, dynamically, and treat
each person they encounter as a possible threat.
Lynch's injuries
It was unclear what injuries Lynch had at the
time of her rescue, but it appears she suffered a head laceration, an injury
to her spine, and fractures to her right arm, both legs, and her right foot
and ankle. Conflicting reports also existed that Lynch had suffered gunshot
wounds to her left arm and right leg. Dr. Harith Al-Houssona, a doctor in
the Nasirya hospital, described Lynch's injuries as "a broken arm, a broken
thigh, and a dislocated ankle." According to Al-Houssona, there was no sign
of gunshot or stab wounds, and Lynch's injuries were consistent with those
that would be suffered in a car accident. Al-Houssona's claims were later
confirmed in a U.S. Army report leaked on July 10, 2003.
In the book I Am A Soldier Too: The
Jessica Lynch Story by Rick Bragg, the author alleges that Lynch was
raped anally during her captivity, based on medical records and her pattern
of injuries. Iraqi doctors who treated her have disputed the claim because
Lynch's clothes were on and showed no sign of having been removed at any
point and the degree of her injuries did not indicate rape—although they
were not looking for signs of rape at the time. Lynch has no memory of being
raped nor of being slapped or mistreated during her captivity.
Departure from
Iraq
From Kuwait, Lynch was transported to a
medical facility in Landstuhl, Germany, where she was expected to recover
fully from her injuries. On the flight to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the
military medics kept her sedated and hydrated. She did not say much, they
said, but she opened her eyes. Her family flew to Germany on April 5 to be
reunited with her. In a statement, the hospital said, "Lynch had a big smile
on her face when her parents arrived."
Lynch underwent back surgery on April 3 to
correct a slipped vertebra that was putting pressure on her spinal cord.
Since then, she has undergone several more surgeries to stabilize her
fractures.
Eleven bodies were recovered at the same time
as Lynch's rescue nine from a gravesite and two in the morgue. following
forensic identification, eight were identified as fellow members of her
company, including her best friend, Private First Class Lori Ann Piestewa.
All were subsequently given posthumous Purple Hearts. Details of their
deaths are unclear.
Private Lynch was not shown during a
controversial display on Al Jazeera television of four other supply unit
POWs, among whom was New Jersey-born James Riley. That video showed a number
of dead soldiers from that unit with gunshot wounds to the forehead.
After learning of Mohammed's role in Lynch's
rescue, Friends of Mohammed, a group based in Malden, West Virginia, was
formed to fight for Mohammed's U.S. citizenship and to bring him to West
Virginia. On April 29, 2003, Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge
announced that Mohammed Odeh al Rehaief, his wife, and their 5-year-old
daughter had been granted humanitarian asylum on April 28. Al Rehaief and
his family were brought to the United States at his request April 10. Al
Rehaief published a book, Because Each Life Is Precious in October
2003, which reportedly netted him around US$300,000.
Return home
Upon her return she was greeted by thousands
of West Virginia residents and by then-fiancee Army Sergeant Ruben
Contreras.
On April 12, 2003, Private Lynch was flown to
the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. to undergo
specialized treatment and rehabilitation. On April 17, she underwent surgery
to repair a bone in her right foot.
While recovering in Washington, Lynch was
inundated with gifts and flowers from well-wishers, so much so that she
asked the public to send cards instead. Her family suggested that the public
send money to charity and relief organizations.
Lynch was released from the hospital on July
22, more than three months after her injury.
On August 27, 2003, Lynch was given a medical
honorable discharge. An authorized biography, written by Rick Bragg, was
released in November 2003. NBC made a television movie called Saving
Jessica Lynch which was about Mohammed's account of him rescuing Lynch.
Much of the content in the movie had been disputed by others.
Controversy also arose regarding the varying
treatment and media coverage of Lynch and Shoshanna Johnson, an
African-American soldier captured in the same ambush as Lynch, but rescued
later. Critics, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, contended that Johnson's
race was a major reason that Johnson received little media attention and a
smaller disability pension as compared to Lynch. Other criticism has
focused on the ignoring of other members in her unit, such as Lori Piestewa.
It should be noted, however, the criticism was not directed to Lynch herself
but what was perceived to be biased media coverage. Lynch always spoke with
great respect for her fellow soldiers, especially the ones who were killed
in the incident. Lynch had been best friends with Piestewa and at her
homecoming gave this tribute: "I especially wanted to mention my best friend
Lori Piestewa who died...I was proud to go to war with her and she will
always be in my heart."
Plans and wishes
from college
Lynch is a sophomore student at West Virginia
University's Parkersburg campus, on a full scholarship because of her
military service.
On May 6, 2006, Allison Barker of the
Associated Press reported that Lynch, who had completed her freshmen year,
avoids her military past at school despite wearing a brace on her left foot
protecting nerve damage from her capture: "I think people recognize who I
am; they just don't make it obvious. That's good for me because it gives me
the opportunity to blend in and not stick out and really experience the
college life, just like they are." Lynch also talked about her career plans
and legacy: "I know I want to do something with children. [But] I haven't
really found my direction, with everything I've been through....I want
people to remember me as being a soldier who went over there and did my job.
Nothing special. I'm just a country girl at heart."
On August 24, 2006, Good Morning America
Weekend Edition co-anchor Kate Snow reported that Lynch wrote a letter
stating she will have a baby by the end of the year. Foxnews.com reported
that Lynch and her boyfriend Wes Robinson will have their first child in
January. Jessica made the statement: "I was not sure if this could ever
happen for me, learning to walk again and coping with the internal injuries
that I still deal with pale in comparison to the tremendous joy of carrying
this child." Jessica gave birth on January 19, 2007 through a caesarean
section, and named her daughter "Dakota Ann" after her fallen friend, Lori
Ann Piestewa, the first woman killed in the Iraq War. Her daughter's first
name was chosen because "Dakota" means "friendship" or "ally" and all three
individuals share the same middle name of "Ann."
Lynch's criticism
Months after returning, Lynch finally began
speaking to the public. Her statements tended to be sharply critical of the
original story presented by the Pentagon. When asked about her hero status,
"That wasn't me. I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do ...
I'm just a survivor."
She denied the claims that she fought until
being wounded, reporting that her weapon jammed immediately, and that she
could not have done anything anyway. Interviewed with Diane Sawyer, Lynch
stated, concerning the Pentagon: "They used me to symbolize all this stuff.
It's wrong. I don't know why they filmed [my rescue] or why they say these
things". She also stated "I did not shoot, not a round, nothing. I went down
praying to my knees. And that's the last I remember." She reported excellent
treatment in Iraq, and that one person in the hospital even sang to her to
help her feel at home.
An NBC TV movie depicting Lynch's ambush and
rescue, Saving Jessica Lynch, was aired in the U.S. on November 9,
2003, starring Laura Regan as Lynch. In an interview published in the August
15, 2005 Time magazine, Lynch stated that she saw some of it, but
that the inaccuracies in it upset her enough so, that she did not finish
watching all of it. She added that she may watch the entire film some day.
Nude photographs
On November 11, 2003, Larry Flynt announced
to the Associated Press he purchased photographs of a "fully nude" Lynch who
was "frolicking with the soldiers" in an Army barracks. Flynt told the press
that the soldiers who sold him the photos "wanted to let it be known that
she's not all apple pie." While Flynt admitted he bought nude photos of PFC
Jessica Lynch to publish in Hustler magazine, he later changed his
mind and the photos were not released. Flynt claimed his decision to "lock
[the photographs] in a vault" was because he thought she was a "good kid"
who became "a pawn for the government." "Some things are more important than
money," he said. "You gotta do the right thing." Thus, the photographs have
never been leaked or published. It is suggested in some circles that Flynt
decided not to publish the photos because of his vocal opposition to the
Bush administration; the implication being that he did not want to damage
Lynch's newfound credibility among critics of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
Others have suggested that Flynt never had any photos, and the whole thing
was a publicity stunt.
Douglas (Wilson) Johnson,
Geologist, Parkersburg.
1878–1944
Geomorphologist and geographer, born in
Parkersburg, West Virginia, USA. After earning his PhD from Columbia
University, he taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1903–7)
and Harvard University (1907–12), where he met William M Davis, the leading
expert in geomorphology, then returned to teach at Columbia. Intensely
patriotic, he was commissioned a major by army intelligence during World War 1
and studied the effect of land formation on military strategy in Europe. A
professor at Columbia (1919–44), he published The Shore Processes and
Shoreline Development (1919) and New England-Acadian Shoreline
(1925), later founding the Journal of Geomorphology (1938–42).
Harold
Webster, Cartoonist, Parkersburg. 1885-1953
Harold Tucker Webster was an American
cartoonist. His first cartoons appeared in the New York Tribune in
1912, when he was in his mid-twenties. He changed his titles, based on what
type of humour was within the panel; some were: Our Boyhood Ambitions,
The Unseen Audience, and Life's Darkest Moment.
Though Webster's humour sometimes appears
gentle, it usually stung. This has made him well known as "The Mark Twain of
American Cartoonists".
In 1924, however, he moved his panels to The
New York World. Soon after, he added The Timid Soul to his
list of cartoons. This would soon become one of his most well-known panels.
It features Caspar Milquetoast, a wimpy character whose name is derived from
milk toast. Harold Webster himself describes Caspar Milquetoast as "the man
who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick".
In 1931, the World folded. Also in
1931, Simon & Schuster brought out the only collection of reprints from
The Timid Soul. Harold Webster then went back to the Tribune —
only now it was called The New York Herald-Tribune. He then began a
Sunday page of The Timid Soul alone, where readers could more closely
peer into Caspar's life.
Because the strip was so successful,
Webster's assistant Herb Roth took it over when Webster died in 1952.
Unfortunately, Herb died in 1953, and then the strip faded into history.
On June 22, 1949, the Dumont TV network tried
to bring The Timid Soul to the television. They made it the premiere
presentation of their Program Playhouse series. Playing Caspar
Milquetoast was Ernest Truest. It wasn't a big hit.
In the dictionary, milquetoast means a very
shy or retiring person. This was taken, of course, from Harold Webster's
cartoons.
Monroe Jackson, President
of Standard Oil, Rathbone. 1900-1976
Oil executive, born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, USA, the great-nephew of
General Thomas‘Stonewall’ Jackson. He finished a 44-year career with Standard
Oil of New Jersey (later Exxon) as president (1954–65), chief executive
officer, and chairman of the board (1963–5), having greatly expanded the
company's overseas production and sales. Regarded as the most influential
individual in his industry, his technical innovations included the fluid
catalytic cracking process.
Walter "Piggy" Barnes, Actor,
Parkersburg. 1918-1998
Date of death 6
January1998, Woodland
Hills, Los Angeles, California, (diabetes)
An American character actor described to some
as a 'rugged outdoor western/war type', proved to be Walter Barnes status in
motion pictures for nearly thirty years. A pro football player, Barnes made a
mark into playing roles in pictures with his performance in the 1957 film
"Westbound". Although, Barnes found work in countless foreign films of the
1960s, he usually played roles ranging from crusty law officals to occasional
villians, in notable roles in "Captain Sinbad", John Wayne's "Cahill US
Marshal", Clint Eastwood's "High Plains Drifter", "Pete's Dragon" and "Day of
the Animals". Also as a veteran of television, Barnes has had guest starring
roles in such series including "Gunsmoke", "Rawhide" and "Cheyenne". He also
played Bo Svenson's father on the early 80s TV series "Walking Tall" and
appeared in the 1985-86 mini series "North and South". A diabetic, Barnes
retired from acting in the late 1980s and eventually moved into the Motion
Picture and Television Retirement Home in Woodland Hills, California, were he
passed away in January of 1998.
Trivia
Played football for the Philadelphia Eagles
from 1948 to 1951. Before acting career, played professional football for the
NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, 1948-1951.
Following WWII, Walter 'Piggy' Barnes was an
All-Conference, 60-minute lineman and weightlifer at LSU (1946-48).
Barnes, while an NFL player with the
Philadelphia Eagles, was caught by the University of Oklahoma spying on their
practices being held in Biloxi, MS just prior to the 1950 Sugar Bowl in which
they were to play against LSU. They were tipped off by an LSU fan of all
things, and a 6-man posse including a photographer and a Biloxi policemen
caught Barnes with 2 ladders, a 4x6 between them to stand on, a canvas tarp to
hide under, a camera, a notebook and some binoculars in his possession. They
took a photo of him for posterity which still hangs at Owen Field to this day.
Barnes ran away and hid in the home of another former LSU player. Whether or
not LSU knew anything about it has been denied by LSU and debated for over 50
years, but it apparently didn't help anyway --- Oklahoma beat LSU 35-0. Barnes
denied it was him in the photo his entire life and took it to his grave.
Sometimes Credited As Walter 'Barney' Barnes / Walter
'Piggy' Barnes
Linda
Goodman, Author, Parkersburg or Morgantown. 1925-1995
Linda Goodman, (April 9, 1925 -
October 21, 1995) was a New York Times bestselling American
astrologer and poet.
Early life
She was born Mary Alice Kemery, by some
accounts in her parent's hometown of Parkersburg, West Virginia and by her
own account in her maternal grandparents' house on Kingwood Street in
Morgantown, West Virginia.
Although Goodman refused to ever reveal her
year of birth, swearing even her father to silence, it emerged posthumously
that she was born in 1925.[2]
She graduated from Central High School in
Parkersburg, in 1943. The school is now called Parkersburg High School.
Career
She assumed the name Linda during World War
II for a popular WCOM radio show in Parkersburg that she hosted called
Love Letters from Linda. Each show consisted of Linda reading
letters written between soldiers and their loved ones. Each letter was
punctuated with a popular song of the day. While working in radio, she met
her second husband, Sam O. Goodman and took his last name.
Linda Goodman began her career writing for
newspapers in the eastern and southeastern United States. She also wrote
speeches for black American civil rights leader Whitney Young, who served
for several years as president of the National Urban League.
Some have suggested that Linda Goodman was
responsible for accelerating the growth of the New Age movement through the
unprecedented success of her first astrology book Linda Goodman's Sun
Signs (1968). This was the first astrology book ever to earn a spot on
the New York Times Bestseller List. It was followed by yet another
success with Linda Goodman's Love Signs (1978), which also made the
New York Times Bestseller List.
Other books by Linda Goodman include:
Venus Trines at Midnight (1970)
Linda Goodman’s Love Poems (1980)
Linda Goodman’s Star Signs: the secret
codes of the universe (1987)
Gooberz (1989)
Linda Goodman’s Relationship Signs
(1998)
Gooberz begun in 1967, is one long
epic poem riddled with a myriad of occult references and symbolism. It is
also a thinly veiled autobiography, which explores two of her significant
romantic relationships, her marriage to William Snyder, and her love affair
with marine biologist Robert Brewer. It also touches on the birth of her
four children Sally Snyder, Bill Snyder, Jill Goodman and Michael Goodman.
The book surveys her ideas on reincarnation, karma, love, and miracles.
Goodman's books also reference what she
referred to as the "disappearance" of her eldest daughter, Sally Snyder, and
the mystery around her reported death. Linda Goodman spent much money and
many years trying to find Sally, long after police closed the case as a
suicide or accidental suicide.
Linda made Cripple Creek, Colorado her home
during the latter part of her adult life.
Later life and
death
A businesswoman from Ireland named Crystal
Bush befriended Linda at the end of her life and obtained the publicity
rights to Linda Goodman's name at her death. Crystal Bush published the book
"Linda Goodman's Relationship Signs" after Linda's death.
Linda Goodman died on October 21, 1995, in
Colorado from complications of diabetes. She was 70.
Paul Dooley, Actor, Parkersburg
AKA Paul Brown, Born: 22-Feb-1928, Birthplace:
Parkersburg, WV
Paul Dooley (born Paul Brown on February 22,
1928 in Parkersburg, West Virginia) is an American character actor.
Dooley was a keen cartoonist as a youth and drew
a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. He joined the Navy before
discovering acting while at college. Moving to New York, he soon found
success as a regular on the stage.
Also having an interest in comedy, Dooley was
a standup comedian for five years, and a member of the Compass Players, as
well as having brief stints as a magician and as a clown. Not afraid of
trying different areas of entertainment, he also worked as a writer. He was
one of the writers on The Electric Company and appeared in
commercials.
Besides appearing in many movies, including
most notably Popeye and Breaking Away, Dooley has also
appeared as a variety of recurrent characters on numerous television shows,
including My So-Called Life, Dream On, Grace Under Fire,
and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where he played the recurring role of
Enabran Tain. He guest starred in other primetime shows like Sabrina, the
Teenage Witch and Desperate Housewives. He was also in the
infamous alternate ending to Little Shop of Horrors, but was replaced
by Jim Belushi in the final cut.
His most famous role was in 1984's Sixteen
Candles in which he played the understanding father of the character played
by Molly Ringwald, Samantha Baker. Recently, he voiced the character Sarge
in Pixar's Cars.
He is married to writer Winnie Holzman, with
whom he has one daughter, Savannah (born 1985).
Filmography
Hairspray (2007)
Cars (2006)
Come Away Home (2005)
Madison (2005)
Crazy Little Thing (2003)
A Mighty Wind (2003)
Insomnia (2002)
A Woman's a Helluva Thing (2001)
Happy, Texas (1999)
Guinevere (1999)
Runaway Bride (1999)
Clockwatchers (1998)
Angels in the EndZone (1997)
Telling Lies in America (1997)
Waiting for Guffman (1997)
God's Lonely Man (1996)
Out There (1995)
Evolver (1994)
The Underneath (1994)
State of Emergency (1993)
A Dangerous Woman (1993)
My Boyfriend's Back (1993)
The Player (1992)
Shakes the Clown (1992)
White Hot - The Mysterious Murder of
Thelma Todd (1991)
Flashback (1990)
Lip Service (1988)
Last Rites (1988)
O.C. & Stiggs (1987)
Monster in the Closet (1986)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
Strange Brew (1983)
Endangered Species (1982)
Kiss Me Goodbye (1982)
Popeye (1980)
Breaking Away (1979)
Rich Kids (1979)
A Wedding (1978)
Slap Shot (1977)
Foreplay (1975)
Deep Space Nine
appearances
"The Wire"
"Improbable Cause"
"The Die is Cast"
"In Purgatory's Shadow"
Television
Coming of Age Dick Hale (1988-89)
Dream On Mickey Tupper (Martin's father) (1992-94)
Grace Under Fire John Shirley (1994-96)
Hopeless Pictures Bartender (voice, 2005-)
Filmography as an actor
Cars (14-Mar-2006) [VOICE]
Employee of the Month (17-Jan-2004)
A Mighty Wind (12-Mar-2003)
Insomnia (3-May-2002)
I'll Remember April (16-Jan-2001)
Madison (2001)
Guinevere (04-Sep-1999)
Runaway Bride (25-Jul-1999)
Happy, Texas (Jan-1999)
Angels in the Endzone (13-Dec-1997)
Telling Lies in America (2-Aug-1997)
Clockwatchers (12-Jun-1997)
Loved (Apr-1997)
Waiting for Guffman (21-Aug-1996)
Underneath (28-Apr-1995)
Evolver (Mar-1995)
The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (18-Feb-1995)
A Dangerous Woman (10-Sep-1993)
My Boyfriend's Back (6-Aug-1993)
Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City (8-May-1993)
The Player (3-Apr-1992) Himself
Shakes the Clown (13-Mar-1992)
Flashback (2-Feb-1990)
Last Rites (18-Nov-1988)
The Murder of Mary Phagan (24-Jan-1988)
O.C. and Stiggs (10-Jul-1987)
Monster in the Closet (30-Jan-1987)
Big Trouble (30-May-1986)
Sixteen Candles (4-May-1984)
Going Berserk (28-Oct-1983)
Strange Brew (19-Aug-1983)
Kiss Me Goodbye (22-Dec-1982)
Endangered Species (5-Nov-1982)
HealtH (7-Apr-1982)
Paternity (2-Oct-1981)
Popeye (12-Dec-1980)
Breaking Away (18-Jul-1979)
A Perfect Couple (6-Apr-1979)
A Wedding (29-Aug-1978)
Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1-Apr-1977) [VOICE]
Slap Shot (25-Feb-1977)
Up the Sandbox (21-Dec-1972)
The Out-of-Towners (28-May-1970)
Patsy
Ramsey, Miss West Virginia, Parkersburg. 1956-1996
Patricia "Patsy" Ramsey (née Paugh)
(December 29, 1956 — June 24, 2006), was the mother of JonBenét
Ramsey, a 6-year-old American beauty pageant contestant who was
murdered in her Boulder, Colorado home on December 26, 1996.
Biography
Patsy Ramsey was born in Parkersburg, West
Virginia to Donald and Nedra Paugh. She graduated from Parkersburg High
School in 1974, and went on to attend West Virginia University, from which
she graduated with a B.A. in journalism in 1978. While in college, Patsy was
a member of Alpha Xi Delta Sorority, and won the Miss West Virginia beauty
title in 1977. Her sister Pamela also won the Miss West Virginia title in
1980.
Patsy married John Ramsey on November 5,
1980. Their son, Burke, was born on January 27, 1987. Patsy gave birth to
her second child, JonBenét, on August 6, 1990 in Atlanta. Patsy moved with
her family to Colorado in 1991.
After the mysterious murder of JonBenét in
the family's Boulder home in December of 1996, Boulder law enforcement
officials declared that Patsy and her husband were "under an umbrella of
suspicion" ) due to their possible involvement in the crime. John and Patsy
Ramsey spent the next ten years defending themselves against the
allegations, insisting that an intruder killed their daughter. In this
murder case, as of 2006 no charges have ever been filed against anyone.
Death
Patsy Ramsey died on June 24, 2006 of ovarian
cancer, which she was diagnosed with in 1993 and which had been in remission
at the time of her daughter's murder (she suffered a relapse in 2003).
Ramsey passed away less than two months before Boulder law enforcement
officials announced their plans to arrest John Mark Karr, a former
elementary school teacher who falsely confessed to the murder (see
Allie is one of Hollywood's favorite
character actresses. Allie has been very lucky with her career. She was
hand-picked as the Hamburger Mom by Steven Spielberg for Minority Report.
The role was written for her after he saw her audition tape. Spielberg
called Allie "A Jewish Soprano." She worked side by side Tom Cruise and kept
him laughing the entire time.
The multi-talented Eric Stoltz, directed her in an episode of Once and
Again, and like Spielberg, created a couple of extra scenes for her after
watching her work.
Not your classic Hollywood actress, in looks or attitude, Allie is
refreshing in her approach to her career and the pursuit of her dream. This
"Rubinesque actress with a 24-hour glass figure" has proven not only to
herself, but also to those around her that dreams can come true. Size
doesn't matter! She has a contagious energy and drive that inspires anyone
who comes in contact with her. Allie is admired and respected by those who
know her and have had an opportunity to work with her. She has truly become
one of Hollywood's favorite character actresses and upcoming producers.
Allie's story is one worth sharing as an inspiration to anyone who has a
dream.
Filmography
Carts (2007) (post-production) ....
Biker Chick
A Perfect Life (2006) .... Charly
"Mind of Mencia" .... Redneck Wife
(1 episode, 2006)
- Royal Religious Rumble (2006) TV Episode
.... Redneck Wife
Domino (2005) (uncredited) .... Woman at
Seminar
"Over There" .... Claire (1 episode,
2005)
- Situation Normal (2005) TV Episode
.... Claire
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno"
.... Phys Ed Teacher / ... (2 episodes, 2004-2005)
- Episode dated 9 September 2005 (2005) TV Episode
.... Phys Ed Teacher
- Episode dated 23 November 2004 (2004) TV Episode
.... Woman on Thanksgiving Float
The Last Great Infomercial (2005) ....
Midwest Housewife
The Good Humor Man (2005) (uncredited)
.... Lady in Airplane
"ER" .... Lorraine (1 episode, 2005)
- Here and There (2005) TV Episode
.... Lorraine
Charity (2004) .... Charity
Purple Rose (2002) (V) .... Sam
Minority Report (2002) .... Hamburger Mom
"Once and Again" .... Day Nurse
(1 episode, 2002)
- Falling in Place (2002) TV Episode
.... Day Nurse
"The Practice" .... Marjorie Hooley
(1 episode, 2000)
- Brothers' Keepers (2000) TV Episode
.... Marjorie Hooley
Admiral
Felix Budwell Stump, Navy Admiral, Parkersburg
The many decorations received by Admiral Stump
for his exemplary service in the Pacific Theater during World War II are
represented in the shield. The blue silhouette cross refers to the Navy Cross
twice awarded him while in command of Carrier Division 24; the white central
star denotes the Silver Star Medal awarded "for conspicuous gallantry and
intrepidity in action" against enemy-held islands. The Legion of Merit (which
he was awarded three times) is indicated by the crossed arrows in scarlet and
white. The U.S. Army Distinguished Service Medal, received for exceptionally
meritorious services as commander of a combined operations center during the
early part of the war, is represented by the colors scarlet, white and blue,
the colors of the suspension ribbon of the medal. The four smaller stars in
gold are in recognition of the attainment of the rank of Admiral. The gold
shield is symbolic of knowledge and achievement.
Admiral Stump's Navy career, his noted
boldness, and his service aboard six aircraft carriers are presented by the
griffin holding an anchor.
Perhaps the best way to summarize Admiral
Stump's philosophy towards his naval career, as well as the best way to
summarize the conduct of the proud ship that bears his name, is the ship's
motto: TENACITY: FOUNDATION OF VICTORY.
USS Stump is the 16th SPRUANCE-class destroyer.
Built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, West Bank, Pascagoula, MS, her keel was laid on
July 21, 1975. She was launched on January 8, 1977 and commissioned on August
19, 1978.
The USS Stump's 1980 maiden deployment was to
the Mediterranean, serving as flagship for COMDESRON FOURTEEN. Stump conducted
Black Sea operations, port visits and extensive USW operations. As a result of
her outstanding performance, Stump was awarded the "Hookem Award" for USW
excellence by the Commander U.S. Sixth Fleet.
A year later Stump deployed as USCOMSOLANT
Flagship for UNITAS XXII. It was on this cruise that Stump obtained it's
mascot Felix, a Bluefronted Amazon Parrot, during a port visit to Brazil.
In October 1982, Stump deployed to the Persian
Gulf as a part of the Middle East Force to conduct radar picket operations.
Returning home in March 1983, Stump participated in Solid Shield '83, a
complex exercise involving U.S. NATO ships and the U.S. Air Force.
March 1984 was highlighted by Stump's adoption
as state Flagship of West Virginia. Stump than traveled to New Orleans as the
U.S. Navy's Host Ship for the 1984 World's Fair. Also in 1984, Stump won the
James F. Chezek Memorial Gunnery Award by shooting an extraordinary 496 out of
500 during Naval Gunfire Support Qualifications.
Admiral W. L. McDonald, Commander in Chief
Atlantic Fleet, embarked in March 1985 for CARIBOPS '85. While in the
Caribbean, Stump again shot Naval Gunfire Support Qualifications and scored
495 out of 500 winning the Atlantic Fleet "Top Gun" award for an unprecedented
second year in a row. Stump then deployed for UNITAS XXVI/WATC '85. During the
deployment, Stump showed the Flag in port visits to eight South American
Nations and six West African Nations. The year 1986 was significant for two
reasons. First, Stump was chosen to become the test platform for the Navy's
newest Hull Mounted Sonar, the AN/SQS-53C. Using advanced technology, the
"53C" will be the sonar for the U.S. Navy combatants well into the
twenty-first century. Secondly, Stump was awarded the COMDESRON TEN Battle "E"
Efficiency award for overall excellence.
In 1988, Stump deployed to the Mediterranean as
part of the USS Eisenhower Battle Group (MED 3-88). In April, and on 48 hour
notice, Stump was directed to detach and proceed to the Persian Gulf to
replace the USS Samuel B. Roberts which had suffered extensive damage from a
mine explosion. Stump returned to Norfolk in August. Stump was underway again
in October for six weeks of Caribbean Law Enforcement operations. In December,
Stump was presented her second consecutive Battle "E" award by RADM Donnell,
Commander Naval Surface Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
In October 1989, Stump again deployed to the
Mediterranean as part of the Forrestal Battle Group (MED 1-90). During this
deployment, Stump was extremely successful in conducting anti-submarine
warfare exercises and was once again presented the "Hookem" award for
excellence in the area of USW.
In August 1990, Stump transited to Avondale
Shipyards in New Orleans, LA for overhaul and major Combat Systems Upgrade.
She received the Vertical Launch System (VLS) which is designed to carry,
among other things, the battle-proven Tomahawk missile. Stump also received
the integrated AN/SQQ-89 USW system, the most sophisticated underwater
surveillance system employed by surface vessels. The combination of these two
systems makes Stump the most formidable destroyer of its kind in the world
today.
In November 1992, Stump deployed to the Arabian
Gulf and North Red Sea as part of MEF (1-93) to serve as a ready strike
platform. The highlights of the deployment was the devastating Tomahawk
missile strike launched against Iraq in support of Operation "Southern Watch"
on January 17, 1993.
In July 1994, Stump again deployed to South
America for UNITAS XXXV serving as the Flagship for Commander U.S. South
Atlantic Force. Stump re-visited eight South American nations, as well as
completing another successful transit of the Chilean Inland Waterway.
In February 1995, Stump deployed to the
Caribbean Sea in support of Counter Drug Operations, transiting the Panama
Canal. During this period Stump participated in a Search and Rescue mission in
the Pacific Ocean. In cooperation with a Colombian Coast Guard Cutter, Stump
located and recovered a survivor of a wrecked Colombian vessel. Stump returned
in April 1995.
As part of a reorganization announced in
mid-1995 of the Atlantic Fleet's surface combatant ships into six core battle
groups, nine destroyer squadrons and a new Western Hemisphere Group, the USS
Stump was reassigned to Destroyer Squadron 2. The reorganization was to be
phased in over the summer and take effect on Aug. 31, with homeport shifts to
occur through 1998.
Stump deployed in August 1996 for a Middle
Eastern Force cruise to conduct Maritime Interception Operations and act as
Ready Strike Destroyer in the Arabian Gulf. The USS Stump (DD 978) relieved
the USS Laboon (DDG 58) on September 28 as the maritime interception
operations/strike platform in the North Arabian Gulf. While in the Gulf, Stump
completed over 40 boarding in support of Maritime Interdiction Operations and
participated in 11 Arabian Gulf Tomahawk exercises, including one as Launch
Area Coordinator. A mainstay during this deployment, Stump remained underway
for over 80 percent of the time she was in the Gulf.
Following the return from its Middle Eastern
Force deployment in February 1997, Stump conducted an extensive DSRA and
immediately commenced a rigorous training cycle which culminated in a highly
successful Final Evaluation Period. In January 1998 Stump commenced work-ups
for its upcoming Sixth Fleet deployment by participating in COMPTUEX and JTFEX
as part of the USS Eisenhower Battle Group. In March of 1998 the Sara Ann (a
Fishing Trawler) was operating off the Virginia Cape when the seas became to
much and she started taking on water. Stump was able to assist in rescuing the
crew and provide safe passage back to Norfolk, VA.
The USS Stump (DD-978), while conducting
routine operations on April 17, 1998, was informed by Coast Guard Station
Portsmouth that the fishing vessel Sara Ann was in distress. The destroyer
subsequently rescued four civilians about 65 nautical miles off Cape Hatteras,
NC.
Stump deployed to the Mediterranean as part of
Sixth Fleet in June 1998. The USS Stump, as part of Destroyer Squadron Two,
joined five other nations and other U.S. Navy warships in the central
Mediterranean for the execution of SHAREM 125, from July 9-15, 1998. SHAREM
125 was the latest in a series of SHAREM exercises designed to test and
evaluate undersea warfare tactics, weapons, sensors and procedures. SHAREM is
a Chief of Naval Operations program established in 1969 to continuously
improve the quality of undersea warfare.
The USS Stump (DD 978), took part in the Fleet
Battle Experiment Hotel (FBE-H) which was conducted by units of the 2nd Fleet
and personnel of the Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC) from August 28 to
September 12, 2000 off the Virginia Capes and in the Gulf of Mexico. This was
the eighth in a series of fleet battle experiments designed to evaluate new
naval warfare concepts and technological capabilities. Under U.S. Joint Forces
Command's overarching experiment, "Millennium Challenge 00," FBE-H ran
concurrently with the U.S. Army's Joint Contingency Force Advanced Warfighting
Experiment, the U.S. Air Force Joint Contingency Force Experiment 2000 and the
U.S. Marine Corps' Millennium Dragon.
The focus of FBE-H was the application of
network centric operations in gaining and sustaining access in support of
follow on joint operations. Access denial was expected to be the focus of any
potential adversary's strategy. Specifically, FBE-H further developed NWDC's
draft Access Concept entitled "Poseidon's Presence". In addition, the NATO
exercise "Unified Spirit" ran concurrently with the JTFEX, with forces from
Canada, Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom playing major roles.
The USS Stump deployed in late November 2000
along with the USS Harry S Truman Battle Group. Prior to that, the USS Stump
took part in Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX) 01-1, to certify the carrier
battle group for deployment. This was the first deployment for the USS Harry S
Truman, which was commissioned in 1998. The deployment included extensive
operations in the Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean and primarily the Persian
Gulf. While operating in the Persian Gulf, the Truman Battle Group enforced
United Nations sanctions against Iraq by diverting 22 vessels with more than
$5 million of suspected contraband cargo. Throughout the deployment, the
battle group also participated in numerous international exercises, including
Arabian Gauntlet, an 11-nation exercise that involved more than 20 ships.
Additionally, U.S. Sailors worked with military forces from Oman, Jordan,
Tunisia, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, improving
interoperability and strengthening relationships with those countries. The USS
Stump, along with the rest of the CVBG and ARG ships returned home on May 24
2001.
By 2001 corrosion under insulation on shipboard
piping was a serious problem, in particular as USS Stump (DD 978) got older.
Visual inspection techniques that require removal of pipe insulation are
prohibitively expensive in both labor and material costs, and are very time
consuming. Responding to a request by the Port Engineer for the USS Stump (DD
978), NTIAC applied newly developed guided wave ultrasonics NDE technology to
inspect bleed air piping on the USS Stump. The bleed air piping is a high
temperature system that is fully insulated. The request was made by the
Stump's Port Engineer because the ship had experienced an unexpected failure
in the bleed air piping during a previous deployment and a rapid turnaround
was needed since the ship was to be redeployed shortly.
NTIAC had previously participated in
development of the guided wave ultrasonics NDE technology under sponsorship of
the Office of Naval Research. Using guided waves travelling down the length of
an insulated pipe, this technology is capable of detecting corrosion pitting
and generalized wall thinning with removal of only minimal patches of
insulation periodically for application of the sensors to the pipe. Using this
technology, pipe lengths 20 to 30 feet long can be inspected without removing
insulation.
NTIAC demonstrated application of the guided
wave technology by inspecting approximately 180 feet of bleed air piping
aboard the USS Stump in Norfolk, Virginia. Although the vast majority of the
piping was found to be for service, areas suspected to contain damage were
marked for additional inspection by the Navy prior to redeployment and to
direct monitoring of the piping systems during sea operations.
Stump and its embarked detachment from
Helicopter Anti-submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 42 departed their homeports of
Norfolk, Va., and Mayport, Fla., respectively, June 2, 2003 for a routine
six-month deployment to the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command area of
responsibility, which includes the Caribbean Sea, eastern Pacific and southern
Atlantic.
Acting on an international distress call
relayed by U.S. Coast Guard District 11, USS Stump in August 2003, conducted
an 11-hour, high-speed transit to render assistance to a distressed fishing
vessel and its six crew members, while conducting counter-drug operations in
the eastern Pacific Ocean. Responding to the call for assistance, the
destroyer made best speed to the Salvadoran-flagged fishing vessel Vikingo’s
last known position, 200 nautical miles west of Costa Rica. When within range,
Stump’s embarked “Proud Warrior” helicopter deployed to quickly locate the
drifting Vikingo.
This was Stump’s second search and rescue
operation in the eastern Pacific. June 19, 2003, Stump assisted the
U.S.-flagged sailing vessel Okiva, becalmed with engine and sail problems 200
miles west of Ecuador. Stump’s R&A Team provided Okiva with fuel and effected
engine repairs, allowing her to continue her voyage from Panama to the
Galapagos Islands.
Stump had been slated to remain in service
until the year 2006, but decomissioned on 22 October 2004.
A native of Parkersburg, WV, Felix Budwell
Stump was appointed to the Naval Academy from that state in 1913. He graduated
in March 1917, just prior to the United States' entrance into World War I,
during which he served in the gunboat YORKTOWN and as Navigator of the cruiser
Cincinnati, operating on escort duty in the Atlantic.
After the war, he served in the battleship
Alabama, had flight training at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, and
post-graduate instruction in Aeronautical Engineering at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. He subsequently served in Torpedo Squadron 2 of the
experimental carrier Langley; as Assembly and Repair Officer at the Naval Air
Station, Hampton Roads, Virginia; and in command of the Cruiser Scouting Wing
and on the Staff of Commander, ruisers, Scouting Fleet. He then had two tours
of duty in the Bureau of Aeronautics; and was Commanding Officer of the
Saratoga's Scout Bombing Squadron 2, and Navigator and Executive Officer,
respectively, of the carriers Lexington and Enterprise.
In command of the Langley in Manila Bay at the
outbreak of World War II, he was transferred in January 1942 to the Staff of
the Commander- in-Chief, Asiatic Fleet. For exceptionally meritorious service
"as Commander of the combined operation center of the Allied-American,
British, Dutch and Australian Air Command..." he was awarded the U.S. Army's
Distinguished Service Medal.
In 1942, he had eight months' duty as Air
Officer for Commander, Western Sea Frontier, then commanded the new carrier
Lexingotn, which was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for heroism in the
Gilbert and Marshall Islands operations in 1943. He was awarded the Silver
Star Medal for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against enemy
Japanese-held islands..." from September to December 1943. He later commanded
Carrier Division 24, and was awarded the Navy Cross twice, the Legion of Merit
(three awards) and has the Ribbon for the Presidential Unit Citation to his
flagship, the Natoma Bay.
He was Chief of the Naval Air Technical
Training Command from May 1945 to December 1948, after which he served
successively as Commander Air Force, Atlantic Fleet, and Commander Second
Fleet. He became Commander-in-Chief, Pacific and U.S. Pacific Fleet, with
Headquarters at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 10 July 1953. In February 1958, when
the command was divided, he was relieved of duty as Commander-in-Chief,
Pacific Fleet, but continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief, Pacific until his
retirement, effective 1 August 1958. He was awarded the Distinguished Service
Medal for "exceptionally meritorious service..." as Commander-in-Chief,
Pacific, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet; United States Miliary Advisor
to the Southeast Treaty Organization; and United States Military
Representative to the Australia, New Zealand, United States Treaty
Organization.
After his retirement, he was appointed to the
position of Vice Chairman of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Freedoms
Foundation at Valley Forge, PA.
Eddy Bailes, Recording Artist,
Parkersburg. -2002
Recording artist of the 1970s, wrote and
recorded the hit song The West Virginian in 1975. It became a gold
record. A bill in the state legislature would have made it the state song.
After recording other songs, Bailes appeared in several movies and TV shows,
and was the opening act for such stars as Rick Nelson, Marty Robbins, George
Jones, and Mickey Gilly. He wrote Faron Young's last single, Just An Old
Heartache. Bailes was was born in Parkersburg. He had been living in
Hendersonville, Tennessee, until he died on June 17, 2002.
Clair
Bee, Basketball Coach, Pennsboro. 1896-1983
Clair Francis Bee (March
2, 1896
in
Pennsboro, West Virginia -
May 20,
1983)
was an American
basketball coach who led the team at
Long Island University in
Brooklyn, New York to two undefeated seasons in
1936
and 1939
as well as two
National Invitation Tournament titles (1939,
1941).
Bee's teams won 95 percent of their games
from 1931 to
1951, including
43 in a row from
1935 to 1937.
Clair Bee also coached the
football team at LIU until it was disbanded in
1940.
Bee coached the
National Basketball Association's
Baltimore Bullets from
1952 to
1954.
His contributions to the game of basketball
include the 1-3-1
zone defense, the three-second rule and the 24-second
shot
clock in the NBA.
Bee also authored a series of sports
manuals and
the fictional
Chip
Hilton series of
books for
children.
Bee was inducted into the
Basketball Hall Of Fame in
1968. The
Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award is awarded every year to a coach who
makes an outstanding contribution to the game of
college
basketball, and the
Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award is awarded to a men's basketball
player.
Ted
Cassidy, Actor, Philiipi, 1932-1979
Theodore Crawford "Ted" Cassidy (born
July
31,
1932 in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -
January 16,
1979 in
Los Angeles, California) was an
American
character actor and
voice actor who performed in
television and
films.
Early life and
career
Although born in
Pittsburgh, Cassidy was raised in
Philippi, West Virginia two hours south of
Pittsburgh. He played basketball (center position) and football (tackle)
for Philippi High School. At that time, he was an imposing figure in both
venues, being the tallest player in the conference. Early in his academic
career, Cassidy attended
West Virginia Wesleyan College, in nearby
Buckhannon, WV where he was a member of
Alpha Sigma Phi
Fraternity. He later attended
Stetson University in
DeLand, Florida as a Speech Major. Active in
student government, he also played
basketball for the Hatters. Early in his
show business career he worked as a mid-day
disc
jockey on WFAA-AM in
Dallas, Texas. He also occasionally appeared on
WFAA-TV
Channel 8, playing "Creech," an outer space creature on the "Dialing for
Dollars" segments on Ed Hogan's afternoon movies. An accomplished musician,
Cassidy moonlighted at
Luby's
Cafeteria in the Lochwood Shopping Center in Dallas, playing the organ
to entertain patrons.
