Famous People From Virginia
- Born in Tappahannock, Virginia, Christopher Maurice Brown, better known as Chris Brown, has become a household name in mainstream music. Developing an interest in music from a young age, he taught himself to sing and dance, inspired by iconic figures such as Michael Jackson. His talent was evident early on and he was signed by Jive Records in 2004 when he was just 15 years old. Chris Brown's debut album, self-titled Chris Brown, was released in 2005 and immediately soared to the top of the charts. This album included the hit single "Run It!", which topped the Billboard Hot 100, making Brown one of the youngest artists to achieve this feat. Over his career, he has won numerous awards, including a Grammy for Best R&B Album for F.A.M.E. in 2012. Brown's discography is extensive and diverse, showcasing his versatile talent as he continues to experiment with different genres and styles of music. However, Brown's journey has not been without controversy. He faced immense criticism following a highly publicized incident involving fellow artist Rihanna in 2009. Despite facing significant backlash, Brown continued to produce music and maintain a strong fanbase. Additionally, he ventured into acting, appearing in films like Stomp the Yard and Think Like a Man. Chris Brown's story is one of both great success and notable controversy, painting a picture of a talented but complex figure in the entertainment industry.
- Birthplace: Tappahannock, Virginia, USA
- Born in Arlington, Virginia in 1957, Katherine Anne Couric, better known as Katie Couric, has carved out a remarkable career in the world of broadcast journalism. The youngest of four children, she inherited her love for news and reporting from her public relations executive father. Couric graduated with a degree in American Studies from the University of Virginia in 1979, demonstrating early on her keen interest in understanding the fabric of American society. Her professional journey kicked off at ABC News Bureau before she landed a role as an assignment editor for CNN. However, it was her stint at NBC's Today show that catapulted Couric into the national spotlight. She co-hosted the popular morning news program from 1991 until 2006, earning the reputation as one of America's most beloved television personalities. Her trademark blend of accessible charm and incisive interviewing skills won her several awards, including multiple Emmys and a Peabody. In 2006, Couric moved to CBS, making history as the first woman to anchor a major network evening news program solo when she took over CBS Evening News. After five years, she transitioned to ABC News, where she served as a special correspondent. Couric has also showcased her talent through her syndicated talk show, Katie, and several high-profile interviews with influential figures. As a prolific author, her books offer a further glimpse into her insights and experiences. Outside her professional life, Couric is a tireless advocate for cancer research, a cause close to her heart following the loss of her husband to colon cancer.
- Birthplace: Arlington, Virginia, USA
- Laura Mackenzie Phillips (born November 10, 1959) is an American actress and singer best known for her roles in American Graffiti, as rebellious but ultimately loving teenager Julie Mora Cooper Horvath on the sitcom One Day at a Time, and for the Disney Channel science fiction show So Weird.
- Birthplace: Alexandria, Virginia, USA
- Leeann Tweeden is an actress who appeared in "Greenland," "Lavalantula," and "Piratenet."
- Birthplace: Manassas, Virginia, USA
- Rob Lowe, an American actor and producer, has left a profound mark on the Hollywood landscape with his extensive body of work. Born on March 17, 1964, in Charlottesville, Virginia, Lowe's passion for acting ignited at a young age, leading him to pursue this path persistently. He attended Santa Monica High School, where he honed his acting skills alongside future stars like Charlie Sheen and Sean Penn. Lowe's breakthrough came in the early 1980s when he emerged as one of the prominent members of the Brat Pack, a group of young actors who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented films. His performances in films such as The Outsiders (1983), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), and About Last Night... (1986) established him as a talented actor capable of delivering nuanced performances. However, it was his role as Sam Seaborn in the critically acclaimed television series The West Wing (1999-2003) that brought him widespread recognition and solidified his position in the industry. In addition to his successful acting career, Lowe has made significant contributions as a producer. He has produced several films and television shows, displaying a knack for identifying compelling stories and bringing them to life. Furthermore, Lowe has demonstrated a commitment to philanthropy, working with various organizations to provide support for causes close to his heart. Despite facing personal challenges and controversies throughout his life, Lowe's resilience and dedication to his craft have ensured his enduring popularity and respect in the entertainment industry.
- Birthplace: Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
- Warren Beatty is an iconic figure in the world of cinema, both behind and in front of the camera. Born Henry Warren Beaty on March 30, 1937, in Richmond, Virginia, he began his career as a stage actor before making his mark in Hollywood. Known for his versatility, he has left quite an impact on the film industry as an actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. Beatty's career breakthrough came with his role in Splendor in the Grass (1961), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Over the years, he has delivered numerous memorable performances in films such as Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Shampoo (1975), and Reds (1981). Notably, Reds showcased Beatty's skills not just as an actor, but also as a director and writer, earning him an Academy Award for Best Director. His contribution to cinema extends beyond acting and directing; he has also produced several successful films, further underlining his multifaceted talent. Off-screen, Beatty is known for his political activism and philanthropy. He campaigned for Robert F. Kennedy during the 1968 presidential election and has been a vocal advocate for various causes, including civil rights and environmental conservation. His commitment to societal issues won him the Eleanor Roosevelt Award from the Americans for Democratic Action in 1999. Despite his fame and success, Beatty remains a private individual, shying away from the public eye, a testament to his focus on his craft rather than the trappings of celebrity status. His enduring legacy in the entertainment industry attests to his talent, vision, and dedication.
- Birthplace: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Warren Beatty's Best MoviesSee all
- 1Bonnie and Clyde82 Votes
- 2Reds60 Votes
- 3Heaven Can Wait74 Votes
- Wanda Sykes, born on March 7, 1964, in Portsmouth, Virginia, is a renowned figure in the American entertainment industry. She is best recognized for her distinctive voice and her unique, straightforward comedic style that often tackles social issues. Growing up in Maryland, she graduated from Hampton University with a degree in Marketing before starting her career in the National Security Agency (NSA). However, her passion for comedy made her divert her path towards stand-up routines in local clubs around Washington D.C. After gaining popularity as a stand-up comedian, Sykes transitioned to television and film. In 1997, she joined the writing team of the popular TV show The Chris Rock Show, earning an Emmy Award for her work. Her talent for writing was matched by her on-screen presence, which she demonstrated through appearances on shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and The New Adventures of Old Christine. Notably, Sykes also voiced characters in several animated films such as Over the Hedge and Ice Age: Continental Drift. Sykes has consistently used comedy as a platform to vocalize societal issues and personal experiences. In 2008, she publicly announced she was a lesbian at a same-sex marriage rally in Las Vegas. Since then, she has been a passionate advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. As a result of her groundbreaking work in various areas of entertainment and her activism, Sykes has been honored with multiple awards, including a GLAAD Media Award.
- Birthplace: Portsmouth, Virginia, USA
- Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (March 22, 1930 – June 8, 2023) was an American media mogul, religious broadcaster, political commentator, presidential candidate, and Southern Baptist minister. Robertson advocated a conservative Christian ideology and was known for his involvement in Republican Party politics. He was associated with the Charismatic movement within Protestant evangelicalism. He served as head of Regent University and of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Spanning over five decades, Robertson was the founder of major organizations, including CBN, Regent University, Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, the International Family Entertainment Inc. (ABC Family Channel/Freeform), the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), the Founders Inn and Conference Center, and the Christian Coalition.[2][3] Robertson was also a best-selling author and the former host of The 700 Club.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia
- Rudolph Ernst Boesch (; born January 20, 1928) is a retired United States Navy SEAL and a two-time competitor on the reality competition show Survivor. Boesch was born and raised in Rochester, New York, and enlisted in the United States Navy at age 17. He became a Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) Frogman in 1951, serving on two UDT Teams. He was chosen as one of the first SEALs, becoming Chief of the Boat of newly created SEAL Team TWO in 1962. Starting in 1968 and 1970, Boesch completed two combat deployments during the Vietnam War, where he earned the Bronze Star for heroic action. During that time and later, Boesch set physical and operational standards at SEAL Team TWO. In 1987, he became Senior Enlisted Advisor for United States Special Operations Command. Designated the "Bullfrog", the longest-serving SEAL still on active duty, Boesch achieved considerable renown within the force for his physical fitness training regimens and his military appearance. After 45 years of continuous service, he retired from the Navy in 1990 as a Master Chief Petty Officer. The oldest competitor on the inaugural Survivor: Borneo at 72 years of age, Boesch finished in third place. The program was the top-rated show on American television during the summer of 2000, and with his gruff, cantankerous manner, and his politically incorrect "Rudyisms", he became one of the show's most popular contestants. Boesch set the age record again when he competed on Survivor: All-Stars at 75. He parlayed his fame into several other television appearances, including hosting the show Combat Missions in 2002.
- Birthplace: Rochester, New York, USA
- Quiana Grant is an American model who appeared in the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She was featured in a bodypainting layout as a canvas for bodypaint artist Joanne Gair who is in her tenth year of producing bodypaint art for the Swimsuit Issue. She was part of a record-setting class of seven rookie Swimsuit Issue models along with Jessica Gomes, Melissa Haro, Yasmin Brunet, Melissa Baker, Jeisa Chiminazzo and Jarah Mariano.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- Richard John Santorum (born May 10, 1958) is an American politician, attorney, author, and political commentator. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007 and was the Senate's third-ranking Republican from 2001 to 2007. Santorum ran for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, finishing second to Mitt Romney. Santorum was elected to the United States Senate from Pennsylvania in 1994. He served two terms until losing his 2006 reelection bid. A Roman Catholic, Santorum is a social conservative who opposes abortion and same-sex marriage and embraced a cultural warrior image during his Senate tenure. While serving as a senator, Santorum authored the Santorum Amendment, which would have promoted the teaching of intelligent design. He was a leading sponsor of the 2003 federal law known as the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. In the years following his departure from the Senate, Santorum worked as a consultant, private practice lawyer, and news contributor. He ran for the Republican nomination in the 2012 U.S. presidential election. Before suspending his campaign on April 10, 2012, Santorum exceeded expectations by winning 11 primaries and caucuses and receiving nearly four million votes, making him the runner-up to eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Santorum ran for president again in 2016, but ended his campaign in February 2016 after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses. In January 2017, he became a CNN senior political commentator.
- Birthplace: Winchester, Virginia, USA
- George C. Scott, a titan of American acting, etched his name in the annals of Hollywood with a career spanning over four decades. Born on October 18, 1927, in Wise, Virginia, he was renowned for his intense performances and distinctive voice. His early life was marked by hardship, but it was this very struggle that shaped his resilient character. After serving in the Marine Corps during World War II, Scott found solace in acting and honed his craft at the University of Missouri's School of Journalism, where he studied drama. Scott's breakthrough came with the role of General "Buck" Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove. However, it was his unforgettable portrayal of General George S. Patton in the 1970 film Patton that catapulted him to stardom. Despite receiving an Academy Award for Best Actor for this role, Scott refused the honor, stating his belief that every dramatic performance was unique and could not be compared. This act of defiance made him the first actor to reject an Oscar, setting a precedent in the industry. Throughout his career, Scott displayed a versatility that spanned across genres and mediums. From theater to film and television, he left an impression with his powerful performances. His work in Arthur Miller's The Crucible and Neil Simon's Plaza Suite showcased his talent on stage, while his roles in films like The Hustler and The Changeling highlighted his cinematic prowess. Scott passed away in 1999, but his legacy continues to inspire generations of actors.
- Birthplace: Wise, Virginia, USA
- Ella Fitzgerald, nicknamed "The First Lady of Song," was a towering figure in the world of jazz and pop music during the 20th century. Born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia, she rose to prominence as an American jazz singer known for her pure tone, wide-ranging voice, and impeccable diction. Early in her career, Fitzgerald won an amateur contest at New York City's Apollo Theater in 1934, a victory that marked the beginning of her journey into stardom. Fitzgerald's career spanned over six decades, during which she produced a vast body of work that included collaborations with some of the greatest names in music history. She worked with jazz legends like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie, among others. Her most notable contribution to the music industry was perhaps her Songbook series, a collection of albums celebrating the works of great American composers such as Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, and the Gershwins. This series showcased her versatility as she captured the essence of each composer's style while adding her unique interpretation. Despite facing numerous challenges, including racial discrimination and personal hardships, Fitzgerald's impact on music was profound and enduring. Her awards and achievements are a testament to her talent and influence. She won 13 Grammy awards, received the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H.W. Bush. Ella Fitzgerald passed away on June 15, 1996, but her legacy lives on, influencing generations of singers and musicians with her remarkable vocal style and dedication to her craft.
- Birthplace: Newport News, Virginia, USA
- Allen Iverson, popularly known as The Answer, is a legendary figure in the world of basketball. Born on June 7, 1975, in Hampton, Virginia, Iverson's journey to fame was a testament to his resilience and determination. Despite encountering numerous challenges during his early life, including a turbulent upbringing and legal issues during his high school years, Iverson managed to rise above these obstacles and etch his name in the annals of basketball history. Iverson's basketball career began at Georgetown University, where he played for two seasons. His exceptional performance led him to be selected as the first overall pick by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1996 NBA Draft. During his remarkable 14-year career, Iverson was an 11-time All-Star, won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award in 2001, and led the 76ers to the NBA Finals in the same year. His unique playing style, characterized by his quickness, scoring ability, and crossover dribble, revolutionized the game and inspired countless future players. Off the court, Iverson was equally influential. He challenged the NBA's traditional image with his tattoos, cornrows, and hip-hop influenced style, making significant contributions to the merging of sports and pop culture. Despite retiring from professional basketball in 2010, Iverson's impact on the sport, both on and off the court, remains undeniable. His induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016 further solidified his status as one of the greatest players in the history of basketball.
- Birthplace: Hampton, Virginia, USA
- Jason Sudeikis, born as Daniel Jason Sudeikis in Fairfax, Virginia on September 18, 1975, has established himself as a prominent figure in the world of acting and comedy. Raised in Overland Park, Kansas, his early exposure to improvisational comedy at ComedySportz in Kansas City sparked his passion for performance. This passion would lead him to become a founding member of The Second City's Las Vegas troupe. Further honing his craft, Sudeikis joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2005, initially as a writer before transitioning into a full-time cast member. Over the course of his career, Sudeikis has demonstrated remarkable versatility, showcasing his comedic talents in numerous film and TV roles. His notable performances include playing Kurt Buckman in the Horrible Bosses films, David Clark in We're the Millers, and voicing the character Red in the Angry Birds movie franchise. His ability to infuse humor into diverse characters has earned him recognition within the industry and a dedicated fanbase. However, arguably his most impactful role came in 2020 when he starred as Ted Lasso in the Apple TV+ series of the same name. As the earnest American football coach turned English football manager, Sudeikis imbued the character with a delightful mix of optimism and naivete that resonated with audiences worldwide. This performance garnered critical acclaim and won him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy in 2021. Jason Sudeikis's career is testament to his skill as an actor and comedian, and his impact on comedy continues to be felt.
- Birthplace: Fairfax, Virginia, USA
The Best Jason Sudeikis MoviesSee all- 1Horrible Bosses53 Votes
- 2South of Heaven4 Votes
- 3A Good Old Fashioned Orgy21 Votes
- Beverle Lorence "Bebe" Buell (born July 14, 1953) is an American singer and former fashion model, and Playboy magazine's November 1974 Playmate of the Month. Buell moved to New York in 1971 after signing a modeling contract with Eileen Ford, and garnered notoriety after her publicized relationship with musician Todd Rundgren from 1972 until 1979, as well as her liaisons with several rock musicians over the following four decades. She is the mother of actress Liv Tyler, whose father is Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. Buell was involved with Rundgren when she had a fling with Tyler and gave birth to Liv in 1977; she then resumed her relationship with Rundgren. In 2001 Buell wrote an autobiography (with Victor Bockris), Rebel Heart: An American Rock and Roll Journey. The book was a New York Times bestseller. The paperback was issued in 2002.
- Birthplace: Portsmouth, Virginia, USA
- Edward Andrew Schultz (January 27, 1954 – July 5, 2018) was an American television and radio host, a political commentator, news anchor, and a sports broadcaster.He was the host of The Ed Show, a weekday news talk program on MSNBC from 2009 to 2015, and The Ed Schultz Show, a talk radio show, nationally syndicated by Dial Global from 2004 to 2014. The radio show ended on May 23, 2014, and was replaced by a one-hour podcast, Ed Schultz News and Commentary, which ran from 2015 until his 2018 death. Schultz most recently hosted a daily primetime weekday show, News with Ed Schultz, on RT America TV channel based in Washington, D.C., that is part of the RT network.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Norfolk
- Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam titles. Ashe was the first black player selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. He retired in 1980. He was ranked World No. 1 by Harry Hopman in 1968 and by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and World Tennis Magazine in 1975. In the ATP computer rankings, he peaked at No. 2 in May 1976.In the early 1980s, Ashe is believed to have contracted HIV from a blood transfusion he received during heart bypass surgery. Ashe publicly announced his illness in April 1992 and began working to educate others about HIV and AIDS. He founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health before his death from AIDS-related pneumonia at age 49 on February 6, 1993. On June 20, 1993, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the United States President Bill Clinton.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Richmond
- Paul Lynde was an American actor and writer who was known for his role in "Charlotte's Web" as of Templeton. Lynde was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 1974 for "The Hollywood Squares."
- Birthplace: Mount Vernon, Ohio, USA
- Susan Scott "Scottie" Thompson (born November 9, 1981) is an American film, television and stage actress.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Richmond
- Patsy Cline (born Virginia Patterson Hensley; September 8, 1932 – March 5, 1963) was an American singer. She is considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century and was one of the first country music artists to successfully crossover into pop music. Cline recorded several songs that became major hits during her eight-year career, including 2 number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country and Western Sides chart. Cline's family eventually settled in Winchester, Virginia. Her first professional performances began at the local WINC radio station when she was fifteen. In the early 1950s, Cline began appearing in a local band led by performer Bill Peer. Various local appearances led to featured performances on Connie B. Gay's Town and Country television broadcasts. It also led to the signing of her first recording contract with the Four Star label in 1954. She had minor success with her earliest Four Star singles including "A Church, A Courtroom and Goodbye" (1955) and "I've Loved and Lost Again" (1956). In 1957 however, Cline made her first national television appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. After performing "Walkin' After Midnight", the single would become her first major hit on both the country and pop charts. Cline's further singles with Four Star Records were unsuccessful, although she continued performing and recording. After marrying in 1957 and giving birth in 1958, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee to further her career. Working with new manager Randy Hughes, Cline would become a member of the Grand Ole Opry and then move to Decca Records in 1960. Under the direction of producer Owen Bradley, her musical sound shifted and she achieved consistent success. The 1961 single "I Fall to Pieces" would become her first to top the Billboard country chart. As the song became a hit, Cline was severely injured in an automobile accident, which caused her to spend a month in the hospital. After recovering, her next single release "Crazy" would also become a major hit. Between 1962 and 1963, Cline had hits with "She's Got You", "When I Get Through with You", "So Wrong" and "Leavin' on Your Mind". She also toured and headlined shows with more frequency. In March 1963, Cline appeared at a benefit show in Kansas City, Kansas. To return home, she boarded a plane along with country performers Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and manager Randy Hughes. Upon hitting rough weather, the plane crashed outside of Camden, Tennessee, killing all those on board. Since her death, Cline has been cited as one of the most celebrated, respected and influential performers of the 20th century. She has also been seen as a forerunner for women in country music for being among the first to sell records and headline concerts. Her music has also influenced performers of various styles and genres. In 1973, she became the first female performer to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In the 1980s, she was portrayed twice in major motion pictures, including the 1985 biopic Sweet Dreams starring Jessica Lange as Cline.