The move to
television
The Addams
Family
Cassidy's unusual height (Cassidy was 6 feet
9 inches tall, or 206 cm) gave him an advantage in auditioning for unusual
character roles. He is probably best known for playing the tall
butler,
Lurch (in
which
role he feigned
playing the
harpsichord), and the "helpful hand in a box" character named
Thing, on the
1960s
American
television series
The Addams Family.
Star Trek
He portrayed the voice of the more aggressive
version of Balok in the
Star Trek episode "The
Corbomite Maneuver", and played the android Ruk in "What
Are Little Girls Made Of?." He also voiced the
Gorn in the
Star Trek episode "Arena".
Cassidy did more work with Star Trek creator
Gene Roddenberry in the early
1970s,
playing Isiah in the pilots "Genesis
II" and "Planet
Earth."
Voice acting and
film work
After
The Addams Family, Cassidy began to add the desire for more
voice-over work to his résumé; in that acting field, most notably, he
narrated the opening of the TV series
The Incredible Hulk. Cassidy also provided the Hulk's growls and
roars. He detested being compared or confused with
acromegalic actor
Richard Kiel, who played "Jaws," the mute assassin with stainless steel
teeth, in two
James
Bond films.
Other film work included his appearance in
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He also co-wrote the screenplay
of 1973's "The
Harrad Experiment," in which he made a brief appearance.
Death
Cassidy died in
1979 at age 46
from complications following open-heart surgery. Fellow actor Sandra
Martinez assisted and took care of Ted during his final years. Cassidy's
remains were cremated, and buried in the backyard of his
Woodland Hills home.
A center at the University of West Virginia,
Schwartzwalder coached high school football after graduating in 1933 and
then served as a paratrooper during World II.
He
became head coach at Muhlenberg College in 1946 and had a 25-5-0 record in 3
seasons, including a victory over St. Bonaventure University in the 1946
Tobacco Bowl.
Schwartzwalder went to Syracuse University in
1949 to revive a moribund program. He was soon successful, producing a 7-2-0
team in 1952 and the school's first bowl bid. However, Alabama devastated
Syracuse 61-6 in the Orange Bowl.
In 1959, the American Football Coaches
Association named Schwartzwalder coach of the year for producing a national
champion with 10-0-0 regular season record. That team gave Schwartzwalder
his first bowl victory in four appearances, beating Texas 23-14 in the
Cotton Bowl.
Schwartzwalder's successful teams always
featured a strong running attack, with talented backs behind a powerful
offensive line. Among the outstanding runners he produced were Jim Brown,
Ernie Davis, Floyd Little, Jim Nance, and Larry Csonka.
As a product of the "Black Power" movement,
Schwartzwalder was pressured in 1971 to hire a black assistant coach. When
he refused, all of Syracuse's black players left spring practice and
Schwartzwalder suspended them. Partly because of that problem, he was forced
out of his job after the 1973 season. In 25 seasons at Syracuse, he had a
153-93-3 record and he was 178-96-3 overall.
Bob
Denver, Actor, Princeton. 1935-2005
Robert "Bob" Denver (January
9, 1935 –
September 2,
2005) was an
American comedic
actor best
known for his role as "Gilligan"
on the
television series
Gilligan's Island. Earlier, Denver had played
beatnik
Maynard G. Krebs on the (1959-1963) TV series
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, a characterization that was similar
to Gilligan in many ways.
Early life and television career
Denver was born in
Princeton,
West Virginia and raised in
Brownwood, Texas. He graduated from Loyola University (predecessor to
today's
Loyola Marymount University) in
Los Angeles, California and worked as a mailman and a high school
teacher.
Maynard G. Krebs
He landed the role of Maynard G. Krebs on
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in
1959. His
co-star
Dwayne Hickman, who played Dobie Gillis, was also a Loyola graduate.
Gilligan
When Dobie Gillis ended in
1963, Denver
landed the role of Gilligan on Gilligan's Island. During the run,
Denver proved a gracious and generous castmember; he insisted that
Russell Johnson's and
Dawn
Wells' character names be included in the opening title sequence. In the
first season, the two had merely been referred to as "and the rest" ("are
here on Gilligan's Isle"). In the second and third seasons, Johnson's and
Wells's names were included with the rest of the cast.
After
Gilligan's Island
After Gilligan's Island, he appeared
in other television shows including
The Good Guys (1968–1970) and
Dusty's Trail (1973)
(a virtual copy of Gilligan's Island, set on a lost wagon train). He
also starred in a children's program,
Far Out Space Nuts (1975), which was essentially Gilligan in space.
Although appreciated by Bob Denver fans, none of these shows matched the
wider audience success of his earlier roles.
The marijuana
arrest
In 1998,
Denver was arrested for having a parcel of
marijuana
delivered to his home. He originally said that the parcel had come from
Dawn
Wells (who had played "Mary Ann" on Gilligan's Island) but later
refused to name her in court, and testified that "some crazy fan must have
sent it". The police reportedly found more of the drug and related
paraphernalia in Denver's home. He pleaded
no contest and received six months
probation.
Later career
Late in his life, Denver worked in his
adopted home state of
West Virginia as an
FM radio
personality. He and his wife Dreama owned and operated a small "oldies
format" station. He also earned a small income making public appearances,
often costumed as Gilligan.
Death
Denver underwent quadruple
heart bypass surgery in May 2005, and subsequently was diagnosed with
throat cancer. He died of complications from cancer treatments at
Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the age of 70, surrounded by his family
— his last wife (of 28 years), the former Dreama Peery; and his children
(from 4 different marriages) Patrick, Megan, Emily, and Colin. He died just
two days before the
September 4 anniversary of the airing of the last
CBS prime
time
telecast of
Gilligan's Island.
Trivia
Bob Denver appeared in the
1964 beach
movie called "For Those Who Think Young," with
Tina Louise prior to the development of Gilligan's Island.
Nancy Sinatra also appeared in the movie.
John
Barton Payne, Politian, Pruntytown. 1855-1935
27th
United States Secretary of the Interior
In office
March 15,
1920 – March
4,
1921
Preceded by
Franklin Knight Lane
Succeeded by
Albert B. Fall
Born
January 26,
1855
Pruntytown, Virginia (now West Virginia),
Died
January 24,
1935
Political party
Democratic
Profession
Politician,
Lawyer, Judge
John Barton Payne (January
26, 1855 –
January
24, 1935)
was
United States Secretary of the Interior from 1920 through 1921 under
Woodrow Wilson.
Born in
Pruntytown, in what is now
West Virginia, Payne was an attorney and longtime
Chicago
Democratic politician. Admitted to the bar in 1876 in West Virginia,
Payne entered politics five years later as the chairman of the
Preston County Democratic Party. He moved to Chicago in 1883, and was
elected as a local judge in 1893. After resigning from that post in 1898, he
was a senior partner in Winston, Payne, Strawn and Shaw. (A successor firm
still exists today.) He was president of Chicago's South Park Board from
1911 to 1924, when
Edward J. Kelly, later mayor of Chicago, succeeded him. He married
Jennie Byrd in 1913. (She died in 1919.) After the outbreak of World War I,
Payne went to Washington, D.C., to act as counsel for the
Emergency Fleet Corporation and the national railroad administration.
From 1919 through his appointment to Wilson's cabinet in February 1920,
Payne was chairman of the
U.S. Shipping Board. From October 1921 until his death, Payne was
chairman of the
American Red Cross. He died of
pneumonia,
following an operation for an
appendicitis at 1:06 a.m.
January
24, 1935,
two days before his 80th birthday — just early enough for an
Associated Press obituary to run in the
Chicago Tribune.
Known for his work for the Red Cross, Payne's
use of the South Park Board to solidify the position of the Chicago
Democratic Party has much less noted. Payne tried to bring volunteers and
paid staffers of the American Red Cross, and also sent the organization in a
new direction, organizing it to support local welfare efforts during both
the deflationary period after World War I and the early years of the
Depression.
Payne's donation of 50 paintings in 1919 and
$100,000 in 1932 led to the founding of the
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in
Richmond, Virginia.
In
World War II the
United States
liberty ship
SS John Barton Payne was named in his honor.
Randy
Moss, Football Player, Rand
Randy Gene Moss (born
February 13,
1977 in
Rand,
West Virginia) is an
American football
wide receiver for the
Oakland Raiders
NFL franchise. He was drafted by the
Minnesota Vikings in
1998, and
played the first stage of his career in
Minnesota
before a trade in
2005 brought him to
Oakland.
Family
His parents are Maxine Moss and Randy Pratt,
although Moss does not have much contact with his father. He has a sister
named Lutisia and a brother Eric,
who had a short stint in the NFL as an offensive lineman with the Minnesota
Vikings. Moss has four children with his girlfriend, Libby Offutt (two
daughters-Sydney and Senali, and two sons-Thaddeus and Montigo).
High school career
At Dupont High School, a now-defunct
institution in
Belle, West Virginia (near
Charleston), he lead his school to the state AAA football title (West
Virginia's highest class), starred in
basketball alongside friend and current
Miami
Heat point guard
Jason Williams, and also won the state title in the 100-meter and
200-meter dashes. He played
center field in
baseball,
which some argued was his best sport. One account from Rick Feilds, Chicago
Cubs scout, said, "He has the most range in the field that I have ever
seen." He played wide receiver, safety, punter, place kicker, kick returner,
and punt returner in football. He finished his high school football career
with 109 catches, 2,435 receiving yards, and 44 receiving touchdowns, along
with rushing the ball 75 times for 843 yards and nine touchdowns. He ended
his basketball career at DuPont with 1,713 points scored. He was named the
state's Athlete of the Year once in football and twice in basketball.
Along with his State Athlete of the Year
awards, Moss was named to USA Today's All-USA high school football team in
1994, and was
named to USA Today's 20th anniversary All-USA high school football team.
College career
Moss' dream was to play for
Notre Dame, but he also considered going to
Ohio State, where his half-brother, Eric, had played offensive tackle.
According to former Notre Dame head coach
Lou Holtz,
Moss was "the greatest high school athlete I had ever seen — a bigger
Deion Sanders."
After originally signing a letter of intent
to play
college football with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in
1995, Moss took
part in a racially-charged fight at his high school that left one person
hospitalized. He gave a plea of guilty to
battery and received probation along with a 30-day suspended jail
sentence. Notre Dame revoked his scholarship, but this setback did not stop
another high profile college football program from giving him a chance.
Notre Dame officials suggested
Florida State due to the reputation of its coach,
Bobby Bowden, for handling troubled players. However, because of his
signed letter of intent at Notre Dame, the NCAA considered him a transfer
student, which made him ineligible to play for the Seminoles in the 1995
football season. He was
red-shirted in his freshman season. While at Florida State, it was
claimed that Moss ran a 4.25
40-yard dash while only Deion Sanders, with a 4.23 40-yard dash, has
achieved higher.
In
1996, while
serving his 30-day jail sentence in a work release program from 1995, Moss
tested positive for smoking
marijuana, violating his probation, and was let go by Florida State. He
served 60 extra days in jail for the probation violation.
Ultimately, Moss transferred to
Marshall University, about an hour's drive from his home. Because
Marshall was then a Division I-AA school, NCAA rules allowed him to transfer
there without losing any further eligibility. In 1996, he set
the
NCAA Division I-AA records for most games with a touchdown catch in a
season (14), most consecutive games with a touchdown catch (13), most
touchdown passes caught by a freshman in a season (29), and most receiving
yards gained by a freshman in a season (1709 on 78 catches), record which
still stands. Moss was also the leading kickoff returner in Division I-AA on
the season, with 484 total yards and a 34.6 yard average. Marshall went
undefeated and won the Division I-AA title in its last season before moving
to Division I-A.
In the
1997 season,
Marshall's first in Division I-A, Moss and current New York Jets quarterback
Chad Pennington were the centerpiece of an explosive offense that led the
Thundering Herd to the
Mid-American Conference title. Moss caught 26 touchdown passes that
season, at the time a Division I-A record, and was a first-team
All-American. For the season, he had 96 receptions for 1820 yards, and 26
touchdowns. He won the
Fred Biletnikoff Award as the nation's leading wide receiver, and was a
finalist for the
Heisman Trophy (finishing fourth in the balloting, behind
Ryan Leaf,
Peyton Manning, and
Charles Woodson, who won the award).
Moss left Marshall with 168 receptions for
3,467 yards and a school record 53 touchdowns.
NFL career
Joining The
Vikings
During the
1998 NFL Draft, Moss, who was projected as a high first-round pick, was
taken by the Minnesota Vikings with the 21st overall pick after a number of
NFL clubs-- even those in need of a WR-- were concerned with Moss'
well-documented legal problems.
In
1998, Moss helped the Vikings to become the number one ranked
offense
that season while they set a record for total points by a team. They
finished with a 15-1 winning record and were poised to represent the NFC in
the
Super Bowl. However, the
Atlanta Falcons stunned the Vikings by winning the NFC Championship Game
30-27 in overtime. At the end of the 1998 regular season, Moss was named a
Pro Bowl starter and
NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year for his rookie record 17 touchdown
receptions and the third highest receiving yardage (1,313) total of 1998.
In 1999, Moss had another impressive season, catching 80 passes for 1,413
yards and 11 touchdowns. He went on to record 5 receptions for 127 yards and
a touchdown in the Vikings 27-10 NFC wildcard playoff win over the
Dallas Cowboys. Minnesota lost in the divisional round to the
St. Louis Rams 49-37, despite Moss catching 9 passes for 188 yards and 2
touchdowns. Moss was fined $40,000 during that game due to squirting an NFL
referee with a water bottle.
Controversy
On
September 24,
2002 in downtown
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Moss was driving and was preparing to do an
illegal turn. A traffic control officer, noticing what he was about to do,
stood in front of his car, ordering him to stop. Eyewitness accounts of the
event differ at this point, but Moss didn't comply with the officer's order,
and she was bumped by his vehicle and fell to the ground. Moss was arrested,
and a search of his vehicle revealed a small amount of marijuana. Initially
charged with Suspicion of
Assault
with a Deadly Weapon which is a
felony and
a
misdemeanor marijuana possession, Moss pleaded
guilty to a
misdemeanor traffic violation, and was ordered to pay a $1,200 fine and
perform 40-hours of community service.
Randy Moss was quoted in a Sports Illustrated
article as saying the
1970 Marshall plane crash "was a tragedy, but it really wasn't nothing
big."
Final Years as a
Viking
Moss's fortunes took a better turn on the
football field during the
2003 regular season, where he became the first wide receiver in history
to play more than 12 games (he played 16) while averaging over 100 yards and
one touchdown per contest. He finished with 111 receptions for 1,632 yards
and 17 touchdowns. All three of the numbers either tied or became a new
personal best.
The Vikings finished the
2004 season with an 8-8 record, barely making the playoffs. During the
last game of the regular season against the
Washington Redskins, Moss was caught walking off the field and into the
locker room with 2 seconds left on the clock. Critics criticized Moss for
quitting on his team.
On
January 9,
2005, the Minnesota Vikings traveled to Green Bay to take on the heavily
favored division rival
Green Bay Packers, in an NFC wildcard playoff game. Moss was effective,
finished the game with 4 catches for 70 yards and 2 touchdowns in the 31-17
win. After second score, Moss trotted to the end zone goalpost. Facing away
from the crowd, he feigned pulling down his pants, and pretended to moon the
Green Bay fans. Days later, the NFL fined him $10,000, finding it
unsportsmanlike and offensive during the playoffs. However,
Indianapolis Colts head coach
Tony
Dungy, the former Vikings
defensive coordinator, explained (if not completely defended) Moss'
action by pointing out that
Green Bay Packers fans are infamous for mooning the buses of departing
opponents.
According to ESPN, Moss was later caught on
video being asked by a reporter if he had written the check to pay the fine,
to which he responded, "When you're rich, you don't write checks!" The
reporter followed up by asking Moss how he paid the fine. Moss responded,
saying, "Straight cash, homey." Randy Moss made the Pro Bowl 5 times in his
7-year career with the Minnesota Vikings (1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2003).
Trade to the
Raiders
On
March 2,
2005, Moss was
traded to the
Oakland Raiders for linebacker
Napoleon Harris and the Raiders' 1st round (7th overall, which Minnesota
parlayed into WR
Troy Williamson) and 7th round picks in the NFL draft. Adding a player
of Moss's caliber generated a lot of optimism,
but the Raiders poor play has continued since acquiring him. Nagging
injuries have limited his production, and Moss's own controversial remarks
to the media have drawn more negative attention to himself.
In August 2005, during an interview with
Bryant Gumbel, Moss admitted that he has smoked
marijuana
during his NFL career "every once in a blue moon."
On November 14, 2006, Moss was honored for
his success in college as a
kick returner by having an
award named after him, becoming only one of two black athletes (John
Mackey) so honored. During the press conference, Moss responded to
questions about his dropped passes and lackluster effort in several games,
saying "Maybe because I'm unhappy and I'm not too much excited about what's
going on, so, my concentration and focus level tend to go down sometimes
when I'm in a bad mood."
Moss made similar comments during his tenure with the Vikings, when he
infamously proclaimed, "I play when I want to play".
Days later, he reiterated his unhappiness
with losing games and being a member of the Raiders on his weekly segment
with
Fox Sports Radio, saying, "I might want to look forward to moving
somewhere else next year to have another start and really feel good about
going out here and playing football."
During the course of the Raiders' nine game
losing streak to end the 2006 season,
Tyler Brayton and several other Raiders, including
Warren Sapp, criticized the lackadaisical effort of Moss.
NFL records
Rookie record 17 TD catches
He is third only to
Anquan Boldin and
Bill Groman for most rookie receiving yards with 1,313.
Moss has caught 101 TD passes through 9
seasons, 5th most in NFL history. He trails
Jerry
Rice,
Cris Carter,
Marvin Harrison,
Terrell Owens, all of whom have played more seasons than Moss.
Has caught 13 or more TDs in a season 4
times. He trails only
Terrell Owens and
Jerry
Rice in such seasons.
Is the only player next to
Jerry
Rice to catch 17 or more TDs in a season twice (Moss accomplished the
feat in 1998
and 2003).
Moss has had 3 seasons where he averaged
at least one receiving TD a game.
1998 (17 TDs
in 16 games),
2003 (17 TDs in 16 games), and 2004 (13 TDs
in 13 games). By doing so, he is the only wide receiver in NFL history to
accomplish this task.
He had back to back 100 catch seasons,
first in 2002
and then in 2003.
He joined
Sterling Sharpe,
Jerry
Rice,
Herman Moore,
Cris Carter,
Marvin Harrison, and
Rod Smith as the only receivers to do so.
At the end of the
2006 season,
Moss is averaging approximately 11.2 receiving TDs per season, which is an
NFL record.
Holds the record for most 1,000 yard
seasons in his first seasons of the league. In his first 6 seasons in the
NFL, he had
1,000+ yards in each seasons, setting an NFL record.
Moss is the only player in NFL history to
average 100 yards and 1 TD per game through a 16 NFL game season.
John
Brown, Abolitionist, Hanged at Harpers Ferry in 1859. 1800-1859
John Brown (May
9, 1800 –
December 2,
1859) was the first white
American
abolitionist to advocate and to practice insurrection as a means to the
abolition of slavery. He has been called "the most controversial of all
nineteenth-century Americans."
His attempt to start a liberation movement among enslaved blacks in Virginia
in 1859 electrified the nation, even though not a single slave answered his
call. He was tried for treason (against the state of Virginia) and hanged,
but his behavior at the trial seemed heroic to millions of Americans.
Southerners alleged that his rebellion was the tip of an abolitionist
iceberg and represented the wishes of the
Republican Party, but those charges were vehemently denied by the
Republicans. Historians agree that the Harper's Ferry raid in 1859 escalated
tensions that a year later led to secession and the
American Civil War.
Brown first
gained attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the
Bleeding Kansas crisis. Unlike other Northerners, who advocated peaceful
resistance to the pro-slavery faction, Brown demanded violent action. His
belief in confrontation led him to kill five pro-slavery southerners in what
became known as the
Pottawatomie Massacre in May
1856. Brown's
most famous deed was the 1859 raid he led on the federal armory at
Harpers Ferry,
Virginia
(in modern-day
West Virginia). At
Harpers Ferry, he seized the federal arsenal, killing seven people
(including a free black), and injuring ten or so more. He intended to arm
slaves with weapons from the arsenal, but the attack failed. Within 36
hours, all of Brown's men were killed or captured by local farmers,
militiamen, and U.S. Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Brown's subsequent
capture by federal forces, his trial for treason to the state of Virginia,
and his execution by hanging were an important part of the
origins of the American Civil War, which followed sixteen months later.
His role and actions prior to the Civil War, as an abolitionist, and what
tactics he chose still makes him a controversial personality today.
Depending on the point of view, he was heralded as a heroic martyr or
vilified as a terrorist. Numerous American historians in the 20th century
deprecated Brown as an insane zealot and madman. On the other hand, some
scholars glorified Brown for his sincere and self-sacrificing devotion to
the abolition of slavery. One recent scholar, Reynolds (2005) sees him as
the inspiration for the
Civil Rights Movement a century later, arguing "it is misleading to
identify Brown with modern terrorists."
Brown's nicknames were Osawatomie Brown,
Old Man Brown, Captain Brown and Old Brown of Kansas.
His aliases were "Nelson Hawkins," "Shubel Morgan," and "Isaac Smith." Later
the song
John Brown's Body became a
Union marching song during the Civil War.
Early years
Brown was born May 9, 1800, in
Torrington, Connecticut. He was the fourth of the eight children of Owen
Brown (16
February 1771–8
May 1856)
and Ruth Mills (25
January 1772–9
December 1808)
and grandson of Capt John Brown (1728–1776).
Brown himself wrote in his 1857 autobiographical letter that both his and
his first wife's grandfather were soldiers in the
Continental Army (which he established in his The Humphreys Family in
America (1883), which notes that abolitionist John Brown's grandfather,
Capt. John Brown (b.
November 4,
1728) was elected Captain of the 8th Company, 18th Regiment of Milita in
Connecticut Colony in the Spring of 1776. He was commissioned on May 23,
1776 by
Governor Trumbull. Capt. John Brown's company marched from Connecticut,
joining the Continental Army at New York, but Brown died of dysentery while
in command, on
September 3,
1776. (p. 302, n.). His son, Owen Brown, the father of abolitionist John
Brown, was a tanner and strict
Calvinist
who hated slavery and taught his trade to his son.
In 1805, the family moved to
Hudson, Ohio,
where Owen Brown opened a tannery. Brown's father became a supporter of the
Oberlin Institute in its early stage, although he was ultimately critical of
the school's "Perfectionist" leanings, especially renowned in the preaching
and teaching of Finney and Mahan. Recent suggestions that the Browns were
heavily influenced by dissenting Presbyterians and other forms of
neo-Calvinism at this period are incorrect. Although Brown withdrew his
membership from the Congregational church in the 1840s and never officially
joined another church, both he and his father Owen were fairly conventional,
conservative evangelical Calvinists throughout their lives. Brown's
conservative personal religion is fairly well documented in the papers of
the late Rev. Clarence Gee, a Brown family expert, now held in the Hudson
[Ohio] Library and Historical Society.
At the age of 16, John Brown left his family
and went to
Plainfield,
Massachusetts, where he enrolled in a preparatory program. Shortly
afterward, he transferred to an academy in
Litchfield, Connecticut. He hoped to become a
Congregationalist minister, but money ran out and he suffered from eye
inflammations, which forced him to give up the academy and return to Ohio.
In Hudson, he worked briefly at his father's tannery before opening a
successful tannery of his own outside of town with his adopted brother.
In
1820, Brown
married Dianthe Lusk. Their first child, John Jr., was born 13 months later.
In 1825, Brown and his family moved to
New Richmond, Pennsylvania, where he purchased 200 acres (81 hectares).
He cleared an eighth of it and built a cabin, a barn, and a tannery. Within
a year the tannery employed 15 men. Brown also made money raising cattle and
surveying. He helped to establish a post office and a school. During this
period, Brown operated an interstate business involving cattle and leather
production along with a kinsman, Seth Thompson, from eastern Ohio.
In 1831, one of his sons died. Brown fell
ill, and his businesses began to suffer, which left him in terrible debt. In
the summer of 1832, shortly after the death of a newborn son, his wife
Dianthe died. On June 14,
1833, Brown
married 16-year-old Mary Ann Day (April
15, 1817—May
1, 1884),
originally of
Meadville, Pennsylvania. They eventually had 13 children, in addition to
the seven children from his previous marriage.
In 1836, Brown moved his family to Franklin
Mills in Ohio (now part of Kent, Ohio). There he borrowed money to buy land
in the area. He suffered great financial losses in the economic crisis of
1839, which struck the western states more severely than had the
Panic of 1837. Following the heavy borrowing trends of Ohio, many
businessmen like Brown trusted too heavily in credit and state bonds and
paid dearly for it. In one episode of property loss, Brown was even jailed
when he attempted to retain ownership of a farm by occupying it against the
claims of the new owner. Like other determined men of his time and
background, he tried many different business efforts in an attempt to get
out of debt. Along with tanning hides and cattle trading, he also undertook
horse and sheep breeding, the last of which was to become a notable aspect
of his pre-public vocation. Brown was declared bankrupt by a federal court
on
September 28,
1842. In 1843, four of his children died of
dysentery.
As Louis DeCaro Jr. shows in his latest
biographical sketch (2007), from the mid-1840s Brown had built a reputation
as an expert in fine sheep and wool, and entered into a partnership with
wealthy Akronite, Simon Perkins Jr., whose flocks and farms were managed by
Brown and sons. As Brown's associations grew among sheep farmers of the
region, his expertise was often discussed in agricultural journals even as
he widened the scope of his travels in conjunction with sheep and wool
concerns (which often brought him into contact with other fervent
anti-slavery people as well). In 1846, Brown and Perkins set up a wool
commission operation in Springfield, Mass., to represent the interests of
wool growers against the dominant interests of New England's manufacturers.
Brown naively trusted the manufacturers at first, but soon came to realize
they were determined to maintain control of price setting and feared the
empowerment of the farmers. To make matters worse, the sheep farmers were
largely unorganized and unwilling to improve the quality and production of
their wools for market. As shown in the Ohio Cultivator, Brown and
other wool growers had already complained about this problem as something
that hurt U.S. wools abroad. Brown made a last ditch effort to overcome the
manufacturers by seeking an alliance with European-based manufacturers, but
was ultimately disappointed to learn that they also wanted to buy American
wools cheaply.
The Perkins and Brown commission operation
closed in 1849; subsequent lawsuits tied up the partners for several more
years, though popular narrators have exaggerated the unfortunate demise of
the firm with respect to Brown's life and decisions. Perkins absorbed much
of the loss, and their partnership continued for several more years, Brown
nearly breaking even by 1854. The Perkins and Brown years not only reveal
Brown as a man with a widely appreciated specialization (long since
forgotten), but reflect his perennial zeal for the underdog which drove him
to struggle on behalf of the economically vulnerable farmers of Ohio,
Pennsylvania, and western Virginia a decade before his guerrilla activities
in Kansas.
Actions in Kansas
In 1855, not long after re-settling his
family in North Elba, N.Y. (near Lake Placid), Brown learned from his adult
sons in the Kansas territory that pro-slavery forces there were militant and
that their families were completely unprepared to face attack. Determined to
protect his family and oppose the advances of pro-slavery supporters, Brown
left for Kansas, enlisting a son-in-law and making several stops en route to
collect funds and weapons. As reported by the New York Tribune, Brown
stopped en route to participate in an anti-slavery convention that took
place in June 1855 in Albany, New York. Despite the controversy that ensued
on the convention floor regarding the support of violent efforts on behalf
of the free state cause, several individuals provided Brown some solicited
financial support. As he went westward, however, Brown found more militant
support in his home state of Ohio, particularly in the strongly anti-slavery
Western Reserve section where he had been reared.
Pottawatomie
Brown and the
free state settlers were optimistic that they could bring Kansas into
the union as a slavery-free state. But in late 1855 and early 1856 it was
increasingly clear to Brown that pro-slavery forces were willing to violate
the rule of law in order to force Kansas to become a slave state. Brown
believed that terrorism, fraud, and eventually deadly attacks became the
obvious agenda of the pro-slavery supporters, then known as "Border
Ruffians." After the winter snows thawed in 1856, the pro-slavery activists
began a campaign to seize Kansas on their own terms. Brown was particularly
affected by the
Sacking of Lawrence in May 1856, in which a sheriff-led posse destroyed
newspaper offices and a hotel. Only one man was killed, and it was a Border
Ruffian.
Preston Brooks's brutal caning of anti-slavery Senator
Charles Sumner also fueled Brown's anger. These violent acts were
accompanied by celebrations in the pro-slavery press, with writers such as
B. F. Stringfellow of the Squatter Sovereign proclaiming that
pro-slavery forces "are determined to repel this Northern invasion, and make
Kansas a Slave State; though our rivers should be covered with the blood of
their victims, and the carcasses of the Abolitionists should be so numerous
in the territory as to breed disease and sickness, we will not be deterred
from our purpose" (quoted in Reynolds, p. 162). Brown was outraged by both
the violence of the pro-slavery forces, and also by what he saw as a weak
and cowardly response by the antislavery partisans and the Free State
settlers, who he described as "cowards, or worse" (Reynolds pp. 163-164).
Biographer Louis A. DeCaro Jr. further shows
that Brown's beloved father, Owen, had died on May 8,
1856 and
correspondence indicates that John Brown and his family received word of his
death around the same time. The real concerns that Brown had for the welfare
of his sons and the free state settlers in their vicinity, especially since
the sacking of Lawrence seems to have signaled an all-out campaign of
violence by pro-slavery forces. Brown conducted surveillance on encamped
"ruffians" in his vicinity and learned that his family was marked for
attack, and furthermore was given reliable information as to pro-slavery
neighbors who had aligned and supported these forces. The pro-slavery men
did not necessarily own any slaves, although the Doyles (three of the
victims) were slave hunters prior to settling in Kansas. According to Salmon
Brown, when the Doyles were seized, Mahala Doyle acknowledged that her
husband's "devilment" had brought down this attack to their
doorstep--further signifying that the Browns' attack was probably grounded
in real concern for their own survival.
Brown has usually been portrayed as seeking
to avenge Lawrence and Sumner, and to intimidate proslavery forces by
showing that Free Staters were capable of violent retaliation. There is
clearly divided opinion regarding the extent to which pro-slavery terrorists
would have gone in assaulting free state men. John Brown and his sons
Oliver, Owen, Salmon, and Frederick, his son-in-law Henry Thompson, and two
other free state settlers determined that danger was imminent. Some might
suggest that they went to Kansas primarily to confront that risk, but the
Brown boys had gone only as settlers and were not even armed for the kind of
terrorist threats they began to face in 1855-56. Brown had gone to Kansas
with a bellicose attitude, but his letters in 1855 suggest he was at first
optimistic that the free state side would win by the ballot. His
determination to "fight fire with fire" and "strike terror in the hearts of
the proslavery people" was only solidified by the realities of pro-slavery
terrorism. The personal concerns that Brown had for his family's safety were
his priority, and his efforts were urged on by other free state men who
chose not to join him and his killing party. His less militant sons, John
Jr. and Jason sharpened the swords for their father and brothers, but chose
to stay behind.
Pottawatomie
Killings
Main article:
Pottawatomie Massacre
Sometime after 10:00pm
May 24,
1856, it is
suspected they took five pro-slavery settlers — James Doyle, William Doyle,
Drury Doyle, Allen Wilkinson, and William Sherman — from their cabins on
Pottawatomie Creek and hacked them to death with broadswords. Brown claimed
he had not participated in the killings, however he did say he approved of
them. Although neither of Brown's boys were present at the attack, they were
beaten by other pro-slavery men of Pottawatomie.
Palmyra and Osawatomie
A force of perhaps forty Missourians, led by Captain Henry Pate,
captured John Jr. and Jason, and destroyed the Brown family homestead, and
later participated in the
Sack of Lawrence. On
June 2, John Brown, nine of his followers, and twenty local men successfully
defended a Free State settlement at Palmyra, Kansas against an attack by
Pate. Pate and twenty-two of his men were taken
prisoner . After capure, they were taken to
Brown's camp, and received all the food that Brown could find. Brown forced
Pate to sign a treaty, exchanging the freedom of Pate and his men for the
promised release of Brown's two captured sons. Brown released Pate to
Colonel
Edwin Sumner, but was furious to discover that the release of his sons
was delayed until September.
In August, a company of over three hundred
Missourians under the command of Major General John W. Reid crossed into
Kansas and headed towards
Osawatomie, Kansas, intending to destroy the Free State settlements
there, and then march on
Topeka and
Lawrence. On the morning of
August 30,
1856, they shot
and killed Brown's son Frederick and his neighbor David Garrison on the
outskirts of Pottawatomie. Brown, realizing that he was vastly outnumbered,
distributed his men carefully behind natural defenses and inflicted an
unknown number of casualties on the Missourian forces before
he and his men were forced to retreat in disorder across the
Marais des Cygnes River. While Brown and his surviving men hid in the
woods nearby, the Missourians plundered and burned Osawatomie. Brown's bravery and military shrewdness in the face of
overwhelming odds brought him national attention and made him a hero to many Northern
abolitionists, who gave him the nickname "Osawatomie Brown."
A play titled
Osawatomie Brown soon appeared on
Broadway telling his story.
A week later, Brown rode to Lawrence to meet
with Free State leaders and help fortify against a feared assault by
proslavery militias. In August 1856, disgusted with the timidity of Northern
leaders and fearing arrest for the Ossawatomie
killing, Brown departed Kansas, leaving by way of Nebraska. Along the way he
met with Jim Lane's 'Army of the North', which was coming to Kansas to fight
pro-slavery forces. Returning to Kansas, he found the free-state men in open
insurrection against the pro-slavery territorial administration. Brown's
actions during this period are not documented. A feared invasion by Missourians led by David
Atchison took place in September 1856, but serious violence was averted when
the new governor of Kansas,
John W. Geary, ordered the warring parties to disarm and disband, and
offered clemency to former fighters on both sides.Brown, realizing that he could no longer stay
in Kansas safely, left to raise money from supporters in the north.
Later years
Gathering forces
By November 1856, Brown had returned to the
East to solicit more funds. He spent the next two years traveling New
England raising funds.
Amos Adams Lawrence, a prominent Boston merchant, contributed a large
amount of capital. Franklin Sanborn, secretary for the Massachusetts State
Kansas Committee, introduced Brown to several influential abolitionists in
the
Boston area in January 1857. They included
William Lloyd Garrison,
Thomas Wentworth Higginson,
Theodore Parker and
George Luther Stearns, and
Samuel Gridley Howe. A group of six wealthy abolitionists -- Sanborn,
Higginson, Parker, Stearns, Howe, and
Gerrit Smith -- agreed to offer Brown financial support for his
antislavery activities; they would eventually provide most of the financial
backing for the raid on
Harpers Ferry, and would come to be known as the
Secret
Six and the Committee of Six. Brown often requested help from them "no
questions asked," and it remains unclear how much of Brown's scheme the
Secret Six were aware of.
On
January 7,
1858, the
Massachusetts Committee pledged to 200
Sharps Rifles and ammunition, which was being stored at
Tabor, Iowa. In March, Brown contracted
Charles Blair of
Collinsville, Connecticut for 1,000
pikes.
In the following months, Brown continued to
raise funds, visiting
Worcester, Springfield,
New Haven,
Syracuse and Boston. In Boston he met
Henry David Thoreau and
Ralph Waldo Emerson. He received many pledges but little cash. In March,
while in
New York City, he was introduced to
Hugh Forbes. Forbes, an English mercenary, who had experience as a
military tactician gained while fighting with
Giuseppe Garibaldi in
Italy in
1848. Brown hired him to be the drillmaster for his men and to write their
tactical handbook. They agreed to meet in Tabor that summer.
Using the alias Nelson Hawkins, Brown
traveled through the Northeast and then went to visit his family in
Hudson, Ohio. On
August 7,
he arrived in Tabor. Forbes arrived two days later. Over several weeks, the
two men put together a "Well-Matured Plan" for fighting slavery in the
South. The men quarreled over many of the details. In November, their troops
left for Kansas. Forbes had not received his salary and was still feuding
with Brown, so he returned to the East instead of venturing into Kansas. He
would soon threaten to expose the plot to the government.
Because the October elections saw a
free-state victory, Kansas was quiet. Brown made his men return to Iowa,
where he fed them tidbits of his Virginia scheme. In January 1858, Brown
left his men in
Springdale, Iowa, and set off to visit Frederick Douglass in
Rochester, New York. There he discussed his plans with Douglass, and
reconsidered Forbes' criticisms. Brown wrote a
Provisional Constitution that would create a government for a new state
in the region of his invasion. Brown then traveled to
Peterboro, New York and Boston to discuss matters with the Secret Six.
In letters to them he indicated that, along with recruits, he would go into
the South equipped with weapons to do "Kansas work."
Brown and twelve of his followers, including
his son Owen, traveled to
Chatham,
Ontario where he convened on
May 8 a
Constitutional Convention. The convention was put together with the help
of Dr.
Martin Delany. One-third of Chatham's 6,000 residents were fugitive
slaves. The convention assembled 34 blacks and 12 whites to adopt Brown's
Provisional Constitution. According to Delany, during the convention, Brown
illuminated his plans to make Kansas rather than Canada the end of the
Underground Railroad. This would be the Subterranean Pass Way. He never
mentioned or hinted at the idea of Harpers Ferry. But Delany's reflections
are not entirely trustworthy. By 1858, Brown was no longer looking toward
Kansas and was entirely focused on Virginia. Other testimony from the
Chatham meeting suggests Brown did speak of going South. Brown had long used
the terminology of the Subterranean Pass Way from the late 1840s, so it is
possible that Delany conflated Brown's statements over the years.
Regardless, Brown was elected
commander-in-chief and he named
John Henrie Kagi as
Secretary of War.
Richard Realf was named
Secretary of State. Elder Monroe, a black minister, was to act as
president
until another was chosen. A.M. Chapman was the acting
vice president; Delany, the
corresponding secretary. Either during this time or shortly after, the
Declaration of the Slave Population of the U.S.A. was written.
Although nearly all of the delegates signed
the Constitution, very few delegates volunteered to join Brown's forces,
although it will never be clear how many Canadian expatriates actually
intended to join Brown because of a subsequent "security leak" that threw
off plans for the raid, creating a hiatus in which Brown lost contact with
many of the Canadian leaders. This crisis occurred when Hugh Forbes, Brown's
mercenary, tried to expose the plans to Massachusetts
Senator
Henry Wilson and others. The Secret Six feared their names would be made
public. Howe and Higginson wanted no delays in Brown's progress, while
Parker, Stearns, Smith and Sanborn insisted on postponement. Stearn and
Smith were the major sources of funds, and their words carried more weight.
To throw Forbes off the trail and to
invalidate his assertions, Brown returned to Kansas in June, and he remained
in that vicinity for six months. There he joined forces with James
Montgomery, who was leading raids into Missouri. On
December 20, Brown led his own raid, in which he liberated eleven
slaves, took captive two white men, and stole horses and wagons. On
January
20, 1859,
he embarked on a lengthy journey to take the eleven liberated slaves to
Detroit and then on a ferry to
Canada.
Over the course of the next few months he
traveled again through Ohio, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts to draw
up more support for the cause. On
May 9, he
delivered a lecture in
Concord, Massachusetts. In attendance were
Bronson Alcott,
Rockwell Hoar,
Emerson and
Thoreau. Brown also reconnoitered with the Secret Six. In June he paid
his last visit to his family in North Elba, before he departed for Harpers
Ferry.
The Raid
Brown arrived in
Harpers Ferry on
June 3,
1859. A few
days later, under the name Isaac Smith, he rented a farmhouse in nearby
Maryland.
He awaited the arrival of his recruits. They never materialized in the
numbers he expected. In late August he met with Douglass in
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where he revealed the Harpers Ferry plan.
Douglass expressed severe reservations, rebuffing Brown's pleas to join the
mission. Douglass had actually known about Brown's plans from early in 1859
and had made a number of efforts to discourage blacks from enlisting.
In late September, the 950 pikes arrived from
Charles Blair. Kagi's draft plan called for a brigade of 4,500 men, but
Brown had only 21 men (16 white and 5 black - three free blacks, one freed
slave, and a fugitive slave). They ranged in age from 21 to 49. Twelve of
them had been with Brown in Kansas raids.
On
October
16, 1859,
Brown (leaving three men behind as a rear guard) led 18 men in an attack on
the armory at Harpers Ferry. He had received 200 breechloading .52 caliber
Sharps
carbines and pikes from northern abolitionist societies in preparation
for the raid. The armory was a large complex of buildings that contained
100,000 muskets and rifles, which Brown planned to seize and use to arm
local slaves. They would then head south, drawing off more and more slaves
from plantations, and fighting only in self-defense. As Frederick Douglass
and Brown's family testified, his strategy was essentially to deplete
Virginia of its slaves, causing the institution to collapse in one county
after another, until the movement spread into the South, essentially
wreaking havoc on the economic viability of the pro-slavery states. Thus,
while violence was essential to self-defense and advancement of the
movement, Brown's hope was to limit and minimize bloodshed, not ignite a
slave insurrection as many have charged. From the Southern point of view, of
course, any effort to arm the enslaved was perceived as a definitive threat.