- Birthplace: Winchester, USA, Virginia
- Plaxico Antonio Burress (born August 12, 1977) is a former American football wide receiver who played 13 seasons in the National Football League. He played college football at Michigan State, and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers eighth overall in the 2000 NFL Draft. He also played for the New York Giants and the New York Jets, and caught the game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl XLII as the Giants beat the then-undefeated New England Patriots.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- Carson Wayne Newton (born April 3, 1942) is an American singer and entertainer. One of the best-known entertainers in Las Vegas, Nevada, he is known by the nicknames The Midnight Idol, Mr. Las Vegas and Mr. Entertainment. His well known songs include 1972's "Daddy, Don't You Walk So Fast" (his biggest hit, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard chart), "Years" (1980), and his vocal version of "Red Roses for a Blue Lady" (1965). His signature song "Danke Schoen" (1963) was notably used in the score for Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986).
- Birthplace: Roanoke, Virginia, USA
- Birthplace: USA, Kentucky, Louisville
- Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 – June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, and orator best known for his declaration to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786. Henry was born in Hanover County, Virginia, and was for the most part educated at home. After an unsuccessful venture running a store, and assisting his father-in-law at Hanover Tavern, Henry became a lawyer through self-study. Beginning his practice in 1760, he soon became prominent through his victory in the Parson's Cause against the Anglican clergy. Henry was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he quickly became notable for his inflammatory rhetoric against the Stamp Act of 1765. In 1774 and 1775, Henry served as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, but did not prove particularly influential. He gained further popularity among the people of Virginia, both through his oratory at the convention and by marching troops towards the colonial capital of Williamsburg after the Gunpowder Incident until the munitions seized by the royal government were paid for. Henry urged independence, and when the Fifth Virginia Convention endorsed this in 1776, served on the committee charged with drafting the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the original Virginia Constitution. Henry was promptly elected governor under the new charter, and served a total of five one-year terms. After leaving the governorship in 1779, Henry served in the Virginia House of Delegates until he began his last two terms as governor in 1784. The actions of the national government under the Articles of Confederation made Henry fear a strong federal government and he declined appointment as a delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention. He actively opposed the ratification of the Constitution. He returned to the practice of law in his final years, declining several offices under the federal government. A slaveholder throughout his adult life, he hoped to see the institution end, but had no plan for that beyond ending the importation of slaves. Henry is remembered for his oratory, and as an enthusiastic promoter of the fight for independence.
- Birthplace: Virginia, USA
- Henry Lee Lucas (August 23, 1936 – March 12, 2001) was an American serial killer. Lucas was arrested in Texas and on the basis of his confessions to Texas Rangers, hundreds of unsolved murders were attributed to him and officially classified as cleared up. Lucas was convicted of murdering 11 people and condemned to death for a single case with an unidentified victim. A newspaper exposed the improbable logistics of the confessions made by Lucas, when they were taken as a whole, and a study by the Attorney General of Texas concluded he had falsely confessed. Lucas's death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1998. In some cases, law enforcement thought that Lucas had demonstrated knowledge of facts that only a perpetrator could have known.
- Birthplace: Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
Lea Masters
Age: 60Lea Masters is a former contestant on the reality television show Survivor: Vanuatu.- Birthplace: Norfolk, Virginia, USA
- Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, soldier, politician, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark. Their mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, establish trade with, and sovereignty over the natives near the Missouri River, and claim the Pacific Northwest and Oregon Country for the United States before European nations. They also collected scientific data, and information on indigenous nations. President Thomas Jefferson appointed him Governor of Upper Louisiana in 1806. He died of gunshot wounds in what was either a murder or suicide, in 1809.
- Birthplace: Ivy, Virginia, Virginia, USA
- Actor Hunter Parrish never shied away from taking risks when it came to his career¬, even blowing off the chance to star in one of Disney's most successful movie franchises at one time. But those risks paid off when he won a career-making role on Showtime's critical darling, "Weeds" (2005-12), as a grieving teenager who is forced to abandon his insecurities and man-up after his father passes away. Parrish honed his natural comedic talents in films like "RV" (2006) as a geeky teenager on summer vacation and in "17 Again" (2009), where he played a high school bully. He also drew critical reviews for his portrayal of the only white student in an inner-city high school in the inspiring drama, "Freedom Fighters" (2007). But it was his role on the edgy series, "Weeds," that allowed Parrish truly flex his acting muscles and prove to Hollywood that he was primed for bigger, bolder roles.
- Birthplace: Richmond, Virginia, USA
- Ella Josephine Baker (December 13, 1903 – December 13, 1986) was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist in the United States. She was a largely behind-the-scenes organizer whose career spanned more than five decades. In New York City and the South, she worked alongside some of the most noted civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King Jr. She also mentored many emerging activists, such as Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks, and Bob Moses, whom she first mentored as leaders in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).Baker criticized professionalized, charismatic leadership; she promoted grassroots organizing, radical democracy, and the ability of the oppressed to understand their worlds and advocate for themselves. She realized this vision most fully in the 1960s as the primary advisor and strategist of the SNCC. She has been ranked as "One of the most important African American leaders of the twentieth century and perhaps the most influential woman in the civil rights movement." She is known for her critiques not only of racism within American culture, but also of sexism within the civil rights movement.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- Grant Gustin was a TV actor who became a mainstream star in 2014 playing the title character on the popular superhero series, "The Flash" (The CW, 2014- ). Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Gustin always had a penchant for performing. As a young boy he studied musical theater at Norfolk's Governor's School for the Arts, where he honed his skills for performing before a live audience. After high school, Gustin continued his training in musical theater at Elon University in North Carolina. He studied at the University for two years, before leaving in 2010 to appear in the Broadway revival of "West Side Story." Gustin was a member of the cast for an entire year, but in the fall of 2011 he was offered a supporting role on the hit series, "Glee" (Fox, 2009-15). Gustin played Sebastian Smythe on seven episodes of the show, while also auditioning for various other TV roles in between appearances. During his "Glee" run, Gustin also appeared on eight episodes of the popular teen drama, "90210" (The CW, 2008-2013). Then in 2013 Gustin appeared as Barry Allen, AKA The Flash, on the superhero series, "Arrow" (The CW, 2012- ). His appearance on the show proved so successful that in 2014 The CW gave the character his own series. "The Flash" debuted on The CW in the Fall of 2014 and quickly became one of the highest rated series premieres in the network's history.
- Birthplace: Norfolk, Virginia, USA
- Richard Travis Hall (born June 10, 1954) is an American comedian, writer, and musician, first coming to prominence as a sketch comedian in the 1980s. He wrote and performed for a range of American networks, in series such as Fridays, Not Necessarily the News (popularising the "sniglet" neologism), and Saturday Night Live. After winning a Perrier Comedy Award in 2000, using the character of Tennesseean country musician Otis Lee Crenshaw, Hall became popular in the United Kingdom, regularly appearing on QI and similar panel shows. He has created and starred in several series for the BBC, including comedies with Mike Wilmot, and documentaries often concerning cinema of the United States. Hall has also maintained a successful stand-up comedy career, as both Crenshaw and himself.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia
- Jesse Lamont Martin (né Watkins; January 18, 1969) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for originating the role of Tom Collins on Broadway in the musical Rent and his television roles as NYPD Detective Ed Green on Law & Order and Detective Joe West on The Flash.
- Birthplace: Rocky Mount, Virginia, USA
- Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale. Her rendition of "Takes Two to Tango" hit the top ten in 1952. She received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1976 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom on October 17, 1988.
- Birthplace: Newport News, Virginia, USA
- Bruce Hornsby, an American singer-songwriter and pianist, has carved an indelible niche in the world of music with his diverse style and remarkable talent. Born in Williamsburg, Virginia, on November 23, 1954, Hornsby showcased an affinity for music from a young age which later transformed into a compelling career. His journey began at the University of Miami's School of Music, where he studied jazz piano before transferring to the University of Richmond. He also spent time at Berklee College of Music in Boston, further nurturing his musicianship. Hornsby's breakthrough came in the mid-1980s when he formed Bruce Hornsby and the Range. The band achieved notable success, particularly with their debut album The Way It Is which topped the charts in 1986. The title track not only became a global hit but also won the Grammy Award for Best New Song in 1987, establishing Hornsby as a significant influence in the music industry. He continued to make waves by experimenting with different genres like bluegrass, jazz, blues, and jam band music in his subsequent albums. In addition to his solo career, Hornsby's collaborations have been equally consequential. He played over a hundred shows with the Grateful Dead between 1988 and 1995, significantly enriching their performances with his keyboard skills. He has also worked with other renowned artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, Bela Fleck, and Elton John, cementing his reputation as a versatile and respected musician. Despite the shifts in music trends over the decades, Bruce Hornsby's unswerving commitment to his craft and his ability to create thought-provoking, genre-blending music ensures that he remains a pillar in the ever-evolving music landscape.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Williamsburg
- Robert Lee "Bobby" Satcher Jr. (born September 22, 1965) is an American physician, chemical engineer, and NASA astronaut. He became the first orthopedic surgeon in space during STS-129. He participated in 2 spacewalks during STS-129, accumulating 12hrs 19min of EVA time. Satcher holds two doctorates (Ph.D., M.D.) and has received numerous awards and honors as a surgeon and engineer. He is married and has two children. Bobby Satcher enjoys running, scuba diving, and reading.
- Birthplace: Hampton
- Fred Alex Ottman (born August 10, 1956) is an American retired professional wrestler. He worked for the World Wrestling Federation from 1989 to 1993 under the ring names Tugboat and Typhoon. As the former, he played a key babyface ally of Hulk Hogan. As the latter, he turned heel to form The Natural Disasters with Earthquake and held the WWF Tag Team Championship.In 1993, he debuted as The Shockmaster in World Championship Wrestling and immediately fell over, losing his mask on live television while his teammates broke character and laughed. This botch hurt his career in the short term, but is now generally regarded as the worst debut in wrestling history, a notoriety he capitalized upon after his in-ring retirement.
- Birthplace: Norfolk, Virginia, USA
- Michael Eugene Archer (born February 11, 1974), better known by his stage name D'Angelo (pronounced di-Angelo), is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. D'Angelo is associated with the neo soul movement, along with artists like Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Maxwell, and collaborator Angie Stone. Born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of a Pentecostal minister, D'Angelo taught himself piano as a child. At eighteen, he won the amateur talent competition at Harlem's Apollo Theater three weeks in a row. After a brief affiliation with hip-hop group I.D.U., his first major success came in 1994 as the co-writer and co-producer of the song "U Will Know". His debut solo album, Brown Sugar (1995), received positive reviews and sold over two million copies. His next album, Voodoo (2000), debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. Its lead single Untitled (How Does It Feel), entered the R&B charts and won a Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal; likewise, Voodoo won Best R&B Album. D'Angelo was hailed as the next Marvin Gaye by GQ in 2014.Following the release of the music video for Untitled (How Does It Feel), D'Angelo became uncomfortable with his growing status as a sex symbol. This was followed by numerous personal struggles including alcoholism, and a fourteen-year musical hiatus. D'Angelo released his third studio album, Black Messiah, in December 2014. The album was met with critical acclaim and fared well on music charts, peaking at number five on the US Billboard 200. D'Angelo also contributed to the soundtrack for the 2018 video game Red Dead Redemption 2, performing the song "Unshaken".
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Richmond
Nat Turner
Dec. at 31 (1800-1831)Nat Turner (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an enslaved African-American mystical preacher who led a two-day rebellion of both enslaved and free black people in Southampton County, Virginia, beginning August 21, 1831. The rebellion caused the death of approximately 60 white men, women and children. Whites organized militias and called out regular troops to suppress the uprising. In addition, white militias and mobs attacked blacks in the area, killing an estimated 120, many of whom were not involved in the revolt.The rebels went from plantation to plantation, gathering horses and guns, freeing and recruiting others along the way. During the rebellion, Virginia legislators targeted free blacks with a colonization bill, which allocated new funding to remove them, and a police bill that denied free blacks trials by jury and made any free blacks convicted of a crime subject to sale into slavery and relocation.In the aftermath, the state tried those accused of being part of Turner's slave rebellion: 18 were executed, 14 were transported out of state, and several were acquitted. Turner hid successfully for two months. When found, he was tried, convicted, sentenced to death, hanged and possibly beheaded. Across Virginia and other southern states, state legislators passed new laws to control slaves and free blacks. They prohibited education of slaves and free blacks, restricted rights of assembly for free blacks, withdrew their right to bear arms (in some states), and to vote (in North Carolina, for instance), and required white ministers to be present at all black worship services.- Birthplace: Virginia
- Jerry Lamon Falwell Jr. (; born June 17, 1962) is an American lawyer and university administrator. He serves as the president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, appointed in 2007 upon his father's death.
- Birthplace: Lynchburg, Virginia
- Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875 – April 3, 1950) was an American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He was one of the first scholars to study African-American history. A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1916, Woodson has been cited as the "father of black history". In February 1926 he launched the celebration of "Negro History Week", the precursor of Black History Month.Born in Virginia, the son of former slaves, Woodson had to put off schooling while he worked in the coal mines of West Virginia. He made it to Berea College, becoming a teacher and school administrator. He gained graduate degrees at the University of Chicago and was the second African American to obtain a PhD degree from Harvard University. Most of his academic career was spent at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where Woodson eventually served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
- Birthplace: New Canton, Virginia
- Kelli Barrett is a rising actress working primarily on stage, as well as in television and film. The Virginia Beach, Virginia, native studied musical theater at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and it has served her well as she moved from regional theater roles all the way to Broadway, where she performed in comedies and musicals. After making a modest film debut in a 2004 short film, she joined the soap classic "As the World Turns" in 2008 as Maddie Coleman, appearing in five episodes. As Barrett continued doing theater, she began finding more consistent screen work toward the end of the decade, from a cameo in the romantic comedy "Confessions of a Shopaholic" to a supporting role in the horror comedy "Red Hook" in 2009, and guest spots on TV series including the crime drama "The Good Wife" and the hit sitcom "Ugly Betty," both in 2010. Also in 2010, Barrett made a brief appearance in the higher profile romantic comedy "The Switch," starring Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston, as the wife of Patrick Wilson's character. In 2011, the same year she appeared as one of the original cast members of Broadway's "Baby It's You!," she also played young Tommy Popper's mom in the Jim Carrey family comedy "Mr. Popper's Penguins."
- Birthplace: Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
- Cyrus Hall McCormick (February 15, 1809 – May 13, 1884) was an American inventor and businessman who founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which later became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902. Originally from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, he and many members of his family became prominent residents of Chicago. McCormick has been simplistically credited as the single inventor of the mechanical reaper. He was, however, one of several designing engineers who produced successful models in the 1830s. His efforts built on more than two decades of work by his father Robert McCormick Jr., as well as the aid of Jo Anderson, a slave held by his family. He also successfully developed a modern company, with manufacturing, marketing, and a sales force to market his products.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- Wade Barrett (born June 23, 1976) is a retired American soccer player. He was most recently the interim head coach of the Houston Dynamo in Major League Soccer.
- Birthplace: Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777 – June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives, served as 7th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and served as the 9th U.S. secretary of state. He received electoral votes for president in the 1824, 1832, and 1844 presidential elections and helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. For his role in defusing sectional crises, he earned the appellation of the "Great Compromiser." Clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia in 1777 and launched a legal career in Lexington, Kentucky in 1797. As a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Clay won election to the Kentucky state legislature in 1803 and to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1810. He was chosen as speaker of the House in early 1811 and, along with President James Madison, led the United States into the War of 1812 against Britain. In 1814, he helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, which brought an end to the War of 1812. After the war, Clay returned to his position as speaker of the House and developed the American System, which called for federal infrastructure investments, support for the national bank, and protective tariff rates. In 1820, he helped bring an end to a sectional crisis over slavery by leading the passage of the Missouri Compromise. Clay finished with the fourth-most electoral votes in the multi-candidate 1824 presidential election, and he helped John Quincy Adams win the contingent election held to select the president. President Adams appointed Clay to the prestigious position of secretary of state; critics alleged that the two had agreed to a "corrupt bargain." Despite receiving support from Clay and other National Republicans, Adams was defeated by Democrat Andrew Jackson in the 1828 presidential election. Clay won election to the Senate in 1831 and ran as the National Republican nominee in the 1832 presidential election, but he was defeated by President Jackson. After the 1832 election, Clay helped bring an end to the Nullification Crisis by leading passage of the Tariff of 1833. During Jackson's second term, opponents of the president coalesced into the Whig Party, and Clay became a leading congressional Whig. Clay sought the presidency in the 1840 election but was defeated at the Whig National Convention by William Henry Harrison. He clashed with Harrison's running mate and successor, John Tyler, who broke with Clay and other congressional Whigs after taking office in 1841. Clay resigned from the Senate in 1842 and won the 1844 Whig presidential nomination, but he was defeated in the general election by Democrat James K. Polk, who made the annexation of the Republic of Texas his key issue. Clay strongly criticized the subsequent Mexican–American War and sought the Whig presidential nomination in 1848, but was defeated by General Zachary Taylor. After returning to the Senate in 1849, Clay played a key role in passing the Compromise of 1850, which resolved a crisis over the status of slavery in the territories. Clay is generally regarded as one of the most important and influential political figures of his era. He was also an advocate of the extermination and extinction of Native Americans. As Secretary of State he predicted that Indians would be gone within 50 years and “their disappearance from the human family (would) be no great loss to the world.”
- Birthplace: Virginia, USA
- Holly Kiser (born 1986) is an American fashion model. She was the first winner of Make Me a Supermodel.