Initially, the raid went well. They met no
resistance entering the town. They cut the telegraph wires and easily
captured the armory, which was being defended by a single watchman. They
next rounded up hostages from nearby farms, including Colonel
Lewis Washington, great-grand-nephew of
George Washington. They also spread the news to the local slaves that
their liberation was at hand. Things started to go wrong when an eastbound
Baltimore & Ohio train approached the town. The train's baggage master
tried to warn the passengers. Brown's men yelled for him to halt and then
opened fire. The baggage master,
Hayward Shepherd, became the first casualty of John Brown's war against
slavery. Ironically, Shepherd was a free black man. For some reason, after
the shooting of Shepherd, Brown allowed the train to continue on its way.
News of the raid reached Washington by late morning.
In the meantime, local farmers, shopkeepers,
and militia pinned down the raiders in the armory by firing from the heights
behind the town. Some of the local men were shot by Brown's men. At noon, a
company of militia seized the bridge, blocking the only escape route. Brown
then moved his prisoners and remaining raiders into the engine house, a
small brick building near the armory. He had the doors and windows barred
and loopholes were cut through the brick walls. The surrounding forces
barraged the engine house, and the men inside fired back with occasional
fury. Brown sent his son Watson and another supporter out under a white
flag, but the angry crowd shot them. Intermittent shooting then broke out,
and Brown's son Oliver was wounded. His son begged his father to kill him
and end his suffering, but Brown said "If you must die, die like a man." A
few minutes later he was dead. The exchanges lasted throughout the day.
By morning (October
18) the engine house, later known as
John Brown's Fort, was surrounded by a company of
U.S. Marines under the command of Lt. Col.
Robert E. Lee of the United States Army. A young Army lieutenant,
J.E.B. Stuart, approached under a white flag and told the raiders that
their lives would be spared if they surrendered. Brown replied, "No, I
prefer to die here." Stuart then gave a signal. The Marines used sledge
hammers and a make-shift battering-ram to break down the engine room door.
Lieutenant [Israel
Greene] cornered Brown and struck him several times, wounding his head.
In three minutes Brown and the survivors were captives. Altogether Brown's
men killed four people, and wounded nine. Ten of Brown's men were killed
(including his sons Watson and Oliver). Five of Brown's men escaped
(including his son Owen), and seven were captured along with Brown.
Imprisonment and
trial
Brown and the others captured were held in
the office of the armory. On
October
18, Virginia Governor
Henry A. Wise, Virginia Senator
James M. Mason, and Representative
Clement Vallandigham of Ohio arrived in Harpers Ferry. Mason led the
three-hour questioning session of Brown.
Although the attack had taken place on
Federal property, Wise ordered that Brown and his men would be tried in
Virginia (perhaps to avert Northern political pressure on the Federal
government, or in the unlikely event of a presidential
pardon).
The trial began
October
27, after a doctor pronounced Brown fit for trial. Brown was charged
with murdering
four whites and a black, with
conspiring with slaves to rebel, and with
treason
against Virginia. A series of lawyers were assigned to Brown, including
George Hoyt, but it was
Hiram Griswold who concluded the defense on
October
31. He argued that Brown could not be guilty of treason against a state
to which he owed no loyalty, that Brown had not killed anyone himself, and
that the failure of the raid indicated that Brown had not conspired with
slaves.
Andrew Hunter presented the closing arguments for the prosecution.
On
November 2, after a week-long trial and 45 minutes of deliberation, the
Charles Town jury found Brown guilty on all three counts. Brown was
sentenced to be hanged in public on
December 2. In response to the sentence,
Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked that "[John Brown] will make the gallows
glorious as the Cross." Cadets from the
Virginia Military Institute under the leadership of Generals
Francis H. Smith and
Thomas J. Jackson (who would earn the nickname "Stonewall" fewer than
two years later) were called into service as a security detail in the event
Brown's supporters attempted a rescue.
“
Had I interceded in the manner which I
admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved, had I so interfered in
behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great,
or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, sister,
wife or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what
I have in this interference, it would have been right. Every man in the
court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than
punishment."'
”
— John Brown, in
court after conviction,
During his month in jail, Brown was allowed
to send and receive correspondence. He refused to be rescued by
Silas
Soule, a friend from Kansas who had somehow infiltrated the prison.
Brown said that he was ready to die as a
martyr, and
Silas left him to be executed. More importantly, many of Brown's letters
exuded high tones of spirituality and conviction and, when picked up by the
northern press, won increasing numbers of supporters in the North as they
simultaneously infuriated many in the South. Brown may have been a prisoner,
but he undoubtedly held the nation captive throughout the last quarter of
1859. On
December 1, his wife joined him for his last meal. She was denied
permission to stay for the night, prompting Brown to lose his composure for
the only time through the ordeal.
Victor Hugo's
reaction
Victor Hugo, from his
Guernsey
exile, tried to obtain
pardon
for John Brown: he sent an
open
letter that was published by the press on both sides of the Atlantic . This text, written at Hauteville-House on
December 2,
1859, warned of a possible
civil war:
"[...] Politically speaking, the murder of
John Brown would be an uncorrectable sin. It would create in the Union a
latent fissure that would in the long run dislocate it. Brown's agony might
perhaps consolidate slavery in Virginia, but it would certainly shake the
whole American democracy. You save your shame, but you kill your glory.
Morally speaking, it seems a part of the human light would put itself out,
that the very notion of justice and injustice would hide itself in darkness,
on that day where one would see the assassination of Emancipation by Liberty
itself. [...]
Let America know and ponder on this: there is
something more frightening than Cain killing Abel, and that is Washington
killing Spartacus."
Death and
afterwards
On the morning of
December 2, Brown read his Bible and wrote a final letter to his wife,
which included his will. At 11:00 he was escorted through a crowd of 2,000
soldiers. Among them were future Confederate general
Stonewall Jackson and
John Wilkes Booth, who borrowed a militia uniform to gain admission to
the execution.
Brown was accompanied by the sheriff and his assistants, but no minister
since he had consistently rejected the ministrations of pro-slavery clergy.
Since the region was in the grips of virtual hysteria, most northerners,
including journalists, were run out, and it is unlikely any anti-slavery
clergyman would have been safe, even if one were to have sought to visit
Brown. Likely drawing strength from correspondence from northern clergy, he
elected to receive no religious services in the jail or at the scaffold. He
was hanged at 11:15 a.m. and pronounced dead at 11:50 a.m., and his body was
dumped into a cheap wooden coffin with the noose still around his neck--a
last gesture of Southern contempt.
On the day of his death he wrote "I, John
Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never
be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered
myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done."
According to popular myth, a slave woman and
her infant son were watching from the edges of the crowd. As he passed them,
Brown stopped and kissed the baby's forehead.
In 1864, his wife Mary Ann and some of
Brown's remaining children moved to
Red Bluff
California. At some point during their westward journey, Southern militants
heard of their presence on the trail and sought to attack them, but the
Browns were able to evade them.
John Brown is buried on the
John Brown Farm in
North Elba, New York, south of
Lake Placid, near Saranac Lake.
Senate
investigation
On
December 14,
1859, the U.S. Senate appointed a bipartisan committee to investigate
the Harpers Ferry raid and to determine whether any citizens contributed
arms, ammunition or money. The Democrats attempted to implicate the
Republicans in the raid; the Republicans tried to disassociate themselves
from Brown and his acts.
The Senate committee heard testimony from 32
witnesses, including Liam Dodson, one of the surviving abolitionists. The
report, authored by chairman James M. Mason, a pro-slavery politician from
Virginia, was published in June 1860. It found no direct evidence of a
conspiracy, but implied that the raid was a result of Republican doctrines.
The two committee Republicans published a minority report, but were
apparently more concerned about denying Northern culpability than clarifying
the nature of Brown's efforts. Certainly the 1860 Republican Presidential
candidate, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, echoed his party's view when he
called Brown a delusional fanatic who was justly hanged.
Aftermath of the
raid
The raid on Harpers Ferry is generally
thought to have done much to set the nation on a course toward civil war.
Southern slaveowners, fearful that other abolitionists would emulate Brown
and attempt to lead slave rebellions, began to organize militias to defend
their property, both land and slaves (pre-existing Southern militias had
been, for the most part, small and ineffectual). These militias,
well-established by 1861, were in effect a ready-made
Confederate army, making the South more prepared for
secession
than it otherwise might have been.
Yet they also put forth the propaganda that
Virginia's slaves were unaffected by Brown's presence, and that the majority
of "their" slaves had remained staunchly loyal or firmly indifferent to
Brown's program. Once more, recent scholarship has disproven this notion and
shown how conventional histories of the raid have remained one-sided in
describing the outcome of Harper's Ferry according to the slave master.
Documentary scholars like Jean Libby and Hannah Geffert have argued quite
convincingly that local blacks were far more involved in and supportive of
Brown than textbook authors have realized.
Southern Democrats charged that Brown's raid
was an inevitable consequence of the Republican Party's political platform,
which they associated with Abolitionism. In light of the upcoming elections
in November 1860, the Republican political and editorial response to John
Brown tried to distance themselves as much as possible from Brown,
condemning the raid and dismissing Brown as an
insane
fanatic.
Much of the general public in the North,
however, especially in the
Transcendentalists and
Abolitionist circles, viewed John Brown as a martyr who had been
sacrificed for the sins of the nation. Immediately after the raid,
William Lloyd Garrison published a column in
The Liberator, entitled
"The Tragedy at Harper's Ferry", describing Brown's raid as
"well-intended but sadly misguided" and "an enterprise so wild and futile as
this".
Although Garrison and his circle
opposed any use of violence on principle, he defended Brown's character
from detractors in the Northern and Southern press, and argued that those
who supported the principles of the
American Revolution could not consistently oppose Brown's raid.
(Garrison reiterated the point, adding that "whenever commenced, I cannot
but wish success to all slave insurrections", in a
speech in Boston on the day Brown was hanged.)
After the outbreak of the
American Civil War, John Brown's perceived martyrdom was assured. Union
soldiers marched into battle singing
John Brown's Body, and church congregations sang
Julia Ward Howe's new words to the song
The Battle Hymn of the Republic: "As He died to make men holy, let
us die to make men free". Brown was a zealous
Christian
(the "He died" refers to
Jesus), and
others in the North were inspired to die to make men free, either through
abolutionist activities or fighting as soldiers for the Union in the Civil
War. On December 22, 1859,
John Greenleaf Whittier published a poem praising him, "Brown of
Ossawatomie".
After the Civil War,
Frederick Douglass wrote, "Did John Brown fail? John Brown began the war
that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic. His zeal in the
cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was as the taper
light; his was as the burning sun. I could live for the slave; John Brown
could die for him."
Howard
"Doc" Edwards, Baseball Player, Red Jacket
Howard Rodney Edwards (born
December 10,
1936 in
Red Jacket, West Virginia) was a backup catcher with the
Cleveland Indians,
Kansas City Athletics,
New York Yankees, and the
Philadelphia Phillies over parts of five seasons spanning eight years.
He earned his nickname of "Doc" as a Navy medic.
Signed by the Indians, he spent some time in the
minors before being traded to the
Kansas City Athletics for
Dick
Howser in
1963. After two years, he was traded to the Yankees, and less than a
year later, he was sent back to Cleveland. In
1967, he was traded to the
Houston Astros, who quickly released him. He was picked up by the
Philadelphia Phillies in November, and he made his last appearance in a
major league game in
1970.
He coached with both the Phillies and Indians
before becoming a manager at the minor league level. In 1981, he
managed the
Rochester Red Wings against the
Pawtucket Red Sox in a
33-inning game, the longest in professional baseball history. In
1987, he was hired by the Indians, but their futility continued (they
had only two winning seasons between 1968 and 1987. Edwards was fired with
19 games remaining in the
1989 and replaced with scout
John Hart.
Edwards is currently the field manager for
the
San Angelo Colts, a team in the independent
United League Baseball.
William Milfred Batten,
Reedy. 1909-1999
Born: 1909 Died: 1999 AD, at 90 years of age.
William Milfred Batten is
a Businessman and stock market executive.
1909 - William Milfred
Batten was born in Reedy, West Virginia, USA.
1932 - He studied at Ohio
State University.
1958-1974 - Worked for
the Kellogg Company before joining the J C Penney Co, where he rose from
assistant
store manager to become
president, chief executive officer, and chairman.
1976-1984 - Became
president of the New York Stock Exchange.
Kane
Davis, Baseball Player, Ripley
Kane Davis is a
journeyman pitcher for the
Philadelphia Phillies. He has pitched in the
Pittsburgh Pirates,
Cleveland Indians,
Colorado Rockies
New York Mets, and
Milwaukee Brewers.
Born on
June 25,
1975 in
Ripley, West Virginia, Davis stands at 6
feet, 3 inches
and weighs 194
pounds.
Ezra Millington
'Salt Rock' Midkiff, Baseball Player, Salt Rock. 1882-1957
Birth:
Nov. 13, 1882
Death:
Mar. 20, 1957
Professioanl Baseball Player. Midkiff was born on November 12,
1882, in Salt Rock, West Virginia. At 5'10", and 180lbs, he made
his major league debut on October 5, 1909. Midkiff played for
the Cincinnati Reds in 1909, New York Highlanders in 1912, and
the New York Yankees in
Dick
Brown, Baseball Player, Shinnston. 1935-1970
Dick Brown
Catcher
Batted:
Right
Threw:
Right
MLB debut
June 20,
1957 for the
Cleveland Indians
Final game
October 3,
1965 for the
Baltimore Orioles
Career statistics
Batting average
.244
Home
runs
62
RBI
223
Teams
Cleveland Indians (1957-1959)
Chicago White Sox (1960)
Detroit Tigers (1961-1962)
Baltimore Orioles (1963-1965)
Richard Ernest Brown (Born
January 17,
1935 in
Shinnston, West Virginia, Died
April 17,
1970 in
Baltimore, Maryland) is a former right handed catcher who attended
Florida State University. Standing at 6'3" tall, and weighing 190
pounds, he played from
1957 to
1965 for the
Cleveland Indians,
Chicago White Sox,
Detroit Tigers and
Baltimore Orioles.
Originally signed by the Indians in
1953,
Dick-who is
Larry Brown's brother-made his big league debut on
June 20,
1957 against the
Boston Red Sox at the age of 22.
As a whole, his career never amounted to
much, although it did have a few bright spots. He played in 636 games over
9 seasons, hitting .244 with 62 home runs and 223 RBI. His best two
seasons were the two he spent with Detroit-he hit 16 home runs in
1961 and 12
home runs in 1962.
He had a .989 fielding percentage.
Career highlights include
back-to-back-to-back home runs he hit with
Norm
Cash and
Steve Boros on
May 23,
1961. He hit a grand slam less than one month earlier on
April 29.
He played his final game on
October
3, 1965. He was forced to retire because of a brain tumor. After his
playing days, he was a scout for the Orioles until his death in 1970. He
died from the same thing that made him retire. He is buried in
Pinecrest Cemetery in
Lake Worth, Florida.
Major
transactions
December 6, 1959: Traded by the
Cleveland Indians with
Don Ferrarese,
Minnie Minoso, and
Jake Striker to the Chicago White Sox for
Johnny Romano,
Bubba Phillips, and
Norm
Cash.
December 7, 1960: Traded by the
Milwaukee Braves (who signed him about ten days earlier) with
Bill Bruton,
Chuck Cottier, and
Terry Fox to the Detroit Tigers for
Frank Bolling and
Neil Chrisley.
November 26, 1962: Traded by the Detroit
Tigers to the Baltimore Orioles for
Gus Triandos and
Whitey Herzog.
Other
information
The numbers he wore in his career were
11 (1957-'59), 20 (1960) and 10 (1961-'65).
He was teammates with Colavito for 5
years, longer than any other teammate.
According to Baseball Reference, he is
most similar statistically to
Kelly Stinnett.
Toby
Harrah, Baseball Player, Sissonville
Colbert Dale (Toby) Harrah (b.
26 October 1948 in
Sissonville, West Virginia) was a professional baseball player
who played with the
Texas Rangers both before and after their 1971 franchise shift
before later being traded to the
Cleveland Indians and the
New York Yankees. In 1993, he briefly managed the Rangers.
He played high school baseball in his
hometown of
La Rue, Ohio and was scouted out but was not signed at graduation as
most scouts thought he planned to attend college on a baseball
scholarship. A few months later,
Tony Lucadello followed up and found that Harrah was not attending
school, but was instead working in a factory in nearby
Marion, Ohio. Lucadello signed Harrah for the
Philadelphia Phillies in December,
1966.
After one year in the Phillies
organization, Harrah was drafted by the
Washington Senators in the fall of
1967. He
advanced to the major league club in
1971; the
next year the franchise relocated and became the
Texas Rangers. He was the regular shortstop through
1976, then
moved to third base, although he still saw some action at short. He was
selected to the American League All-Star team in
1972,
1975, and
1976. He had
a career best 93
RBIS in 1975.
In
1978 Toby was
traded to the
Cleveland Indians for
Buddy
Bell, a player thought to be fairly similar in many respects. He was
the Indians regular third baseman through
1983 and made
the All-Star team in
1982. That
year he had 100 runs and a career best .304 batting average.
In
1984 Harrah
was traded to the
New York Yankees, where he was a part time player, then he was traded
again to the Rangers, where he played regularly again for the
1985 and
1986 seasons,
primarily at second base. With the retirement of
Jeff Burroughs in 1985, Harrah became the last active major leaguer to
have played for the Washington Senators franchise.
Harrah was noted for his good eye at the
plate, regularly in the top ten in the league for bases on balls, and
often among the leaders in reaching base safely. He also had better than
average power for a defensive infielder, hitting 195 career home runs.
He is currently the hitting coordinator for
the
Detroit Tigers.
Trivia
Harrah was involved in two of the most
unusual feats in Major League baseball history.
On June 25, 1976, he played an entire
doubleheader without taking a single fielding chance. What was most
unusual about this was that he managed to do so while playing
shortstop, given the predominance of right-handed hitters in a
baseball lineup (who will usually hit the ball to the left side of the
infield).
Just over one year later, on August 27,
1977, Harrah and teammate
Bump
Wills would hit back-to-back inside-the-park home runs, the only time
this feat has ever occurred in a Major League Baseball game.
Toby is one of a select group of major
league players to have a palindromic surname. (Mark Salas is another.)
Harrah is also the only American League third baseman to be named to the
all-star team with a palindromic surname.
Gino
Marchetti, Baseball Player, Smithers
Gino John Marchetti (born
January 2,
1927,
Smithers, West Virginia) is a former professional
American football player in the
National Football League. A
defensive end, he played from
1952 to
1964
and 1966
for the
Dallas Texans and the
Baltimore Colts.
Pre Pro Football
Marchetti enlisted in the U.S.
Army after graduating
Antioch High School and fought in the
Battle of the Bulge as a machine gunner during
World War II. Upon returning home after the war, he attended
Modesto Junior College (Calif.) for a year before joining the football
program at the
University of San Francisco, where his team enjoyed an undefeated
season in 1951.
He was drafted in the second round with the 14th overall pick by the
New York Yanks in 1952.
Pro Football
career
During his rookie season, the Yanks became
the Dallas Texans and in
1953 became
the Baltimore Colts. Marchetti played 13 seasons with the Colts and helped
them win
NFL Championships in
1958 and
1959. During
his career, he was noted for being effective against the run and a
relentless pass-rusher. He fractured a leg on a key play near the end of
the
1958 NFL Championship Game against the
New York Giants but, as a team captain, insisted on watching the rest
of the historic overtime contest from the sideline with his teammates
rather than seeking immediate medical attention in the locker room. The
injury forced him to miss the
Pro Bowl
that year and ended his string of nine consecutive Pro Bowl appearances.
Restaurant
In 1959, Marchetti joined with several of
his teammates, including
Alan Ameche, and opened a
fast
food restaurant. The business grew, began to franchise, and would
eventually become known as
Gino's Hamburgers. It was a successful
East Coast regional
fast
food chain and had 313 company-owned locations when they were sold to
Marriott International in 1982 and became
Roy Rogers restaurants.
Awards and
honors
Pro Bowl Selection (1955-1965)
All-NFL Selection (1956-1964)
NFL 50th Anniversary Team (1969)
Pro Football Hall of Fame (1972)
Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (1985)
NFL 75th Anniversary Team (1994)
All-Madden
All-Millennium Team (2000)
NFL All-Time Team (2000)
In
1999, he
was ranked number 15 on
The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players,
the second-highest-ranking defensive end behind
Deacon Jones.
Randy
Barnes, Olympic Metal Medal Winner, St. Albans
Medal record
Men's Athletics
Silver
1988 Seoul
Shot put
Gold
1996 Atlanta
Shot put
World Championships
Silver
1993 Stuttgart
Shot put
Bronze
1995 Gothenburg
Shot put
Eric R. ("Randy") Barnes (born
June 16,
1966) is an
American shot
putter who holds outdoor and indoor distance records. He won silver at
the
1988 Olympics and gold at the
1996 Olympics.
Barnes was born in
St. Albans, West Virginia and began throwing the shot put in high
school. In 1985, he threw an impressive 66
' 9.5"
(20.36 m) with the prep shot of 12 lb (5.44 kg). After graduating from St.
Albans High School near Charleston in
1985, he
attended
Texas A&M University where he broke school records (set by
Randy Matson) with a put of 21.88 m (71 ft 9.5 in) with the 7.26 kg
(16 lb) full size shot.
He went to the 1988
Seoul Olympics where he threw 22.39 m (73 ft 5.5 in) and earned a
silver medal at only 22. He came second to
Ulf Timmermann of
East Germany, who threw 22.47 m. On
January 20,
1989, he set a new indoor world record at the Sunkist Invitational in
Los Angeles with a put of 22.66 m (74 ft 4.25 in), which was better
than his outdoor personal best at the time.
On
May 20,
1990, he
broke
Ulf Timmermann's outdoor record with a put of 23.12 m. Barnes was
banned from competing for 27 months after testing positive for the
anabolic steroid
methyltestosterone at a competition in
Malmö,
Sweden on
August 7
that same year. He sued to have the suspension overturned, but lost. Due
to the suspension, he was unable to compete in the
1992 Olympics.
At the
1996 Olympic games, Barnes won the gold medal that eluded him 8 years
earlier with a come from behind 21.62 m throw on his final attempt. In
1998, he
tested positive for
androstenedione, an over-the-counter supplement (famously used by
Mark McGwire) that is banned in track and field. Although Barnes
claimed he didn't know andro was banned, he was suspended for life.
As of
2005, both of Barnes's records still stand. He recently became a
long driving competitor, competing to hit a golf ball as far as
possible; he qualified for the 2005 World Long Drive Championship.
Robert
Byrd, Politian, Stotesbury
Robert Carlyle Byrd (born
November 20,
1917) is the senior
United States Senator from
West Virginia and a member of the
Democratic Party. Byrd has held the office since
January
3, 1959,
making him the longest-serving member of the Senate in history. He is also
currently the longest-serving and oldest member of the
United States Congress.
A
resolution was passed on
January
4, 2007
that made Byrd
President pro tempore of the United States Senate of the
110th United States Congress, a position which puts him
third in line to the presidency behind
Vice President
Dick Cheney and
House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi. Previously he held this post from
1989 to
1995, briefly
in January 2001
and again from June 2001 to January
2003.
Early life and
entry into politics
Byrd was born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr. in
North Wilkesboro,
North Carolina, in 1917. When he was one year old, his mother died in
the
1918 Flu Pandemic. In accordance with his mother's wishes, his father
dispersed the family children among relatives. Sale Jr. was given to the
custody of an aunt and an uncle, Vlurma and Titus Byrd, who renamed him
Robert Byrd and raised him in the coal-mining region of
southern West Virginia. His parents inculcated in him "the typical
southern viewpoint of the time," Byrd has written.
Byrd graduated as
valedictorian of his high school class and, in 1937, married his high
school sweetheart Erma Ora James. It was twelve years before he could
afford to go to college. He eventually attended Beckley College (now
Mountain State University), Concord College (now
Concord University), Morris Harvey College (now the
University of Charleston), and Marshall College (now
Marshall University), all in West Virginia. He worked as a gas-station
attendant, grocery-store clerk, shipyard welder, and butcher before he won
a seat in the
West Virginia House of Delegates in 1946, representing
Raleigh County. He served there from 1947 to 1950, when he was elected
to the
West Virginia Senate from 1951 to 1952. After taking a decade of night
classes while in Congress, he graduated from
American University's
Washington College of Law in 1963.
Participation in
the Ku Klux Klan
In the early 1940s, when Byrd was 24 years
old, he joined the
Ku Klux Klan, which he had seen holding parades in
Matoaka, West Virginia, as a child. His father had also been a Klan
member.
Byrd was unanimously elected to be the leader, known as the
Exalted Cyclops, of his local chapter.
Byrd, in his autobiography, attributed the
beginnings of his political career to this incident, although he lamented
that they involved the Klan. According to Byrd's recollection, Klan
official Joel L. Baskin told him, "You have a talent for leadership,
Bob... The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the
nation." Byrd recalls that "suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone
important had recognized my abilities. I was only 23 or 24, and the
thought of a political career had never struck me. But strike me that
night, it did."
He participated in the KKK for a period of time during
World War II, holding the titles "Kleagle",
which indicated a Klan recruiter, and "Exalted Cyclops". Byrd did not
serve in the military during the war, working instead as a welder in a
Baltimore shipyard, assembling warships.
Byrd commented on the 1945 controversy
raging over the idea of racially integrating the military. In his book
When Jim Crow Met John Bull,
Graham Smith referred to a letter written that year by Byrd, when he
was 28 years old, to segregationist
Senator
Theodore Bilbo of
Mississippi, in which Byrd vowed never to fight:
"with a Negro by my side. Rather I
should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt
never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become
degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the
wilds."
When running for
Congress in 1952, he announced, "After about a year, I became
disinterested, quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the
organization. During the nine years that have followed, I have never been
interested in the Klan." During this campaign, "Byrd went on the radio to
acknowledge that he belonged to the Klan from 'mid-1942 to early 1943,'
according to newspaper accounts. He explained that he had joined 'because
it offered excitement and because it was strongly opposed to
communism.' "
However, as late as 1946 or 1947, when he
was 29 years old, he was still at least somewhat involved in promoting the
KKK, as evidenced by a letter that he wrote to a Grand Wizard stating "The
Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth
here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the nation."
In 1997, he told an interviewer he would
encourage young people to become involved in politics, but: "Be sure you
avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don't get that albatross around your neck. Once
you've made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political
arena."
In his latest autobiography, Byrd explained
that he was a member because he "was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision —
a jejune and immature outlook — seeing only what I wanted to see because I
thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions."
Byrd also said in 2005: "I know now I was
wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times
. . . and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what
happened."
Congressional
service
In 1952, Byrd was elected as a member of
the
United States House of Representatives for the 6th district of West
Virginia, succeeding
E.H. Hedrick, who had decided to step down to run for
Governor of West Virginia. He was reelected to the House twice. In
1958, he was elected to the
United States Senate, defeating the
Republican incumbent
W. Chapman Revercomb. He has been reelected eight times.
While Byrd faced some vigorous Republican
opposition in the past, he has not faced truly serious opposition since
freshman congressman
Cleve Benedict took a run at him in 1982. He has since won by
comfortable margins. Despite his tremendous popularity in the state, he
has only run unopposed once, in 1976. On two other occasions — in 1994 and
2000 — he carried all 55 of West Virginia's counties. In his reelection
bid in 2000, he won all but seven of West Virginia's precincts. 2nd
District Congresswoman
Shelley Moore Capito the daughter of one of Byrd's longtime foes,
former governor
Arch Moore, Jr., briefly weighed a challenge to Byrd in 2006, but
decided against it. Ironically, Capito represents much of the territory
Byrd once represented in the House. In the 1960 Presidential election
primaries, Byrd, a close ally of
Lyndon B. Johnson, then Senate Majority Leader, tried and failed to
derail the Democratic front-runner and ultimately successful candidate
John F. Kennedy in the crucial West Virginia
primary.
On
November 7,
2006, Byrd was elected to an unprecedented ninth consecutive term in
the Senate. He became the longest-serving senator in American history on
June 12,
2006,
surpassing
Strom Thurmond of
South Carolina with 17,327 days of service.
Previously, he already held the record for the longest unbroken tenure in
the Senate (Thurmond served 48 years in total, but vacated the office
between April and November of 1956). Counting his tenure as a West
Virginia state legislator from 1947 to 1953, Byrd has served as an elected
official for almost 60 years and has never lost an election. Byrd has cast
a total of 17,745 votes as of
September 13,
2006 — the most of any senator in history. Upon the death of Senator
George Smathers of Florida on
January 20,
2007 - Byrd became the last living United States Senator from the
1950's
This means that not only has Byrd outlived every other Senator who had
seniority over him, but he has remained in the Senate the entire time
while doing it (something that even Strom Thurmond did not accomplish). He
is on pace to pass
Carl Hayden of
Arizona
as the longest-serving member of either house of Congress in American
history sometime in early
2010.
Byrd is the currently the chairman of the
United States Senate Committee on Appropriations. Byrd was first
appointed to the committee by then-Majority Leader
Lyndon B. Johnson when he first entered the Senate in 1959. Since
1989, he has
been the committee's top Democrat and has chaired the committee when the
Democrats have control of the Senate. Byrd is also a member of the
Committee on Armed Services, the
Committee on Rules and Administration and the
Committee on the Budget.
Filibuster of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Byrd joined with other
Southern and
border state Democrats to
filibuster the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, personally filibustering the bill for 14
hours — a move he now says he regrets.
Despite an 83 day
filibuster in the Senate, both parties in Congress voted
overwhelmingly in favor of the Act, and President Johnson signed the bill
into law.
He also opposed the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, but voted for the
Civil Rights Act of 1968. In 2005, Byrd told the Washington Post
that his membership in the
Baptist
church led to a change in his views. In the opinion of one reviewer, Byrd,
along with other Southern and border state Democrats, came to realize that
he would have to temper "his blatantly
segregationist views" and move to the Democratic Party mainstream if
he wanted to play a role nationally.
Leadership roles
Byrd has been a member of the Democratic
leadership since 1967, when he was elected as secretary of the Senate
Democratic Conference (caucus). He became
Senate Majority Whip, or the second-ranking Democrat, in 1971. From
1977 to 1989 Byrd was the leader of the Senate Democrats, serving as
Senate Majority Leader from 1977–81 and 1987–89 and as
Senate Minority Leader from 1981–87.
Byrd is well known for steering federal
dollars to West Virginia, one of the country's poorest states. After
becoming chair of the Appropriations Committee in 1989, Byrd sought to
steer, over time, a total of $1 billion for public works in the state. He passed that mark in 1991, and the steady
stream of funds for highways, dams, educational institutions, and federal
agency offices has continued unabated over the course of his membership.
More than thirty pending or existing federal projects bear Byrd's name. He
commented on his reputation for attaining funds for projects in West
Virginia in August 2006 when he called himself "Big Daddy" at the
dedication to the Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center.
He is close friends with
Ted
Stevens (R-AK),
with whom he alternated as chairman of the committee from 1995 to 2001.
Stevens is also legendary for sending federal money back to his home
state. Their relationship has been strained in recent years, however, over
Byrd's recent stands on U.S.
foreign policy.
Byrd is also known for using his knowledge
of
parliamentary procedure: Before the "Reagan
Revolution", Byrd frustrated Republicans with his encyclopedic
knowledge of the inner workings of the Senate. From 1977–79 he was
described as "performing a procedural tap dance around the minority,
outmaneuvering Republicans with his mastery of the Senate's arcane rules."
In 1988, while Majority Leader, he
moved a
call of the senate, which was adopted by the majority present, in
order to have the
Sergeant at Arms arrest members not in attendance. One member (Robert
Packwood,
was escorted back to the chamber by the Sergeant-at-Arms in order to
obtain a
quorum.
As the longest-serving Democrat in the
Senate, Byrd was
President pro Tempore of the Senate from 1989 until the Republicans
won control of the Senate in 1995. When the Senate was evenly split
between parties after the 2000 elections, Byrd was president pro tempore
again briefly in 2001, when outgoing Vice President
Al Gore's
tiebreaking vote temporarily gave the Democrats a majority. He stepped
down when Vice President
Dick Cheney's tiebreaking vote gave the Republicans a majority. When
Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican party to become an
independent he again became president pro tem from June 2001 until
Republicans retook the Senate in January 2003. During the times he served
as president pro tempore he was the fourth person in the line of
presidential succession. On November 14, 2006, he was again elected
President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate, as a result of the
2006 Senate Elections.
Scholarships
and TAH History Grants
In 1969, Byrd launched a Scholastic
Recognition Award; he also began to present a savings bond to
valedictorians from high schools, public and private, in West Virginia. In
1985 Congress approved the nation's only merit-based scholarship program
funded through the U.S. Department of Education, which Congress later
named in Byrd's honor. The
Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program initially comprised a
one-year, $1,500 award to students with "outstanding academic achievement"
and who had been accepted for enrollment at an institution of higher
learning. From 1993 onwards, the program began providing four-year
scholarships; students who received the first-year scholarship then could
apply for stipends for the next three years.
In 2002 Byrd secured unanimous approval for
a major national initiative to strengthen the teaching of "traditional
American history" in the K12 public schools.
The Department of Education awards in competition $50 to $120 million a
year to school districts (in sums of about $500,000 to $1 million). The
money goes to teacher training programs, operated in conjunction with
universities or museums, geared to improving the content skills of history
teachers. Referred to as a "Byrd Grant," these awards come under the
“Learning the Lessons of American History” initiative to strengthen and
improve the teaching of American history in the schools.
Senate historian
Television cameras were first introduced to
the
U.S. House of Representatives on
March 19,
1979, with
the launch of
C-SPAN. Fearing that Americans only saw the Congress as the House of
Representatives, Byrd believed that Senate proceedings should be televised
to prevent the Senate from becoming the "invisible branch" of government.
Thanks in part to Byrd's efforts, cameras came to the Senate floor in June
1986. To help introduce the public to the inner workings of the
legislative process, Byrd launched a series of speeches based on his
examination of the
Roman Republic and the intent of the Framers. Byrd published a four
volume series on Senate history: The Senate: 1789–1989.
For that work, the
American Historical Association, presented Byrd with the first
Theodore Roosevelt–Woodrow Wilson Award for Civil Service on
January
8, 2004.
The honorific award is intended to recognize individuals outside the
academy "who have made a significant contribution to history." During the
1980s, he delivered a hundred speeches on the floor dealing with various
aspects of the Senate's history, which were published in four volumes as
The Senate, 1789–1989: Addresses on the History of the Senate
(Government Printing Office, 1989–94). The first volume of his series won
the Henry Adams Prize of the Society for History in the Federal Government
as "an outstanding contribution to research in the history of the Federal
Government." He also published The Senate of the Roman Republic:
Addresses on the History of Roman Constitutionalism (Government
Printing Office, 1995).
Voting record
Despite his long tenure as a member of the
Senate Democratic leadership, Byrd is one of the more independent-minded
Senate Democrats. He has a reputation for putting the interests of the
Senate and West Virginia above the interests of his party.
On occasion, Byrd disagreed with President
Bill Clinton's policies. Byrd initially said that the
impeachment proceedings against Clinton should be taken seriously and
conducted completely. Although he harshly criticized any attempt to make
light of it, he made the motion to dismiss the charges against the
president and effectively suspend proceedings. Even though he voted
against both articles of impeachment, he was the sole Democrat to vote for
the censure
of Clinton.
He strongly opposed Clinton's 1993 efforts to allow
gays to serve
in the military and has also supported efforts to limit
gay marriage. However, he opposed the
Federal Marriage Amendment, arguing that it was unnecessary because
the states already had the power to ban gay marriages.
However, when the amendment came to the Senate floor he was one of the two
Democratic Senators who voted in favor of the
cloture
motion.
He also opposes
affirmative action.
In the
NAACP's
Congressional Report Card for the 108th Congress (spanning the 2003–2004
congressional session), Byrd was awarded with an approval rating of 100%
for favoring the
NAACP's
position in all 33 bills presented to the United States Senate regarding
issues of their concern. Only 16 other Senators of the same session
matched this approval rating. In June 2005, Byrd
proposed an additional $10 million in federal funding for the
Martin Luther King memorial in Washington, DC, remarking that "With
the passage of time, we have come to learn that his Dream was the American
Dream, and few ever expressed it more eloquently."
This year, Byrd received 67% rating from
the ACLU for
supporting rights-related legislation.
Byrd also received a 65% vote rating from the League of Conservation
Voters for his support of environmentally friendly legislation.
Additionally, he received a "liberal" rating of 65.5% by the
National Journal—higher than six other Democratic senators.
He also voiced praise for George W. Bush's
nomination of
Judge John Roberts to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by
the death of Chief Justice
William Rehnquist. Likewise, Byrd supported the confirmation of
Samuel Alito to replace retiring Associate Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor. Like most Democrats, however, Byrd opposes Bush's
tax cuts and his proposals to change the
Social Security program.
Byrd is opposed to the
Flag Desecration Amendment, saying that, while he wants to protect the
American flag, he believed that amending the constitution "is not the
most expeditious way to protect this revered symbol of our Republic." In
response to the amendment, Byrd has cosponsored S. 1370, a bill that
prohibits destruction or desecration of the flag by anyone trying to
incite violence or causing a breach of the peace. It also provides that
anyone who steals, damages, or destroys a flag on federal property,
whether a flag owned by the federal government or a private group or
individual, can be imprisoned for up to two years, or can be fined up to
$250,000, or both.
In
2004, Byrd
offered an amendment that would limit the personnel in
Plan Colombia, but was defeated in the Senate
Race and race
relations
On
March 4,
2001, Byrd
said race relations:
"Are much, much better than they've
ever been in my lifetime.... I think we talk about race too much. I
think those problems are largely behind us ... I just think we talk so
much about it that we help to create somewhat of an illusion. I think we
try to have good will. My old mom told me, 'Robert, you can't go to
heaven if you hate anybody.' We practice that. There are white
niggers.
I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word.
We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and
I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."
Byrd's use of the term "nigger" created
immediate controversy, When asked about it, Byrd apologized for the
language: " 'I apologize for the characterization I used on this program,'
he said. 'The phrase dates back to my boyhood and has no place in today's
society. [...] 'In my attempt to articulate strongly held feelings, I may
have offended people.' "
Byrd said that he regrets voting against
the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and would change it if he had the
opportunity. In explanation of his vote he said, "We who were born in a
southern environment...ought to get ahead of the curve and take down those
[white only] signs ourselves. We shouldn't need a law to require us to do
it." Byrd, however, said that he realized people were too set in their
ways to integrate society on their own and therefore the Civil Rights Act
became necessary. Byrd has also said that his views changed most
dramatically after his teen-age grandson was killed in a 1982 traffic
accident, which put him in a deep emotional valley." The death of my
grandson caused me to stop and think," said Byrd, adding he came to
realize that black people love their children as much as he does his.
In 1976, Byrd was the "favorite son"
candidate in West Virginia's primary. His easy victory gave him control of
the delegation to the national convention. His real goal was to become
Senate majority leader to succeed
Mike Mansfield. Byrd had the inside track as majority whip.
Byrd focused most of his time on campaigning for the office of majority
leader, more so than for re-election to the Senate, as he was virtually
unopposed for his fourth term. By the time the vote for majority leader
was at hand, he had it so wrapped up that his lone rival, Minnesota's
Hubert Humphrey, withdrew before the balloting took place.
War in Iraq
In the 107th Congress, Byrd suffered some
legislative setbacks, particularly with respect to debates on
homeland security. Byrd opposed the 2002 law creating the
Homeland Security Department, saying it ceded too much authority to
the executive branch. He led a filibuster against the resolution granting
President
George W. Bush broad power to wage a "preemptive" war against Iraq,
but he could not get a majority of his own party to vote against
cloture
and against the resolution.
He also led the opposition to Bush's bid to win back the power to
negotiate trade deals that Congress cannot amend, but lost overwhelmingly.
But, in the 108th Congress, Byrd won his party's top seat on the new
Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
Byrd was one of the Senate's most outspoken
critics of the
2003 invasion of Iraq.
He appeared on
March 7,
2003 on
CNN's
Larry
King Live to discuss his
U.S. Senate floor speeches against the
Iraq War Resolution in
2002.
On
March 19,
2003, when
Bush ordered the invasion after receiving
U.S. Congress approval, Byrd stated:
"Today I weep for my country. I have
watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more
is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The
image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us,
our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned. Instead of
reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or
threaten recrimination."
Byrd also criticized Bush for his speech
declaring the "end of major combat operations" in Iraq, which Bush made on
the
U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Byrd stated on the Senate floor:
"I do question the motives of a
deskbound president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes
of a speech."
On
October 17,
2003, Byrd delivered a speech expressing his concerns about the future
of the nation and his unequivocal antipathy to Bush's policies.
Referencing the
Hans Christian Andersen children's tale
The Emperor's New Clothes, Byrd said of the president: "the
emperor has no clothes." Byrd further lamented the "sheep-like" behavior
of the "cowed Members of this Senate" and called on them to oppose the
continuation of a "war based on falsehoods."
Byrd criticized what he saw as the stifling
of dissent: "The right to ask questions, debate, and dissent is under
attack. The drums of war are beaten ever louder in an attempt to drown out
those who speak of our predicament in stark terms. Even in the Senate, our
history and tradition of being the world's greatest deliberative body is
being snubbed. This huge spending bill — $87 billion — has been rushed
through this chamber in just one month. There were just three open
hearings by the Senate Appropriations Committee on $87 billion — $87 for
every minute since
Jesus Christ
was born — $87 billion without a single outside witness called to
challenge the administration's line." Finally, Byrd quoted Nazi leader
Hermann Göring who stated that rushing to war is easy if the proponent
of war portrays opponents as unpatriotic.
In July 2004, Byrd released the book
Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency about
the Bush presidency and the
war
in Iraq.