- Birthplace: Coeburn, Virginia, USA
- William Clark (August 1, 1770 – September 1, 1838) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in prestatehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Missouri. Clark was a planter and slaveholder.Along with Meriwether Lewis, Clark helped lead the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 to 1806 across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean, and claimed the Pacific Northwest for the United States. Before the expedition, he served in a militia and the United States Army. Afterward, he served in a militia and as governor of the Missouri Territory. From 1822 until his death in 1838, he served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
- Birthplace: Virginia, USA
- Jay Pharoah, born Jared Antonio Farrow, joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" (NBC 1975- ) as a featured player in 2010, ascending to the main cast in 2012. The lanky 6'2" actor assumed the mantle of playing President Barack Obama from the departing Fred Armisen that same year. A gifted mimic, Farrow also impersonated celebrities including Kanye West (in a recurring sketch opposite Nasim Pedrad as West's girlfriend Kim Kardashian as the hosts of the morning talk show "Waking Up with Kimye"), Ice-T, Will Smith, Tracy Morgan, Samuel L. Jackson and Dennis Rodman. His highest-profile original character was Principal Frye, the twitchy headmaster of a violent public high school whose announcements at school functions become increasingly agitated. The Virginia native's first movie appearances came with small roles in the comedies "The Cookout 2" (2011) and "Lola Versus" (2012), followed by more substantial roles in the Ice Cube/Kevin Hart buddy comedy "Ride Along" (2014) and Chris Rock's romantic comedy "Top Five" (2015). He also appeared in a voice role in the animated comedy "Sing" (2016). Throughout his career, Pharoah also worked frequently as a stand-up comedian. In August 2016, it was announced that Pharoah would not be returning to "Saturday Night Live" for a seventh season.
- Birthplace: Chesapeake, Virginia, USA
Nancy Redd
Age: 43Nancy Amanda Redd (born April 28, 1981) is an American journalist who was Miss Virginia in 2003 and competed in Miss America, finishing in the top ten and winning the preliminary "Lifestyle & Fitness in Swimwear" competition. She is a native of Martinsville, Virginia, and graduated with honors from Harvard in 2003 with a degree in woman's studies. In February 2002 she won $250,000 on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and donated a considerable amount of her winnings to 4-H, which she had been active in as a child. She is an alumna of Girls State. She authored the book Body Drama: Real Girls, Real Bodies, Real Issues, Real Answers and is a host of HuffPost Live.She is the author of Diet Drama: Feed Your Body! Move Your Body! Love Your Body and Pregnancy, OMG!: The First Ever Photographic Guide for Modern Mamas-to-Be. Redd was one of Glamour magazine's "Top Ten College Women," in October 2002.- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Martinsville city
- Aimee Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter. Mann began her career in the 1980s as the bassist and a vocalist for 'Til Tuesday, and wrote their top-ten single "Voices Carry". She released her debut solo album, Whatever, in 1993, and has released several albums since. In 1999, Mann recorded songs for the soundtrack to the Paul Thomas Anderson film Magnolia, which earned Academy Award and Grammy Award nominations for the song "Save Me". She has won two Grammy Awards and was named one of the world's ten greatest living songwriters by NPR in 2006.
- Birthplace: Richmond, Virginia, USA
- Samuel Allen Face, Jr. (August 2, 1923 – May 2, 2001) was an American inventor and co-developer of some of the most important advances in concrete floor technology and wireless controls.
- Birthplace: City Point, Virginia
- Burton Michael Robinson (born February 6, 1983) is a former American football fullback. He was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the fourth round of the 2006 NFL Draft. He is currently an analyst for the NFL Network. Robinson played college football at Penn State. He played quarterback and wide receiver, leading the team to a Big Ten Conference title in 2005 and being recognized as the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year in 2005. He won the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the Big Ten's MVP. In 2011, he was elected to his first and only Pro Bowl as a member of the Seattle Seahawks. In his last year with the Seahawks, he helped the team win Super Bowl XLVIII over the Denver Broncos.
- Birthplace: Richmond, Virginia
- Fawn Hall (born 1959) is a former secretary to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and a notable figure in the Iran-Contra affair by helping him shred confidential documents.
- Birthplace: Annandale, Virginia
Bryn Renner
Age: 35Bryn Renner is an American football quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. He played college football at the University of North Carolina. He was the starter for the Tar Heels from 2011 to 2013.- Birthplace: West Springfield, Virginia
- Samuel Houston (March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American soldier and politician. An important leader of the Texas Revolution, Houston served as the 1st and 3rd president of the Republic of Texas, and was one of the first two individuals to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He also served as the 6th Governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas, the only American to be elected governor of two different states in the United States. Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Houston and his family migrated to Maryville, Tennessee when Houston was a teenager. Houston later ran away from home and spent time with the Cherokee, becoming known as "Raven". He served under General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812, and after the war he presided over the removal of many Cherokee from Tennessee. With the support of Jackson and others, Houston won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1823. He strongly supported Jackson's presidential candidacies, and in 1827 Houston won election as the governor of Tennessee. In 1829, after divorcing his first wife, Houston resigned from office, and joined his Cherokee friends in Arkansas Territory. Houston settled in Texas in 1832. After the Battle of Gonzales, Houston helped organize Texas's provisional government and was selected as the top-ranking official in the Texian Army. He led the Texian Army to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle in Texas's war for independence against Mexico. After the war, Houston won election in the 1836 Texas presidential election. He left office due to term limits in 1838, but won election to another term in the 1841 Texas presidential election. Houston played a key role in the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845, and in 1846 he was elected to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He joined the Democratic Party and supported President James K. Polk's prosecution of the Mexican–American War. Houston's Senate record was marked by his unionism and opposition to extremists from both the North and South. He voted for the Compromise of 1850, which settled many of the territorial issues left over from the Mexican–American War and the annexation of Texas. He later voted against the Kansas–Nebraska Act because he believed it would lead to increased sectional tensions over slavery, and his opposition to that act led him to leave the Democratic Party. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidential nomination of the American Party in the 1856 presidential election and the Constitutional Union Party in the 1860 presidential election. In 1859, Houston won election as the governor of Texas. In that role, he opposed secession and unsuccessfully sought to keep Texas out of the Confederate States of America. He was forced out of office in 1861 and died in 1863. Houston's name has been honored in numerous ways, and he is the eponym of the city of Houston, the fourth most populous city in the United States.
- Birthplace: Virginia, USA
- Jerome Eugene "Bigfoot" Brailey (born August 20, 1950) is an American drummer, best known for his work with P-Funk, which included the bands Parliament, Funkadelic, and numerous related projects. Brailey is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Richmond
General Norman Johnson
Dec. at 69 (1941-2010)General Johnson may refer to: General Norman Johnson (1941–2010), American musicianGeneral Johnson may also refer to generals with the surname of Johnson: Charles B. Bulkeley-Johnson (1867 ––1917), British Army Brigadier General Adam R. "Stovepipe" Johnson (1834–1922), Confederate States Army Brigadier General Sir Allen Johnson (1829-1907), British Indian Army General Andrew Johnson (1808–1875), United States Union Army Brigadier General Bradley T. Johnson (1829–1903), Confederate States Army Brigadier General Bushrod Johnson (1817–1880), Confederate States Army Major General Sir Charles C. Johnson, British Army General Dean Johnson (born 1947), United States Army National Guard Brigadier General Dudley G. Johnson (1884–1975), British Army Major General Edward Johnson (1816–1873), Confederate States Army Major General Sir Edwin B. Johnson (1825–1893), British Army General Sir Garry Johnson (1937– ), British Army General Gerald W. Johnson (1919–2002), United States Air Force Lieutenant General Sir George F.Johnson (1903–1980), British Army Major General Hansford T. Johnson (born 1936), United States Air Force General Harold K. Johnson (1912–1983), United States Army General Herbert T. Johnson (1872–1942), Vermont National Guard Brigadier General Harry H. Johnson (1895–1987), United States Army Major General Hazel Johnson-Brown (1927–2011), United States Army Brigadier General Sir Henry Johnson (1748–1835), British Army General Hugh S. Johnson (1881–1942), United States Army Brigadier General James A. Johnson, United States Army Major General John D. Johnson, United States Army Lieutenant General Kermit D. Johnson (born 1928), United States Army Major General Leon W. Johnson (1904–1997), United States Air Force General Michelle D. Johnson, United States Air Force Lieutenant General Paul T. Johnson (1958– ), United States Air Force Major General Richard W. Johnson (1827–1897), United States Union Army Brigadier General Rodney L. Johnson (born 1955), United States Army Brigadier General Thomas Johnson (1732–1819), Maryland Militia Brigadier General Sir William Johnson (c.1715–1774), British Army Major General- Birthplace: Virginia
- David Cloud Berman (born David Craig Berman; January 4, 1967 – August 7, 2019) was an American musician, singer, poet and cartoonist best known for his work with indie-rock band the Silver Jews. Although the band primarily existed as a recording project for most of its existence, the Silver Jews toured regularly from 2005 until 2009. In January 2009, Berman announced his retirement from music in hopes of finding a meaningful way of undoing the damage that his estranged father Richard Berman (a lobbyist and public relations executive for the alcohol and tobacco industries, among others) had brought upon society.In addition to the six full-length albums that Berman wrote and recorded with the Silver Jews, he released two books: Actual Air (1999) and The Portable February (2009). In early 2019, Berman returned to music under the new band name Purple Mountains, releasing a self-titled debut album in July 2019. On August 7, 2019, Berman was found dead in an apartment in Brooklyn, New York. His death was ruled a suicide.
- Birthplace: Williamsburg, Virginia
- Dred Scott (c. 1799 – September 17, 1858) was an enslaved African American man in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the "Dred Scott case". Scott claimed that he and his wife should be granted their freedom because they had lived in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory for four years, where slavery was illegal and their laws said that slaveholders gave up their rights to slaves if they stayed for an extended period. In a landmark case, the United States Supreme Court decided 7–2 against Scott, finding that neither he nor any other person of African ancestry could claim citizenship in the United States, and therefore Scott could not bring suit in federal court under diversity of citizenship rules. Moreover, Scott's temporary residence outside Missouri did not bring about his emancipation under the Missouri Compromise, as the court ruled this to have been unconstitutional, as it would "improperly deprive Scott's owner of his legal property". While Chief Justice Roger B. Taney had hoped to settle issues related to slavery and Congressional authority by this decision, it aroused public outrage, deepened sectional tensions between the northern and southern states, and hastened the eventual explosion of their differences into the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and the post-Civil War Reconstruction Amendments—the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments—nullified the decision. The Scotts were manumitted by a private arrangement in May 1857. Dred Scott died of tuberculosis a few months later.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- Rachel Jackson (née Donelson; June 15, 1767 – December 22, 1828) was the wife of Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States. She lived with him at their home at The Hermitage, where she died just days after his election and before his inauguration in 1829—therefore she never served as First Lady, a role assumed by her niece, Emily Donelson.Rachel Jackson was married at first to Lewis Robards in Nashville. In about 1791, she eloped with Andrew Jackson, believing that Robards had secured the couple a divorce. It was later revealed that he had not, meaning that her marriage to Jackson was technically bigamous. They were forced to remarry in 1794 after the divorce had been finalized. She had a close relationship with her husband, and was usually anxious while he was away tending to military or political affairs. A Presbyterian, Rachel was noted for her deep religious piety. During the deeply personal prelude to the 1828 election, she was the subject of extremely negative attacks from the supporters of Andrew Jackson's opponent, John Quincy Adams. Jackson believed that these attacks had hastened her death, and thus blamed his political enemies.
- Hilary Hahn (born November 27, 1979) is an American violinist. She has performed throughout the world both as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors and as a recitalist. She has also built a reputation as a champion of contemporary music. Several composers have written works for her, including concerti by Edgar Meyer and Jennifer Higdon, partitas by Antón García Abril, and a violin and piano sonata by Lera Auerbach.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia
- Carter Anthony Beauford (born November 2, 1958, in Charlottesville, Virginia) is an American drummer, percussionist, and founding member of Dave Matthews Band. He is known for his ability to adapt to a variety of genres, and both his ambidextrous and his open-handed drumming styles. He plays the drums and sings backing vocals in the band. Beauford was ranked number 10 by a Rolling Stone magazine reader's poll in 2010 for greatest drummers of all-time.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Charlottesville
Robert Mosbacher
Dec. at 82 (1927-2010)Robert Adam Mosbacher Sr. (March 11, 1927 – January 24, 2010) was an American businessman, accomplished yacht racer, and a Republican politician.- Birthplace: Mount Vernon, New York, USA
Louis King
Dec. at 64 (1898-1962)Louis King (born June 28, 1898, Christiansburg, Virginia – died September 7, 1962) was an American actor and film director of westerns and adventure movies in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Christiansburg
- June Carter Cash (born Valerie June Carter; June 23, 1929 – May 15, 2003) was a five-time Grammy award winning American singer, songwriter, actress, dancer, comedian, and author who was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. Prior to her marriage to Cash, she was professionally known as June Carter and occasionally was still credited as such after her marriage (as well as on songwriting credits predating it). She played guitar, banjo, harmonica, and autoharp, and acted in several films and television shows. Carter Cash won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009. She was ranked number 31 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music in 2003.
- Birthplace: USA, Maces Spring, Virginia
- An energetic male lead of the late silent and early talkie era, and one of MGM's most bankable stars, actor William Haines used his boy-next-door looks and charm to play young collegiates or military recruits in a number of successful pictures. Haines first made his name in a number of supporting roles in the mid-1920s with movies like "Three Wise Fools" (1923), "The Gaiety Girl" (1924) and "Circe, the Enchantress" (1924), before becoming a star in his own right with his breakthrough picture, "Brown of Harvard" (1926). His brash, wisecracking persona proved to be a big hit and Haines went on to star in a series of movies like "Spring Fever" (1927), "West Point" (1928), and "Telling the World" (1928), where he was often paired opposite Joan Crawford or Anita Page. Haines transitioned over to talkies with "Alias Johnny Valentine" (1928), but like so many of his silent era contemporaries, he failed to last long in the sound era. Making matters worse was his refusal to hide his homosexuality, which at the time was a major taboo and proved to be his ultimate downfall. After making his last movie with "The Marines Are Coming" (1934), Haines was effectively banished from making movies by censor William Hays, but soon launched a highly successful second career as an interior decorator with lifelong partner, James Shields, who was with him up till the very end.
- Birthplace: Staunton, Virginia, USA
- Walker Brooke (December 25, 1813 – February 18, 1869) was an American politician who served as a Deputy from Mississippi to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1862. He was also a U.S. Senator from 1852 to 1853, representing the state of Mississippi.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia
- "Mother" Maybelle Carter (born Maybelle Addington; May 10, 1909 – October 23, 1978) was an American country musician. She is best known as a member of the historic Carter Family act in the 1920s and 1930s and also as a member of Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters.
- Birthplace: Nickelsville, Virginia
- Al Foster (born January 18, 1943) is an American jazz drummer. Foster played with Miles Davis during the 1970s and was one of the few people to have contact with Davis during his retirement from 1975–1981. Foster also played on Davis's 1981 comeback album The Man with the Horn. He was the only musician to play in Davis's band both before and after his retirement. He has toured extensively with Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, and Joe Henderson.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Richmond
- Bernard Joseph Baron (born June 26, 1955 in Richmond, Virginia) is an American avant-garde jazz drummer who plays frequently with Bill Frisell and John Zorn.
- Birthplace: Richmond, Virginia
- Rae'Ven Larrymore Kelly (born June 28, 1985) is an American film and television actress.
- Birthplace: Fairfax, Virginia, USA
- Pocahontas (US: , UK: ; born Matoaka, known as Amonute, c. 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of a network of tributary tribes in the Tsenacommacah, encompassing the Tidewater region of Virginia. She saved the life of Colonist John Smith in 1607, who was being held captive by her tribe, by placing her head upon Smith's when her father raised his war club to execute him. Pocahontas was captured and held for ransom by the Colonists during hostilities in 1613. During her captivity, she converted to Christianity and took the name Rebecca. When the opportunity arose for her to return to her people, she chose to remain with the Colonists. She married tobacco planter John Rolfe in April 1614 at age 17, and she bore their son Thomas Rolfe in January 1615.In 1616, the Rolfes travelled to London where Pocahontas was presented to English society as an example of the "civilized savage" in hopes of stimulating investment in the Jamestown settlement. She became something of a celebrity, was elegantly fêted, and attended a masque at Whitehall Palace. In 1617, the Rolfes set sail for Virginia, but Pocahontas died at Gravesend of unknown causes, aged 20 or 21. She was buried in St George's Church, Gravesend in England, but her grave's exact location is unknown, as the church has been rebuilt.Numerous places, landmarks, and products in the United States have been named after Pocahontas. Her story has been romanticized over the years, and she is a subject of art, literature, and film. Many famous people have claimed to be among her descendants through her son, including members of the First Families of Virginia, First Lady Edith Wilson, American Western actor Glenn Strange, Las Vegas performer Wayne Newton, and astronomer Percival Lowell.
- Birthplace: Werowocomoco
- Carlton Earl "Carl" Anderson (February 27, 1945 – February 23, 2004) was an American singer, film and theater actor best known for his portrayal of Judas Iscariot in the Broadway and film versions of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Anderson and singer-actress Gloria Loring performed the duet "Friends and Lovers", which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1986.
- Birthplace: Lynchburg, USA, Virginia
- Mark Scott Travis (born September 6, 1961) is an American rock musician, best known as the drummer for the English heavy metal band Judas Priest, the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy, and the American heavy metal band Racer X.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Norfolk
Tom Rukavina
Age: 74Thomas Rukavina (August 23, 1950 – January 7, 2019) was an American politician and a Democratic–Farmer–Labor (DFL) member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1987 to 2013. In 2010 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Minnesota, seeking the DFL nomination. He was a St. Louis County commissioner from 2015 to 2018.- Birthplace: Virginia, Minnesota
- Joseph Herbert "Joe" Weatherly (May 29, 1922 – January 19, 1964) was an American stock car racing driver. Weatherly was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2009 after winning NASCAR's Grand National (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) championships in 1962 and 1963, three AMA Grand National Championships, and two NASCAR Modified championships.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- Asher Monroe Book (born September 18, 1988), known professionally as Asher Monroe, is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor. In 2006, after starring in an extensive run of national tours including The Sound of Music, Oliver!, and The Prince and the Pauper, Monroe signed to Warner Bros. Records, under which he released his first top 40 single "Love Struck" as lead singer for the boy band V Factory. From 2006-2009, he starred in multiple prime time TV & film roles including Parenthood on NBC the MGM remake of Fame and The Mentalist on CBS, after which he signed on as the flagship solo artist to the music label D Empire Entertainment. In 2011, under new label and management, he was named one of MTV's Top Ten Artists, alongside other artists such as Frank Ocean, Lana Del Rey, and Avicii. In December 2012, he appeared on the sponsored cover of Billboard magazine, after he which he released his two latest singles: Here With You (co-written by Monroe and produced by OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder) and Hush Hush (co-produced by Monroe). Monroe began recording collaborations in late 2013 with Chris Brown and Sean Kingston in Los Angeles, CA for his upcoming solo album.
- Birthplace: Arlington, Virginia, USA
- An Asian-American actor with Korean roots, Will Yun Lee is most readily recognizable for his villainous turns in Hollywood movies. The son of a Tae Kwon Do expert, Lee trained in martial arts during his youth. After cutting his teeth on a few television guest spots, Lee had his big break as a key supporting character in the comic-book-based TV movie "Witchblade" (TNT, 2000) and reprised his role in the series (TNT, 2001-02). A bad-guy turn in the Bond film "Die Another Day" (2002) raised Lee's profile significantly, and soon he was alternating movie and TV parts, notably going on to play formidable adversaries in the big-budget Marvel Comics adaptations "Elektra" (2005) and "The Wolverine" (2013).