Of the more than 17,000 votes he has cast
as a Senator, Byrd says he is proudest of his vote against the Iraq war
resolution.
However, Byrd has said he is opposed to the establishment of a timetable
to withdraw American forces.
On
May 23,
2005, Byrd
was one of fourteen Senators (who became known as the "Gang
of 14") to forge a compromise on the use of the judicial
filibuster, thus securing up and down votes for the judicial nominees
and ending the need for a "nuclear
option". Under the agreement, the senators would retain the power to
filibuster a judicial nominee in only an "extraordinary circumstance". It
ensured that the
appellate court nominees (Janice
Rogers Brown,
Priscilla Owen and
William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate.
Note: Representative
E.H. Hedrick (D) did not seek re-election in 1952 for West Virginia's
6th Congressional District; thus the seat did not have an incumbent.
Therefore, Byrd was placed under the incumbent column because he had the
same political affiliation as Hedrick.
2006 re-election
campaign
After several major Republican figures in
the state decided not to run against Byrd, the Republican party convinced
John
Raese to run for this seat. Raese is the owner of radio stations and a
newspaper in West Virginia. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in
1984 against then Governor
Jay Rockefeller. In 1988, he ran against Governor
Arch Moore for the Republican nomination and lost.
Raese won the May 2006 primary with 58
percent of the vote, defeating five other candidates. Byrd defeated him on
November 7, 2006, securing a ninth consecutive term in the Senate.
Family
Byrd has two daughters, Mona and Marjorie,
as well as several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Wife: Erma Ora James Byrd (died March
26, 2006)
Children: Mona Byrd Fatemi and Marjorie
Byrd Moore
Sons-in-Law: Mohammad Fatemi and Jon
Moore
Grandchildren: Erik Fatemi, Darius
Fatemi, and Frederik Fatemi, Michael Moore (deceased), Mona Moore, and
Mary Anne Moore
Great-grandchildren: Caroline Byrd
Fatemi, Kathryn Somes Fatemi, Anna Cristina Fatemi, Michael Yoo Fatemi,
Emma James Clarkson and Hannah Byrd Clarkson.
Published
writing
Senator Robert C. Byrd. 2005. Robert
C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields.
Senator Robert C. Byrd. 2004. Losing
America: Confronting A Reckless and Arrogant Presidency.
Senator Robert C. Byrd. 2004. We
Stand Passively Mute: Senator Robert C. Byrd's Iraq Speeches.
Senator Robert C. Byrd. 1995. Senate
of the Roman Republic: Addresses on the History of Roman
Constitutionalism.
Senator Robert C. Byrd. 1995. The
Senate, 1789–1989: Classic Speeches, 1830–1993, Vol. 3.
Senator Robert C. Byrd. 1993. The
Senate, 1789–1989: Historical Statistics, 1789–1992, Vol. 4.
Senator Robert C. Byrd. 1991. The
Senate, 1789–1989, Vol. 2: Addresses on the History of the United States
Senate.
Senator Robert C. Byrd. 1989. The
Senate, 1789–1989, Vol. 1: Addresses on the History of the United States
Senate.
Placenames
Byrd is known for having amassed one of the
largest number of placenames in the history of Congress. This has caused
consternation among some of Senator Byrd's critics, due to the fact that toponyms
are typically bestowed posthumously. Others say that the placenames are
simply a testament to his long record of public service.
Robert C. Byrd Academic and Technology
Center at
Marshall University,
Huntington
Robert C. Byrd Addition to the Lodge at
Oglebay Park,
Wheeling
Robert C. Byrd Appalachian Highway
System part of the
Appalachian Development Highway System
Robert C. Byrd Auditorium at the
National Conservation Training Center,
Shepherdstown
Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center at
Marshall University,
Huntington
Robert C. Byrd Bridge, between
Huntington and
Chesapeake, Ohio
Robert C. Byrd Cancer Research
Laboratory of
West Virginia University,
Morgantown
Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative
Studies at
Shepherd University,
Shepherdstown
Robert C. Byrd Center for Pharmacy
Education at the
University of Charleston,
Charleston
Robert C. Byrd Clinic at the
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine,
Lewisburg
Robert C. Byrd Clinical Addition to
Veteran's Hospital,
Huntington
Robert C. Byrd Community Center,
Pine Grove
Robert C. Byrd Conference Center at
Davis and Elkins College,
Elkins
Robert C. Byrd Drive, from
Beckley to
Sophia (Byrd's hometown)
Robert C. Byrd Expressway,
U.S. Highway 22, near
Weirton
Robert C. Byrd Federal Building &
Courthouse,
Beckley
Robert C. Byrd Federal Building &
Courthouse,
Charleston
Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope,
Green Bank
Robert C. Byrd Hardwood Technologies
Center,
Princeton
Robert C. Byrd Health and Wellness
Center of
Bethany College,
Bethany
Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of
West Virginia University,
Morgantown
Robert C. Byrd High School,
Clarksburg
Robert C. Byrd Hilltop Office Complex,
Rocket Center
Erma Ora Byrd Conference & Learning
Center
Robert C. Byrd Industrial Park,
Moorefield
Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing;
Huntington,
Charleston,
Bridgeport &
Rocket Center
Robert C. Byrd Intermodal Transportation
Center (and Parking Garage),
Wheeling
Robert C. Byrd Library & Robert C. Byrd
Learning Resource Center at
Mountain State University,
Beckley
Robert C. Byrd Locks & Dam,
Gallipolis Ferry
Robert C. Byrd Metals Fabrication
Center,
Rocket Center
Robert C. Byrd National Aerospace
Education Center,
Bridgeport
Robert C. Byrd National Technology
Transfer Center at
Wheeling Jesuit University,
Wheeling
Robert C. Byrd Rural Health Center at
Marshall University,
Huntington
Robert C. Byrd Science and Technology
Center at
Shepherd University,
Shepherdstown
Robert C. Byrd Technology Center at
Alderson-Broaddus College,
Philippi
Robert C. Byrd United Technical Center
Robert C. Byrd Visitor Center at
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park,
Harpers Ferry
(For Byrd's Wife) Erma Ora Byrd Center
for Educational Technologies at
Wheeling Jesuit University,
Wheeling
Robert C. Byrd Rooms in the Capitol
Building (the office of the
Senate Minority Leader)
Trivia
Robert Byrd is not only the longest
serving member of the US Senate, but is also the longest surviving of
any current or former US Senator, having entered the Senate in 1959.
Byrd is the last remaining Senator to
have voted on a statehood bill.
Byrd has served longer in the Senate
than eight of his colleagues (Bob
Casey, Jr.,
Amy Klobuchar,
Blanche Lincoln,
John Thune,
David Vitter,
Barack Obama,
Mark Pryor, and
John Sununu) have been alive.
Byrd is of no relation to
Harry F. Byrd and
Harry F. Byrd, Jr., both former U.S. Senators from
Virginia.
Byrd was an avid
fiddle
player for most of his life, starting in his teens when he played in
various square dance bands. Once he entered politics, he used his
fiddling skills to attract attention and win votes. In 1978 when Byrd
was Majority Leader, he recorded an album called U.S. Senator Robert
Byrd: Mountain Fiddler (County, 1978). Byrd was accompanied by
Country Gentlemen Doyle Lawson, James Bailey, and Spider Gilliam.
Most of the LP consists of "old-timey" mountain music. Byrd covers
"Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die," a
Zeke Manners song, and "Will
the Circle Be Unbroken." He has performed at the
Kennedy Center and on
Hee Haw.
He can no longer play the fiddle due to the symptoms of what aides say
is a benign
essential tremor that affects his hands.
Byrd is the subject of the song "Byrd
From West Virginia" by the cosmic country band "I See Hawks in L.A."
The song addresses the challenges and hardships of his early life (not
omitting that period when "the darkness of America blinded his sight"),
and pays affectionate tribute to his public service career, particularly
his opposition to the invasion of Iraq.
Senator Byrd is called by some the "King
of Pork"[
a name he relishes.
Senator Byrd appeared in the Civil War
movie
Gods and Generals in 2003 along with former Virginia Senator
George Allen as Confederate officers.
Wilma
Lee Cooper, Country Country Entertainer, Valley Head
Wilma Lee Cooper (February
7, 1921
- ) is a
Bluegrass-based
country music entertainer. Born Wilma Lee Leary in
Valley Head, West Virginia, sang in her youth with her family's
gospel group, The Leary Family. She later married fiddler/vocalist
Stoney Cooper and the duo headed their own bluegrass group,
"Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper and the Clinch Mountain Clan". They were
regulars for ten years on
WWVA's rival program to the Grand Ole Opry
Wheeling Jamboree beginning in 1947 before joining the
Grand Ole Opry itself in 1957.
Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper had
remarkable record success in the late 1950's and early 1960's on
Hickory Records given both their bluegrass sound (which has rarely
been so commercially successful) and the damage rock-n-roll was doing to
country's popularity at the time. They scored seven hit records between
1956 and 1961, with four top ten hits in
Billboard, notably "Big Midnight Special" and "There's a Big Wheel".
Stoney Cooper passed away in 1977 but Wilma Lee remained on the Opry as
a solo star and on occasion recorded an album for a bluegrass record
label. Cooper remained an Opry favorite and regular performer but in
2001 suffered a stroke while performing on the Opry stage. The stroke
ended her performing career, but Cooper defied doctors who said she
would never walk again and has since returned to the Opry to greet and
thank the crowds.
Cooper's daughter, Carol Lee Cooper, is
the lead singer for the Grand Ole Opry's backup vocal group, The Carol
Lee Singers.
Anna
Marie Reeves Jarvis, , Webster. 1832-1905 Anna Marie Jarvis, Founder
of Mothers Day, Webster. 1864-1948
Mother and Daughter
Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis (September
30,
1832 -
May 9,
1905)
was born in
Culpeper, Virginia. Jarvis worked around what is now
West Virginia to promote worker health and safety concerns.
During the
American Civil War she organized women to tend to the needs of
the wounded of both sides. After the war she became active in the
promotion of
Mother's Day, a holiday at that time involved with the causes of
pacifism and social activism. She organized meetings of mothers
of soldiers of both sides of the late war.
Her daughter Anna Marie Jarvis (May
1, 1864
-
November 24,
1948) was
born in
Webster,
Taylor County, West Virginia. Her family moved to
Grafton, West Virginia in her childhood. Two year after her mother's
death she held a memorial to her mother on
May 12,
1907, and
then went on a quest to make Mother's Day a recognized holiday. She
succeeded in making this nationally recognized in
1914. The
International Mother's Day Shrine still stands today in Grafton as a
symbol of her accomplishments.
By the 1920s, Jarvis had become soured on the commercialization of
the holiday. She incorporated herself as the Mother’s Day International
Association, claimed copyright on the second Sunday of May, and was once
arrested for disturbing the peace. She and her sister Ellsinore spent
their family inheritance campaigning against the holiday. Both died in
poverty. Jarvis, says her
New York Times
obituary, became embittered because too many people sent their
mothers a printed
greeting card. She considered it "a poor excuse for the letter you
are too lazy to write."
Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis died in
Philadelphia, appreciated as the mother of Mothers Days.
Anna Marie Jarvis died in
West Chester, Pennsylvania, recognized as the founder of the
Mother's Day
holiday
in the
United States of America.
Page Johnson, Actor,
Welch
Date of birth
25 August 1930,
Welch, West Virginia, USA
Filmography
"The Job" .... Monsignor
(2 episodes, 2002)
- Soup (2002)
TV Episode .... Monsignor
- Sacrilege
(2002) TV Episode ....
Monsignor
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
.... Mary (1 episode, 1999)
... aka Law & Order: SVU (USA: promotional abbreviation)
... aka Special Victims Unit (New Zealand: English title)
- Hysteria
(1999) TV Episode .... Mary
Nobody's Fool
(1994) .... C. W. Lomax
Jersey Girl
(1992) .... Maitre D'
"Monsters" .... Cappy
(1 episode, 1988)
- Pool Sharks
(1988) TV Episode .... Cappy
You Can't Take It
with You (1984) (TV) .... A man from the Department of Justice
Nicky's World (1974) (TV) .... Workman
Finnegan's Wake (1966) .... Shaun
... aka Finnegans Wake
... aka Passages from Finnegans Wake
"East
Side/West Side" (1 episode, 1964)
- The Beatnik and
the Politician (1964) TV Episode
Bernie Casey, Football Player and Actor, Waco
Bernard Terry Casey (born June 8, 1939)
was an American Football player during the 1960s who later became an
actor. Some years later, in a piece for NFL Films, he expressed his
disillusionment with the NFL and professional sports in general,
feeling like his creativity and individuality were thwarted by
conservative elements in the league and ownership hierarchy. He does
not look back fondly on his pro football experience. He also showed
off some paintings of his own creation during the piece.
He began his acting career in the film
Guns of the Magnificent Seven, a sequel to The Magnificent
Seven. From there he moved between performances on television
and the big screen. In 1983 he played the role of Felix Leiter in
the unofficial (non-EON Productions) James Bond film Never Say
Never Again. His comedic role as Colonel Rhumbus in the John
Landis film Spies Like Us was followed by appearances in the
Revenge of the Nerds sequels.
Also, during his career he worked
with such well-known directors as Martin Scorsese in his 1972 film
Boxcar Bertha and appeared on such television series as
The Streets of San Francisco and as U.N. Jefferson, the national
head of the Lambda Lambda Lambda fraternity in Revenge of the
Nerds. 1994 saw Casey guest-starring in a two-episode story arc
in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (along with series star Avery
Brooks) as the Maquis leader Lieutenant Commander Cal Hudson. He has
continued working as an actor. In 2006, he co-starred in the film
When I Find the Ocean alongside such actors as Lee Majors.
Joe
Cerisano, Entertainer, Fairmont
Joe Cerisano began performing
professionally at the age of 14 and in the years since, has emerged as
one of American music's most sought-after singer/songwriter producers.
During his career, the West Virginia native has been a founding member
of California '80s rock band Silver Condor (with David Bowie's former
guitarist Earl Slick), a studio session singer, a singer for
television and radio commercials, and a backing vocalist for Michael
Bolton. Cerisano has also sang with Blue Öyster Cult, Gloria Estefan,
Placido Domingo, and Richie Havens. In 1990, he and his
songwriting partner Marc Blatte began work on Carbon Copy, which they
eventually recorded in New York City, New Jersey, and Nashville.
Providing further proof that Joe Cerisano's currency is as vital today
as it ever was, in 1999 he contributed vocals to the alternative metal
band Korn on their Issues release. ~ Roxanne Blanford, All Music Guide
French
Ensor Chadwick, U.S. Navy Officer, Morgantown. 1844-1919
Rear Admiral French Ensor Chadwick, USN
(February 28, 1844-1919) was a U.S. Navy officer who became
prominent in the naval reform movement of the post-Civil War era. He
was particularly noted for his contributions to naval education, and
served as president of the Naval War College from 1900-1903.
A native of Morgantown, West
Virginia, he attended the United States Naval Academy from
1861-1864. During the Civil War years, the Academy was relocated
from Annapolis, Maryland to Newport, Rhode Island, due to concerns
about secessionist sympathy in Maryland, a border state.
Major sea commands included the
gunboat USS Yorktown, commissioned in 1889.
John Corbett, Actor and Musician, Wheeling
John Joseph Corbett, Jr. (May 9, 1961)
is an American actor, known for both film and television roles, and
a musician.
Corbett was born in
Wheeling, West Virginia to John Joseph Corbett, Sr. He attended
Wheeling Central Catholic High School and Cerritos College in
Norwalk, California. Corbett was raised in the Catholic religion and
is now a Born-again Christian. Corbett lives with his girlfriend Bo
Derek in the Santa Ynez Valley, California. He also owns a female
cat, Donna Reed. In an interview with Conan O'Brien, he claimed that
he lost his virginity at age 21.
His first major role was as the
hippie boyfriend of Karen Arnold in season 1 episode 4 "Angel" of
The Wonder Years in 1988. Corbett has since co-starred in two
successful television series to date: Northern Exposure from
1990 to 1995 and Sex and the City (spanning 20 episodes from
2001 to 2002). In addition, he starred in two short-lived television
series. The first was a 1997 sci-fi series entitled The Visitor.
Corbett starred as Adam MacArthur, a man abducted by aliens only to
find his way home 50 years later with unearthly powers. In 2003, he
starred in his second series entitled Lucky, which was about
a professional poker player, Michael 'Lucky' Linkletter, living in
Las Vegas. Unfortunately, this show was put on air before the
current poker fad took off, and it was not renewed for a second
season – despite critical acclaim and a loyal following. Despite the
loyal following, FX has not released the show on DVD.
Important movies credits include the
hit comedy movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), Raising
Helen (2004), and Bigger Than the Sky (2005). Corbett
also appeared in the movie Serendipity with John Cusack and
Kate Beckinsale and played the role of a sensitive, inspiring, funny
music teacher in the movie, Raise Your Voice, which starred
Hillary Duff.
His first full length album was
released on April 4, 2006. Among the songs is his version of "Good
to Go," for which the video can currently be seen on country video
stations like Great American Country. He has been on a nationwide
tour of the U.S. with his band for much of 2006.
John Corns, U.S. Army
General, Ruth
A three-star Army general who was
commander of bases in Japan and Alaska, and as Inspector General
during the Gulf War he insured that American troops were properly
prepared before being sent to the region. Corns was the only
three-star general who did not attend a military college. He was born
in Logan County. When his father was injured in a mine cave-in, the
family moved to Ruth, near Charleston, where he grew up. He attended
Marshall University.
Dagmar, Actress,
Hunington. 1922-2001
(Virginia Ruth Egnor) appeared on NBC
television on Broadway Open House and with Jack Paar. She was
voted the most photogenic girl on TV by a nationwide poll of editors
and she appeared on the cover of Life magazine. In 1952 Dagmar
starred in her own TV show, Dagmar's Canteen. Earlier in her
career she used the name Jenny Lewis. She was born and grew up in
Huntington. Dagmar declined to give her birthdate, although it is
listed as November 29 in 1920, 1921, or 1927. She died on Oct. 9,
2001. According to TV Guide, she was 79.
Kristan Cunningham,
Interior Designer, Charleston
From a very young age, Kristan
Cunningham had an astute eye for design. She received a scholarship
to study interior design at the University of Charleston in her home
state of West Virginia. After college, she headed west to Los
Angeles to enter the "glamorous world of design". She kicked off her
career landing a job at one of L.A.'s premiere furniture showrooms,
climbing the ranks from sales associate to buyer, where she quickly
earned a reputation for her furniture designs. In 2001, Kristan
became a resident designer for a renowned kitchen design firm in
L.A.'s hip and trendy Design District.
After an appearance on Home and Garden Television's popular series
Designer's Challenge, Kristan was asked to join the HGTV family. In
2003, she became the host and lead designer of Design on a Dime, the
hit show with a fresh approach to budget conscious style. Recently,
Kristan was given the challenge of designing and executing a
couple's dream wedding on Design on a Dime's first primetime
special. Her on-air appearances have grown to include popular design
segments on Today, The Wayne Brady Show, Life and Style, Tyra and
Live! With Regis and Kelly.
Kristan hit bookstands in 2003, featured in the best selling book
Design on a Dime: Achieve High Style on a $1000 Budget. It was
quickly followed up with the equally successful Six Steps to Design
on a Dime. Other books featuring Kristan's designs include HGTV's
Kitchen's, and HGTV's Bathrooms. Kristan is also a contributor and
Lifestyle Expert for Redbook magazine's Marriage Institute. In 2004,
Kristan and her fiancée Scott Jarrell, purchased the home of
renowned modernist architect Conrad Buff. Their extensive two-year
renovation was documented in a five part series featured in Better
Home and Garden's DIY magazine. In addition, Kristan has made
several public appearances in support of Goodwill Industries.
Kristan resides in Pasadena, California with Scott and their
adorable yorkie, Floyd.
Cornstalk, Shawnee
Chief, Statesman, and Warrior, Point Pleasant
(b. 1720 d. 1777), a Shawnee
chief, statesman, and warrior, led raids into the Greenbrier Valley
and other parts of what is now West Virginia. He was
commander-in-chief of the combined Indian forces at the Battle of
Point Pleasant. He is buried in the courthouse yard at Point Pleasant;
a monument is located near his grave. He was born on the Ohio-West
Virginia frontier.
Jeff Copley,
Country Entertainer, Crum
Jeff Copley was born in West Virginia and raised on the country
and bluegrass traditions of that region. A talented vocalist,
Copley was groomed by Polygram to capitalize on his good looks and
charming mixture of Appalachian tradition with Music City shine.
Evergreen, his debut, appeared in 1995.
Stephen Coonts, Author,
Buckhannon
(b. 1946- ), author, wrote Flight of the Intruder, the
Vietnam War naval aviation novel. Other novels include: The
Cannibal Queen, about a flight across country in a biplane,
Final Flight,The Minataur,Under Siege, and The
Red Horseman, all of which were New York Times best sellers.
Coonts is from Buckhannon, where his parents still live. He was born
in Morgantown. He graduated from WVU in 1968.
Jim Comstock,
Newspapers and Author, Richwood. 1911-1996
(b. 1911 d. 1996) was the editor
of the West Virginia Hillbilly and the Richwood News-Leader
and the author of the Best of Hillbilly and the voluminous
West Virginia Encyclopedia. Comstock was possibly West Virginia's
most prolific writer about mountain culture and history. He saved
Pearl Buck's birthplace and helped launch the Cass Scenic Railroad. He
graduated from Marshall University and was a resident of Richwood.
Mike Compton, Football
Player, Richlands
(b. 1970- ), the starting left guard for the New England Patriots,
played at WVU, where he became a first team All-American. He was born
in Richlands, Va.
Larry Combs, Musician,
Charleston
He has been the principal clarinetist
for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1978. He was born in
Charleston.
Cora Sue Collins,
Actress, Beckley
(b. 1927- ) was a child actress who
appeared in many movies in the 1930s. Her first film, at age five, was
The Strange Case of Clara Deane (1932). She played the
illegitimate daughter of Colleen Moore in The Scarlet Letter
(1934). In her last film, at age 18, she played Elinor Randall in
Roughly Speaking (1945). She was born in Beckley.
Arden Coger, Webster
Springs
He is a several time World Champion Wood Chopper who travels the
world and competes in chopping contests. He born and raised in Webster
County, where he still lives. He was instrumental in starting the
Webster County Woodchopping Festival in the 1960s. His son, Arden
"Jamie" Coger Jr., is a top competitor on the North American
woodchopping circuit. He is the only top competitor in the sport who
does not make the circuit his full-time occupation.
Peggy Church, Actress
(b. 1954- ) appeared in The
Big Snatch in 1968 and played the role of Debbie in the movie
The All-American Girl (1972). She was born in West Virginia.
W.
Hodding Carter, Writer and Adventurer, Beckley
A writer and
adventurer, led an expedition which retraced Leif Eriksson's voyage in a
replica Viking ship, sailing from Greenland to Newfoundland in 87 days in
1998. He is the son of President Carter's State Department spokesman.
Carter lives in Beckley.
Tom
Canning, Song Writer, Morgantown
A keyboard artist who has also written or
co-written numerous songs, many of them for Al Jarreau, for whom he was
musical director. He graduated from Morgantown High School in 1965.
Bill Campbell, Golf,
Huntington
President of the United States Golf
Association in 1987 and 1988. He also served as captain of the Royal and
Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1983. The R & A is the
governing body for golf outside the U. S. He is the only person ever to hold
both positions. Campbell won the U. S. Amateur title in 1964 (beating Oak
Hill native Ed Tutwiler in the final). He is from Huntington.
Richard Currey, Author,
Parkersburg
b. 1949. is a critically-acclaimed writer whose books
have appeared in ten languages. He is the author of the novel Fatal Light
(1988) and the short story collection Wars of Heaven, the title story
from which is included in the 1998 O. Henry Award Prize Story Collection. He
is from Parkersburg.
Tommy Small, Boxer,
Beckley
Born in Beckley, WV, USA Division Light Middleweight Date of Birth
1963-08-02 Reach 69,5” Stance Orthodox Height 5' 8 | L 17 | D 0
| Total Fights: 52
Julian Lane Latimer,
Shepherdstown. 1868-1939
(1868-1939) commanded the battleship Rhode
Island during World War I. He later became judge advocate of the Navy. He
was born at Shepherdstown.
Greg Keatley, Princeton
a pitcher for the Royals in 1981, was born in Princeton.
Billy Dixon, Frontiersman,
Buffalo Hunter and
Scout, Ohio County. 1850-1913
Dixon, William (Billy), scout, buffalo hunter (Sept. 25, 1850-Mar. 9, 1913)
B. in Ohio County, the present West Virginia,
He was orphaned at age 12 and went to live with an Uncle in Ray County,
Missouri, ran away from uncle's home at age 14 carrying only the clothes he
was wearing and a sack containing one extra shirt and a photograph of his
mother.
He was hired by wagon freighters in Kansas as a teamster, he spent most of
the time until 1869 at this occupation, working between such points as
Fort Kearny, Nebraska, Fort Collins, and Julesburg, Colorado and Camp
Supply, Indian Territory. He was a government mule skinner.
On October 18, 1867, he was at the camp on Medicine Lodge Creek when some
1500 Plains Indian warriors appeared dramatically at the peace conference,
riding over a hill in all their finery and charging to within 200 yards of
the camp.
Dixon became a fine rifle shot and sometimes guided parties of eastern
excursionists on buffalo-hunting expeditions. In November, 1869 he went
into buffalo hunting fulltime northwest of Fort Hays, one of the first
professional hide hunters. He soon had his own outfit.
On one occasion he recalled he had taken "120 hides without moving (my)
rest sticks." The work was profitable and Dixon invested his earnings in a
road house a dozen miles south of Hays City, Kansas, but a partner,
Billy Reynolds, skipped with the accumulated cash and Dixon returned to
buffalo hunting. He was one of the first hunters to work south of the
Canadian in Comanche country and by 1874 was in the Texas Panhandle.
On another occasion Billie Dixon killed 82 buffalo at one "stand" of about
two or three acres of land.
Spring of 1874 found him in Dodge City along with a number of other hunters.
By then the buffalo had been thinned out in many areas by constant hunting,
and the treaty land south of the Arkansas River began to look more and more
tempting.
Despite the Indians' growing hostility, about fifty hunters, skinners, and
merchants decided to establish a camp deep within the treaty territory
somewhere along the Canadian River. The site finally chosen was about one
mile northeast of Brent's old trading post. Abandoned in 1844, the ruins
had come to be known as Adobe Walls. There Kit Carson and his troops
narrowly escaped defeat when they attacked a Kiowa-Comanche encampment in
1864 and were forced to beat a hasty retreat.
After constructing two trading stores, a blacksmith shop, and a saloon, the
hunters scattered to search for the buffalo herd. By late June, the
scattered Indian attacks had increased in intensity and several hunters had
been killed. As a result many of the men gathered at Adobe Walls for mutual
protection.
Second Battle of Adobe Walls
A force of between 700 and 1,000 warriors was assembled, and the attack was
launched at dawn on June 27, 1874. There were twenty-eight men and one
woman at Adobe Walls on that morning. On this morning the men in Hanrahan's
saloon were awakened by a mysterious report at 2:00 a.m. After bracing the
ridge pole of the building, the men decided to stay up and get an early
start on their travels. That occurance no doubt saved the hunters' lives.
Just before the attack, Billy Dixon emerged from the saloon carrying his
rifle. When he looked up he noticed a strange body of unidentified objects
moving along the edge of the timber some distance from the camp. As he
watched, the objects suddenly fanned out and broke into a headlong charge.
Even when he recognized the hostiles, Dixon didn't expect an attack on the
buildings. He ran to tie his horse to a wagon. When he returned to fire a
shot or two at the raiders, he expected them to be running off the other
horses. But to his amazement, he found that they were charging directly
toward the buildings. Dixon fired one shot and ran for his life back into
Hanrahan's saloon.
As for the Indians, their intended victims were men who made their living
by means of their shooting skill, who were sheltered in buildings, and who
had a plentiful supply of ammunition. Most of the hunters were equipped
with the Sharps buffalo rifles which could easily outrange the Indian arms.
The effects of its big .50 caliber bullets on a human body were devastating.
During much of the day, the two youngest hunters in the group, Billy Dixon
and Bat Masterson, fought together. Masterson, who would later gain
considerable fame as a lawman, considered Dixon "an extraordinarily fine
shot with a buffalo gun."
They lost four killed compared with an unknown but probably greater Indian
loss, Dixon scored one of the remarkable shots of Plains legend late in this
engagement, picking off an Indian at a distance later measured at
1,538 yards, just under seven-eights of a mile; and with allowances for
luck, it was a memorable feat.
In August General Nelson Miles arrived in Dodge City and hired Dixon as a
scout for his expedition sent out to put down the uprising into the Staked
Plains in the summer of 1877, where his knowledge of the country was
instrumental in discovering water for the command at a critical time.
In September Dixon, scout Amos Chapman and four enlisted men were directed
to take dispatches from Miles's headquarters on McClellan Creek, Texas, to
Camp Supply. With them went Sergeant Woodhull and Privates Rath, Harrington,
and Smith, all from the Sixth Calvary. On the second day they were met by
a large band of hostile Indians. A soldier, Private Smith, who was holding
the horses, was wounded mortally and four others, Sergeant Woodhall,
Private Harrington, and Scout Amos Chapman were seriously wounded; and
Private Rath and Scout Billy Dixon received comparatively minor wounds.
The tiny group managed to gain the limited protection of a shallow buffalo
wallow and in this famous engagement successfully held off the enemy.
All of the men were recommended for the Medal of Honor by General Miles
and all received the award.
Dixon's dictated autobiography, published as a biography by his widow,
gives somewhat more heroic credit to the scout than do other accounts of
this fight but in any event his actions were wholly creditable as were those
of the other five. All six were awarded Medals of Honor, although Dixon and
Chapman, being civilians, subsequently were obliged to return them.
Dixon was present at the November 8, 1874, rescue of two of the German
(Germaine) sisters from the Cheyennes on McClellan Creek.
He said he was with the party which selected the site of Fort Elliott, Texas,
established February 3, 1875, near the present town of Mobeetie (SweetWater)
and was attached to that post as guide.
In 1883 Dixon quitted the army payroll and, since the buffalo were gone from
the South Plains, ranched, homesteaded, built a residence at the site of
Adobe Walls and even became postmaster when a post office was established
there. He married Olive King in 1894 and was elected first sheriff of
Hutchinson County, Texas, but resigned in disgust at political activity
affecting the position.
He resettled in 1902 at Plemons, a small community in central Hutchinson
County so his children could go to school, but shortly moved once more,
this time to Cimarron County, Oklahoma where again he homesteaded. He died
at Texline, Texas, on the New Mexico border just south of Cimarron County,
Oklahoma.
Holly Suzette Dunn, Country Entertainer, Havaco
A singer and songwriter, recorded Daddy's Hands and wrote I'm Not Through Loving You Yet, a top ten country hit recorded by Louise Mandrell. She lived at one time in Havaco, W. Va. She was born in San Antonio, Texas.
b. Holly Suzette Dunn, 22 August 1957, San Antonio, Texas, USA. Dunn's father
was a preacher and her mother a professional artist, but they encouraged their
children to sing and entertain. Dunn learned guitar and became a lead vocalist
with the Freedom Folk Singers, representing Texas in the White House
bicentennial celebrations. After university, she joined her brother, Chris
Waters (Chris Waters Dunn), who had moved to Nashville as a songwriter (he wrote
"Sexy Eyes" for
Dr. Hook).
Together they wrote "Out Of Sight, Not Out Of Mind" for
Cristy Lane. Among her other songs are "An Old Friend" (Terri
Gibbs), "Love Someone Like Me" (New
Grass Revival), "Mixed Emotions" (Bruce Murray, brother of
Anne
Murray) and "That Old Devil Moon" (Marie
Osmond). Dunn sang on numerous demos in Nashville. Her self-named album for
the MTM label in 1986, and her own composition "Daddy's Hands", drew
considerable attention. Across The Rio
Grande, was a traditional yet contemporary country album featuring
Vince
Gill and
Sam
Bush and it won much acclaim. However, MTM went into liquidation and Dunn
moved to Warner Brothers Records. Her up-tempo "You Really Had Me Going" was a
country number 1 and other country hits include "Only When I Love", "Strangers
Again" and "That's What Your Love Does To Me". Her "greatest hits" set, Milestones,
aroused some controversy when she issued one of its tracks, the newly recorded
"Maybe I Mean Yes" as a single. The song was accused of downplaying the trauma
of date rape, and Dunn was sufficiently upset to ask radio stations not to play
the record. Her career was restored to equilibrium with the low-key, but
impressive,
Getting It Dunn in 1992. This was her last album for Warner, and she
subsequently signed to the independent label River North.
Johnny Paycheck, Country
Entertainer, Craigsville. 1941-2003
(1941-2003), country singer and
member of the Grand Ole Opry, was born in Greenfield, Ohio. In the 1990s he was
said to be living in Craigsville. His biggest hit was
Take This Job and Shove It.
b. Donald Eugene Lytle, 31 May 1938, Greenfield,
Ohio, USA, d. 18 February 2003, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. His date of birth is
often disputed, and varies between 1938 and 1941. The title of Paycheck's 1977
country hit, "I'm The Only Hell (Mama Ever Raised)", is apt as he was in trouble
throughout his life; the wild eyes on his album sleeves give the picture.
Although only 5 feet 5 inches, Paycheck was tougher than most and served two
years for assaulting an officer while in the US Navy. He moved to Nashville and
played bass and sometimes steel guitar for Porter Wagoner, Faron Young, Ray
Price and chiefly, George Jones. He made several records with Jones, singing
tenor on I'm A People and the hit singles "Love Bug" and "The Race Is On". At
first, Lytle recorded rockabilly as Donny Young in 1959 ("Shakin' The Blues",
written by Jones) and then sang country on Mercury Records ("On Second
Thoughts'). The name Johnny Paycheck was originally thought to be a parody of
Johnny Cash, but it actually came from a heavyweight boxer who was KO'd by Joe
Louis in two rounds in 1940 and was close to Lytle's own Polish family name. By
now, he had developed Jones" mannerisms and he had country hits with "A-11" and
"Heartbreak, Tennessee". He wrote Tammy Wynette's first hit, "Apartment No. 9",
and Ray Price's "Touch My Heart'. He formed Little Darlin" Records with producer
Aubrey Mayhew in 1966 and had country hits with "The Lovin' Machine", Bobby
Bare's composition "Motel Time Again" and "Don't Monkey With Another Monkey's
Monkey". His supposedly live album from Carnegie Hall was actually recorded in a
studio on April Fool's Day 1966.
Paycheck became an alcoholic, the label went
bankrupt and he was arrested for burglary. He moved to Los Angeles, living hand
to mouth, spending what little money he had on drink and drugs. Record producer
Billy Sherrill rehabilitated him and he had a massive country hit with "Don't
Take Her, She's All I Got" in 1971. This was followed by "Someone To Give My
Love To", "Mr. Lovemaker" and "Song And Dance Man". Paycheck also had success on
the US country charts with a gospel-flavoured duet with Jody Miller, "Let's All
Go Down To The River". Further troubles led to bankruptcy and a paternity suit
in 1976. In 1977, at the height of outlaw country, he had his biggest country
hit with David Allan Coe's anthem to working people, "Take This Job And Shove
It", and its b-side, "Colorado Cool-Aid", was successful in its own right.
Paycheck's lifestyle was ably reflected in such
tracks as "Me And The I.R.S.", "D.O.A. (Drunk On Arrival)", and "11 Months And
29 Days", which was his sentence for passing a dud cheque at a Holiday Inn - a
case of Johnny Badcheck. A lawsuit with his manager followed and his friends,
George Jones and Merle Haggard, made albums with him. In 1981, after he went
back to a woman's house after a concert, he was arrested for allegedly raping
her 12-year-old daughter. The charges were reduced - he was fined and given
probation - but he was dropped by Epic Records, although he maintained, "I
dropped them. I couldn't stand the back-stabbing stench there anymore". Then, in
1985, he got into a bar-room argument with a stranger - and shot him in the
head. While awaiting trial, he recorded with the "de-frocked" evangelist John
Wesley Fletcher. Paycheck claimed he had the gun because he had emphysema and so
could not fight physically! He was found guilty of aggravated assault and
entered prison in 1989, recording a live album with a visiting Merle Haggard
while incarcerated. In 1991, his sentence was commuted, subject to community
services. PayCheck (note the new spelling) also recorded a duet with George
Jones, "The Last Outlaw's Alive And Doing Well". Various performers gave him
their support at a tribute concert, and in 1997 Paycheck joined the cast of the
Grand Ole Opry. The following year he fell seriously ill due to complications
with diabetes and emphysema, and despite a period of convalescence no new
recordings were forthcoming. One of music's great survivors, Paycheck finally
succumbed to illness in February 2003.
Henry Woodward (1891- ? ) was an actor who
appeared in numerous silent films from 1917 to 1920. He was born in Charleston.
Sometimes Credited As H. Woodward / Henry F. Woodward
Donivon Edwin Adams
was a progressive innovator as warden of the West Virginia Penitentiary at
Moundsville. Appointed to the position by Governor Underwood, he officiated at
the last three executions held in West Virginia. Adams was liked by inmates, and
could walk in the excercise yard without fear of attack. He organized a quartet
of prisoners who sang at churches around the state.
Gail Galloway Adams
(1943- ) won the 1988 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction for her
collection The Purchase of Order. She was born in Texas but is a
long-time resident of Morgantown.
Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams
(1945- ), the subject of a movie starring Robin
Williams, founded the Gesundheit! Institute, a 40-bed free hospital in
Hillsboro, West Virginia. He was born in Washington, D. C., and raised in
northern Virginia.
Noah Adams,
the former long-time co-host of NPR's All Things Considered, began his
radio career at WIRO in Ironton, Ohio, and worked also at WCMI in Ashland, Ky.,
and WSAZ radio station in Huntington.
Rex D. Adams
is currently the Dean of the Business School at Duke University and previously
was a Vice President of Mobil Oil Corporation. He is a Rhodes Scholar and was
Academic All-American in football at Duke in 1961. He is a native of Rainelle.
Bob Adkins,
an end for the Green Bay Packers during the World War II era who died in 1997 at
age 80. While at Marshall University, Adkins helped the Thundering Herd go
undefeated in 1937. He coached football and taught at Point Pleasant High
School. He was born in Point Pleasant.
Col. Ralph D. Albertazzie
served as pilot of Air Force One during the Nixon administration.
Althea Todd Alderson,
a writer of short stories and poetry. Her best known poem, "The Spirit of Saint
Louis," was published in a Doubleday and Doran anthology in the 1930s. She was
born in Malden.
John Alderson
fought Mike Tyson early in Tyson's career, on July 11, 1985. The fight was
scheduled for six rounds, but the doctor stopped it between the second and third
rounds. Thus Tyson won with a TKO in the second round. Alderson is from the
Upper Kanawha Valley and fought for the Marmet Boxing Club as an amateur.
Robert Alexander
played for the Los Angeles Rams and WVU. He was Parade Magazine's High
School Player of the Year as a senior. He is from South Charleston.
James Edward Allen, Jr.
(1911-1971) was appointed the U. S. Commissioner of Education by President Nixon
in 1969. He resigned in June 1970 over the administration's policies on school
desegregation and the Vietnam War. He was born in Elkins. He had previously been
Commissioner of Education for New York State.
Lea Anderson
became the first woman elected as president of the West Virginia University (WVU)
student body in 1975.
Jane S. Armitage
is the Chair of the Theater and Dance Program and Artistic Director at Oberlin
College in Ohio. She has served as director of training programs at Riverside
Shakespeare Company in New York and has taught at Boston University in both the
music and theater departments. She has taught at the American Musical and
Dramatic Academy in New York, the National Shakespeare Conservatory, served as
register and Provost for the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and
has remained active with the American College Theater Festival. She graduated
from Charleston High School in 1955 and Morris Harvey College in 1959.
Big Jon Arthur
(real name: Jonathan Goerss), host of two ABC radio children's shows Big Jon
and Sparkie and No School Today. The latter show was heard by 12
million listeners weekly on 275 stations in 1950. Goerss was from Pittsburgh,
but lived in Beckley and worked at WJLS there early in his broadcasting career.
He died in 1982.
Dave Augustine
(1949- ), an outfielder for the Pirates from 1973 to 1974, was born in
Follansbee.
David Roman Daniels
played himself in the TV series Aardvark in
1999. He was born in Charleston.
Faith Daniels,
newscaster on NBC News at Sunrise and The Today Show, worked for a
while at WTRF-TV in Wheeling and is graduate of Bethany College.
Glenn Ashby Davis
(1934- ), the world-record holder in the 400-meter hurdles (1956-62) who was the
first man to win the Olympic gold medal twice in that event. He was born in
Wellsburg.
Henry Gassaway Davis
(1823-1916) was the Democratic candidate for Vice President in 1904, at age 80.
He ran on the ticket headed by Alton Brooks Parker; they lost to Theodore
Roosevelt. Davis had been a Senator from West Virginia from 1871 to 1883. He was
one of the founders of Davis and Elkins College. The towns of Davis and Gassaway
are named for him. He was born in Woodstock, Maryland, and is buried in Elkins.
John William Davis
(1873-1955) was the Democratic candidate for
President in 1924. He was nominated on the 103rd ballot at a deadlocked
convention. He was born in Clarksburg. Davis was admitted to the Virginia bar in
1895 but returned to his birthplace two years later. In 1899 he was elected to
the West Virginia House of Delegates and in 1910 to the U. S. House of
Representatives. From 1913 to 1918 he served as solicitor general of the United
States, and he was one of President Woodrow Wilson's advisers at the Paris Peace
Conference following World War I. He also served as ambassador to Great Britain
(1918-21), after which he accepted a partnership in a New York law firm.