- Birthplace: Arlington, Virginia, USA
- Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786 – May 29, 1866) was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early stages of the American Civil War, and various conflicts with Native Americans. Scott was the Whig Party's presidential nominee in the 1852 presidential election, but was defeated by Democrat Franklin Pierce. He was known as Old Fuss and Feathers for his insistence on proper military etiquette, and as the Grand Old Man of the Army for his many years of service. Scott was born near Petersburg, Virginia, in 1786. After training as a lawyer, he joined the army in 1808 as a captain of the light artillery. In the War of 1812, Scott served on the Canadian front, taking part in the Battle of Queenston Heights and the Battle of Fort George, and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in early 1814. He served with distinction in the Battle of Chippawa, but was badly wounded in the subsequent Battle of Lundy's Lane. After the conclusion of the war, Scott was assigned to command army forces in a district containing much of the Northeastern United States, and he and his family made their home near New York City. During the 1830s, Scott negotiated an end to the Black Hawk War, took part in the Second Seminole War and the Creek War of 1836, and presided over the removal of the Cherokee. Scott also helped to avert war with Britain, defusing tensions arising from the Patriot War and the Aroostook War. In 1841, Scott became the Commanding General of the United States Army, beating out his rival, Edmund P. Gaines, for the position. After the outbreak of the Mexican–American War in 1846, Scott initially served as an administrator, but in 1847 he led a campaign against the Mexican capital of Mexico City. After capturing the port city of Veracruz, he defeated Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna's armies at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, the Battle of Contreras, and the Battle of Churubusco and captured Mexico City. He maintained order in the Mexican capital and indirectly helped envoy Nicholas Trist negotiate the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which brought an end to the war. Scott was a candidate for the Whig presidential nomination in 1840, 1844, and 1848, and he finally won the Whig presidential nomination at the 1852 Whig National Convention. The Whigs were badly divided over the Compromise of 1850, and Pierce won a decisive victory over his former commander. Nonetheless, Scott remained popular among the public, and in 1855 he received a brevet promotion to the rank of lieutenant general, becoming the first U.S. Army officer to hold that rank since George Washington. Despite being a Virginia native, Scott stayed loyal to the Union and served as an important adviser to President Abraham Lincoln during the opening stages of the Civil War. He developed a strategy known as the Anaconda Plan, but retired in late 1861 after Lincoln increasingly relied on General George B. McClellan for military advice and leadership. Scott's military talent was highly regarded by contemporaries, and historians generally consider him to be one of the most accomplished generals in U.S. history.
- Birthplace: Virginia, USA
- Bruce Bernard Smith (born June 18, 1963) is a former American football defensive end for the Buffalo Bills and the Washington Redskins of the National Football League. He was a member of the Buffalo Bills teams that played in four consecutive Super Bowls as AFC champions. The holder of the NFL career record for quarterback sacks with 200, Smith was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009, his first year of eligibility. Smith was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006.
- Birthplace: Norfolk, Virginia
- John Thomas Casteen III (born December 11, 1943 in Portsmouth, Virginia) is an American educator. He served as Professor of English and President of the University of Virginia from 1990 through 2010.
- Birthplace: Portsmouth, Virginia
- Warren B. Riley joined Oak in 1999 as an Associate and was promoted to General Partner for Oak XII. He focuses on investments in the consumer Internet, digital media, online advertising and enterprise software and services sectors. Ren currently serves on the Boards of Centric Software, Digital Media Group, iCrossing, Parlano, Reunion.com, Sutherland Global Services and Talisma. He is also closely working with several Oak portfolio companies including Aspect Software, Demand Media, Lingtu, MobiTV, RazorGator, Rearden Commerce, Shop.com, SportsGG and U.S. Auto Parts (NASD: PRTS). Ren has been involved with Oak's investments in Allyes (acquired by Focus Media), Aventail, Cobalt, Connexus Corporation, Fastclick (acquired by ValueClick), Limelight Networks and Tele Atlas (Amsterdam: TA.AS). Prior to joining Oak, Ren was a Senior Associate with Robertson Stephens, a technology-focused investment bank. He worked in the corporate finance division and executed several public and private equity offerings as well as MA transactions in the Internet, technology, business and information services sectors. Ren graduated from Dartmouth College with a BA in Government.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- Peggie Castle was an American actress who appeared in "Tall Man Riding," "I, the Jury," and "Four Star Playhouse."
- Birthplace: Appalachia, Virginia, USA
- Francis Asbury Tarkenton (born February 3, 1940) is an American former football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played in the NFL for 18 seasons, spending the majority of his career with the Minnesota Vikings. After retiring from football, he became a television personality and computer software executive. Tarkenton's tenure with the Vikings spanned thirteen non-consecutive seasons, playing with the team for six seasons from 1961 to 1966, then for seven seasons from 1972 to 1978. In between his years in Minnesota, Tarkenton was a member of the New York Giants for five seasons. At the time of his retirement, Tarkenton owned every major quarterback record. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1987. In addition to his football career, Tarkenton served as a commentator on Monday Night Football and a co-host of That's Incredible!. He also founded Tarkenton Software, a computer-program generator company, and he toured the U.S. promoting CASE (computer-aided software engineering) with Albert F. Case Jr. of Nastec Corporation. Tarkenton Software later merged with KnowledgeWare (with Tarkenton as president), until selling the company to Sterling Software in 1994.
- Birthplace: Richmond, Virginia, USA
- Sara Elizabeth Carter (née Dougherty; later Sara Carter Bayes; July 21, 1898 – January 8, 1979) was an American country music musician, singer, and songwriter. Remembered mostly for her deep, distinctive, mature singing voice, she was the lead singer on most of the recordings of the historic Carter Family act in the 1920s and 1930s. In her earliest recordings her voice was pitched very high.
- Birthplace: Copper Creek, Virginia
- Kathryn Elizabeth Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986), known professionally as Kate Smith and The First Lady of Radio, was an American singer, a contralto, well known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". She had a radio, television, and recording career spanning five decades, which reached its pinnacle in the 1940s. Smith became known as The Songbird of the South after her enduring popularity during World War II.
- Birthplace: Greenville, Virginia, USA
William L. Scott
Dec. at 81 (1915-1997)William Lloyd Scott (July 1, 1915 – February 14, 1997) was a Republican politician from Virginia. He served in both the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate, and was Virginia's first post-Reconstruction Republican Senator.- Birthplace: Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
- Willard Herman Scott Jr. (March 7, 1934 – September 4, 2021) was an American weather presenter, radio and TV personality, actor, narrator, clown, comedian, and author, with a career spanning 65 years. He is best known for his television work on the Today show as weather reporter who also presented a tribute greetings segment for people celebrating their 100th or above birthdays. He was the creator and original portrayer of Ronald McDonald.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia
- Boyd Calvin Tinsley (born May 16, 1964) is an American violinist and mandolinist who is best known for having been a member of the Dave Matthews Band. Within the band, Tinsley has collaborated in writing songs, harmonizing, and singing backing vocals.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Charlottesville
- Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, CH (19 May 1879 – 2 May 1964) was an American-born British politician and the first female Member of Parliament (MP) to take her seat. Astor was an American citizen who moved to England at age 26 and married Waldorf Astor. He succeeded to the peerage and entered the House of Lords; she then entered politics and won his former seat in Plymouth in 1919, becoming the first woman to sit as an MP in the House of Commons. Her first husband was American Robert Gould Shaw II, and they divorced. She served in Parliament as a member of the Conservative Party for Plymouth Sutton until 1945, when she was persuaded to step down.
- Birthplace: Virginia, USA
- George Mason IV (December 11, 1725 [O.S. November 30, 1725] – October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including substantial portions of the Fairfax Resolves of 1774, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and his Objections to this Constitution of Government (1787) in opposition to ratification, have exercised a significant influence on American political thought and events. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights, of which he has been deemed the father. Mason was born in 1725, most likely in what is now Fairfax County, Virginia. His father died when he was young, and his mother managed the family estates until he came of age. He married in 1750, built Gunston Hall, and lived the life of a country squire, supervising his lands, family, and slaves. He briefly served in the House of Burgesses and involved himself in community affairs, sometimes serving with his neighbor George Washington. As tensions grew between Britain and the American colonies, Mason came to support the colonial side, and used his knowledge and experience to help the revolutionary cause, finding ways to work around the Stamp Act of 1765 and serving in the pro-independence Fourth Virginia Convention in 1775 and the Fifth Virginia Convention in 1776. Mason prepared the first draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776, and his words formed much of the text adopted by the final Revolutionary Virginia Convention. He also wrote a constitution for the state; Thomas Jefferson and others sought to have the convention adopt their ideas, but they found that Mason's version could not be stopped. During the American Revolutionary War, Mason was a member of the powerful House of Delegates of the Virginia General Assembly but, to the irritation of Washington and others, he refused to serve in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, citing health and family commitments. Mason was in 1787 named one of his state's delegates to the Constitutional Convention and traveled to Philadelphia, his only lengthy trip outside Virginia. Many clauses in the Constitution bear his stamp, as he was active in the convention for months before deciding that he could not sign it. He cited the lack of a bill of rights most prominently in his Objections, but also wanted an immediate end to the slave trade and a supermajority for navigation acts, which might force exporters of tobacco to use more expensive American ships. He failed to attain these objectives there, and again at the Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788, but his prominent fight for a bill of rights led fellow Virginian James Madison to introduce one during the First Congress in 1789; these amendments were ratified in 1791, a year before Mason died. Obscure after his death, Mason has come to be recognized in the 20th and 21st centuries for his contributions both to the early United States and to Virginia.