Julia Davis
(1900-1993) a writer of children's literature, is
West Virginia's first and second Newbery Honor winner for Vanio: A Boy of New
Finland and Mountains are Free. She was born in Clarksburg.
Kane Davis
(1975- ) is a pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers,
having been traded from the Cleveland Indians. He was born in Ripley.
Deacon Dawson
(1950- ) is an actor and radio personality. His movie appearances include
Body Count, Bandit (Silver Angel Episode), Southern Justice (The Medgar
Evers Murder), George Lucas' Radioland Murders (as Peter Lorre), and
several made-for-television features. His TV credits include Matlock,
Unsolved Mysteries, American Gothic, and various commercials. He is heard on
WSYN, Oldies Radio, Sunny 106.5 in Myrtle Beach, S. C. Dawson is a 1968 graduate
of Huntington High School and he attended Marshall University.
Jim Dawson
is the author of Who Cut the Cheese? - A Cultural History of the Fart
which according to his website has sold 100,000 copies and is the world's
top-selling book on the subject of flatulence. He has also written or co-written
a number of books on the history of rock 'n' roll. He grew up in Parkersburg,
although he now lives in California.
Joseph H. Diss DeBar
was a noted artist and linguist. He designed the Great Seal and Coat of Arms of
West Virginia. He lived in Doddridge County.
Blanche Dee
(1936-1987) played the mother in Hallelujah the Hills (1962) and appeared
in an episode of Kojak. She was born in Wheeling.
Ed Delahanty
played baseball for the Wheeling team in the Tri-State League in 1888 before
moving on to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Martin R. Delany
(1812-1885) abolitionist, author, and physician. From 1847 to 1849 he edited the
North Star newspaper with abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass. He then
entered Harvard Medical School. In 1852 he set up practice in Pittsburgh and
wrote The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People
in the United States, said to be the first presentation of American black
nationalism. In 1854 he helped organize the National Emigration Convention to
discuss his proposal for the resettlement of blacks in Africa. At the start of
the Civil War he was assigned to recruit blacks for the Union army and became
the first black major in the U. S. Army. He was born in Charles Town (then in
Virginia).
William Francis DeVault
(1955- ) is the author of more than 6000 poems. His
books include PanthEon, from Out of the city, and from an unexpected
quarter, which features on the cover his wife, model Ann-Michelle. His
fourth book of a forgotten religion is due out in October 2001, and a CD
titled simply "Amomancer" is to be released in November 2001. Poetry Now!
called him "a master. . .and the future of the Digital Renaissance." He was born
in South Carolina but lived in West Virginia from 1967 to 1981. He graduated
from Morgantown High School in 1973 and then attended WVU.
Joyce DeWitt
(1949- ) played the part of Janet Wood in the TV series Three's Company.
She was born in Wheeling.
Douglas Dick
(1920- ), a movie actor, was born in "Charlestown,
W. Va.," according to the Internet Movie Data Base.
Hazel Dickens,
a singer and songwriter, grew up near Montcalm. Her music became more widely
known through the use of her songs in the movie Harlan County, U. S. A.
She wrote A Few Old Memories and Mama's Hand, both performed by
Dolly Parton, and has performed at the White House.
Henry Dickerson
played for the Detroit Pistons in 1974-1976 and the
Atlanta Hawks during the 1976-1977 season. He later coached at Marshall
University and was head coach of UT-Chattanooga from 1997-2001. He is a 1969
graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley.
Carrie Quinn Dolan,
who played First Lady Laura Bush in the Comedy
Channel's That's My Bush, grew up in Pea Ridge (Barboursville).
Dr. Creflo A. Dollar,
a TV minister, played football at Concord College.
Jonathan Prentiss Dolliver
(1858-1910), a U. S. Senator, was born near Kingwood (then in Virginia).
Paul Dooley
(1928- ), actor and writer, has appeared in A Wedding (1978) and Grace
Under Fire and many other movies and television shows. He is from
Parkersburg and graduated from Parkersburg High School and West Virginia
University. His real name is Paul Brown.
Shane Douglas
(1964- ) was the Extreme Championship Wrestling heavyweight champion on four
different occasions. His first two title runs were in 1993 and 1994, before he
joined the World Wrestling Federation. After returning to ECW, he won the title
twice in 1997. He was the WWF intercontinental champion as Dean Douglas. He now
wrestles for World Championship Wrestling. He attended Bethany College, although
he is from Pittsburgh. His real name is Troy Martin.
Bertis Downs
(1956- ), the manager of the group R. E. M., was
born in Montgomery and lived in Smithers until he was five, when his family
moved out of the state. His connection to West Virginia led the group to perform
on Mountain Stage in 1991.
Jon Dragan
helped start southern West Virginia's booming
whitewater rafting industry. In 1968 he and his younger brothers started
Wildwater Expeditions Unlimited, the state's first commercial whitewater rafting
business. A native of Pennsylvania, he died in 2005 at age 62.
Whitney Drolen,
a contributing reporter to E! Entertainment
Television and the Fox Movie Channel, began her television career at WVVA in
Bluefield.
Joseph D. Duffey
was appointed director of the U. S. Information
Agency by President Clinton in 1993. He previously was President of the American
University in Washington. Duffey is a native of West Virginia and a graduate of
Marshall University.
Jim Dukas,
actor from Parkersburg, spent his career in New York, mostly on Broadway. He
also appeared in Woody Allen's first stage production Don't Drink the Water.
His movie credits include The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery,The
Detective, and Ironweed.
Donald F. Duncan
founded the company which has been the leading yo-yo company since 1929. Duncan
introduced the looped slip-string, which allows the yo-yo to sleep - a necessity
for advanced tricks. In 1932 Duncan filed for and was assigned a trademark for
the word yo-yo. He held the trademark until 1965 when a court ruled the
word had become a permanent part of the language. During the 1950s, Duncan
introduced the first plastic yo-yos and the Butterfly shaped yo-yo. In 1936
Duncan founded Duncan Industries to manufacture parking meters; the company soon
became the industry leader. Internet web pages claim that Duncan was the
inventor of the Eskimo Pie ice cream and the founder of the Good Humor Ice Cream
franchise. Duncan was born in 1891 and grew up in Huntington, according to
West Virginia by Nancy Hoffman.
Daniel Duskey led the raid against the federal
arsenal and post office at Ripley and against the oil depots at Burning Springs
during the Civil War. Captured and tried by a federal tribunal, he avoided
execution by being pardoned by President Lincoln. He escaped from jail and
returned to the war. He was killed when federal troops poisoned the water he and
his men had been using. He was born in Pennsylvania in what is now Allegheny
County.
Brig. Gen. Isaac H. Duval was a Civil War general
from Brooke County.
Walter Easley
served as the backup fullback on San
Francisco's first Super Bowl championship team in 1981. He had played football
and basketball for Stonewall Jackson High School in Charleston and football for WVU. In May 2000, a newspaper article reported that Easley, then 42, was on
medical leave from his job with Amtrak in Washington, where he had worked for 12
years, and that he had recently returned to Charleston and was hoping to find a
kidney donor.
Brig. Gen. John Echols was a Civil War general
from Monroe County. He led the Confederate forces at Droop Mountain.
Dr. Bernice Eddy (1903-1989). Born into a family
of physicians in Glendale, West Virginia, Bernice Eddy Wooley graduated from
Marietta College in 1924 with a degree in bacteriology. She studied immunology
on a fellowship at the University of Cincinnati, receiving her Ph.D. in 1927,
and was awarded a teaching fellowship in bacteriology in 1929. In 1937, Dr. Eddy
joined the National Institutes of Health where she became nationally prominent
in virus research and made several significant discoveries. She played a key
role in testing the inactivated poliovirus vaccine for safety, and along with a
collaborator discovered the polyoma virus. One of the early known cancer-causing
viruses, it was later named the SE (Stewart-Eddy) Polyoma Virus in their honor.
It was the work of Dr. Eddy and others that led to safe polio vaccines through
thorough testing, and provided a major impetus for further research on cancer
viruses. While her work was sometimes controversial, she maintained the courage
to stand by her discoveries. Dr. Eddy received an honorary Doctor of Science
degree from Marietta College in 1955, and the United States Department of
Health, Education and Welfare awarded her a Superior Service Medal in 1967.
Doug Edgell, guitarist for the band Sleeping
Giants, is from Wheeling. The band, which is from West Liberty College, has
appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
Howard Rodney "Doc" Edwards
(1936- ), former A's player and manager of the Cleveland Indians, was born in
Red Jacket.
Stephen Benton Elkins
(1841-1911), founder of Elkins, was Secretary of War from 1891 to 1893 under
President Benjamin Harrison and was a U. S. Senator from 1895-1911. He was born
in Perry County, Ohio.
John Ellison wrote the classic song Some Kind
of Wonderful while a member of the Soul Brothers Six in 1967. He was born in
Montgomery in a two room house which his father built from wood scraps found
along the Kanawha River. In 1949 the family moved to Lake Superior in McDowell
County, where his father worked as a coal miner and his mother was a house maid.
John Ellison sold scrap coal to help his father, and later worked the all-night
shift as a bell hop in a Welch hotel.
Lynndie England, an army reservist, was the most
visible character in the controversy over the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison after she appeared in photographs that became public in 2004. She
grew up in Fort Ashby, W. Va.
Dr. Thomas Dunn English
(1819-1902) was at various times a writer, physician, lawyer, and journalist.
According to his Congressional biography, he wrote his most famous ballad, "Ben
Bolt," in 1843, and moved to (West) Virginia in 1852. According to the 1956 West Virginia
Blue Book, English served as Mayor of Aracoma from 1852 to 1857. [The Blue
Book claims he wrote Ben Bolt while living in (West) Virginia.] He moved to New
York City in 1857. He also wrote over 50 plays, including The Mormons
(1858). In 1863-64 he was a member of the New Jersey legislature and served in
Congress from New Jersey from 1891 to 1895. English was born in Philadelphia.
[The town of Aracoma was renamed Logan in 1907.]
Tom Eplin plays the role of Jake McKinnon on
As the World Turns. He was born in Hayward, CA, but has said that he grew up
in Charleston.
Ed Etzel, who won a gold medal in the 1984
Olympics, was a rifle coach at West Virginia University.
Bob Evans,
the founder of Bob Evans Farms, one of the region's most popular restaurant
chains, grew up on the Ohio-West Virginia border. Though raised on the western
side of the Ohio River, he graduated from the Greenbrier Military School in West
Virginia. Armed with marketing talent and vision, he went from peddler of
sausage to breakfast food connoisseur. His father taught school in Bud, West
Virginia (Wyoming County). Bob Evans today is not active in the restaurant
business, but spends his time researching new grasses for raising livestock.
Evans Evans (1936- ) is a TV and movie actress.
She played Velma Davis in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Mary Lou in the
Twilight Zone episode "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim." She was born in
Bluefield.
Martha Evans
became a professional basketball player in 1952, at age 17, joining an Arkansas
women's team which played against men's teams. She toured with the team for
three years, visiting 42 states and Mexico. She is a graduate of Sistersville
High School.
Polly Evans
led the defense of Fort Evans in 1756 when it was attacked by Native American
Indians.
Brig. Gen. Frank Kendall "Pete" Everest, Jr. was
a pioneer in U.S. rocket aircraft flying. He checked out 122 different models
and makes of aircraft and logged over 10,000 hours in more than 170 aircraft
types. Everest piloted the X-2 on eight of its powered flights. He reached Mach
2.87 in the X-2 in 1956, set the Bell X-1 altitude record of 73,000 ft. and, in
1953, the world absolute speed record of the F-100A at 755.15 mph. In 1956, he
flew at Mach 3, breaking Chuck Yeager's record and earning the title of his
autobiography, The Fastest Man Alive. He served as Director of Aerospace
Safety for USAF, Director of Operations for Test and Evaluation in the
Department of Defense, and Commander of Aerospace Rescue and Recovery for the
USAF. A Fellow in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, he has been honored
by U.S. Chamber of Commerce "Greatest Living Americans" Award (1956) and more
than twenty military awards. He is included on the Aerospace Walk of Honor.
Everest was born in Fairmont and attended Fairmont State College and WVU.
Thomas Ewing (1789-1871) was appointed Secretary
of the Treasury by William Henry Harrison in 1841 and was the first Secretary of
the Interior (from 1849 to 1850). He was also a U. S. Senator from Ohio. Gen.
William T. Sherman was his son-in-law. He was born near West Liberty (then in
Virginia).
Adm. Frank George Fahrion
(1894-1970) held several
command positions during World War II and subsequently served as Inspector
General of the Pacific Fleet, Commander of destroyers in the Pacific and
Atlantic fleets, and Commander of the amphibious force in the Atlantic fleet.
The guided missile frigate USS Fahrion was named for him. He was born in
Pickens, West Virginia.
Stanley Robert "Stan" Fansler
(1965- ) pitched
for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986. He was born in Elkins.
Harold S. "Jabo" Fawcett
(1917-1999) was a Navy
photographer whose photos of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor were widely
published in U. S. newspapers and in the Dec. 14, 1942, issue of Life
magazine. Fawcett later became a decorated pilot, serving in Bikini in the South
Pacific, where he photographed two atom bomb test explosions in 1946. He was a
resident of Bridgeport at the time of his death. He was born in Taylor county
and graduated from Grafton High School in 1935.
Foge Fazio (1939- ) joined the Washington
Redskins as linebackers coach in 2000. He was previously defensive coordinator
for the Minnesota Vikings and had been on the coaching staffs of the New York
Jets and Atlanta Falcons. He was also the head football coach at Pitt. His
father, Francesco, was an Italian immigrant who worked in coal mines in West
Virginia before moving to Pennsylvania. Foge Fazio was born in Dawmont, W. Va.,
a mining camp between Shinnston and Clarksburg.
Lt. Robert Femoyer (1921-1944) was killed in
action during World War II while serving as navigator of a bomber on a mission
near Merseburg, Germany. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of
Honor in May 1945, one of only two navigators to earn the nation's highest
decoration for valor. The citation reads in part: "Severely wounded when his
plane was hit by three enemy antiaircraft shells despite extreme pain and great
loss of blood, Lieutenant Femoyer refused an offered injection of morphine. He
was determined to keep his mental faculties clear in order that he might direct
his seriously damaged airplane out of danger and so save his comrades. Unable to
rise from the floor, he asked to be propped up in order to see his charts and
instruments. He successfully directed the navigation of his lone bomber for
two-and-a-half hours so well that it avoided enemy flak and returned to the
field without further damage. Only when the airplane had arrived in the safe
area over the English Channel did he feel that he had accomplished his
objective, and then, and only then, he permitted an injection of a sedative. He
died shortly after being removed from the airplane." Femoyer was born in
Huntington and graduated from St. Joseph High School in 1939. A portion of Route
152 in Huntington is named for him.
Conchata Ferrell (1943- ), an actress who has
appeared in numerous TV series including The Townies. She was a regular
cast member on L. A. Law for one season, and she starred in the movie
Heartland. She was born in Charleston and graduated from Charleston High
School.
Darrel Fetty, a TV and movie actor, is from
Milton.
Richard B. Fielder (1921-1999) was the Kings
Royal Pilot of Saudi Arabia for two years, flying the King and the Royal Family.
At the time of his death he was a resident of Wallace in Harrison County.
Eugene E. Fife was named chairman of Goldman
Sachs International in 1988 and joined the Goldman Sachs Management Committee in
1990. After retirement from Goldman Sachs, Fife founded Vawter Capital, LLC, a
private investment firm in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a native of Hinton
and a graduate of Hinton High School, where the Fife Scholarship is awarded each
year.
Shawn Finney is the head basketball coach at
Tulane. He was formerly an assistant basketball coach for the 1998 NCAA National
Champions, the University of Kentucky. He is a native of Mullens and a 1980
graduate of Mullens High School.
Suzanne Fisher
(1903- ), opera singer, debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1935. She was
educated in the Sutton public schools and is from Flatwoods.
Walter Lowrie Fisher (1862-1935) was appointed by
President Taft to the Railroad Securities Commission in 1910. He was later
Secretary of the Interior under President Taft from 1911 to 1913. He encouraged
Alaskan development, conservation, and national parks development. He was born
in Wheeling.
Sgt. Robert L. Fitzpatrick (1921- ) toured the USO circuit from Salt Lake City to Chicago as a national celebrity after World
War II with Groucho Marx, Gene Tierney, Rita Hayworth, and Orson Welles. During
the war, Fitzpatrick had won every medal available except the Medal of Honor and
held the title of the second-most decorated enlisted man, after film star Audie
Murphy, who beat him by a single medal. Fitzpatrick was born and raised in St.
Marys and now lives in Parkersburg. St. Marys honored him as a hero by holding a
Bob Fitzpatrick Day after he returned home in March 1943.
Terrence Flack (1965- ), an actor currently
living in Los Angeles, can be seen on reruns of Lifetime's Strong Medicine,
on which he played Dr. Terence during the first two seasons. He recently filmed
an episode of UPN's Everybody Hates Chris and appears in numerous
commercials. In 2006 he was producing a short film Blue Highway. Terrence was
born in Bluefield and graduated from Bluefield High School in 1983. He attended
Marshall University and Bluefield State College.
Jack Fleming,
formerly the voice of the
West Virginia University Mountaineers, is famous for his dramatic call of the
"Immaculate Reception," Franco Harris' miraculous TD catch in a 1972
Steelers-Raiders playoff game, which has been described by NFL Films as the most
replayed in pro football history. Fleming got his start as play-by-play man for
Mountaineer football and basketball from 1947 to 1959. After station WAJR
regained the WVU broadcast rights in 1962 Fleming served again until 1969. He
was the Bulls' announcer in the early 1970s. He returned to WVU for good in 1974
after working in Chicago and in Pittsburgh as the sports anchor at WTAE-TV.
Fleming also was the radio play-by-play announcer for the Pittsburgh Steelers
for 28 years - at the time, the longest such tenure in the NFL. Fleming was born
in Morgantown and graduated from Morgantown High School with Don Knotts. Fleming
died on Jan. 3, 2001, at age 77.
Col. Johnson C. Fleming experimented with gliding
in the 1860s by hitching a horse to bat-like wings of silk and cane that were
strapped to his body. The horse pulled him into the air from the hilltop
opposite Flemington College in Taylor County.
Robbie Flint, who plays steel guitar with the
Alan Jackson Band, is from Sylvester, West Virginia.
Gen. Robert Fogelsong is vice chief of staff,
Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. As vice chief, he presides over
the Air Staff and serves as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint
Requirements Oversight Council. General Fogelsong was born and raised in
Williamson and is a graduate of Williamson High School and WVU. November 23,
2001, was declared Gen. Robert H. Fogelsong Day in Williamson, where he was
presented with the key to the city and the bridge on U.S. 119 connecting South
Williamson, Ky., to Williamson was dedicated and named after him.
Garrett Ford played football for the Denver
Broncos. He is now an assistant athletic director at WVU, where as a player he
set many rushing records.
Bud Forte, host of the TNN show American
Legends, was born and raised in Fairmont. He attended high school and
college there and spent most of his early career on local radio.
Mike Fox (1967- ), of the Carolina Panthers,
formerly of the New York Giants, played college football at WVU. He was born in
Akron, Ohio.
Virginia Fox
(1902-1982) was an actress who appeared in a number of silent films from 1915 to
1923. She was married to Darryl F. Zanuck. She was born in Wheeling.
Earl Francis (1935-2002), a pitcher for the
Pirates and Cards from 1960 to 1965, was born in Slab Fork.
Kitty Frazier of Cross Lanes won three national
archery championships in the 1980's.
Gene Freese (1934- ) played baseball for several
major league teams in the 1950s and 1960s. He was born in Wheeling.
Jim Fridley (1924- ) played baseball for
Cleveland, Baltimore, and Cincinnati in the 1950s. He was nicknamed "Big Jim."
He had a career .248 batting average. He was born in Philippi and is currently
living in Florida.
Brig. Gen. Birkett D. Fry was a Civil War general
from Kanawha County. Wounded four times, he was captured at Gettysburg.
Danny Fulks, a writer of Appalacahian nonfiction,
has been published in The MacGuffin, Goldenseal, Timeline, Now and Then,
Hearthstone, and Backwoods Home Magazine. Fulks's major contribution
to letters has been to show that Appalachian Ohio is southern and set apart from
the rest of Ohio by its culture. His stories on moonshine were researched from
oral history documents at Marshall University and interviews with former
bootleggers from Mingo County and Huntington. Tragedy On Greasy Ridge, 21
true stories from Appalachian Ohio, is for sale at Tamarack and other major
bookstores as well as Amazon.com. Fulks was born in Ohio but has lived in
Huntington since 1970. He taught in the College of Education at Marshall
University for thirty years.
Mary Rodd Furbee (1954-2004) was a writer,
editor, author, and television producer. She wrote several children's books,
mostly biographies of women in American history, including Outrageous Women
of Colonial America, Outrageous Women of the American Frontier, Outrageous Women
of Civil War Times, Women of the American Revolution, Wild Rose: Nancy Ward and
the Cherokee Nation, Anne Bailey: Frontier Scout, and Shawnee Captive:
The Story of Mary Draper Ingles. She has also wrote articles and columns
which appeared in the Washington Post, Stars & Stripes, the
Progressive, and other newspapers and magazines. She teaches journalistic
writing and beat reporting, half-time, at the WVU School of Journalism. She grew
up in Pennsylvania, but lived in Morgantown late in her life.
Rose Gacioch
was a pitcher in the All-American Girls
Baseball League from 1944-1954. She played for the South Bend Blue Sox (1944)
and the Rockford Peaches (1945-1954). Gacioch worked in a corrugating plant in
Wheeling until the plant manager persuaded a scout to come to Wheeling to see
her play. She was born in Wheeling in 1915.
Dellos Clinton "Del" Gainer (1886-1947) made the
hit that won the 1916 World Series in the longest game in history. He played for
Boston in 1915 and St. Louis in 1922. He was born in Montrose, W. Va., and died
in Elkins.
Merrill Gainer was the high school football coach
at Bluefield from 1959 to 1967 when the Beavers were 87-6-1 and won four state
titles. He also coached at three other schools, Poca, Elkview and Big Creek. His
22-season record at the four schools was 181-32-7.
Ellen Galinsky is the president and co-founder of
the Families and Work Institute, a Manhattan-based nonprofit organization
conducting research on the changing family, workplace, and community. She is
also the author of over twenty books and reports, including Ask the Children,
a book based on her survey of more than one thousand children that measured how
they felt about their family relationships and their parents' work lives. She is
a graduate of Charleston High School.
John Gallaher first published the Ladies
Garland newspaper in Harpers Ferry in 1824. It was the first newspaper
addressed to women.
Jennifer Garner (1972- ) stars in the ABC series
Alias. She has appeared in the films Pearl Harbor, Mr. Magoo,
Deconstructing Harry, 1999, and Washington Square. Her television
credits include series regular roles in the Jennifer Love Hewitt drama, Time
of Your Life, and Significant Others, as well as a recurring role on
Felicity. She has guest starred on Spin City and Law & Order
and has been featured in the television films Rose Hill, Dead Man's Walk,
Zoya and Harvest Fire. She was born in Houston but grew up in the
Charleston area and graduated from George Washington High School in 1990. She
visited Charleston for Christmas in 2003, at which time she was interviewed by
WCHS-TV. "I spend all year waiting to come home," she said. "I can't wait to go
to (a Charleston bookstore) and have my first latte. ... I was raised by the
community. I still feel very loved. It's so comforting to be home. I feel like I
could come home and sit in a hundred different laps and be taken care of."
Memphis Tennessee Garrison (1890-1988), a
McDowell County school teacher and NAACP official, is the subject of Memphis
Tennessee Garrison: The Remarkable Story of a Black Appalachian Woman,
edited by Ancella Bickley and Lynda Ann Ewen. She was born in in Hollins,
Virginia, but grew up in the coal fields of McDowell County and considered Gary
her home.
Patrick Gass (1771-1870), the last surviving
member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, lived the latter part of his life in
West Virginia.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. (1950- ) is chairman of
Afro-American studies and an English professor at Harvard University and was
listed among the 25 most influential Americans by Time magazine in 1997.
He is co-editor of the Africana Encyclopedia. Before joining Harvard in
1991, he taught English and literature at Duke from 1990 to 1991 and taught on
the faculty at Yale (1976-1984) and Cornell (1985-1990). Gates is a prolific
essay writer on many diverse issues, from the First Amendment, anti-Semitism,
ethnic identity and rap music to what he considers to be a crisis in black
leadership. Among his books is his 1994 memoir Colored People, which
describes what it was like to be black in the U. S. between 1950 and 1970. Gates
was born in Keyser and grew up in Piedmont, W. Va., where his father was a paper
loader in the day and a janitor at night. After graduating first in his high
school class in 1968, Gates enrolled at Potomac State College in Keyser. He
transferred to Yale in 1969, graduating summa cum laude in history in June 1973.
From there he went on to earn master's and doctoral degrees in English from
Clare College at Cambridge University.
Horatio Gates (1727 or 1728 -1806), American
general in the Revolutionary War whose victory over the British at the Battle of
Saratoga turned the tide of victory in behalf of the Revolutionaries. He was
born in England and died in New York City, but in 1772 he immigrated to Berkeley
County, Virginia, an area which is now in Jefferson County, West Virginia.
James Madison Gates founded Gates Paint Company,
once the largest paint manufacturer and distributor in the middle Atlantic
states. The Gates Paint Company, on the corner of Summers and Virginia Streets
in Charleston, boasted the first "skyscraper" in West Virginia (three
stories) and the first elevator in West Virginia.
Frank Gatski (1921-2005), pro football Hall of
Famer who anchored the powerful offensive line for the Cleveland Browns in the
1940s and 1950s. He also played with the Detroit Lions. He was All-NFL four
years, and played in the 1957 Pro Bowl. Known for his durability, he never
missed practice or a game during his entire career--high school, college, or
pro. He was born in Farmington and played center for Farmington High School. He
worked for a year in the mines. In 2000 at its homecoming football game, the
student body of Grafton High School named Gunner an Honorary Alumnus of the
school. He attended the football game wearing his NFL Hall of Fame Blazer. He
had been living in Grafton at the time of his death. [Sources vary on his year
of birth.]
Michael Genevie (1959- ), a movie and TV actor,
was born in Weston.
Rev. David Gerrard helped found and lay out
Gerrardstown in 1787. The town is located in Berkeley county. He enlarged the
town by platting 100 lots of his own property to be sold to new settlers. It was
the site of the first Baptist church west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Denise Giardina (1951- ) is the author of Good
King Harry (1984), Storming Heaven (1987), The Unquiet Earth
(1992), and Saints and Villains (1998). She has won numerous prestigious
awards for her writing and was awarded the 1999 Fisk Fiction Prize by Boston
Book Review. She has been involved in legislation and promotion against the
practice of mountain top removal mining and plans to run for Governor of West
Virginia in 2000. Giardina is a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan. She was born
in Bluefield and grew up in a coal camp.
Dr. James Pitzer Gills, an ophthalmologist with a
practice in Tarpon Springs, Florida, has performed more cataract and intraocular
lens implant surgeries than anyone else in the world. He also has completed six
Double Iron Triathlons, eighteen Boston Marathons, and mountain terrain
endurance events covering more than 100 miles. He was born in Bluefield, where
he lived three houses apart from John Forbes Nash, the subject of the movie A
Beautiful Mind. Nash's father worked for Gills' father at Appalachian Power
Co.
John Wesley (Pebbly Jack) Glasscock
(1859-1947)
played for the National League Cleveland Blues from 1879 into the 1884 season,
when he joined the Cincinnati Outlaw Reds of the Union Association. He later
played for the St. Louis Maroons, the Indianapolis Hoosiers, the New York
Giants, the St. Louis Browns, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Louisville Colonels,
and the Washington Senators. He was born in Wheeling.
Hugh Glenn (1788-1833) trader and merchant, born
in Berkeley County (then in Virginia). He was a purveyor of supplies to frontier
posts in the Ohio Valley and led a hunting and trading expedition from the mouth
of the Verdigris River to Santa Fe in 1821.
Danny Ray Godby (1974- ), an outfielder for the
Cards in 1974, was born in Logan.
Joe Goddard (1950- ) played in 12 games for the
San Diego Padres as a catcher in 1972. He was born in Beckley and attended
Marshall University.
Nathan Goff Jr. (1843-1920) was appointed
Secretary of the Navy in 1881 in the Hayes administration. In 1888, Goff
appeared to have been elected Governor of West Virginia by 130 votes, but the
election was contested and the legislature selected his opponent as the winner
in 1890. He was born in Clarksburg.
Marshall "Biggie" Goldberg
held all of the Pitt
rushing records before Tony Dorsett. He went on to play for the Chicago Bears
and led the NFL in rushing several years. He was a graduate of Elkins High
School.
Linda Goodman (1925-1995) was a famous astrologer
whose 1968 book Sun Signs sold more than 5 million copies. She also wrote
Love Signs and Star Signs. Celebrities such as Steve McQueen,
Princess Grace, and Sonny and Cher sought her advice. She was born Mary Alice
Kemery in Parkersburg. Earlier in her career she had worked as a newspaper
writer in Parkersburg and also worked for WCOM radio station there.
Howard Mason Gore
(1877-1947) was appointed Secretary of Agriculture in 1924 in the Coolidge
administration. He served as Governor of West Virginia from 1925 to 1929 and
West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture from 1931 to 1933. He was born in
Harrison county.
Rocco Gorman was selected as the greatest high
school coach in West Virginia this century by the Charleston Daily Mail
in 1999. The newspaper wrote: "On and off the field, he was a towering figure in
state high school sports. As Charleston High's football coach from 1913 to 1917
and 1919 to 1929, his record was 118-31-4. His 1920 team outscored its opponents
379-0 and some historians still maintain it was the best team in the school's
long and glorious history. Gorman's Mountain Lion basketball teams won state
championships in 1915, 1919 and 1924. He is known as the "father of track" in
West Virginia and organized the first state meet in 1914. Gorman founded the
West Virginia Athletic Association, which was the precursor to the Secondary
School Activities Commission, and the West Virginia Coaches Association. Also,
Gorman played major roles in the development of Laidley Field, Watt Powell Park
and Coonskin Park."
David Grant, who played football for the
Cincinnati Bengals, formerly played football at WVU.
Benjamin Franklin Gravely, inventor of the
Gravely garden tractor, originally built the tractors in an old factory he
purchased in Dunbar around 1920. Gravely secured 65 patents in his lifetime.
Some were obtained in the field of photography, but most of his patents were in
the farm implement field. Gravely was born near Martinsville, Virginia, on
November 29, 1876. He moved to Huntington sometime around 1900 to work for a
photography firm. In 1903 he settled in Charleston, where he opened his own
photography studio.
Tracy Gravely (1972- ) plays professional
football for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League. He was a
member of the 1990 New York Giants, which won Super Bowl XXV. He was born in
Welch and is a graduate of Mount View High School in Welch and Concord College
in Athens.
Tammie Green, a former Marshall golf standout,
was on the American teams which won the Solheim Cup in 1994 and 1998. The
Solheim Cup is held every two years and involves 24 golfers, the U. S. and
European teams consisting of 12 players each.
Hal Greer (1936-) played for the Philadelphia
76ers from 1963 to 1973 and was named the MVP in 1968. He is the 76ers' all-time
leader in points with 21,586. He was born in Huntington and attended Douglass
High School and Marshall University. Hal Greer Boulevard in Huntington is named
for him.
William Gregg (1800-1867) is often considered the
father of cotton manufacturing in the South. He started as a watchmaker in South
Carolina but quit in his mid-30s and began writing on the need to industrialize
the south. In 1846 he erected a cotton mill near Aiken, S.C., drawing workers
from among the unpropertied whites in the area. His example was followed widely
in the South. His factory ran successfully for 20 years, operating throughout
the Civil War. He was born near Carmichaels in Monongolia County (then in
Virginia).
Gary Gregor was the first pick of the Phoenix
Suns in the 1968 NBA Draft. He later played for Atlanta. Gregor played
basketball for South Charleston High School in the 1960s.
Fred Griffith has hosted two popular TV shows on WEWS in Cleveland, Morning Exchange and Afternoon Exchange. He and
his wife are gourmet chefs, and have written several cookbooks. He is from
Flatwoods.
Wendy Griffith is the Congressional correspondent
for the Christian Broadcasting Network, whose news program "The 700 Club" airs
on the Fox Family Channel. Before joining CBN, she was the press secretary for
Gov. Cecil Underwood; before that, she was a news anchor for WCHS-TV in
Charleston. She is a native of Williamson.
Larry Groce (1948- ) singer and songwriter,
recorded the novelty tune Junk Food Junkie (1976). He moved to West
Virginia in 1972. In the late 1980s, he hosted Mountain Stage, a weekly
program on American Public Radio which is recorded by West Virginia Public Radio
in Charleston. He was born in Dallas, Texas.
Lefty Grove played baseball briefly for
Martinsburg in the Blue Ridge League. He later became a Hall of Fame pitcher for
the Philadelphia A's and Boston Red Sox.
Davis Grubb (1919-1980) wrote Night of the
Hunter, which became a classic movie starring Robert Mitchum. It was set in
the Moundsville area, where Grubb was born. He also wrote the novel Fool's
Parade, which was made into a movie starring Jimmy Stewart.
Bucky Guth, an infielder with the Minnesota Twins
in the 1972 season, graduated from WVU. He had 3 at-bats.
Fred Haddad is a Charleston businessman who founded
Heck's Discount Stores, which was a regional regional chain of discount retail
stores similar in format to Wal-Mart. He was born in Danville, West Virginia.
James Edward "Ed" Haley
(1883-1951) was a blind
professional fiddler. He traveled to fiddle contests in small towns in West
Virginia and Kentucky, often accompanied by his wife Martha, who was also blind
and played mandolin. Recordings made by his son on a home disc-cutting machine
have been issued on CDs by Rounder Records. Haley was born on Hart's Creek in
Logan County.
Tom T. Hall (1936- ), the songwriter and country
singer, was living in Ronceverte and working at WRON in the early 1960s when he
wrote Harper Valley P. T. A. He also worked in radio in Spencer. He moved
to Nashville in 1964. Hall was born in Olive Hill, Ky. Among the hits he
recorded himself are (Old Dogs, Children And) Watermelon Wine, I Love, The
Year That Clayton Delaney Died, A Week in a Country Jail, I Care/Sneaky Snake,
Faster Horses, and Homecoming.
Floyd "Scottie" Hamilton
coached basketball at
Washington and Lee University and Ohio University. He earlier was an
All-American basketball player at WVU. He was raised by his grandmother in
Grafton and played for Grafton High School. He was the coach at Welch from
1948-50.
Eli "Rimfire" Hamrick
(1868-1945) was an
frontiersman whose family helped settle central West Virginia. Records indicate
that he and his brother posed for the statue of The Mountaineer on the capitol
grounds in Charleston. John W. Davis, the 1924 Democratic presidential
candidate, said the 6'3" Hamrick had a face as sad as Lincoln's. He campaigned
unsuccessfully for the state senate in 1932 with the slogan, "You put him at the
capitol in bronze, now put him there in person." He was born in Webster county
and lived there and in Randolph county.
Mike Hamrick, the athletic director at East
Carolina University, graduated from Herbert Hoover High School in Falling Rock.
Col. John F. Hamtramck, of Shepherdstown,
commanded the Virginia regiment in the War With Mexico in 1846-1848 and was
military governor of Saltillo, Mexico, in 1848.
Alberta Pierson Hannum was a well-known writer of
Appalachian culture in the 40s and 50s. One of her works, Roseanna McCoy,
was made into a movie. She lived in Wheeling, where her husband was President of
Fostoria Glass.
Will Hare (1916-1997) was an actor from the
1950's into the 1990's. He played Pa Peabody in Back To The Future and
Gus Atwater in The Electric Horseman. He has been the face of the
best-selling computer program "Chessmaster" since 1986. He was born in Elkins.
Ray Harm is the co-founder of the modern limited
edition print industry in the U. S. and has been a nationally known wildlife
artist over 30 years. In November 1999, he was named one of the 30 most
influential artists in the past 100 years by Decor magazine. He was born
in West Virginia.
Minnie Buckingham Harper became the first black
woman state legislator in the U. S. when she was appointed to the West Virginia
House of Delegates on January 10, 1928, by Governor Howard Gore to fill a
vacancy caused by the death of her husband. She was from Welch. She was born in
1886 in Winfield and resided in Keystone much of her life.
Robert Harper was a Philadelphia architect who
settled in "The Hole" at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers in
1734. He ran a ferry service across the Potomac from what was then called
Shenandoah Falls. In time, the town at the confluence of the Shenandoah and
Potomac Rivers became known as Harpers Ferry. Over the next 30 years, he also
built a grist mill on the Shenandoah River and the huge stone house that bears
his name.
Colbert Dale "Toby" Harrah (1948- ), an infielder
for the Senators, Rangers, and the Yankees from 1969 to 1986, was born in
Sissonville.
Dennis W. Harrah played for the Los Angeles Rams
and was a nominee for the Hall of Fame in 1992. He was an All American at the
University of Miami. He graduated from Stonewall Jackson High School in
Charleston.
James R. "Jim" Harrick is the basketball coach at
the University of Georgia. He formerly coached at the University of Rhode Island
and at UCLA, coaching the Bruins to a national title in 1995, 19 months before
he was fired on Nov. 6, 1996, for recruiting violations. He was born in
Charleston and graduated from Stonewall Jackson High School in 1956. His wife,
the former Sallie Marple, is also from Charleston.
Jack Harris is a popular radio and TV personality
in Tampa, Florida. He began his broadcasting career at WVOW radio in Logan after
graduating from Logan High School. He later moved on to WAJR in Morgantown. In
1970 he relocated to the Tampa Bay area. He was part of the original broadcast
team for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Larry Wayne Harris, a microbiologist and former
member of the Aryan Nations, pleaded guilty to fraud charges after he was
accused of obtaining bubonic plague bacteria through the mail in 1995. In 1998,
he and another man were charged in Las Vegas with possession of a toxin believed
to be anthrax. Harris lived in Lancaster, Ohio, but is a native of West
Virginia.
Major Harris (1968- ), played football at WVU,
where he led the Mountaineers to the 1989 national championship game against
Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. He is from Pennsylvania.
Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Harris was a Civil War
general from Ritchie County.
Nancy Hart (1846?-1913) was a noted Confederate
scout, guide, and spy. Hart ran away from home at the age of 14 to join a band
of rebel raiders known as the Moccasin Rangers. In 1862 she was captured by
Union forces but escaped from jail in Summersville. After the war Nancy Hart
Douglas and her husband Josh lived at Spring Creek in Greenbrier County. She
also had lived in Roane, Calhoun, and Nicholas counties, but was born in
Raleigh, N. C. She grew up on Greenbrier Road near Richwood. She is buried at
Manning Knob near the Nicholas-Greenbrier county border.
Clarence Hartzell, a Huntington native who
co-starred in two of radio's greatest and most famous shows. Beginning in 1940
he played the role of Uncle Fletcher in Vic and Sade and later he played
Cousin Jediah in One Man's Family. He also appeared in the comedy series
Lum and Abner, starred in the wartime adventure show The Road to
Danger, and was a featured player in Those Websters, a sitcom from
the post-war years.
Roy Cecil Harvey (1892-1958) was a pioneer in
country music. He was the guitarist for Charlie Poole and the North Carolina
Ramblers, one of the most popular string bands of the 1920s, as well as a singer
and songwriter. Harvey wrote and recorded "The Virginian Strike of '23" and
recorded "Where the Roses Bloom for the Bootlegger," one of Columbia's
top-selling records in 1928. He was born in Monroe County. He lived in Raleigh
County until 1942, when he moved to Florida to take a job as an an engineer for
the Florida East Coast Railway.
Steve Harvey, an actor and comedian, was born in
Welch, although he grew up in East Cleveland. His birthdate is given as Nov. 23,
1956, and Jan. 17, 1957.
William Hope "Coin" Harvey
(1851-1936) was the Presidential nominee of the Liberty Party in 1932, receiving
800 votes. He wrote
Coin's Financial School (1894), the bible of the freesilver movement in
the late nineteenth century. He was also the campaign manager for William
Jennings Bryan during Bryan's campaign on the the free silver platform. To
preserve his writing for future generations "Coin" erected a granite pyramid on
his property in Arkansas and placed his work in it. He was born at Buffalo, West
Virginia (then in Virginia), attended Marshall, and was a lawyer in Huntington
prior to moving to Illinois, then Colorado, and finally Arkansas.
Capt. Andrew Hatfield participated in the famous
Battle of Point Pleasant, the first real battle of the American Revolution, in
1774. He had earlier settled on Big Stoney Creek, in what is now West Virginia,
where he constructed a fort as protection against Indians.
Carl Hatfield (1947- ) was WVU's first ever cross
country All-American. He founded the W. Va. Track Club and led the WVTC to the
Boston Marathon team championship in 1974, and the AAU national marathon
championship in 1978. A direct descendant of the famous Hatfields and McCoys, he
ironically won the Ray McCoy award as the state's best amateur track athlete in
1978. He is one of only a handful of distance runners who have qualified for
four U. S. Olympic trials. He was born in Matewan and attended Matewan High
School.
Sid Hatfield, the Chief of Police of Matewan,
became a folk hero to coal miners and a national celebrity in 1920 when he
attempted to arrest detectives who had been hired by coal operators to evict
families of fired union miners. A confrontation led to a shootout in which ten
people died, including the mayor of Matewan. Hatfield was shot and killed in
1921 in revenge.
Kathleen M. Hawk was appointed Director of the
Federal Bureau of Prisons on December 4, 1992. She is a native of West Virginia
and attended Wheeling Jesuit College and WVU.
Alex Hawkins was a wide receiver for the Atlanta
Falcons. He played earlier for the Baltimore Colts. He grew up in South
Charleston.
Allison Hayes (1930-1977) is best known as the
scantily-clad star of the original 1957 version of The Attack of the 50 Foot
Woman. She appeared in other movies and played Chloe on the TV adventure
show Acapulco (1961). She was born Mary Jane Hayes in Charleston, but
spent much of her youth in Washington, D. C. She represented the nation's
capital in the 1949 Miss America contest.
Sue Haywood (1971 - ) is a two-time national pro
mountain bike champion who was named to seven U. S. national mountain bike
teams. She won the Pan American Championship gold medal in 2002 and 2004. She
has been ranked as high as No. 3 in the world for women pro mountain bikers.
Haywood was nominated to the 2004 U. S. Olympic team for Athens only to have an
arbitrator rule another racer was entitled because of a USA Cycling clerical
error. She grew up in Delaware but attended WVU and has lived in Davis, W. Va.,
since 1993.
Danny Heater, a native of Burnsville, scored 135
points in a high school basketball game on January 26, 1960. He made 53 field
goals and 29 free throws. His team, Burnsville High School, defeated Widen High
School, 173 to 43. Heater later became a file clerk for the FBI and a passenger
agent for Pan Am in Washington, D. C. The Guinness Book of World Records
shows Heater's feat as the record for boys' high school basketball. [In 1924,
156 points were scored by a player in a girl's high school game. That game was
six-person basketball. According to basketball statisticians the modern era of
the game began with the 1938-1939 season, which was the first without the jump
after each goal scored.]
Ken Hechler (1914- ) is the author of The
Bridge at Remagen, which was made into a movie. He was a member of Congress
from 1959 to 1976. In 1951 President Truman asked Hechler, who was then one of
his advisers, to prepare a memorandum on President Lincoln's relationship with
Gen. George McClellan. Truman used his memorandum the next day when he announced
the firing of MacArthur.
Josiah Hedges provided land for the town of
Hedgesville in Berkeley county in 1830. As a political entity, Hedgesville is
older than the State of West Virginia, being incorporated under the laws of
Virginia in 1854.
Alan Henderson (1972- ), a power forward for the
Atlanta Hawks, was born in Morgantown. He played collegiate basketball under
Bobby Knight at the University of Indiana.
Cam Henderson, a long-time basketball coach at
Marshall University, is credited with the invention of the fast break and zone
press. He led the team to the 1947 NAIB title and won more games than any other
coach in Marshall history.
John S. Hendricks (1952- ), who founded the
Discovery Channel in 1982 and acquired the Learning Channel in 1991, is
originally from Matewan.
Ken Herock, who played tight end for the Oakland
Raiders, formerly played football for WVU.
Don Herron, who plays fiddle, steel, banjo,
mandolin, guitar, and dobro for the country group BR5-49, now lives in
Moundsville.
Major Gen. John L. Hines (1868-1968) succeeded
Gen. Pershing as Chief of Staff of the Army from 1924 to 1926. Hines graduated
from West Point in 1891. He received the Silver Star in the Spanish-American
War, having fought in the Philippines in 1901. He served as adjutant to Gen.
John Pershing in the pursuit of Pancho Villa in Mexico in 1916. He was promoted
more rapidly than any other soldier who served in World War I, going to France
as a major and returning as a major general. He was awarded the Distinguished
Service Cross and Distinguished Service Medal in World War I. Hines ended his
military career in 1932 as commanding general of the Department of the
Philippines in Manila. Hines is one of four military leaders who were honored by
appearing on a Distinguished Soldiers series of U. S. postage stamps issued on
May 3, 2000. He was born in White Sulphur Springs. In an Associated Press
article on April 24, 2000, Hines' grandson, Maj. Gen. John R. D. Cleland of
Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., said, "He was the son of Irish immigrants and grew
up in a small town in West Virginia where he had virtually no opportunity for an
education. By virtue of his willingness to work, he was able to go to West
Point."
B. J. Hoff
is a prominent author of historical fiction and
devotional works. Her best-selling novels and inspirational collections have
captured a worldwide reading audience. Her awards include
Christianity Today’s Critic’s Choice Book Award for Fiction, a Gold
Medallion Award finalist, and numerous Excellence in Media Silver Angel Awards.
B. J. (Simon) Hoff was born in Barbour County and attended schools in Wyoming,
Harrison, and Barbour counties. She and her husband currently live in Ohio.
Susan Dew Hoff of West Milford in Harrison County
passed the examination given by the State Board of Examiners for licensing as a
physician on April 19, 1889. She was the first woman to be licensed by
examination. Hoff could not attend medical school, but studied with her
physician father and on her own. She practiced medicine for nearly 40 years,
making house calls on horseback. A nonprofit clinic named for her was scheduled
to open in West Milford in the summer of 2000.
Trevor Hoffman (1967- ), closer for the San Diego
Padres who tied the National League record for saves in a season with 53 in
1998, was a shortstop for the Charleston Wheelers in 1990.
William Hoffman (1925- ) is a novelist whose
first novel, The Trumpet Unblown, was published in 1955. He also wrote
The Dark Mountain (1963). He is from Charleston.
Billie Holiday (1915-1959), arguably the best
American female jazz singer of all time, lived in West Virginia from May 27,
1947, until March 16, 1948, but would rather have been somewhere else. She
served time in the Federal Reformatory for Women at Alderson on a drug charge.
She sang in both Parkersburg and Charleston in June of 1938, when she was with
vocalist with the Artie Shaw Orchestra, the first black singer to front a white
band.
Rush D. Holt (1905-1955) was the youngest person
ever elected to the U. S. Senate by popular vote. Elected in 1934 at age 29, he
had to wait six months until his thirtieth birthday to take his seat. He was
born in Weston. (Sen. Henry Clay was actually younger than Holt but was chosen
by the state's legislature, before the Constitutional amendment providing for
popular election of Senators.) Holt's son, Rush, was elected to Congress from
New Jersey in 1998 and re-elected in 2000.
Lou Holtz (1937- ) is the second-winningest coach
in Notre Dame history, behind the legendary Knute Rockne. In 1988 Holtz's
Fighting Irish won the National Championship after defeating West Virginia
University in the Fiesta Bowl. In 1998 he was named coach at South Carolina.
Holtz was born in Follansbee, but grew up in East Liverpool, Ohio.
Budd Hopkins, artist and author who has written
several books on the subject of UFO abductions, grew up in Wheeling. His older
brother Stewart remained in Wheeling to take over the family's Chrysler-Plymouth
dealership, Hopkins Motors. Hopkins' interest in UFOs grew out of a sighting he
had in 1964.
Jeff Hostetler (1961- ) played recently for the
Washington Redskins but retired after the 1998 season to help care for his son
Tyler, who suffered a severe spinal cord injury in an all-terrain vehicle
accident. (Tyler subsequently made what was described as a miraculous recovery
from his injury. Not only is he walking, but he even played Little League
baseball in the summer of 2000.) Hostetler was the starting quarterback for the
New York Giants in 1990, when they defeated the Buffalo Bills, 20-19, in Super
Bowl XXV. He is the first quarterback to lead WVU to back-to-back bowl
appearances (1982 Gator Bowl & 1983 Hall of Fame Bowl). He is the owner of a
bagel shop in Morgantown, where he resides in the off-season. His wife, Vicki,
is the daughter of Hostetler's college coach, Don Nehlen. Hostetler was born in
Hollsopple, Pa.
J. R. House (1979- ), quarterback for Nitro High
School from 1995 to 1998, set national high school records for career total
offense, career passing yardage, career touchdown passes, career pass attempts,
career passes completed, passing yardage in a season, pass attempts in a single
season, completions in a single season, and touchdown passes in a season. In his
final game for Nitro, he led the Wildcats to a 69-52 win over Morgantown for the
Class AAA title. In that game, he tied another national record with ten
touchdown passes. As a first baseman and catcher for the Class A Hickory (NC)
Crawdads in 2000, he led the South Atlantic League in batting average, home
runs, and slugging percentage. He also finished fourth in the league in both RBI
and on-base percentage. House was selected the league's co-MVP, and the
Pittsburgh Pirates named him their minor-league player of the year. He graduated
from high school in the Daytona Beach area, where he attended school in the
spring semesters.
Chuck Howley became a first-round draft selection
of the Chicago Bears in 1958. While with the Dallas Cowboys, Howley was the MVP
of Super Bowl V (Baltimore Colts 16, Dallas 13). This was the first time a
defensive player was Super Bowl MVP and the only time that a player from a
losing team was Super Bowl MVP. Howley is from Warwood, near Wheeling, and
played for WVU.
Dick Huffman
joined the Los Angeles Rams as a tackle in 1947. He had been an All-American at
the University of Tennessee. Huffman graduated from Charleston High School.
Bob Huggins,
head basketball coach at the
University of Cincinnati, played college hoops at WVU in the 1970s. He was born
in Morgantown but he was raised in Ohio. He still has family in north-central
West Virginia. He coached Cincinnati to the 1992 Final Four.
Rodney "Hot Rod" Hundley
played for the Los Angeles Lakers but is now a broadcaster for the Utah Jazz. He
was a three-year All-American at West Virginia, and the first pick of the 1957
NBA College draft by Cincinnati. His flamboyant playing style earned him the
name Hot Rod while at West Virginia. Hundley was born in Charleston, lived on
Clendenin Street, and played basketball at Charleston High School.
Tunney Hunsaker (1930-2005) was a professional
boxer whose main claim to fame is that he was Cassius Clay's first professional
opponent (before Clay became Muhammad Ali). Hunsaker lost on points. He was born
in Kentucky. In 1954 he moved to Fayetteville, where he served as chief of
police. He died there on April 25, 2005.
Kermit Hunter (1910-2001) wrote more than forty
outdoor dramas and is perhaps the most widely performed playwright in the United
States. Among his plays are Unto These Hills, The Lost Colony, and
Honey in the Rock, a Drama of West Virginia. Hunter was a native of McDowell
county. He graduated from Welch High School in 1929. He played the organ at the
Pocahontas Theater and the First Methodist Church in Welch.
Howard Hurt was a starter on the Duke basketball
team in 1959, 1960, and 1961, and was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1961.
He played high school basketball for Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley.
Frank Hutchison
(1897-1945), an old time musician, recorded a number of country songs for OKeh Records in the late 1920s.
He mixed comedy and musical performances in small mining camp theaters in the
1920s. He was born in Raleigh County and grew up in Logan County.
Bessie Haley Helmick Hyde (1905-1928?) was the
first woman to attempt to raft the Colorado River. She disappeared in the Canyon
and her body was never found. She grew up in West Virginia and graduated from
Parkersburg High School. A chapter in the book Grand Canyon Women by
Betty L. Leavengood describes her.
Bernard H. Hyman (1897-1942) produced and
directed a number of movies in the 1930s. He was born in Grafton.
John Isley is part of the the
John Boy and Billy Big Show, a morning
show heard by two million listeners on about 30 radio stations mainly in the
southeast. He worked in radio in Charleston and lived in Kanawha City.
Tony Jacklin is an English professional golfer,
winner of the British Open in 1969 and U.S. Open in 1970, participant on
numerous Ryder Cup teams, and captain of the European team from 1979 to 1987.
After living in Florida for several years, he recently moved to Lewisburg.
Travis Jackson played basketball for Virginia
Tech from 1992 to 1996. In March 1995 at Blacksburg his three-point field goal
in the final seconds beat New Mexico State in the NIT quarterfinals and put the Hokies in the NIT Final Four. He is from Peterstown.
William Lowther Jackson (1825-1890) was a
brigadier general in the Confederate army, commanding the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Virginia cavalries. He also served on the staff of his cousin
Stonewall Jackson. After the war, finding that a West Virginia statute disbarred
him, he practiced law in Louisville, Ky., and was elected as a judge there. He
was born in either Parkersburg or Clarksburg, both then in Virginia; there is
some dispute about his birthplace.
T. D. Jakes, called the best preacher in America
by Time magazine in 2001, is the pastor of Potter's House Church in
Dallas, which had 26,000 members according to a 2000 newspaper article. He has a
television ministry and is the author of Woman, Thou Art Loosed! and
The Lady, Her Lover, and Her Lord. Jakes quit working at the Union Carbide
chemical plant in 1982 and stepped into the pulpit, becoming pastor of Temple of
Faith in Charleston before moving to Dallas. "The Bishop" was born in
Charleston. In 2005 he had homes in Charleston and Dallas.
Christopher Janus wrote the novel Miss 4th of
July, Goodbye, based on his family's experiences in Montgomery during the
Great Depression. The novel is a popular Disney film portraying the struggles of
Greek immigrants and African-Americans in that community. He currently lives in
the Chicago area.
Jerry D. Jarrell
became director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami in 1998. He grew up in
Pine Knob in Raleigh County and attended Concord College.
Joey Jay
(1935- ), who played baseball for Milwaukee and Cincinnati in the 1950s and
1960s, lived in Spencer in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was involved in
the oil and gas well business there. He was born in Middletown, Conn.
Brig. Gen. Albert Gallatin Jenkins
was a Civil
War general from Cabell County. Twice wounded, he died at Cloyd's Mountain in
1864.
Thomas Sidney Jesup (1788-1860) is generally
considered the father of the modern Quartermaster Corps. He was appointed
Quartermaster General in 1818 and held the post 42 years, exceeding the service
of any other officer as head of a department or corps. In December 1836, he was
given command of the army in Florida, then in the middle of the second Seminole
War. He called for a council, under the truce flag, with Osceola, the Seminole
leader. When Osceola appeared, Jesup made him a prisoner; this turned public and
congressional opinion against him. Jesup was wounded in a skirmish in 1838 and
was then replaced in his command by Gen. Zachary Taylor. He was born in Berkeley
County (then in Virginia).
James Jett (1970- ), wide receiver for the
Oakland Raiders, is the state record holder in track and field sprinting events
and won a gold medal in the Barcelona Olympics in the 4X100 meter relay event.
He was born in Charles Town, and played for Jefferson High School in Shenandoah
Junction.
Joe Johns was named Capitol Hill correspondent
for NBC News in December 1993, reporting for Today and other newscasts.
In 1988 he won an Emmy for coverage of the Nation of Islam's tactics to rid a
dangerous neighborhood of drugs. He is a graduate of Marshall University and
began his TV career at WSAZ-TV in Huntington. He is a native of Columbus, Ohio.
Douglas Wilson Johnson (1878-1944) a noted
geologist who was a Professor at Harvard University (1907-12) and Columbia
University (1912-44). He was known for studies of coastal erosion and was the
author of Topography and Strategy in the War (1917), Shore Processes
and Shoreline Development (1919), New England-Acadian Shoreline
(1925), Stream Sculpture on the Atlantic Slope (1931), and Origin of
Submarine Canyons (1939). He was born in Parkersburg.
John Johnson is best known for training Buster
Douglas to a victory over Mike Tyson. In the 1970s he was an assistant coach at
Ohio State under Woody Hayes. He is originally from Mingo County.
Johnnie Johnson (1924-2005), the pianist for
Chuck Berry, co-wrote with Berry, uncredited, such songs as Sweet Little
Sixteen and Roll Over Beethoven. Berry's song Johnnie B. Goode
is a tribute to his partner. Johnson continued to play and tour all over the
world as a solo artist in recent years and had been described as the best blues
pianist alive. He was born and raised in Fairmont, the son of a coal miner. He
had been living in St. Louis before he died.
Joseph Johnson (1785-1877), the first popularly
elected governor of Virginia, lived in Bridgeport much of his life. He was born
in Orange County, N. Y.
Louis A. Johnson (1891-1966) was appointed
Secretary of Defense by President Truman in 1949. He was earlier appointed
assistant Secretary of War by President Roosevelt and played a significant role
in preapring the U. S. to enter World War II. He was born in Roanoke, Va., but
moved to Clarksburg, W. Va., to practice law after graduating from the
University of Virginia Law School.
Chad Johnston (1974- ), WVU's starting
quarterback from 1994-96, is currently on the roster of the Carolina Panthers.
He was born in Peterstown and led Peterstown High School to the state
championship in his senior year.
Daniel Johnston (1961- ) is a popular
singer-songwriter who has made numerous recordings, including Fun,
released in 1994 by Atlantic Records. He was born in Sacramento, Calif., but
moved with his family to West Virginia at age 5.
Billy "Red" Jones (1913- ), was a child actor in
several movies in the 1920s. He was born William Charles Jones in Wheeling.
Brereton C. Jones (1939- ) served as Governor of
Kentucky from 1992 to 1996. He had served as Lieutenant Governor from 1988 to
1992. Before moving to Kentucky and changing his party affiliation from
Republican to Democratic, he served in the West Virginia House of Delegates and
was House Minority Leader. He was born in Point Pleasant.
Earl Jones (1961- ), who played for the Los
Angeles Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks, is from Mount Hope.
Grandpa Jones (1913-1998), best known for his
banjo playing, singing, and comedy on Hee Haw, spent his early years as
an entertainer in Wheeling and Cincinnati. He was born in Kentucky.
Greg Jones, one of the most prolific scorers in WVU basketball history, averaged 22.3 points during his senior season. Jones was
selected in the third round of the NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers. He was a
starting guard in the CBA all-star game in 1984 and 1985.
Sam "Sad Sam" Jones,
a pitcher from 1951 to 1964,
was born in Monongah. He played for the Indians, Cubs, Cards, Giants, Tigers,
and Orioles.
Mrs. Vesta Jones became the first woman mail
carrier in West Virginia and one of the first in the country in 1919.
George Joseph, the chairman of Mercury Insurance
Group, was born in West Virginia.
Percy L. Julian (1899-1975), chemist, synthesist
of cortisone, hormones, and other products from soybeans. He was born in
Montgomery, Ala., and died in Waukegan, Ill. However, he taught chemistry at
West Virginia State College for Negroes.
Craig Karges, illusionist and entertainer, is from
the Wheeling area. He attended Marshall University.
Bill Karr (1911-1979) played offensive
end/defensive end for the Chicago Bears from 1933 to 1938. He was born William
Morrison Karr Jr. in Ripley.
Lawrence Kasdan (1949- ) directed the movies
Body Heat, The Big Chill, Silverado, and Grand Canyon. He also wrote
the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back. Kasdan was born in Miami,
Florida, but was raised in West Virginia. He graduated from Morgantown High
School in 1966.
Paul J. Kaufman (1920-1980) served as a state
senator from 1960 to 1968 and as a delegate at large to three Democratic
National Conventions. He was a candidate for Governor of West Virginia. He was
born in Charleston. On Dec. 28, 1980, he and his wife Rose Jean Kaufman
(1928-1980) and a son Steven were delivering Christmas gifts to a needy family
when they were all killed by a drunk driver in a car accident.
Lesli Kay (formerly Lesli Pushkin or Lesli
Kay Sterling) (1965- ) joined the cast of As the World Turns on March 1,
1997, as Molly Conlan. She grew up in Charleston and attended George Washington
High School.
Frank M. Kearns (1917-1986) worked for CBS News
from 1953 until 1971. As a foreign correspondent he covered London, Paris, Rome
and the Middle East. He was the ghost writer for WAC Capt. Kay Summersby's 1948
international bestseller Eisenhower Was My Boss. After retiring from CBS
News, he was a journalism professor at WVU. In 1976 CBS correspondent Daniel
Schorr reported that former CBS News President Sig Mickelson identified Kearns
as having had CIA connections while working as a stringer. Kearns continued to
deny this association until his death. In announcing Kearns' death on the CBS
Evening News, Dan Rather said: "His reporting on CBS Radio and Television
came mostly from datelines such as Baghdad, Khartoum, Yemen and the Congo. He
took the tough stories and never complained, through the 1950s and '60s and on
to the '70s. ...Legend may be an overworked word among journalists, but in his
quiet, courageous way, Frank Kearns was one around here." Kearns was born in
Gary, Indiana, but moved with his family to Morgantown in 1918. He graduated
from Morgantown High School and WVU.
Greg Keatley, a pitcher for the Royals in 1981,
was born in Princeton.
Elizabeth Kee of Bluefield was elected to
complete the unexpired term of her husband, U.S. Representative John Kee
(Democrat), in 1951. She become the first woman in the state's history to serve
in Congress.
Julia Keller, cultural critic and reporter for
the Chicago Tribune, won the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing in 2006
for what the judges called a "gripping, meticulously constructed account" of the
April 2004 tornado that killed eight people in Utica, Ill. She is a native of
West Virginia.
S/Sgt. Jonah Edward Kelley of Keyser was
posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor because of heroic action
during World War II at Kesternich, Germany, in 1945. The medal citation reads:
In charge of the leading squad of Company E, he
heroically spearheaded the attack in furious house-to-house fighting. Early on
30 January, he led his men through intense mortar and small arms fire in
repeated assaults on barricaded houses. Although twice wounded, once when
struck in the back, the second time when a mortar shell fragment passed
through his left hand and rendered it practically useless, he refused to
withdraw and continued to lead his squad after hasty dressings had been
applied. His serious wounds forced him to fire his rifle with 1 hand, resting
it on rubble or over his left forearm. To blast his way forward with hand
grenades, he set aside his rifle to pull the pins with his teeth while
grasping the missiles with his good hand. Despite these handicaps, he created
tremendous havoc in the enemy ranks. He rushed l house, killing 3 of the enemy
and clearing the way for his squad to advance. On approaching the next house,
he was fired upon from an upstairs window. He killed the sniper with a single
shot and similarly accounted for another enemy soldier who ran from the cellar
of the house. As darkness came, he assigned his men to defensive positions,
never leaving them to seek medical attention. At dawn the next day, the squad
resumed the attack, advancing to a point where heavy automatic and small arms
fire stalled them. Despite his wounds, S/Sgt. Kelley moved out alone, located
an enemy gunner dug in under a haystack and killed him with rifle fire. He
returned to his men and found that a German machinegun, from a well-protected
position in a neighboring house, still held up the advance. Ordering the squad
to remain in comparatively safe positions, he valiantly dashed into the open
and attacked the position single-handedly through a hail of bullets. He was
hit several times and fell to his knees when within 25 yards of his objective;
but he summoned his waning strength and emptied his rifle into the machinegun
nest, silencing the weapon before he died. The superb courage, aggressiveness,
and utter disregard for his own safety displayed by S/Sgt. Kelley inspired the
men he led and enabled them to penetrate the last line of defense held by the
enemy in the village of Kesternich.
Kelley was born in Roda, W. Va. He attended Keyser
High School.
Fern "Peachy" Kellmeyer
(1944- ) was an
outstanding tennis player in the 1950s and 1960s and a central figure in the
growth of women's tennis. She is currently senior vice-president of the Women's
Tennis Association. She is from Charleston.
John Edward Kenna (1848-1893) was a U. S. Senator
and a member of Congress. He entered the Confederate army at age 16. He was born
in Valcoulan (then in Virginia).
Sen. Harley M. Kilgore (1893-1956) was the
chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on War Mobilization during World War II. He
was born at Brown, W. Va. Kilgore earned a law degree from WVU and worked as a
high school principal in Eccles for one year before entering the practice of law
in Beckley.
George Smith King led the nation in basketball
scoring for two years at Morris Harvey College, from which he graduated in 1950.
He went on to play for the Syracuse Nationals, won an NBA championship, retired
for one year to coach at MHC, then played another year for the Cincinnati
Royals, where one of his teammates was Oscar Robertson. He went on to be
assistant coach for Fred Schaus at WVU, and then head coach when Schaus went to
the Lakers. From there, he went to Purdue University, first as head coach and
then Athletic Director, in which position he retired. He is from Charleston and
graduated from Stonewall Jackson High School in 1946.
Fuzzy Knight (1901-1976), a movie actor who
appeared mainly in westerns in the 1930s and 1940s, sometimes as Tex Ritter's
sidekick. In the early 1920s he was a WVU cheerleader and he wrote the WVU fight
song. He was born in Fairmont.
John S. Knight (1894-1981), widely respected
journalist and publisher who developed the Knight Ridder Newspapers, a major
newspaper chain. He won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing. Knight was
born in Bluefield.
John Knowles (1926-2001) was the author of the
award-winning novel A Separate Peace, published in 1959, which was
required reading in schools across America. He was born in Fairmont, where his
father was a coal mining executive, although his parents were originally from
Massachusetts.
Gary Alan Kolb (1940- ) was a journeyman
outfielder in the National League from 1960 to 1969. He played for St. Louis,
Milwaukee, the Mets and Pittsburgh. He said one of his greatest pro moments was
that he was the pinch runner for Stan Musial after Musial reached base in his
final at bat. He was born in Rock Falls, Ill. In 1998 Kolb was living in Cross
Lanes.
Mary Lou Kolanko played in the All-American Girls
Baseball League in 1950. She was born in Weirton.
Jerry Koloskie, the assistant athletic director
at U.N.L.V., is a former star athlete at Monongah High School in Fairmont.
John Kruk (1961- ) played for the Chicago White
Sox, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the San Diego Padres. He later worked for
the Philadelphia Phillies organization as hitting instructor for their Class AA
affiliate, the Reading Phillies. In 2002 he was one of the hosts of Fox Sports
Network's The Best Damn Sports Show, Period. Kruk was born in Charleston.
He grew up in Keyser and was later living in Burlington, W. Va.
Millard Lampell (1919-1997), a screenwriter,
producer, and songwriter, attended West Virginia University on a football
scholarship. He was born in Paterson, N. J.
Karl Spencer Lashley (1890-1958), a psychologist
who was a major figure in early studies of the localization of brain function.
He was director of the Yerkes Laboratories for Primate Biology in Orange Park,
Fla., from 1942 to 1955. He was born at Davis.
Jean Lee Latham (1902- ) is the author of plays
presented on radio and television and of children's books (Carry On, Mr.
Bowditch, fictionalized biography awarded Newbery Medal 1956; This
Dear-Bought Land; On Stage, Mr. Jefferson; Young Man in a Hurry;
Man of the Monitor; Retreat to Glory: the Story of Sam Houston).
She was born in Buckhannon.
Julian Lane Latimer (1868-1939) commanded the
battleship Rhode Island during World War I. He later became judge
advocate of the Navy. He was born at Shepherdstown.
Matt Lauer of NBC's Today show began his
broadcasting career at WOWK-TV in Huntington after studying communications at
Ohio University. He was hired at WOWK-TV in 1979 as a producer for the noon news
and in 1980 became a reporter for the station.
Lillian Lawrence (1868-1926) was an actress who
appeared in numerous silent films in the 1920s. According to imdb.com, she was
born in Alexander, W. Va.
Shelia (Davis) Lawrence
is the widow of M. Larry Lawrence, the former U. S. ambassador to Switzerland,
who died on Jan. 9, 1996. Mr. Lawrence's name made news when it was discovered
in 1997 that he had falsified his military record, and his body was subsequently
disinterred from Arlington National Cemetery. Shelia Davis is from Brushfork. She graduated from
Bluefield High School in 1978. She married Mr. Lawrence on June 9, 1990. Mrs.
Lawrence, whose father lives in Bluewell, was recently appointed U. S.
representative to the World Conservation Union.
Samuel Spahr Laws (1824-1921) was President of
Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., before becoming vice president of the New
York Gold Exchange around 1865. He invented the stock ticker. He was later
President of the University of Missouri. He is the author of Metaphysics
and Christianity: Its Nature. He was born in Ohio County (then in
Virginia).
Blanche Lazzell (1878-1956), a noted modern
artist of the mid-20th century, pioneered woodblock printing as part of the
Provincetown Art Colony. Her works hang in the Smithsonian and the New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, along with large collections at the University of
Charleston and WVU. She graduated from WVU after studying art there and in
Europe. She was born near Maidsville, West Virginia.
Rex Lease (1903-1966) an early Hollywood actor
who appeared in 154 films between 1924 and 1956. They were mostly westerns but
he was in three Ma and Pa Kettle movies, two Abbott and Costello films, and
The Grapes of Wrath (uncredited, 1940). He was born in Central City, W. Va.
Carl Lee, the head football coach at West
Virginia State College, earlier played defensive back for the Minnesota Vikings
and the New Orleans Saints. He graduated from South Charleston High School in
1979, and then played for Marshall University.
Charles Lee purchased property in 1774 in what
was to become Leetown, WV. He called his estate "Prato Rio". Soon after this
event he was commissioned Major General under George Washington and participated
in the Revolutionary War along with Horatio Gates, his neighbor three miles to
the north.
Dick Leftridge, who played college football at WVU, was the first-round draft pick of the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers and the
fourth-round selection of the AFL's Miami Dolphins in 1966. He played for the
Pittsburgh Steelers before injuries ended his career prematurely. He is a native
of Hinton.
Byron Leftwich (1980- ) is a senior quarterback
at Marshall University and is considered a leading candidate for the 2002
Heisman trophy. He was born in Washington, D. C.
William Robinson Leigh (1866-1955) was a famous
artist whose paintings can be found at Boston's Old North Church, the American
Museum of Natural History in New York, and the Rockwell Museum in Corning, New
York. His paintings were purchased by important collectors such as the Duke of
Windsor and King Albert of Belgium. He was also an illustrator for leading
American magazines. He was born at Falling Waters in Berkeley County.
William Leonhart was ambassador to Tanzania and
Yugoslavia. He is a 1939 graduate of WVU and a native of Parkersburg.
J. T. Leroy is the author of Sarah, a
semi-autobiographical story about a 12-year-old and his mother, both
prostitutes, who comb truck stops for tricks. He spent part of his childhood
living with his grandparents in West Virginia.
Chester M. Lester wrote the 1981 number one hit
She Left Love All Over Me recorded by Razzy Bailey and wrote other songs
recorded by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Dean Martin, and Tammy Wynette. He
performed during the 60's and early 70's on Charleston radio and TV. Lester was
born and raised in the Charleston area and now lives in Hendersonville, Tenn.
Jim Lett (1951- ) is a coach with the Los Angeles
Dodgers, having previously worked for the Toronto Blue Jays and Cincinnati Reds.
In 1990, he managed the Charleston Wheelers to the South Atlantic League title.
During that season, he helped start the transformation of Trevor Hoffman from a
weak-hitting shortstop to one of the major leagues' most dominant closers. He
was born in Charleston and grew up in Winfield and graduated from Winfield High
School. According to a recent Charleston Daily Mail story, he lives in
his hometown of Winfield in the offseason.
Jon D. Levenson is the Albert A. List Professor
of Jewish Studies at the Harvard Divinity School. His research interests are in
the evolution of Jewish theology throughout the biblical, rabbinic, and modern
periods, in literary study of the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, and in the
interaction of intellectual history and biblical interpretation. He deals
primarily with literary and theological issues in ancient Judaism. He was born
in Wheeling and graduated from high school there in 1967.
Charles H. Levine was one of Charleston's most
colorful sports figures and generous benefactors. His son Bob bought an
International League baseball franchise in 1971 and named it the Charleston Charlies in honor of his father, who was an avid baseball fan and who watched
the Charlies, seated in a wheelchair, wearing a derby hat, and smoking a cigar.
Levine referred to himself as "Poor Charlie" during his earlier years as a
scrap-metal dealer in Beckley. He died in 1981 at age 89. [Information from a
2003 Charleston Gazette article]
R. Fred Lewis was appointed to the Florida
Supreme Court in 1998. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley
in 1965. He was student body president in his senior year. Lewis left West
Virginia to attend Florida Southern College in Lakeland on an athletic
scholarship. Interviewed by the Beckley Register-Herald in 1999, he said,
"Beckley's my home. Beckley will always be my home. ... It's kind of a special
place for me."
Joseph B. Lightburn was the Constitution Party
candidate for President in 1964.
Michael Burt "Bea" Lilly (1921- ) and Charlie
Edwin "Everett" Lilly (1923- ) and Don Stover (1928-1996) were inducted into the
Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2002. The Lilly Brothers and Don Stover
performed together in the 1950s and 1960s. The Lilly brothers were born in Clear
Creek, West Virginia; Stover was born in White Oak, West Virginia.
Rebecca Linger, a former wife of Nick Nolte, is
an actor and director. She is the mother of Brawley Nolte, who appeared in
Affliction, Ransom, and Mother Night.
C. Carwood Lipton was an executive at
Owens-Illinois until his retirement. However, his current fame revolves around
being a veteran of E (Easy) Company of the 101st Airborne Division during World
War II. As a result, he is a central character in HBO's Band of Brothers.
He is played by Donnie Wahlberg. Mr. Lipton grew up in Huntington and is a
graduate of Marshall University.
James Litton is Music Director of the American Boychoir, widely recognized as the premier concert boys' choir in the U. S. The
Choir has performed and recorded under the direction of some of the great
conductors including Toscanini, Ormandy, Leinsdorf, Bernstein, Ozawa and Masur.
The choristers attend The American Boychoir School in Princeton, New Jersey.
Litton is a graduate of Stonewall Jackson High School in Charleston.
William E. Lively was a writer for a number of
films produced in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in West Virginia. He died in
1973.
Earl "Big Cat" Lloyd,
the first black to play
basketball in the NBA (on Oct. 21, 1950), played college ball at West Virginia
State College. However he grew up in Arlington, Virginia.
Logan was chief of the Mingo Indians. The city
and county of Logan are named for him, and Mingo county is named for his tribe.
Logan was a friend of the white men but became their bitter enemy when his
family was killed by a gang of drunken white men at his home opposite the mouth
of Yellow Creek in what is now Hancock County.
Mike Logan of the Pittsburgh Steelers (and
formerly the Jacksonville Jaguars) played college football at WVU.
Mahlon Loomis is considered by some the true
inventor of radio. He was a dentist from New York state who settled in Terra
Alta. The following is from QST Magazine: "The first person who succeeded
in transmitting through air was apparently Dr. Mahlon Loomis, a dentist. At the
close of the Civil War in 1865, he flew two kites, carrying wires, from mountain
tops 14-miles (23-kms.) apart. The wire from one kite was attached to ground
through a telegraph key; the other kite-wire was grounded through a galvanometer
that could measure very small currents. When he operated the key, detectable
changes of current occurred in the other kite wire. He was granted a patent on
his system in 1872, but no known attempt was made to make use of the phenomenon
commercially. Interestingly, the experiment was duplicated 44 years later in
London where, during a hailstorm, experimenters successfully communicated over a
distance of 3-miles (5-km)."
Adm. T. Joseph Lopez was appointed Commander in
Chief of U. S. Naval Forces in Europe in 1996 and retired in 1999. He is one of
only two enlisted men in the history of the U. S. Navy to have risen to
four-star rank. Lopez is a native of Powellton. The new Chelyan bridge is named
for him.
Pare Lorentz (1905-1992), motion picture producer
and director. In 1935 he was asked by the U. S. government to organize a film
program that would highlight problems in American agriculture. In 1936 he wrote
and directed a documentary film, The Plow That Broke the Plains. In 1937
he released The River. In the late 1930s his program was named the U. S.
Film Service, and was expanded to produce government motion pictures. Lorentz
was born in Clarksburg.
Frank Loria, a two-time All-American, was a
defensive back for Virginia Tech from 1965 to 1967 and went on to become the
offensive coordinator at Marshall University. He was killed in the 1970 plane
crash that killed most of the football team. He was 23 years old. In 1999 Loria
was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame. His son, Frank Jr., accepted
the award, saying he never knew his father but knew he was more than just an
athlete. "I can tell he was not only a great football player but a great man by
the way people look at me and see a little bit of him in me," said Loria, whose
mother was seven months pregnant with him when his father died. "I know that my
dad would be grateful." Frank Loria was a native of Clarksburg.
Dr. Patricia Love has written or co-written books
and articles on relationship topics. She has been a guest on Oprah Winfrey
and the Today show. She graduated from Sistersville High School and WVU
and currently lives in Austin, Texas.
Don B. Lowe was named National Scoutmaster of the
Year in 1975. He founded Boy Scout Troop 3 in Parkersburg in 1917 when he was 25
years old and remained the scoutmaster of the troop for 58 years, until his
death in 1975.
Daniel Bedinger Lucas (1836-1909), an author
known as "the poet of the Shenandoah Valley," was born at Shepherdstown (then in
Virginia). He was appointed a U. S. Senator.
Oliver Luck is the former President of NFL
Europe, the former World League of American Football. He was a Houston Oilers
quarterback and was a quarterback for West Virginia University.
Luck ran for
Congress as a Republican from West Virginia's second district in 1990, but lost
to the incumbent, Harley O. Staggers, Jr.
Albert "Sparky" Lyle (1944- ) started his
baseball career with the Bluefield Orioles. He was born in DuBois, Pa.
Tom Maddox
(1945- ) is a science fiction writer who has published stories in Omni and Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine.
His first novel was Halo (1991). He and William Gibson wrote an
X-Files script, "Killswitch," which aired in February 1998. Another script
by them, "First Person Shooter," is scheduled to air on February 27, 2000. He is
currently editor of PrivacyPlace, an
online magazine devoted to personal privacy issues. Maddox is a native of
Beckley and attended Woodrow Wilson High School there in 1960-61, before his
family moved to Virginia.
Ann Magnuson (1956- ) is an actress and singer
who appeared in Clear and Present Danger and other movies, was a regular
on the TV show Anything But Love, and was the lead singer in the
alternative band Bongwater. She was born in Charleston.
Keith Maillard (1942- ) has written the novels
Two Strand River (1976), Alex Driving South (1980), The Knife in
My Hands (1981), Cutting Through (1983), Motet (1989), and
Light in the Company of Women (1993). He has also worked as a folksinger and
music teacher. He was born in Wheeling.
Joe Manchin III (1947- ) became Governor of West
Virginia on Jan. 17, 2005. He was born in Farmington. He received national
attention in January 2006 when twelve coal miners were killed in a mine accident
at Tallmansville in Upshur County. Gov. Manchin's uncle was killed in the
Farmington coal mine disaster in 1968.
Charlie "Chuck" Manuel
(1944- ), an outfielder for the Twins and Dodgers from 1969 to 1975 and
currently the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, was born in Northfork.
"Pistol Pete" Maravich
(1947-1988) was selected
in 1996 as one of the 50 greatest NBA basketball players ever. While very young,
he lived in Elkins, when his father coached basketball at Davis and Elkins
College in the mid 1950s. His family then moved to Beaver Falls, Pa.
Gino Marchetti (1927- ) was named the top
defensive end of the NFL's first 50 years and was inducted into the Hall of Fame
in 1972. He was born in Smithers, W. Va. His family was moved to a California
detention camp when he was 14 because his father was an Italian immigrant.
Basilio Marchi (1908-1997) played football for
the Pittsburgh Pirates (old name for the Pittsburgh Steelers) in 1934 and for
the Philadelphia Eagles in 1942. He was born in Middleport, Ohio, and grew up in
Parkersburg and attended Parkersburg High School.
Patrick Markey produced The Associate,
which stars Whoopi Goldberg, Dianne Wiest, and Tim Daly. He co-produced A
River Runs Through It and produced The Joy Luck Club, The Quick and the
Dead, and The Ties That Bind. He also developed and produced the NBC
telefilm Following Her Heart, which starred Ann-Margret. The oldest son
in a family of fourteen children, Markey was born in West Virginia but raised in
Ohio.
William Casey Marland (1918-1965) was Governor of
West Virginia from 1953 to 1957. Marland attracted nationwide attention in 1965
when a reporter found him working as a cab driver in Chicago. At a news
conference, Marland explained he had been a cab driver for two years while
battling alcoholism. Marland was born in Johnson City, Illinois, but he moved
with his parents to Glen Rogers in Wyoming County at age seven.
George Preston Marshall (1897-1969) purchased the
Boston Braves in 1932 and moved the franchise to Washington in 1937, changing
the name of the team to the Redskins. Marshall was among the team owners who in
1933 broke the league into two divisions with a championship game. Marshall was
an NFL Hall of Fame charter member. He was born in Grafton. [Another source
gives 1896 for his birth year.] He is buried in Indian Mound Cemetery in Romney.
Sarah Catherine Marshall (1914-1983) wrote the
best-selling novel Christy, which later became a TV series, and A Man
Called Peter. She lived in Keyser from age 9 and is a graduate of Keyser
High School. Her father was a Presbyterian minister in Keyser. She married Peter
Marshall, Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, at the church in Keyser.
Christy Martin (1968- ) is the most recognized
female boxer in the world. She has appeared on major pay-per-view boxing cards
featuring Mike Tyson, and has been featured on the cover of Sports
Illustrated. Martin has also appeared on Roseanne, Today, Prime Time
Live, and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She is from Mullens and is
a graduate of Concord College.
Rod Martin (1954- ) played for the Oakland
Raiders in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a defensive back. He set a record
for most interceptions (3) in a single Super Bowl game. In 2002 he was head
trainer for the Raiders. He was born in Welch, although he first started playing
football in high school in California.
Chris Massey (1979- ) is a center for the St.
Louis Rams. He is from Chesapeake and graduated from East Bank High School.
Sylvia Mathews became deputy director of the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under President Clinton in October 1998.
She had been deputy chief of staff to the president in 1997. Mathews served as
chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Rubin, from 1995 to 1997. In 1993, she
became staff director for the National Economic Council. Mathews joined the
Clinton administration in 1992 as manager of the Economic Transition team.
Mathews graduated cum laude from Harvard University with an A.B. in Government
in June 1987. As a Rhodes Scholar, she received an honors degree (B.A.) in
philosophy, politics and economics in June 1990 from Oxford University. She is a
native of Hinton and a graduate of Hinton High School. Mathews said she was with
President Clinton in Russia to observe a World War II anniversary. They were
standing on their hotel roof watching fireworks explode over the beautiful,
historic city. "The president turns to me and says, 'Sylvia, we are a long way
from Hope and Hinton.' And I said, 'Yes, sir, we are.'"
John Daniell Maurice won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize
for editorial writing for his editorials in the Charleston Daily Mail
about the Kanawha County schoolbook controversy. Maurice worked as editor of the
campus paper at Marshall University, and after graduation became a reporter for
the Huntington Herald-Dispatch before joining the Daily Mail. He
died Dec. 20, 1999, at age 86.
Lee Maynard wrote the novel Crum, a
coming-of-age story set on the Kentucky/West Virginia border. He is a freelance
writer for Readers' Digest and lives in New Mexico. He was born in Crum.
Thomas Mayberry built the first iron furnace west
of the Blue Ridge in 1742 on the Shenandoah river at the "Bloomery" near Harpers
Ferry in Jefferson county, WV.
Alvoid Mays (1966- ), cornerback for the
Washington Redskins, played earlier for WVU.
William Stanley "Bill" Mazeroski
(1936- ), second
baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1956 to 1972, is best remembered for his
solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1960 World
Series. His was the first of only two home runs ever to end a World Series.
Mazeroski was born in Wheeling.
Leo Mazzone, a pitching coach who moved from
Atlanta to Baltimore in 2005, was born in West Virginia. He was raised in
Cumberland, Md.
Gen. Anthony Clement McAuliffe
(1898-1975), best
known for his one-word reply ("NUTS") to a demand to surrender, attended WVU in
1916-17.
Capt. Jon A. McBride (1943- ) became an astronaut
in August 1979 and piloted the Challenger when it was launched on October 5,
1984. In 1987 he became NASA's Acting Administrator for Congressional Relations.
He was a Republican candidate for Governor of West Virginia in 1996. McBride was
born in Charleston but considers Beckley his hometown. He graduated from Woodrow
Wilson High School in Beckley in 1960. He currently resides in Lewisburg.
Ron McCartney played football for the Atlanta
Falcons in the late 1970s. He graduated from Stonewall Jackson High School in
1972 and went to college at the University of Tennessee where he was an
All-American. He and was selected in the first round of the 1976 NFL draft by
the Los Angeles Rams.
Brig. Gen. John McCausland (1836 - 1927) gained a
national reputation as a brilliant leader and persistent fighter in the
Confederate army. He was born in St. Louis, but in 1849 went with his brother to
Point Pleasant in Mason county (then in Virginia). Another source says that in
1849 his guardian uncle brought him to Henderson (then in Virginia), at the
mouth of the Great Kanawha River. He attended elementary school in Mason County
and Buffalo Academy in Putnam County. He owned thousands of acres of Kanawha
River property and lived most of his life near the Mason-Putnam County line.
Rev. Doctor Donald J. McCoid has been bishop of
the Southwestern Pennsylvania synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America since 1988. He was runner-up for Bishop of the national church in August
2001. He was born in Wheeling.
Elisha McComas reached the rank of Brigadier
General in the War of 1812, having organized his own military unit. In the early
1800s he moved to what is now Cabell County (but was then Montgomery County,
Virginia) and helped organize the new County of Cabell. He had two sons who
voted during the Virginia secession vote; one voted for secession and one voted
against. Another son who organized the Civil War unit called "McComas's
Artillery" in Giles County, Virginia, was killed in battle. Another son served
as a doctor in the same unit as his brother who was killed. Another son became
the editor of a Chicago newspaper.
Charlie McCoy (1941- ) is famous mainly as a
harmonica player in country music but is also an accomplished guitarist and
trumpeter. He is from Fayetteville, and was born at Oak Hill.
Russ McCubbin (1935- ) has appeared in the movies
High Plains Drifter, Sudden Impact, Santee, Cain's Way, and Waco.
He was a stand-in and stunt double for Clint Walker in The Cheyenne Show
on TV in 1960-62. He was born in Charleston and has lived there since 1992.
Julie McCullough, an actress who played the nanny
on Growing Pains and who played Drew Carey's neighbor on the Drew
Carey Show lived in Hanover, W. Va., and attended Pineville High School in
the ninth grade.
Frances McDormand (1957- ), the Oscar-winning
actress, attended Bethany College. She was born in Illinois.
Dan McGinn is the CEO and President of the McGinn
Group in Arlington, Virginia, described as "a premiere crisis communications
firm providing counsel to Fortune 100 companies." McGinn grew up in Nitro and is
a graduate of Nitro High School.
John McKay (1923-2001) was the first head coach
of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and for 16 years was the head coach at the
University of Southern California. He was born in the now extinct town of
Everettsville, West Virginia, the son of a coal miner. He was an all-state
running back at Shinnston High School, where he also excelled in basketball. He
worked in the mines for a year before enlisting in the Army Air Corps and going
to college.
Bill McKechnie played baseball for Wheeling in
the Central League beginning around 1909. He later managed several major league
baseball teams.
Brig. Gen. J. Kemp McLaughlin
is the author of a
memoir, The Mighty Eighth in World War II, in which he describes his
experiences on an aerial bombardment team in Western Europe during the Second
World War. McLaughlin joined the U.S. Air Corps in 1941 and went to Europe the
following year as a member of the 92nd Bombardment Group, Eighth Air Force. In
1947 he organized the West Virginia Air National Guard, which he commanded for
thirty years.
Louise McNeill (1911-1993), West Virginia's poet
laureate from 1979 until her death, wrote beautifully about West Virginia in
such volumes of verse as "Elderberry Flood" and "Gauley Mountain." She grew up
on a 200-acre farm in Buckeye in Pocahontas County, and began writing poetry at
16. She graduated from Concord College and did post-graduate work at Miami
University of Ohio and WVU. Her first collection was published in 1931, and
Archibald MacLeish introduced her writings to the world to great critical
acclaim. She won the Atlantic Monthly poetry prize and was awarded a
scholarship to the Breadloaf Writers' Workshop in Vermont. Her marriage to Roger
Pease lasted 50 years.
Marian McQuade (1917- ) campaigned in West
Virginia and later nationwide to set aside a day for grandparents. In 1973 West
Virginia became the first state with a special day to honor grandparents when
Gov. Arch Moore proclaimed May 27, 1973, Grandparents Day. In September 1978 the
White House called her to inform her that President Carter had signed a bill
designating the Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day beginning in
1979. In 1989 the U. S. Postal Service issued a tenth anniversary commemorative
envelope bearing the likeness of Marian McQuade in honor of National
Grandparents Day. She was born Marion Herndon in Caperton and now lives in Oak
Hill.
Dick McVey, a Nashville record producer, was
selected Independent Producer of the Year by Tracker Magazine in 1993. He has
done publicity and promotion for various artists and has also worked as an
opening act for numerous country music artists. He grew up near Beckley.
J. Mark McVey made his Broadway debut as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables after having won the Helen Hayes Award for
Outstanding Actor while on tour with the show. He is a native of Huntington.
Adrian Melott (1947- ) is a physicist who works
on the origins of large scale structure in the Universe, and has over 100
scientific publications in this area. In 1996 he was made a Fellow of the
American Physical Society "for groundbreaking research into the origins of
cosmic structure." He was born in Moundsville, grew up there, and attended
Bethany College. He is presently a Professor at the University of Kansas.
Jeff Merrow played for the Atlanta Falcons in the
1970s and 1980s. He graduated from WVU.
Leon Metz, a writer and lecturer about the Old
West, was born and grew up in Parkersburg, although he later moved to El Paso,
Texas.
Butch Miles
(1944- ) is a musician and recording artist who has toured with the Count Basie
Orchestra. He was born in Ironton, Ohio, but his family relocated to Charleston.
He attended West Virginia State College.
Arnold Miller (1923-1985) served as President of
the United Mine Workers of America from 1972 to 1979. He was the first West
Virginia native to hold the position. He was born in Leewood.
George Armitage Miller (1920- ) is a psychologist
whose studies of language were among the first works in psycholinguistics. From
1960 to 1967 the director of Harvard University's Center for Cognitive Studies,
Miller has written important works in cognitive psychology, including (with
Eugene Galanter and K. H. Pribram) Plans and the Structure of Behavior
(1960) and Language and Speech (1981). He was born in Charleston. [Collier's
Encyclopedia]
Jim Miller (1963- ) was drafted by the NBA Utah
Jazz and played basketball professionally in Europe. He earlier starred at the
University of Virginia and played with Ralph Sampson. He was named MVP of the
1984 NCAA Eastern Regional Championship as they advanced to the Final Four.
Miller is also an accomplished magician; he performed at the White House for
President Clinton and at an inaugural ball honoring President-elect George W.
Bush. He was born in Lewisburg but moved to Princeton when he was two years old.
He helped lead Princeton to two state AAA Championships in 1979 and 1981 and was
West Virginia Player of the Year in 1981 as well as a Parade
All-American.
Joe Miller holds the NAIA record for most free
throws made in a season and in a career, playing for Alderson-Broaddus College.
Miller was an All-Star basketball player for Sand Fork High School in Gilmer
County.
Kate Miller played the role of Eileen in the
Broadway play Moon Over Buffalo (1995-96), which starred Carol Burnett.
She has appeared on Loving, The Guiding Light, and As the World Turns.
She is a native of West Virginia, from the Parkersburg area.
H. Gordon Minns designed the first portable
heart-lung machine, a hemodialysis unit for home use, and numerous other medical
devices. He has written many scientific articles and holds several patents. He
now lives in Wyoming. He attended West Virginia University. His father, Gordon
Minns Sr., was the owner of WSPZ radio station in Spencer.
Craig Minervini, currently a sports broadcaster
in Miami, broadcast several Notre Dame games and XFL games on NBC in 2000. He
was a television announcer for the World Wrestling Federation, where he was
known as Craig DeGeorge. He is a former sports anchor at WOAY-TV in Oak Hill.
Richard Mitchell of Bruceton Mills is the NASCAR
Northeast Region Winston Racing Series champion for 1999.
George Howard Mitchell (1918-1989) was appointed
the first black Assistant Attorney General in West Virginia in 1957, resigning
from the Charleston City Council to accept the position. He was approved to
practice before the U. S. Supreme Court beginning in 1960, the first lawyer from
the West Virginia Attorney General's Office accepted to appear before the U. S.
Supreme Court since 1929. He represented the state in five separate cases. He
was later appointed as Deputy Attorney General. Mitchell, the son of a coal
miner, was born in Maitland, in McDowell county.
Dr. George Howard Mitchell Jr. (1948- ) in 1970
became the youngest person (at that time) to be appointed to the U. S. Foreign
Service. He was sworn in a few days before he turned 22. He was the first
African American to serve in a professional capacity on the immediate staff of a
U. S. Secretary of State. He was born in Charleston and graduated from
Charleston High School in 1967.
Mildred Mitchell-Bateman (1922- ) became the
first black woman to head a West Virginia state agency when she was appointed
director of the Department of Mental Health in 1962. She later became chair of
the Psychiatry Department at the Marshall University Medical School. She was the
director of Lakin State Hospital in Lakin (Mason County) from the late 60's to
the early 70's. In 1999 she retired as clinical director of Huntington State
Hospital. The hospital was renamed the Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in
2000. She was born in Brunswick, Ga.
Maj. Gen. James W. Monroe is the commander of the
Army Industrial Operations Command. His assignments have included a key
logistics role in preparation for Desert Shield/Desert Storm as Deputy Chief of
Staff, US Army Central Command. Monroe is a graduate of West Virginia State
College.
Margaret Prescott Montague (1873-1955), author
and short story writer who won the O. Henry Prize in 1920 for England to
America, was born in White Sulphur Springs.
Jeff Montgomery (1962- ), the top relief pitcher
for the Kansas City Royals when he retired in 1999, graduated from Marshall
University. He was born in Wellston, Ohio.
Alexander McLean Moore owns and operates McLean
Lighting, a manufacturer of replica antique lights. His lights were featured in
the movie "The Patriot" and he has made lights for designer Tommy Hilfiger and
others, in addition to historic plantations, etc. He was born and raised in
Charleston and played tennis at WVU. He now lives in Greensboro, N. C.
Arch Alfred Moore, Jr. (1923- ) was elected
Governor in 1969 after having served as a member of Congress. In 1975, Moore and
his campaign manager were indicted for extortion. He was the first seated
governor to be officially charged with a crime. Both were found not guilty. In
1990, the former Governor was found guilty of mail fraud. He served over two
years in federal prison and paid a settlement to the state.
James D. Moore, M/Sgt USAF Ret., was selected as
the first Missile Facilities Electrician in the Air Force and participated in 93
launches of the Minuteman at Vandenberg Air Force Base. He was a student manager
of the 1948-50 WVU basketball team and is credited with the "Barefoot
Mountaineers" tag for forgetting to load a bag of shoes on the road trip to W&J.
He retired to Lapwai, Idaho, where he served as Mayor from 1994 to 1998. Moore
is a 1948 graduate of Welch High School.
Sara Jane Moore
(1930- ) attempted to assassinate President
Gerald Ford in San Francisco on Sept. 22, 1975. She is a native of Charleston
and graduated from Stonewall Jackson High School in 1947. She spent time as an
inmate at the Federal Correctional Institute for Women at Alderson.
Levi Morgan (1766-1825) was a frontiersman,
hunter, government spy, militiaman and Indian fighter. In November 1791 Morgan
was with Gen. St. Clair when he was defeated by the Indians. His grandfather was
Morgan Morgan. Levi Morgan was born in Morgantown. Late in his life he moved to
Kentucky.
Morgan Morgan (1688-1766) is believed to be the
first white settler to build a home in what is now West Virginia. He built a
cabin on the bank of Mill Creek, near what is now Bunker Hill in Berkeley
County. He engineered the first highway in West Virginia, between his town and
Winchester, and built the Mill Creek Church, the first church west of the Blue
Ridge Mountains. He was the first justice of the peace, captain of the militia,
and the first innkeeper, having opened a hostelry for travelers. Francis
Pierpont was his great-grandson. Ephraim F. Morgan, the Governor of West
Virginia from 1921 to 1925, was a direct descendant of Morgan Morgan, who was
born in Wales.
Col. Zackquill Morgan established a fort which
grew into the city of Morgantown. He was an acquaintance of George Washington,
who thought of him when a County Lieutenant was needed to settle the area. His
father was Morgan Morgan. He was born at Bunker Hill, Va. (now in Berkeley
County, W. Va.).
Glen E. Morrell (1936- ), the 7th Sergeant Major
of the Army, was sworn in on July 1, 1983, and served until his term ended in
July of 1987. He was born in Wick, West Virginia.
Clayton Morris, a correspondent for the
nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz, was formerly a news
anchor at WVVA in Bluefield.
Edward Morris (1935- ) is a Nashville journalist
and the former country music editor of Billboard magazine. He is the
author of numerous magazine articles and several books. As a music critic, he
has written liner notes for albums and box sets by The Judds, Keith Whitley,
Eddy Arnold, Guy Clark, Hank Snow, Chet Atkins and many others. Morris was born
at Aarons Fork in Kanawha County and attended Morris Harvey College (now the
University of Charleston).
Robert Morrisey founded The Wine Spectator,
which became the top-selling wine publication in the U. S. He was born in
Wheeling but grew up in Joliet, Ill. He died at age 78 in 2005.
Herb Morrison (1906-1989), an announcer for
Chicago station WLS, described the scene at Lakehurst, N. J., on May 6, 1937, as
the Hindenburg, a German airship, burst into flames and was destroyed in
a matter of seconds. In the famous recording, Morrison said, "It's crashing!
It's crashing terrible! Oh, my get out of the way, please. It's bursting into
flames! And it's falling on the mooring mast. All the folks agree this is
terrible, one of the worst catastrophes on the world. Oh, the flames, four or
five hundred feet in the sky! It's a terrific crash ladies and gentlemen! The
smoke and the flames now, and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to
the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity, and all the passengers!" The recording,
which had been intended for use in a newsreel, was broadcast nationally the next
day by NBC, which broke its firm rule against airing recorded news accounts.
Morrison was born in Pennsylvania. He began his broadcasting career at WMMN in
Fairmont and is said to have worked in radio also in Clarksburg. Morrison joined
WVU in his later years. He lived near Cheat Lake outside Morgantown after his
retirement.
Jeff Morrison is professional tennis player on
the Men's ATP Tour. He has been ranked as high as #96 in the world. His career
highlights to date include advancing to the third round of the 2001 U. S. Open
Men's Doubles and to the second round of the 2002 Wimbledon Men's Single's
tournament. Morrison is a native of Huntington.
Dwight W. Morrow (1873-1931), lawyer, financier,
and statesman, was born in Huntington. After the U. S. entered World War I,
Morrow went to Europe in 1918 as adviser to the Allied Maritime Transport
Council. As chairman of the president's aircraft board in 1925 he aided in
formulating a national military and civil aviation policy. In 1927 President
Calvin Coolidge appointed him ambassador to Mexico. He was elected senator from
New Jersey in 1930. Anne Morrow, a daughter, married aviator Charles Lindbergh.
D. Holmes Morton, a Harvard-trained pediatrician
and geneticist, discovered the treatment for glutaric aciduria, which is
widespread in the Amish and Mennonite communities in the U. S. He gave up his
academic career and moved to Lancaster, Pa., to work among the Amish. He was
featured in Time magazine in 1994 in a special issue "Heroes of
Medicine." Morton was born in West Virginia and grew up in Fayetteville. His
parents still live in West Virginia.
Eric Moss (1974- ) is an offensive lineman for
the Minnesota Vikings. He played college football at Ohio State. He is a
graduate of DuPont High School, and is the brother of Randy Moss.
Randy Moss (1977- ), a football player, grew up
in Rand, West Virginia.
Fred Mosteller (1916- ) was a teacher and
researcher in mathematical statistics at Harvard for over fifty years. His
research involved theoretical and applied statistics, with a focus on public
policy, health, and education. Mosteller is the only person in Harvard's history
to have chaired four departments -- the Department of Statistics, which he
founded, and the Departments of Biostatistics, Social Relations, and Health
Policy and Management. He was born Charles Frederick Mosteller in Clarksburg,
although his family moved to the Pittsburgh area, where he graduated from high
school.
Arnett W. "Ace" Mumford
(1898-1962) was a college
football coach who won 233 games, with a .717 winning percentage. At Southern
University in Baton Rouge he had a record of 169-57-14, and is the all-time winningest coach at that school. He is scheduled to be inducted into the College
Football Hall of Fame in August 2001. Mumford was born in Buckhannon, W. Va.,
and moved to Parkersburg around 1917, playing football for Sumner High School
and graduating from there in 1919. He then played football for Wilberforce
College in Ohio. After graduation he began his coaching career in 1924 at Jarvis
Christian College in Texas. He also coached at Bishop (Tex.) and Texas College
before his tenure at Southern began in 1936. He won six college football black
national championships--1935, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1954 and 1960.
Adrian Murrell (1970- ), who was recently traded
to the Arizona Cardinals, played college football at WVU. He was born in
Lafayette, La.
John Patrick Murtha, Jr. (1932- ), a member of
Congress from Pennsylvania, was born in New Martinsville.
Stanley Frank "Stan" Musial
(1920- ), the
baseball great, played ball for Williamson in the old Mountain States League
(class D) in 1938 and 1939. He was born in Donora, Pa.
Jim "Raw Beef" Myers was the head assistant coach
of the Dallas Cowboys under Tom Landry for many years. He grew up in Madison, in
Boone County, and played football at Scott High School.
Lou Myers is an actor who appeared on the TV show
A Different World from 1987 to 1993. He has also starred in films such as
Tin Cup, Volcano, and Bulworth. He is from Chesapeake.
Walter Dean Myers (1937- ) is an acclaimed writer
of children's books who has more recently been writing non-fiction, including
black history. He was born in Martinsburg, but grew up in Harlem. In 1998 he was
living in Jersey City, N. J.
Norbert A. Myles (1887-1966) was an early movie
actor who appeared in about a dozen silent films. He was born in Wheeling.
John Forbes Nash Jr.
(1928- ), a mathematician who was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics for
his landmark work, first begun in the 1950s, on the mathematics of game theory.
He shared the Prize with Hungarian-American economist John C. Harsanyi and German mathematician Reinhard
Selten. Nash began to experience what he called "mental disturbances" in 1959
and was involuntarily hospitalized for a time. A 1998 biography of Nash, A
Beautiful Mind, written by Sylvia Nasar, describes Nash as a mathematical
genius at Princeton and MIT who essentially lost 30 years of his life to
paranoid schizophrenia and who re-emerged into public glory once the disease was
in remission to receive the Nobel prize for a brilliant doctoral dissertation he
had done in 1950. Nash blamed his collapse on the mental effort of resolving
contradictions in quantum theory. A movie with the same title was released in
2002. Nash was born in Bluefield and grew up there. He attended Wade Elementary
School, Whitethorn Elementary School, Fairview Junior High School, and Beaver
High School, from which he graduated in 1945. While a senior in high school he
took supplementary math courses at Bluefield College. Nash's maternal
grandfather, Dr. James Everett Martin, was an early settler in Bluefield, and
served as its sixth mayor in 1896-97.
Earle "Greasy" Neale
(1891-1973), football end
and coach. He coached the Philadelphia Eagles from 1941 to 1950 and was inducted
into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969. He also played for the Cincinnati
Reds around 1919. Neale was born in Parkersburg, graduated from Parkersburg High
School and was once the head head football coach at Parkersburg High School.
Julia Beckwith Neale (1789-1831) was the mother
of Stonewall Jackson. She was born near Aldie in Loudoun County, Virginia. After
her first husband Jonathan Jackson died, she married Blake B. Woodson, an
attorney who was appointed clerk of Fayette County. The family lived in and
around Ansted, where she is buried.
Matthew Mansfield Neely (1874-1958) was a U. S.
Senator and Governor of West Virginia. As a Senator he was chairman of the
Senate Judiciary Committee. For decades, he controlled the state's Democratic
"machine" and hand-picked candidates to receive the party's nomination for the
state's highest public offices. He was born in a log cabin near Grove in
Doddridge County. In 1907 he was elected Mayor of Fairmont. Fairmont's first
radio station, WMMN, is named for him.
Don Nehlen (1936- ) was head football coach at
WVU for 21 seasons, leading the team to a Division I-A National Championship
football game in 1988. He was National Coach of the Year in 1988, Big East Coach
of the Year in 1993, and President of the American Football Coaches Association
in 1997.
Brett Nelson (1980- ) is a sophomore point guard
on the University of Florida basketball team. He graduated from St. Albans High
School. He has been called the best player from West Virginia since Jerry West.
Thomas R. Nicely (1943- ), a professor of
mathematics at Lynchburg College in Virginia, made national news in 1994 when he
discovered a bug in the numeric coprocessor of the widely-used Pentium computer
chip. He was born in Massachusetts but grew up in Amherstdale in Logan County.
He graduated from Man High School in 1959.
Jamie Noble is a member of the World Wrestling
Entertainment roster. The WWE web site reported in June 2002: "Introduced by
Nidia as her new boyfriend, Jamie Noble made his presence felt when he attacked
The Hurricane on the June 6, 2002, episode of SmackDown! Noble became a
first-time WWE Cruiserweight Champion after defeating The Hurricane at King of
the Ring 2002, thanks to help from his girlfriend, Nidia." His real name is
James Gibson. His hometown is Hanover, West Virginia.
Nick Nolte (1940- ) had a home in Charleston and
was formerly included in the list of famous West Virginians in the World
Almanac. Nolte was married to two West Virginians, Sharyn Haddad and then
Rebecca Linger. Rebecca's father, Dr. Thomas Linger, was a consultant on several
of Nolte's films. When he was studying for Down and Out in Beverly Hills
he is said to have hung out with Charleston's eminent street person, Bill Dunn,
known as Aqualung. In an interview, Nolte said that to beef up for a role, he
told the director of the movie that he'd just go to West Virginia and eat. Nolte
was born in Omaha.
John C. Norman is a distinguished surgeon and a
pioneer in organ transplant techniques. He was born in Charleston.
Madison (Buzz) Nutter played professional
football with the Baltimore Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers. During his many years
with the Colts he was center for Johnny Unitas. His hometown is Huntington.
Mayf Nutter (1941- ) has appeared in many TV
series including The Waltons, where he had a recurring role as the leader
of a country and western band. He appeared in a 1984 episode of Murder She
Wrote and has appeared on The Whiz Kids. He earlier was a member of
the New Christy Minstrels and had at least one hit record on the country charts
on his own in the 1970s. He was born Mayfred Nutter Adamson in Bridgeport. He
made his first radio appearance at age 12 on WPDX with local favorites Cherokee
Sue and Little John Graham. Later, while in high school, he had a part-time job
at WBOY-TV, which had a program called the Big Boy Frolics.
Eldora Marie Bolyard Nuzum
(1926-2004), the first female editor of a daily newspaper in West Virginia, was
named the managing editor of the Grafton Sentinel, then a daily, in 1946.
She subsequently was the editor of the Inter Mountain, a daily in Elkins,
for more than 30 years. She was married to Circuit Judge Jack Robert Nuzum, who
served in the House of Delegates from Taylor and Randolph Counties. She was born
in Grafton.
Jim O'Brien (1952- ), the head coach of the Boston
Celtics, was an assistant coach at Wheeling Jesuit College in 1974-75 and head
coach there from 1982 to 1987.
John O'Brien is a writer whose work has appeared
in Hudson Review, Massachusetts Review, TriQuarterly, Country Journal,
Harrowsmith, and Gray’s Sporting Journal. His first book is At
Home in the Heart of Appalachia. He was the recipient of a National
Endowment for the Arts fellowship. He lives in Franklin, West Virginia.
Tim O'Brien led the acclaimed bluegrass group Hot Rize before starting a solo career in 1990. In 1993 he was awarded Male Vocalist
of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association and in 1995
released Rock In My Shoe, which was number one on Gavin's Americana chart
for six weeks. He also composed Walk the Way the Wind Blows and Untold
Stories, both of which were major hits for Kathy Mattea. Tim's sister Molly
often performs with her brother and has also recorded. He grew up in Wheeling.
Molly O'Day (1923-1987) was a traditional country
and honky-tonk singer who also performed under the names Mountain Fern and Dixie
Lee Williamson. She recorded several inspirational songs for Columbia records.
O'Day was born LaVerne Williamson in Pike County, Ky., but spent much of her
life in West Virginia, performing with her husband, guitarist Lynn Davis. After
Davis became an ordained minister in 1954, the couple preached throughout the
coal mining communities of West Virginia. [Another Molly O'Day, a silent screen
star who died in 1998, had no ties to West Virginia.]
Vickie Odegard was a rookie on the 1997 LPGA golf
tour and was the 1996 Futures Tour Player of the Year. She was born in Fairmont.
Devon Odessa (1974- ) played Sharon Cherski on
the TV show My So Called Life. She also had a recurring role in Angel
Falls and has guest-starred in The Wonder Years, Step By Step, Highway to
Heaven, Hunter, The Facts of Life, and My Talk Show. She was born in
Parkersburg although she and her family moved to New Orleans and she attended
high school in California.
Johnny Olson (1910-1985), the TV announcer best
known for the phrase "Come on down!" on The Price Is Right, lived in
Lewisburg during his off time for many years.
Roger O'Neil is NBC's news chief in Denver and is
best known for exceptionally well-written "stand up" news reports on the NBC
Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. O'Neil covered the Oklahoma City federal
building bombing, among other stories for NBC-TV. He worked for WSAZ-TV in
Huntington from 1967 to 1971 and lived in Barboursville.
Bo Orlando (1966- ) played football at WVU before
playing for the Houston Oilers, San Diego Chargers, and Cincinnati Bengals. He
most recently played for Pittsburgh Steelers, but announced his retirement in
June 1999. He was born in Berwick, Pa.
Bob Orr (1953- ) has been a correspondent for CBS
News since 1993, now covering transportation. He has broken several important
stories, including the center fuel tank diagnosis as the likely cause of the
crash of TWA Flight 800. He received an Emmy Award for his work on this story.
Orr was born in Wheeling. He graduated from Bethany College in 1975.
Burl Osborne (1937- ) is the publisher and editor
of the Dallas Morning News. He was born in Jenkins, Ky., but worked for
the Associated Press in West Virginia in the 1960s and was a reporter for WHTN-TV
in Huntington from 1958 to 1960. He is a 1960 graduate of Marshall University.
Robert M. Overstreet (1938- ), author of the
respected Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, was born in Huntington,
although he soon moved to Cleveland, Tenn.
Michael Joseph Owens (1859-1923), inventor and
glass manufacturer. By the age of 15 he had become a glassblower. In 1888 he
began work in a glass factory in Toledo, Ohio. A series of experiments he
undertook as a young man eventually led to the perfection of a completely
automatic bottle-blowing machine patented in 1895 and 1904. Before his death he
had patented more than 40 devices for improving the manufacturing of glass. He
organized the Owens Bottle Machine Co. in 1903 and the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass
Co. in 1916. Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio, is named for him. He was
born in Mason County (then in Virginia).
Warren Owsley won the gold medal in the
heavyweight division at the World Jujitsu Games in Auckland, New Zealand, in
October 1995. At the time he lived in South Charleston.
Patty Painter
was the model used by CBS to
demonstrate its color television system to the FCC in 1946. The network
transmitted a color television picture from the Chrysler Building to a receiver
in a hotel 40 miles away. FCC Chairman Charles Denny spoke to Painter by phone
and watched the 19-year-old on a color television receiver.
Brad Paisley (1972- ) recorded "He Didn't Have To
Be," which was number one on the Billboard country chart in December 1999. His
first country single was "Who Needs Pictures," from an album of the same name.
He was born in Glen Dale, where his father is chief of the fire department and
also works for the State of West Virginia.
Breece D'J Pancake (1952-1979) was a short story
writer. When The Atlantic accepted the short story "Trilobites," a
typographical error changed his middle initial to "D'J", and he chose to use the
designation from then on. After his death by suicide at age 26, the collection
of his stories was published to wide acclaim as The Stories of Breece D'J
Pancake. He was born in Milton.
Kimberly Parrish was a program host on the cable
shopping network QVC from 1996 through 2004. In 2005, she launched her own
women's fashion clothing line, "Fashion Instinct," featured on cable shopping
network HSN and the Internet. She was Miss West Virginia in 1992. She is from
Parkersburg and earlier worked in radio and TV there.
Lea Ann Parsley (1968- ) is a 2002 Winter Olympic
silver medallist in the women’s skeleton event. She was honored by being one of
the eight Olympians chosen to carry the World Trade Center flag into Rice-Eccles
Stadium during the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Parsley
was born in Logan.
Patsy Lee Parsons (1931- ) was a child actress
who appeared in several movies between 1937 and 1942. She was born in
Parkersburg.
Russ Parsons coached Stonewall Jackson High
School of Charleston to eight straight track titles from 1948 to 1955. He also
had an outstanding record in coaching football and basketball.
Squire Parsons became the baritone singer for the Kingsmen Quartet in 1975. He has written numerous gospel songs including
Sweet Beulah Land, which in 1981 was voted Favorite Song of the Year by the
Singing News. In 1988 Parsons was named Favorite Southern Gospel Male
Singer by the Singing News. He was born near Newton in Roane County. His
mother still lives on the family farm. Parsons earned a B. S. degree in Music
from West Virginia Institute of Technology.
Lory Patrick (1938- ) is an actress who appeared
in several episodes of the TV series Wagon Train. She played the
receptionist in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)
and Sylvia Dempster in Surf Party (1964). She was born in Beckley.
Maj. Gen. Mason M. Patrick (1863-1942) became
Chief of the Air Service in France during World War I. He was born in Lewisburg.
Mike Patrick is ESPN's play-by-play voice for
many of the network's top events, including Sunday Night NFL. He began
his broadcasting career in 1966 at WVSC Radio in Somerset, Pennsylvania. He
later became Sports Director of WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, Florida, where he did
play-by-play football and basketball broadcasts. He subsequently moved to WJLA-TV
in Washington, D. C., and Mutual Radio. He is a native of Clarksburg.
Christi Paul,
a weekend anchor for CNN Headline News, began her broadcast journalism career at WDTV in Clarksburg.
Christopher Harrison Payne
(1848-1925) was a
pioneer in black journalism, establishing three newspapers, the West Virginia
Enterprise, The Pioneer, and the Mountain Eagle. In 1896 he was
elected to the state legislature as a Republican delegate from Fayette county,
the first black to serve in the West Virginia legislature. In 1903 President
Theodore Roosevelt named him Consul General to the Danish West Indies. He was
born a slave in Monroe County. As a boy, Payne worked as a farmhand near Hinton
and as a servant in the Confederate Army.
John Barton Payne (1855-1935) served one year as
Secretary of the Interior under President Woodrow Wilson before becoming
Chairman of the American Red Cross from Oct. 1, 1921, until his death. He became
one of the most prominent railroad lawyers in the Midwest and, as Director
General of Railroads in 1918, Payne was instrumental in the government's
takeover of rail lines after the U.S. entered World War I. Payne was born in Pruntytown (then part of Virginia). He had served as mayor of Kingwood and as a
circuit court judge in Tucker county before moving to Chicago at age 28.
Louise McNeill Pease (1911- ), West Virginia's
Poet Laureate, was named West Virginian of the Year in 1985. She was a professor
at Fairmont State, and earlier taught at Concord College, Potomac State College,
and WVU. Her best-known book of poetry is Gauley Mountain, published in
1939 with a foreword by Stephen Vincent Benet. She was born at Buckeye and began
teaching in local one-room schools in 1930.
Dave Pedneau (1947-1990) was the author of
bestselling crime novels D.O.A. and N.F.D. His background as
reporter, columnist and magistrate court judge provided him materials. He has
used the pseudonyms Marc Eliot and Lee Hawks.
Joe Pendry is the offensive coordinator of the
Buffalo Bills. He has also coached in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns, Kansas
City Chiefs, Chicago Bears, and Carolina Panthers, and was also the head coach
of the Pittsburgh Maulers of the USFL. He is a native of Oceana and played
college football for WVU.
Chad Pennington (1976- ) of the New York Jets was
a quarterback for Marshall. He was a Heisman trophy finalist in 1999 and was MVP
of the 2000 Senior Bowl.
Harry Walter Perkowski (1922- ) was a pitcher for
the Cincinnati Reds from 1947-1954. He was traded to the Chicago Cubs in 1955.
He is from Raleigh County and attended Trap Hill High School. He was born in
Dante, Va.
Huey L. Perry wrote or edited several political
books as well as Blaze Starr: My Life, as told to Huey Perry, which was
made into the movie Blaze, starring Paul Newman. He is a long-time
Huntington resident, and is said to be a native of Gilbert.
Charles Peters is editor-in-chief and founder of
The Washington Monthly. He is also the author of Tilting at Windmills
and How Washington Really Works. Peters was raised in Charleston and
served in the House of Delegates for two years.
Joseph Paul "Joey" Pettini
(1955- ) played
shortstop for the San Francisco Giants. He was born in Wheeling and is a
graduate of Brooke High School.
Phil Pfister, a world reknowned Strong Man, has
appeared in International Strong Man contests abroad which have been aired on
ESPN. In 2005 he was ranked #1 in America and #4 in the world. He works as an
EMT and firefighter. Pfister is from Charleston.
Jayne Anne Philips (1952- ), author of short
stories. She is the recipient of a Fels Award, two Pushcart Prizes, a National
Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and St. Lawrence Award for Fiction. She was
born in West Virginia.
Ernie Phillips, award-winning tenor with the Kingsmen Quartet of Asheville, N. C., was born near Cool Ridge in Raleigh
County.
Gene Montague Phillips (1926- ) in 1973 founded
the Ancient Astronaut Society, an organization whose objectives are to search
for evidence to determine whether Earth was visited in the remote past by
intelligent beings from outer space, and to determine whether a
highly-developed, technological civilization existed on Earth before recorded
history. He is the editor of the society's publication Ancient Skies. He
lives in Illinois but was born in Beaver and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High
School in Beckley in 1942.
Jayne Anne Phillips is an award winning novelest
born and raised in Buckhannon. Her work has been published in twelve different
languages. She has taught at Harvard, Boston University, Williams College and is
currently Writer In Residence at Brandeis University.
William Pierce (1933-2002), the white supremacist
leader and author of the novel The Turner Diaries (1978), died at his
compound at Mill Point, near Hillsboro, West Virginia, in 2002. The Turner
Diaries is believed to have inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Pierce was born in Atlanta.
Francis Harrison Pierpont (1814-1899) is known as
the father of West Virginia. In 1861, when Virginia seceded from the Union,
Pierpont organized Unionists in the western part of the state. The Wheeling
Convention chose him to head the provisional government there. From 1863 to 1865
he was governor of the “restored state of Virginia” and was governor of Virginia
from 1865 to 1868. He was born near Morgantown and grew up in Marion County, in
what is now West Virginia. His wife, Julia Augusta Robertson Pierpont, is
credited with being an originator of Decoration Day, which was renamed Memorial
Day in 1882. They are buried in Fairmont’s Woodlawn Cemetery Historic District,
a short distance from their home site.
Kevin Pittsnogle (1984- ) played basketball for
the Boston Celtics. He was born in Martinsburg.
Paul Edward Popovich (1940- ), an infielder for
the Cubs, Dodgers, and Pirates from 1964 to 1975, was born in Flemington.
Melville Davisson Post (1871-1930), lawyer and
detective-story writer. He is the author of The Strange Schemes of Randolph
Mason (1896), The Man of Last Resort (1897), Uncle Abner: Master
of Mysteries (1918), The Mystery at the Blue Villa (1919), and The
Man Hunters (1926). He was born at Romines Mills, near Clarksburg. [Another
source gives 1869 as his birth year.]
Tom Poston (1927- ), best known as George, the
handyman on Newhart, was a chemistry major at Bethany College when World
War II broke out and he ended his studies there. He was awarded an Honorary
Doctorate as a Doctor of Letters, September 13, 1990, by Bethany in honor of his
lifetime education, accomplishments and contributions He occasionally attends
alumni functions. He was born in Columbus, and spent his early years in Ohio,
Maryland, and Washington, D.C.
John "Boog" Powell
(1941- ) started his baseball
career with the Bluefield Orioles. He was born in Lakeland, Fla.
E. J. Powers, co-lead singer of the group Will to
Power, attended West Virginia University and now resides in southern West
Virginia. The late-80s group had the hit Baby, I Love Your Way/Free Bird
(medley). Female lead singer Suzy Carr is also a West Virginia native and is
a graduate of Princeton High School.
Dr. Linda S. Powers is Director of the National
Center for the Design of Molecular Function, Professor of Electrical
Engineering, Professor of Biological Engineering, and Adjunct Professor of
Physics at Utah State University. After completing her M.A. in Physics and Ph.D.
in Biophysics at Harvard University, she became a member of the technical staff
at AT&T Bell Laboratories. In 1988, she joined the Utah State University faculty
and started the NCDMF which later became an NIH Research Resource. She has a
broad scope of expertise from biochemistry to electrical/computer engineering,
and has considerable experience in hemoprotein catalysis, structural biology,
and the design and construction of optical and X-ray instrumentation. She was a
pioneer the use of x-ray absorption spectroscopy for the investigation of
biological problems. She has authored more than 100 technical publications in
referreed journals and holds several patents. Linda Sue Powers is a 1966
graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley.
Eugenia Price (1916-1996) is a noted writer in
two separate genres --historical novels and Christian books. She wrote the
best-selling historical romance novels Lighthouse, New Moon Rising, and
The Beloved Invader. She was born in Charleston and graduated from
Charleston High School but lived most of her adult life in Georgia.
James Price, fiddler, vocalist, and comedian,
became a member of the bluegrass band Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys
in 1995. He is from Prenter, W. Va., and attended Sherman High School.
Roger Price, comedian who guested on Dobie
Gillis and Get Smart.
Tom Pridemore, who played college football at WVU,
was a ninth-round draft pick in 1978 and played many seasons as a defensive back
for the Atlanta Falcons. He is from Ansted.
Byrd Prillerman (1859-1929) was the co-founder of
the West Virginia Colored Institute, which later became West Virginia State
College and West Virginia State University. He began his teaching career in
Sissonville in 1879 and later taught in Charleston public schools. Prillerman
was born a slave in Franklin County, Virginia, the youngest of seventeen
children. His family moved into West Virginia in 1868.
Frank Pritt founded Attachmate Corporation in
1982. He was listed on Forbes' list of 400 richest Americans in October 1995. On
May 17th, 2006, Pritt listed his estate in Orange County for sale with a price
of $75,000,000. His hometown is Charleston.
Rachel Proctor is a country singer whose debut
album is Days Like This (2004). She is a native of Charleston.
George Edward "Skip" Prosser
(1950- ), one of
college basketball's winningest active coaches, began his coaching career at
Linsly Institute in Wheeling. He was born in Pittsburgh.
Bob Pruett (1943- ), the head football coach at
Marshall University, was named MAC Coach of the Year in 1998. He is a 1999
finalist for NCAA coach of the year. He was named West Virginia Coach of the
Year four years in a row. Pruett was born in Beckley. He graduated from Woodrow
Wilson High School in Beckley in 1961.
Jedediah Purdy is the author of For Common
Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today, published by Alfred
A. Knopf in 1999. He is a native of Chloe in Calhoun County.
Lovett Purnell (1972- ) of the New England
Patriots played college football for WVU. He was born in Seaford, Del.
Milan Puskar is a Morgantown entrepreneur and
philanthropist. He is the founder and chairman of Mylan Laboratories Inc., one
of the premier manufacturers of prescription generic drugs in the world. In
recognition of his continued generosity to West Virginia University athletics,
academic programs, and scholarships, WVU's football stadium was renamed Milan
Puskar Stadium, home of Mountaineer Field.
Kristin Quackenbush, a world class women's pole vaulter, is a former West Virginia University gymnast and track standout.
Johnny Quarles is the author of Fool's Gold
and No Man's Land. He now lives in Oklahoma, but he grew up in the coal
fields of southern West Virginia, living in the communities of Carbon, Decota,
and Leewood.
James T. Quirk,
the publisher of TV Guide
in the 1950s and 1960s, was the manager of radio station WKNA in Charleston in
the late 1940s.
Ed Rabel was NBC's Pentagon correspondent and
earlier reported for CBS. Rabel worked in radio in Charleston before becoming
news director of WCHS-TV in Charleston. He held that position from 1963 to 1966.
After his broadcasting career, he spent four years with Weber McGinn, an
international public relations firm in Washington, and subsequently became a
consultant. He was born in Nitro and considers St. Albans his hometown. He
attended St. Albans High School and is a 1963 graduate of Morris Harvey College.
Jason Rader, from St. Albans, is a former St.
Albans High School and Marshall University football player who played
professional football in 2005 for the NFL Europe Rhein (Germany) Fire.
Jeramie Rain (1948- ), a screenwriter and
actress, played Sadie in Last House on the Left (1972). She is the former
wife of Richard Dreyfus. She graduated from George Washington High School in
Charleston in 1966. She was formerly known as Sue Davis.
Patsy Ramsey was the mother of JonBenet Ramsey,
the child who was murdered in Boulder, Colorado, in 1996, in a case that
attracted nationwide attention. Patsy Ramsey was a native of Parkersburg and
graduated from Parkersburg High School in 1975. She was Miss West Virginia of
1977. She died in 2006.
Jay Randolph is the TV play-by-play voice of the
Florida Marlins. He was an announcer at WBOY in Clarksburg in the late 1950s and
early 1960s and later went on to NBC where he did broadcasts of the Olympics and
golf. Jennings Randolph Jr. is a son of the late U. S. Sen. Jennings Randolph.
Jennings Randolph (1902-1998), a U. S. Senator
from West Virginia from 1958 to 1985, wrote the constitutional amendment that
gave 18-year-olds the right to vote. He introduced the amendment 11 times before
Congress approved it. Randolph had been a U. S. Representative from 1933 to
1947. He was born in Salem and graduated from Salem College in 1924.
Monroe J. Rathbone (1900-1976) was President of
Standard Oil Co. (1936-1944) and President of Esso (1944-1949). He was born in
Parkersburg.
Allie Raye (1963- ), an actress, writer and
producer, appeared on her first TV show called High Incident on ABC in
1996. Since then she has been seen on The Practice, Once and Again, and
Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, in which she played the Hamburger
Mom, a role created for her by Spielberg. She wrote and produced her first
screenplay in 2002 into a short film entitled Purple Rose, where she
co-starred as well. The film has floated around the festival circuit. Allie was
born in Parkersburg and spent the first seven years in Vienna. She attended
Greenmont Elementary School. She currently resides in Los Angeles, where she is
getting ready to star in her first film entitled Charity.
Her real name was Lisa Beth Salsitz.
Don Redman (1900-1964), "the Little Giant," was
an orchestra leader, arranger and saxophonist. He was one of the architects of
early Big Band music and his band was one of the great black jazz organizations
of the 1930s. He composed and arranged for big band leaders Count Basie and
Jimmy Dorsey and wrote music for radio and television. He was born at Piedmont.
Fred Reed (1945- ) is a writer for the
Washington Times. He has also been on the writing staff of Army Times,
The Washingtonian, Soldier of Fortune, and Federal Computer Week. He
has been published in Playboy, the Wall Street Journal, the
Washington Post, Harper's, and National Review. He was born in
Crumpler, a coal camp near Bluefield.
Ida Lilliard Reed (1865-1951) is said to have
published over 2,000 Christian hymns. She was born near Moatsville in Barbour
County. Among her compositions are I Belong to the King, Somebody’s Praying
for You, and Steady, Brother, Steady.
Rick Reed (1965- ), starting pitcher for the New
York Mets, and formerly with the Pirates and Royals, was born in Huntington. He
pitched for Huntington High School and Marshall University.
Nat Reese (1924- ) is a blues artist who played
in the coal fields in the 1930s. He was born in Salem, Va. His family moved to Itmann, West Virginia, when he was four years old. He currently lives in
Princeton.
Jesse Lee Reno (1823-1862), Army Officer, born in
Wheeling (then in Virginia). As a Civil War brigadier general in 1861, he was
assigned to the North Carolina Expeditionary Corps. He was promoted to major
general in 1862 and was sent with his troops to Virginia where they took part in
the battles of Bull Run and Chantilly. He led his troops in an attack at
Antietam and was killed in the battle of South Mountain. Reno, Nevada, is named
for him.
Mary Lou Retton (1968- ), gymnast who won four
medals in the 1984 Summer Olympics, including the gold in the all-around
competition, and helped the U. S. women's team win a silver medal. She was born
in Fairmont.
Walter Philip Reuther
(1907-1970) was president of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and of the Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO). He was born in Wheeling.
Robert L. Reynolds (1952- ) is the chief
operating officer of Fidelity Investments. He was born in Clarksburg and
attended WVU. His first job was in the Trust office at Wheeling Dollar Bank. His
father was the mayor of Clarksburg.
Lawrence Rhodes (1939- ), a dancer and ballet
director, was born in Mount Hope.
Allyson Rice-Taylor is an actress who has
appeared in several TV shows. She was born in Huntington.
Cal Ripken, Jr. (1960- ) of the Baltimore Orioles
played in Bluefield in 1978. He was born in Havre de Grace, Md., and grew up in
nearby Aberdeen, Md.
Charles (Chuck) Ripper (1929- ) is a renowned
wildlife painter. Although born in Pennsylvania, he has lived in Huntington for
many years. Many of his paintings have appeared on U. S. postage stamps. His art
has also been featured on LL Bean catalogue covers.
Andre "Spiderman" Rison
(1967- ) plays for the
Kansas City Chiefs. Throughout his NFL career, the much-traveled wide receiver
has played for the Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns,
Baltimore Ravens, Jacksonville Jaguars, Green Bay Packers (where he caught the
1st TD in Super Bowl XXXI on the second play of the game), and now Kansas City.
He played collegiate football at Michigan State. Rison lived in Fairmont and
still has family there, although he was born in Flint, Michigan.
Sylvester Ritter (1952 or 1953-1998), better
known as the World Wrestling Federation's Junkyard Dog, played for the Wheeling Ironmen professional football team. Denny Magruder, executive director of the
Wheeling Civic Center, said Ritter once told him that living in Wheeling was the
happiest time of his life.
Perri David Rlickman (1951-2003) was an itinerant
street performer known as Perri the Clown and Perry the Hobo. In the early 1980s
he joined the odd family of street performers and characters of the French
Quarter in New Orleans and made his living by blowing balloons in different
shapes and sizes, and performing magic. During recent summers before his death,
he was the talk of Provincetown, on the tip of Cape Cod. At first he was a big
hit in the progressive resort town, especially with children. In 2001, the
town's police chief tried to revoke Perri's street performer's license after
complaints that he made offensive remarks and was frequently drunk. The American
Civil Liberties Union stepped in and negotiated another chance on the grounds
that bad taste was no reason to deny him a livelihood. He was born in Bluefield.
Cecil E. Roberts (1946- ) became President of the
United Mine Workers of America on Dec. 22, 1995. In 1971, he went to work at
Carbon Fuels' No. 31 mine in Winifred, W. Va., after a stint in college and
military service in Vietnam. He is a native of Cabin Creek and graduated from
East Bank High School in East Bank in 1964.
Col. George "Spanky" Roberts
was a noted black
pilot in World War II. He was from Marion County. He was the first commander of
the 99th Pursuit Squadron. He served in both World War II and the Korean War as
a fighter pilot and commander. He retired from McClellan AFB in February 1968
after 27 years of active duty.
Stephen Roberts (1895-1936) directed a number of
films in the 1930s. He was born in Summersville.
Don Allen Robinson (1957- ) was a second round
draft pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He pitched for the World Champions in '79.
Donnie also played for the Giants and Angels before retiring to Bradenton,
Florida. He is from Kenova, and is a 1975 graduate of Ceredo-Kenova High School.
He was born in Ashland, Ky.
Ira E. Robinson was a member of the Federal Radio
Commission from 1928 to 1932, including a period as its chairman. (The Federal
Radio Commission became the Federal Communications Commission in 1934). He died
in 1951 at age 82.
Ric Robinson, formerly the Director of Media
Relations for the West Virginia State Police, is the author of Cop - The
Truth Behind the Badge. , the
book "knocks the politically correct crowd back on its heels with the truth
about racial profiling, serial snipers, illegal immigrants, guns, drugs, and
more." Robinson previously hosted a talk show on WLW in Cincinnati and has
recently been a guest on numerous nationally syndicated talk shows. Except for
one year, Robinson lived in West Virginia from 1970 until he retired from the
West Virginia State Police in August 1999.
John D. Rockefeller,
IV (1937- ) is
a United States Senator from West Virginia and a former Governor of West
Virginia. Rockefeller was born in New York, N. Y. After college, Rockefeller
worked for the Peace Corps in Washington, where he served as the operations
director for their largest overseas program in the Philippines. He continued his
public service in 1964-65 as a VISTA volunteer. He was then elected to the West
Virginia House of Delegates in 1966, and to the office of West Virginia
Secretary of State in 1968. Following his term as Secretary of State, he served
as President of West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1973 to 1976. The people of
West Virginia then elected him to be Governor in 1976 and re-elected him in
1980. In 1984, he was elected to the United States Senate, and re-elected in
1990, 1996 and 2002.
Ira Errett Rodgers was one of the greatest
pre-World II college football players and often considered WVU's greatest
all-around athlete of the first half century. He was born and grew up in
Bethany. He died in 1963.
Rich Rodriguez (1963- ) was named head coach of
the West Virginia University football team in 2000. "Coach Rod" has led the team
to several bowl appearances. He was born in Grant Town, W. Va., and graduated
from North Marion High School, where he was an all state football and basketball
player.
Jack Rollins, who wrote Frosty the Snowman
and Here Comes Peter Cottontail, is from Keyser.
Edd J. Roush (1913-1988), Hall of Fame outfielder
for the Cincinnati Reds, retired to West Virginia. He was born in Indiana and
died in Florida.
Andrew Summers Rowan (1857-1943), Army officer,
bearer of the "message to Garcia," was born in Gap Mills (then in Virginia).
Anna (Newport) Royall (1769-1854), author and
journalist, was one of the first women newspaper editors in the U. S. She lived
at one time in what is now West Virginia, in Monroe and Kanawha counties.
Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994), the Olympic athlete,
lived in West Virginia for a time in the 1970s when she was helping to establish
the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, which later was moved to
Indianapolis. She was named #41 on ESPN's list of the 50 greatest North American
athletes of the 20th century.
James Rumsey (1743-1792), considered by some the
inventor of the steamboat. He demonstrated a boat in the Potomac River near
Berkeley Springs in October 1783 or in 1786. The demonstration was witnessed by
George Washington. Rumsey met Robert Fulton who later built the first steamboat
used in commerce. A memorial to Rumsey exists at Shepherdstown, overlooking the
bend in the Potomac River where the inventor's boat made its first successful
trial.
Dave Ryan does NHL hockey, tennis, and other
events for ESPN and ESPN2. He worked for the MetroNews Radio Network in
Morgantown in 1989-90.
Cynthia Rylant (1954- ) has won some of the most
prestigious literature awards for her children's books, which include
Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds, A Couple of Kooks and Other Stories
about Love, and Missing May. She was born in Hopewell, Va., but grew
up in Cool Ridge and Beaver, W. Va. She attended Morris Harvey College and
Marshall University. [Another source gives 1957 as her birth year.]
Soupy Sales (1926- ) (real name: Milton Hines),
TV and radio entertainer described as the world's leading authority on
pie-throwing. He was born in Franklinton, North Carolina, and grew up in
Huntington, graduating from Huntington High School in 1943. After receiving his
B. A. in Journalism at Marshall University, he was hired at radio station WHTN
in Huntington, first as a radio script writer and later as a DJ. His popular TV
show was seen locally in Los Angeles and New York before it went national in
1966. He was a panelist on the TV show What's My Line? and a radio
personality on WNBC in New York.
Frank Sampedro (1949- ) is a musician with the
Tonight Show where he does all the music sequencing and MIDI music work. He
assists Kevin Eubanks with all of his music. He also plays with Neil Young and
Crazy Horse, and has received many gold and platinum records. They have two
movies out, Rust Never Sleeps and Year of the Horse. Sampedro, who
is usually called "Poncho," was born in Welch and, although he moved to Detroit
at age two, considers himself a West Virginian. His father died of black lung
from working in the mines.
Jack Sanford was the National League's Rookie of
the Year in 1957 and a 100-game winner in a 12-year major league carer. He
pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco Giants, California Angels,
and Kansas City Athletics. He was born in Wellesley Hills, Mass., but in the
late 1990s was living at Glade Springs, near Beckley. He died in Beckley in
2000.
Chris Sarandon (1942- ) was nominated as Best
Supporting Actor for his role in Dog Day Afternoon in 1976. He has also
appeared in Fright Night, The Princess Bride and the Child's Play movies.
He starred as Jesus Christ in the TV movie The Day Christ Died in 1980.
He was married to actress Susan Sarandon from 1967 to 1969. He was born in
Beckley.
William W. Schallen (1917-2001), trombonist for
the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and the Alvino Ray Band, retired to Oak Hill, West
Virginia. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Fred "Fireball" Schaus
played basketball with the
old Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, which became the Detroit Pistons. He later was
head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and head basketball coach at Purdue
University. Schaus was originally from Newark, Ohio, but played for WVU and
later coached there.
Margaret Louise Scherf (1908-1979) was a prolific
mystery writer between 1940-1963 with approximately twenty adult and three
juvenile titles to her credit. She was born in Fairmont, but moved to Montana
and became a member of the legislature of that state.
Alex Schoenbaum (1915-1996) was the founder of
the Shoney's Restaurant chain, one of the largest businesses to originate in
West Virginia. In 1947 Schoenbaum opened his first drive-in restaurant, Parkette,
in Charleston. In 1952, it became the first restaurant in the Shoney's chain
after Schoenbaum obtained the regional marketing rights to the Big Boy
trademark. In 1971, Schoenbaum and restaurateur Ray Danner merged their
companies to form Shoney's Big Boy Enterprises, Inc. In 1976 Big Boy was dropped
from the name.
Floyd "Ben" Schwartzwalder
(1909-1993) was a
legendary football coach at Syracuse University from 1949 to 1973. During his
tenure at Syracuse the Orangemen had only three losing seasons, played in seven
bowl games, and won a national championship in 1959. He was a native of Point
Pleasant. He graduated from Huntington High in 1929 and attended West Virginia
University, where he played football as a 155-pound center from 1930 to 1932. He
coached at Sistersville High School in 1934 and 1935, and coached at Parkersburg
High from 1937 to 1940, winning state high school football championships in 1938
and 1940 with a record of 37-3-2. While a wrestling coach at Parkersburg in
1937, he coached wrestler Leland Merrill, who was later a national champion at
Michigan State and bronze medalist at the London Olympics in 1948.
Schwartzwalder left Parkersburg in 1941. Schwartzwalder was inducted in to the
National College Football Hall of Fame in 1982. Since 1993, the winner of the
Big East Conference Syracuse-West Virginia football game receives the Ben
Schwartzwalder Trophy.
Billy Scott is a lead and background singer for
Billy Scott and the Prophets, which has done beach music classics such as "I Got
The Fever," "California," "Beach Trip," "Roll Around Rockin,"
and most recently, "My Kind of Girl. They "have been a main staple on the southeastern private party,
festival, concert, corporate functions, night club and wedding circuit for
thirty years. Billy Scott is a native of Huntington.
Ike Seamans (1938- ) began his television career
at WTVJ in Miami in 1969, covering news in Florida, the Caribbean, and Central
America. His reports were seen on network TV as well. In 1979, Seamans joined
NBC News as the Latin American correspondent based in Miami. He covered stories
in almost every Latin American country including civil wars in Nicaragua, El
Salvador and Honduras as well as the Falklands war in Argentina. He also
reported extensively on the continuing Cuban refugee exodus from Cuba into South
Florida. He was NBC's bureau chief in Tel Aviv in 1988-90, bureau chief in
Moscow in 1990-92, and bureau chief in Miami in 1992-93. In 1993, Seamans was
transferred back to WTVJ by NBC News where he became the Senior Correspondent
and is recognized as one of the best investigative reporters in the nation. His
reports continue to appear on NBC News as well. He is also a columnist for
twelve local South Florida newspapers including the Miami Herald. Seamans
is from Charleston. He graduated from Charleston High School in 1956 and WVU in
1961.
Jeffrey L. Seglin writes "The Right Thing," a
weekly column on general ethics syndicated by the New York Times Syndicate. He
is the author or co-author on more than a dozen books on business and writing.
Seglin graduated from Bethany College in 1978.
David Selby (1941- ) played the role of Quentin
Collins' ghost in Dark Shadows. He has appeared in Falcon Crest
and D3: The Mighty Ducks. He was born in Morgantown.
Andy Seminick (1920-2004) played baseball for
Philadelphia and Cincinnati in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in Pierce, West
Virginia.
Mary Lee Settle (1918- ) is a novelist who won
the 1978 National Book Award for Blood Ties. She also wrote Choices,
Charlie Bland, and a collection of five novels known as the Beulah
Quintet. She was born in Charleston and now lives in Charlottesville,
Virginia.
Peggy Shanor (c. 1896-1935) was an actress who
appeared in several silent films. She was born in West Virginia.
Jack Shea (1900-1970) had small roles in many
movies in the 1940s and 1950s. He also appeared in several TV shows, including
The Andy Griffith Show, where he played Jed Hanson in the episode "The
Great Filling Station Robbery." He was born in Huntington.
Herbert Carmel Lee Shearer was awarded a Carnegie
bronze medal after he saved from drowning a 14-year-old girl who had fallen off
a boat ramp into the Kanawha River in 1967. Shearer, then a 43-year-old
storekeeper living in Chesapeake, was a very poor swimmer but he ran from a
nearby restaurant and dived to the bottom of the river in deep water and brought
the victim to the surface. The girl, who could not swim, was unconscious but was
revived. Mr. Shearer died on February 13, 2005.
Terry Shelton is the lead guitarist for Billy Ray
Cyrus' band Sly Dog. He co-produced the album Trail of Tears with Cyrus.
He is from Seth and attended Sherman High School.
Thomas Shepherd was granted 222 acres on the
south side of the "Potomack" river in 1734. From that tract, he selected fifty
acres and laid out a town. He named his town Mecklenburg and petitioned the
Virginia Assembly for a charter which was subsequently granted in 1762. The town
of Mecklenburg was renamed Shepherdstown in 1798. Shepherdstown is the oldest
town in the state of West Virginia.
Abraham I. Shinedling (1897-1982), rabbi and
historian, worked as the New York City editor and historian for the Universal
Jewish Encyclopedia. He was born in Michigan but served as a rabbi in
Bluefield from 1947 to 1950 and Beckley in the 1950s. Among his many books was
the three-volume West Virginia Jewry: Its Origins and History, 1850-1960.
Bob Simmons
(1948- ), head football coach at Oklahoma State University from 1995 to 2000 and
the Big 12 Coach of the Year in 1997, was the linebackers coach at WVU from 1980 through 1987.
Daniel Howard Simpson (1939- ), who has served as
ambassador to several African nations, was born in Wheeling, although he grew up
in Ohio.
Harry F. Sinclair
(1876-1956) founded Sinclair Oil Corporation in 1916 and was its President until
1949. The company has since merged into the Atlantic Richfield Company. He was
indicted in 1925 with Albert B. Fall and Edward L. Doheny in the Teapot Dome scandal but was acquitted in
1928 of charges of conspiracy. He was born in Wheeling.
Kevin Sizemore (1972- ) is an actor and producer
born in Princeton.
Hubert Skidmore (1909-1946) wrote the
controversial social protest novel Hawk's Nest, published in 1941. The
novel offers an account of the building of the tunnel at Gauley Bridge. He was
from Clarksburg and was a 1927 graduate of Washington Irving High School. His
twin brother Hobert Douglas Skidmore was the author of short stories and four
novels, among them The Years Are Even, the story of an identical twin
coping with life as a twin and then with the death of his twin.
Charles Slack holds the NCAA record for highest
rebounding average in a season. He played for Marshall University.
Jim Slade of ABC News was employed by WAJR in
Morgantown from 1954 to 1959. Before joining ABC he was Mutual's White House
correspondent.
Bill Slater was the host of the popular quiz show
Twenty Questions from its beginning in 1946 until 1952. The show began on
Mutual radio and moved to television in 1949. He is from Parkersburg.
Tamar Slay (1980- ) has played in the NBA for the
New Jersey Nets and Charlotte Bobcats. He was born in Beckley.
Natalie Sleeth (1930-1992) wrote many well-known
hymns found in the current edition of the United Methodist Hymnal. For a time
she lived in Buckhannon, as she was married to the President of West Virginia
Wesleyan College, from which she received an honorary doctorate in 1959.
W. Hol Slutz, who coached at Huntington High
School from 1922 to 1931, had championship teams in four sports in 1930-31:
baseball, basketball, football, and track. He later became a referee in the NFL.
Tommy Small (1970- ) was the world superwelterweight champion in 1993. He is a native of Sophia.
Eric Smedley (1973- ) of the Buffalo Bills was
born in Charleston and is a graduate of Capital High School. He played college
football at Indiana University.
Aaron Smith (1751-1826) staked out his claim in
1772 and was given that 400 acres of land by Patrick Henry for his service in
the Revolutionary War. He later claimed four other grants and had over 1,000
acres in what is now Harrison County. Smith was born in Trenton, N. J., and came
to what is now West Virginia when he was 21.
Ada "Bricktop" Smith
(1894-1984) was a jazz
singer and nightclub entertainer who achieved fame in the 1920s. She worked as a
saloon singer in Chicago before moving to Paris, where she owned the nightspot
known as Chez Bricktop. Smith was born in Alderson and died in New York.
Chris Smith
was a standout basketball player at Virginia Tech, where he set numerous
records. He still has the career rebounding record of 17.1 rebounds per game for
the State of Virginia, the All-time Southern Conference Tournament record of 28
rebounds for a single game, and the All-time Southern Conference Tournament
record of 71 rebounds for three games. Chris is 24th on the All-Time Division I NCAA list with 1508 rebounds during his
career. He still has the Virginia Tech record for the most points scored on an
opponent's court by scoring 41 points against VMI in 1960. He is a graduate of
Charleston High School, where his 1957 team lost to Beckley's Woodrow Wilson
High School in the final game in the state tournament, but gave WWHS its only
defeat during the regular season.
Connie Smith (1941- ) has been a member of the
Grand Ole Opry since 1971. Her hits include Once a Day, Ain't Had No Lovin',
The Hurtin's All Over, and Cincinnati, Ohio. She was born Constance
June Meadows in Elkhart, Indiana, but was raised in the Marietta, Ohio, area and
in West Virginia. She appeared on the "Big Red Jubilee" on WTAP-TV, Parkersburg
and also "Saturday Night Jamboree" on WSAZ-TV, Huntington. She attended Talcott
High School near Hinton; she did not graduate there because her family moved
away before graduation. She still has family in Summers county.
Michael W. Smith (1957- ), a contemporary
Christian music singer and songwriter, is from Kenova (where a street is named
for him). He is a graduate of Ceredo-Kenova High School and now resides near
Nashville. Among his albums are I'll Lead You Home and Change Your
World.
Wendell Smith (1914-1972) a prominent black
newspaper journalist who campaigned for the integration of major league
baseball, attended West Virginia State College at Charleston. He also co-wrote
Jackie Robinson's autobiography Jackie Robinson, My Own Story. He was
born in Detroit.
Anna Egan Smucker is a writer whose children's
book No Star Nights (1989), a story about growing up in a steel town in
the 1950's, won an International Reading Association award. She was born in
Steubenville, Ohio, but grew up in Weirton and now lives in Bridgeport.
Sam Snead (1912-2002), the golf legend, was the
golf professional at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs and rejoined the
staff later as golf professional emeritus. Snead won three Masters titles and
three U. S. PGAs, a record 81 U. S. Tour events and more than 130 victories
overall. He was Ryder Cup captain in 1951 and 1959 and non-playing captain in
the tied match of 1969. Although Snead never won the U. S. Open, there were many
near misses, the most famous being in 1939 when he needed a par 5 on the last to
win and took an 8. In 1947, he lost in a playoff to Lew Worsham, a missed short
putt on the last hole being to blame. He was born in Hot Springs, Virginia.
Giles Snyder, a newscaster on NPR, grew up in
Charleston and worked for West Virginia Public Radio, although he was born in
Greenwich, Conn.
Jimmy Snyder, a Nashville singer and producer,
had a minor hit in 1970 with The Chicago Story, a song written by Tom T.
Hall about a soldier and his bride saying good-bye at the airport as he heads
back to Vietnam. He also had a top 100 country song Just to Prove My Love to
You in 1980. He is from Wheeling.
Wilbur Sortet (1909-1998) played football for
eight seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers, beginning with the first season in
1933 (when the team was called the Pittsburgh Pirates). In the 1938 season one
of his teammates was Byron "Whizzer" White, later a Supreme Court Justice.
Sortet was born in Indiana, but spent most of his life in West Virginia. In the
1920s he played basketball for Huntington High School, from which he graduated.
He subsequently played basketball and football for WVU. He was married to the
late Margaret Sortet, who taught French and English at Huntington East High
School.
Red Sovine (1918-1980), country and western
singer, had the hit record Teddy Bear in 1976. Sovine was born in
Charleston. He appeared on WCHS, then WWVA, and then on the Louisiana Hayride on
KWKH. Teddy Bear is the story of a truck-driving CB operator who tunes
into a little crippled boy transmitting from his father's CB radio at home. He
also recorded Daddy's Girl, Lay Down Sally, Truck Drivin' Son Of A Gun,
Giddy-Up-Go, Ole Rivers, It'll Come Back, Little Joe, I Know You're Married (But
I Love You Still), Last Goodbye, Phantom 309, Roses For Mama, 18 Wheels A
Hummin', Home Sweet Home, Daddy, and Woman Behind The Man Behind The Wheel.
Sovine's real name was Woodrow Wilson Sovine.
K. C. Spurlock raced funny cars in the 1990s. He
is the first recipient of the NHRA Winston Rookie of the Year award in 1990. He
currently owns the West Virginia Motor Speedway near Parkersburg.
Morgan Spurlock produced and starred in the
award-winning documentary Super Size Me, which described his 30-day
regimen during which he ate only McDonald's food for breakfast, lunch, and
dinner. Spurlock grew up in Parkersburg and Beckley. He graduated from Woodrow
Wilson High School in Beckley in 1989.
Johnny Staats, a bluegrass artist, is the state's
first instrumentalist to be signed to a major label. According to an article in
the Charleston Daily Mail on Feb. 3, 2000, Wires & Wood, his
upcoming release on Giant Records is shaping up to be the highest profile
release by anyone who still maintains a West Virginia address. The article
reported that the 30-year-old Staats has no intention of quitting his job as a
UPS driver to go on the road as a performer. He is from the Ripley area and is a
native of Jackson county.
Blaze Starr, a famous stripper nicknamed "The
Hottest Blaze in Burlesque." She was discovered while working as a hat-check
girl in Baltimore. She worked mainly in Maryland, New York, and Philadelphia.
She was reportedly involved with several famous politicians. Her life was made
into a film starring Paul Newman and Lolita Davidovich. She was from Wayne
County, one of 10 children.
Kimberley Starr (1970- ), author of the
prize-winning Australian novel The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies, was born in
Morgantown.
Ellsworth Milton Statler (1863-1928) founded the
Statler chain of hotels. He was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and died
in New York City. However at age 13 he got a job as a bellboy in a hotel in
Wheeling. He advanced to hotel clerk and studied hotel management and
bookkeeping. Within a few years he was running his own lunch room and billiard
hall in Wheeling.
Eleanor Steber (1914-1990) was a concert and
operatic soprano. In 1940 she won the Metropolitan Opera's radio auditions and
was with the Metropolitan Opera Company from 1940 and the San Francisco Opera
Company in 1945. She was born in Wheeling.
Howard Edward "Eddie" Steele
(1906-2003) as secretary of the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce came up
with the city's slogan, "Nature's Air-conditioned City," and the unique
promotion of serving free lemonade when temperatures in the city exceeded 90
degrees.
Edward Steers, Jr., the author of Blood on the
Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and other books about the Lincoln
assassination, lives in Berkeley Springs.
Gen. Adam Stephen commanded 500 troops mustered
from Berkeley County during Lord Dunmore's War in 1774. He subsequently rose to
the rank of General during the American Revolutionary War. Martinsburg,
Berkeley's county seat, was chartered by an act of the Virginia General Assembly
in October 1788 on lands provided by General Stephen. He named the town after
his long-time friend, Colonel Thomas Bryan Martin. General Stephen later became
Berkeley county's first sheriff.
Capt. Hugh Stephenson organized a volunteer
company in Shepherdstown that has been heralded as the first unit of the United
States Army. It departed from "Morgan's Spring," about one-half mile south of
the town limits on July 16, 1775. This famous "Beeline March" to Boston covered
600 miles in twenty-four days.
Jeff Stevens wrote the song Carrying Your Love
With Me recorded by George Strait, and has written other songs for
established stars. He lives in Tennessee but is from Alum Creek in Lincoln
County and still has family living there. Stevens said, "Being from West
Virginia has given me a huge leg up. All of my family and all of my heritage and
everybody I knew from there goes right into my songs."
Maj. Gen. Mitchell H. Stevenson,
the Deputy Chief
of Staff for Operations for the U. S. Army Materiel Command, graduated from WVU
in 1974
Emanuel Steward (1944- ) is a leading trainer and
manager in boxing, having trained Lennox Lewis and Sugar Ray Leonard. He was
born in Bottom Creek, W. Va., the son of a coal miner, although he grew up in
Detroit.
Bill Stewart, who was killed in Nicaragua
reporting for ABC News, anchored the 11 p.m. news on WSAZ-TV in Huntington in
the mid-1960s.
Josh Stewart starred on the NBC television show
"Third Watch" from 2004-2005 as Officer Brendan Finney. He will appear in the
2006 movie Lenexa, 1 Mile. He was born in Diana, West Virginia. He
attended West Virginia Wesleyan College and WVU.
Martha Stewart, the celebrity homemaker convicted
in March 2004 of lying to investigators about a stock sale, served a 5-month
term at the Federal Women's Prison in Alderson beginning later that year.
Marvin L. Stone, the editor of U. S. News and
World Report from 1976 to 1985, graduated from Marshall University in 1947.
He began his journalism career as a police reporter in Huntington. He was born
in Vermont. Stone died in 2000 at age 76 at his home in Falls Church, Va.
Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss (1896-1974) was a Wall
Street banker from 1919 to 1946, a member of the Atomic Energy Commission from
1946 to 1950, its chairman from 1953 to 1958, and a recess appointee as
Secretary of Commerce from November 1958 to June 1959. He was born in
Charleston.
Mel Street (1933-1978) was a country music
recording artist whose biggest hits were Borrowed Angel (1972) and
Lovin' on Back Streets. According to a history of radio station WELC in
Welch, Street began his singing career in the 1950s at that radio station. While
living in Bluefield, he starred on his own half-hour Saturday night show on WHIS-TV
from 1968 to 1972. He committed suicide on his 45th birthday. Country recording
artist George Jones sang Amazing Grace at his funeral. Mel Street was
born King Malachi Street in Grundy, Virginia.
Carrie Lee Strider of Leetown was appointed to be
the first female sheriff in the state of West Virginia in 1948.
David Hunter Strother (1816-1888) was a
correspondent for Harper's Weekly who covered John Brown's raid at
Harper's Ferry and the trial that followed. After the Civil War he published
Porte Crayon's Personal Recollections of the War. He was born in
Martinsburg.
Otto Struve (1897-1963), an astronomer known for
his contributions to stellar spectroscopy, notably the discovery of the
widespread distribution of hydrogen and other elements in space. He was born in
the Ukraine and died in California. However he was director of the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank from 1959 to 1962.
Anna Stuart (1948- ) joined the cast of NBC's
Another World in 1983, playing the role of Donna Love. She had earlier
appeared on The Doctors, General Hospital, and The Guiding Light.
She grew up in Bluefield.
Adm. Felix Budwell Stump became
Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific and U. S. Pacific Fleet, headquartered in
Pearl Harbor, in 1953. He also served as the U. S. Military Advisor to the
Southeast Treaty Organization and to the Australia, New Zealand, States Treaty
Organization. After he retired from the Navy in 1958, he became the Chief
Executive Officer of Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. He was a native of
Parkersburg.
Boyd B. Stutler (1889-1970), one of West
Virginia's most noted historians, compiled the world's largest collection on
John Brown and wrote Captain John Brown and the Civil War. He was a World
War I correspondent and edited American Legionnaire magazine and
newspapers in Grantsville, Point Pleasant, and Logan. He sprang from Gilmer and
Calhoun counties.
Joe Stydahar (1912-1977) was the Chicago Bears'
No. 1 choice in first-ever NFL draft in 1936. He played on five divisional and
three NFL championship teams. Stydahar was named to official All-NFL teams in
1937 through 1940, and later coached several teams. He entered the Hall of Fame
in 1967. He is from Shinnston and is a graduate of Shinnston High School,
although he was born in Kaylor, Pa. He attended Pitt briefly before transferring
to WVU, where he excelled in football and basketball.
Dr. John Sullivan, Executive Treasurer and
Presiding officer of the Florida Baptist Convention, is from Ansted.
Leon Howard Sullivan (1922-2001), a clergyman and
civil rights activist. He was Pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia from
1950 to 1988 and the author of the Sullivan Principles (1977), a code of conduct
for U. S. businesses operating in South Africa. He was responsible for the
creation of the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America. Sullivan was
the first black appointed to the General Motors board of directors. He was born
in Charleston and educated at Garnet High School, West Virginia State College,
Union Theological Seminary, and Columbia University. In 2000, Charleston honored
him by changing the name of one of its most historic streets, Broad Street, to
Leon Sullivan Way.
Nicholas Surovy played Mike Roy, one of Erica
Kane's (Susan Lucci) husbands on All My Children in 1984 and was to
return in 1998. He has appeared in other TV shows including Law and Order,
Matlock, and Murder She Wrote. He is said to be from the Summersville
area.
Sir John William David Swan
(1935- ), premier of
Bermuda who resigned in 1995. He was born in Bermuda but was educated in Bermuda
and West Virginia.
Stan Sweet (1927- ) has several times held the
title of World Fast-Draw Champion. He appeared on Late Night with David
Letterman in 1990. A 2005 article in the Beckley Register-Herald
reported that he still held the world record for the fastest draw ever made - at
20 one-hundredths of a second to draw, cock and shoot a balloon. Sweet is
currently is a weather reporter for of WVVA in Bluefield. He was born in White
Sulphur Springs.
Steve Swisher (1951- ), a catcher from 1974 to
1982 for the Cubs, Cards, and Padres. He was in the All-Star game, 1976. In
1998, was inducted into the Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame. He was born in
Parkersburg.
Nick Swisher, Steve Swisher's son, plays outfield
for the Oakland Athletics. He is a 1999 graduate of Parkersburg High School.
Parkersburg is considered his hometown, although he was born in Columbus, Ohio,
according to the A's web site.
Joani Tabor, a Christian recording artist and
motivational speaker, was born in Bluefield.
Robert Tabscott (1937- ) is an author, lecturer,
Presbyterian minister, and a recognized authority on African-American studies.
He has been a commentator on National Public Radio, and has produced numerous
radio and television documentaries on black history and press freedom in
America. Tabscott has written a book on Elijah P. Lovejoy, an abolitionist
newspaperman who was killed defending his press from an armed mob. In 1997 he
talked about Lovejoy with Charles Osgood on Sunday Morning on CBS.
Tabscott was born in Mullens and graduated from Mullens High School, where he
was an all-state basketball player in 1955.
Carl Tacy coached basketball at Wake Forest and
Marshall. He is from Mill Creek in Randolph County.
Darryl Talley (1960- ), the all-pro linebacker
for the Bills, played for WVU. He was born in Cleveland.
B. E. Taylor, a singer, was born and raised in
Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, but was said to be living in northern West Virginia in
2002.
James "Jay" Taylor
(1976- ), who signed as a
kicker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in December 2004, played football at WVU.
Lionel Taylor became the first pro football
player to catch 100 passes in a season in 1961 while playing for the Denver
Broncos. He is a graduate of Buffalo High School near Accoville in Logan County,
where he was a teammate of Charles "Humps" Cowan.
Bob Teets is the author of West Virginia UFOs:
Close Encounters in the Mountain State, which examines more than 125 UFO
cases in the state. He has interviewed more than 2000 persons in his research on
UFOs. He previously was publisher of two weekly newspapers in West Virginia and
published the locally popular Killing Waters book series about the deadly
1985 floods. He believes that his encounter with a UFO on his family farm as a
youth was somehow related to the nineteenth-century wireless experiments of
Mahlon Loomis, which took place nearby.
Jesse Burgess Thomas (1777-1853), one of
Illinois's first two Senators, was born in Shepherdstown, then in Virginia.
Carlene Thompson (1952- ) is a mystery writer.
Among her titles are In the Event of My Death, Tonight You're Mine, All Fall
Down, Don't Close Your Eyes, and Since You've Been Gone. She was born
in Parkersburg and currently lives in Point Pleasant.
Lonnie Thompson (1948- ), a professor of geology
at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, was selected as one
of America's top scientists by Time magazine in August, 2001. He was born
in Huntington and grew up on a small farm in Gassaway. He is a graduate of
Marshall University.
Victoria Thompson, a best-selling mystery author,
attended Alderson-Broaddus College. Her father, Vincent Straface, was born in
Richard, West Virginia. Her grandparents, Pizzuto and Straface, were Italian
immigrants who lived in the Morgantown area. Victoria's mysteries include
Murder on Astor Place (1999), Murder on Saint Mark's Place (2000),
Murder on Gramercy Park (2002), Murder on Washington Square (2002),
Murder on Mulberry Bend (2003), and Murder on Marble Row (2004).
Rod Thorn has been a player, assistant coach,
head coach, general manager, and league official in professional basketball. He
played professional basketball for Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, and Seattle.
He grew up in Princeton, the son of the Princeton police chief. Thorn was an
all-American guard at WVU.
John Thornton (1976 - ), a defensive tackle for
the Tennessee Titans, played for WVU from 1995 to 1998. He is from Philadelphia.
Sedale Threatt (1961- ) of the Houston Rockets
played college basketball at West Virginia Tech. He has also played in the NBA
for the Philadelphia 76ers, the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, and Seattle
Supersonics. He was born in Atlanta, Ga.
Robert (Bob) Tinnell (1961- ) directed Burt
Reynolds and Louis Fletcher in Frankenstein and Me and Joe Montegna in
Airspeed. He was born in Fairmont.
Russell Todd helped the Northfork High Blue
Demons win three (1977-79) of their eight straight championships. The all-state
center went on to star for West Virginia University (1979-83) and become a
fourth-round draft pick of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks. He played professionally
in Europe after his WVU days.
Toria Tolley, a weekend anchor for CNN's Headline
News, previously worked as an anchor at WCHS-TV in Charleston. She attended
Bethany College.
Rich Tomaselli played professional football in
the 1980s for the Houston Oilers. He is a graduate of Brooke High School.
Dave Tork broke the outdoor world record in the
pole vault in 1962 and the indoor world record in 1963. He is a graduate of
Fairmont Senior High School.
Sam Trammel plays the role of Kevin "Space" Lauglin in Going to California on Showtime. He is an accomplished New
York stage actor whose credits include a Tony-nominated performance in Ah
Wilderness! at Lincoln center. He is a 1987 graduate of George Washington
High School in Charleston.
Laura Treadwell (1879-1960) had small roles in
numerous films in the 1930s and 1940s. She was born in West Virginia.
Harry R. Truman
(1896-1980) refused to abandon his lodge and was killed when Mount St. Helens
erupted in 1980. A book about him by Shirley Rosen was published in 1981. Truman
was born in West Virginia.
Brig. Gen. Terry Tucker is commander of a Joint
Taskforce charged with a full accounting for Americans missing in Southeast
Asia. He is from Buffalo and is a graduate of West Virginia State College.
Renaldo Turnbull (1966- ) of the Carolina
Panthers played college football at WVU. He also played for the New Orleans
Saints, a first round pick in 1990. He was born in St. Thomas, V. I.
Calvin Turner
played for the Denver Broncos in the mid 1980's. He is from Fairmont and is a
graduate of Fairmont West High School.
Dr. John Roscoe Turner (1881-1969) was appointed
President of WVU in December 1927. He came to WVU from Washington Square College
of New York University, where had served as dean. Turner was born in Mattville
in Raleigh County and attended Clear Fork public schools. He received his
doctorate from Princeton University in 1913. His father was Capt. William
Turner, wounded in Union service during the Civil War.
Sonny Turner (1939- ) replaced Tony Williams as
the lead singer of the original Platters in 1959. He was chosen out of 100 auditioners at the age of 19. He still performs. He was born in Fairmont.
Spyder Turner had one top 40 hit, Stand By Me,
in 1967. It peaked at number 12 on the pop singles chart. He was born in
Beckley.
Ed Tutwiler of Mount Hope won eleven state
amateur golf titles from 1939 to 1963. He also lost the U. S. Amateur golf