- Birthplace: Virginia, USA
Harry F. Byrd, Jr.
Dec. at 98 (1914-2013)Harry Flood Byrd Jr. (December 20, 1914 – July 30, 2013) was an American orchardist, newspaper publisher and politician. He served in the Senate of Virginia and then represented Virginia in the United States Senate, succeeding his father, Harry F. Byrd Sr. His public service spanned thirty-six years, while he was a publisher of several Virginia newspapers. After the decline of his family's political machine, due to its infamous support of massive resistance, he abandoned the Democratic Party in 1970, citing concern about its leftward tilt. He rehabilitated his political career, becoming the first independent in the history of the U.S. Senate to be elected by a majority of the popular vote.- Birthplace: Winchester, Virginia, USA
- Roosevelt "Rosey" Brown Jr. (October 20, 1932 – June 9, 2004) was an American football player. He was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants from 1953 to 1965. He previously played college football for Morgan State University. After being selected with the 321st pick in the 1953 NFL Draft, he appeared in 162 games for the Giants, missing only four games in a 13-year career. In his prime, between 1956 and 1963, he helped lead the Giants to six division championships and the 1956 NFL Championship Game. He was selected as a first-team All-NFL player eight consecutive years and was also selected to play in the Pro Bowl nine times. After retiring as a player, Brown remained with the Giants as an assistant coach and later as a scout. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974 and was named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1994. He was also included on the NFL's 1950s All-Decade Team and The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Charlottesville
James Parks
Dec. at 86 (1843-1929)James Parks (March 19, 1843 – August 21, 1929) was a freed slave who is prominently buried in Arlington National Cemetery and is the only person buried there who was born on the grounds. He was born a slave but was later freed by his owner and continued to work at the cemetery as a grave digger. He helped historians locate some of the buildings and landmarks that existed prior to the establishment of Arlington National Cemetery such as the slave cemetery, roads and other key locations. He died at Freedman's Village in Arlington, Virginia and was granted special permission to be buried at Arlington by the Secretary of War.- Birthplace: Virginia
Carter Glass
Dec. at 88 (1858-1946)Carter Glass (January 4, 1858 – May 28, 1946) was an American newspaper publisher and Democratic politician from Lynchburg, Virginia. He represented Virginia in both houses of Congress and served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Woodrow Wilson. He played a major role in the establishment of the U.S. financial regulatory system, helping to establish the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. After working as a newspaper editor and publisher, Glass won election to the Senate of Virginia in 1899. He was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1902, where he was an influential advocate of both progressive and segregationist policies. Glass won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1902 and became Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency in 1913. Working with President Wilson, he passed the Federal Reserve Act, which established a central banking system for the United States. Glass served as Secretary of the Treasury from 1918 until 1920, when he accepted an appointment to represent Virginia in the United States Senate. Glass was a favorite son candidate for the presidential nomination at the 1920 Democratic National Convention. Glass served in the Senate from 1920 until his death in 1946, becoming Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee in 1933. He also served as president pro tempore of the Senate from 1941 to 1945. He co-sponsored the 1933 Banking Act, also known as the Glass–Steagall Act, which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and enforced the separation of investment banking firms and commercial banks. An ardent supporter of states' rights, Glass opposed much of the New Deal and clashed with President Franklin D. Roosevelt over the control of federal appointments in Virginia.- Birthplace: Lynchburg, Virginia, USA
Pete Hill
Dec. at 69 (1882-1951)John Preston "Pete" Hill (October 12, 1882 – November 19, 1951) was an American outfielder and manager in baseball's Negro leagues from 1899 to 1925. He played for the Philadelphia Giants, Leland Giants, Chicago American Giants, Detroit Stars, Milwaukee Bears, and Baltimore Black Sox. Hill starred for teams owned by Negro league executive Rube Foster for much of his playing career. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.- Birthplace: Virginia
- Thomas J. Armat (October 25, 1866 – September 30, 1948) was an American mechanic and inventor, a pioneer of cinema best known through the co-invention of the Edison Vitascope.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- William Percival Harvin III (born May 28, 1988) is a former American football wide receiver. He played college football at Florida, when the Gators won the BCS National Championship in 2006 and 2008, and was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL) in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft. Harvin also played for the Seattle Seahawks, New York Jets and Buffalo Bills. He was named the Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2009 and won Super Bowl XLVIII with the Seahawks in 2013 over the Denver Broncos. He attended and played football for Landstown High School in Virginia Beach, where his team won the high school state championship in 2004.
- Birthplace: Chesapeake, Virginia
- Edward Leroy Beard (born December 9, 1939 in Chesapeake, Virginia) is a former professional American football player.
- Birthplace: Chesapeake, Virginia
- Peter Jeffrey Kelsay Wisoff (born August 16, 1958) is an American physicist and former NASA astronaut. Wisoff qualified as mission specialist and flew in four manned Space Shuttle missions, with his first launch in 1993 and his last in 2000.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- Curtis Northrup Strange (born January 30, 1955) is an American professional golfer and TV color commentator. He is the winner of consecutive U.S. Open titles and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. He spent over 200 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Ranking between their debut in 1986 and 1990.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- John Barron McKay (December 8, 1922 – April 27, 1975) was an American naval officer, World War II pilot, aeronautical engineer, and test pilot. He was one of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15, an experimental spaceplane jointly operated by the United States Air Force and NASA. On September 28, 1965, he flew the X-15 to an altitude above 50 miles, thereby qualifying as an astronaut according to the United States definition of the boundary of space. However, this altitude did not surpass the Kármán line, the internationally accepted boundary of 100 kilometers (62 miles). On November 9, 1962, McKay was injured when forced to make an emergency landing in the X-15-2, the second of three planes in the X-15 fleet. The craft rolled over, and McKay suffered crushed vertebrae. Subsequently, the damaged plane was refurbished to become the X-15A-2, a modified variant. Although McKay returned to flight as an X-15 pilot, his injuries contributed to an early death. He died on April 27, 1975.
- Birthplace: Portsmouth, Virginia
- Daniel Joseph Berrigan (May 9, 1921 – April 30, 2016) was an American Jesuit priest, anti-war activist, Christian pacifist, playwright, poet, and author. Like many others during the 1960s, Berrigan's active protest against the Vietnam War earned him both scorn and admiration, but it was his participation in the Catonsville Nine that made him famous. It also landed him on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's "most wanted list" (the first-ever priest on the list), on the cover of Time magazine, and in prison. His own particular form of militancy and radical spirituality in the service of social and political justice was significant enough, at that time, to "shape the tactics of resistance to the Vietnam War" in the United States.For the rest of his life, Berrigan remained one of the United States' leading anti-war activists. In 1980, he founded the Plowshares movement, an anti-nuclear protest group, that put him back into the national spotlight. He was also an award-winning and prolific author of some 50 books, a teacher, and a university educator. He, along with his activist brother Philip Berrigan, was nominated in 1998 for the Nobel Peace Prize by 1976 laureate Mairead Maguire.
- Birthplace: USA, Virginia, Minnesota
- Vincent Deon Butler (born January 4, 1986) is a former American football wide receiver. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the third round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He played college football at Penn State.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- Keith Lorenzo Goganious (born December 7, 1968) is a high school football coach. He served as head coach of the Bishop McNamara High School Varsity Football Team and Assistant Athletic Director before being let go on December 21, 2016. Before Bishop McNamara High School, he served as Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator/linebacker coach at Hampton University from 2009-2013. Goganious played linebacker in the NFL for five seasons with the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens. He attended and played for Pennsylvania State University.
- Birthplace: Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Eppa Rixey Jr. (May 3, 1891 – February 28, 1963), nicknamed "Jephtha", was an American left-handed pitcher who played 21 seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds in Major League Baseball from 1912 to 1933. Rixey was best known as the National League's leader in career victories for a left-hander with 266 wins until Warren Spahn surpassed his total in 1959. Rixey attended the University of Virginia where he was a star pitcher. He was discovered by umpire Cy Rigler, who convinced him to sign directly with the Phillies, bypassing minor league baseball entirely. His time with the Phillies was marked by inconsistency. He won 22 games in 1916, but also led the league in losses twice. In 1915, the Phillies played in the World Series, and Rixey lost in his only appearance. After being traded to the Reds prior to the 1921 season, he won 20 or more games in a season three times, including a league-leading 25 in 1922, and posted eight consecutive winning seasons. His skills were declining by the 1929 season, when his record was 10–13 with a 4.16 earned run average. He pitched another four seasons before retiring after the 1933 season. An intellectual who taught high school Latin during the off-season, earning the nickname "Jephtha" for his southern drawl, Rixey was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1963.
- Birthplace: Culpeper, Virginia
- John Meade Haines (June 29, 1924 – March 2, 2011) was an American poet and educator who had served as the poet laureate of Alaska.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- George Caleb Bingham (March 20, 1811 – July 7, 1879) was an American artist, soldier and politician known in his lifetime as "the Missouri Artist". Initially a Whig, he was elected as a delegate to the Missouri legislature before the American Civil War where he fought the extension of slavery westward. During that war, although born in Virginia, Bingham was dedicated to the Union cause and became captain of a volunteer company which helped keep the state from joining the Confederacy, and then served four years as Missouri's Treasurer. During his final years, Bingham held several offices in Kansas City, while also serving as Missouri's Adjutant General. His paintings of American frontier life along the Missouri River exemplify the Luminist style.
- Birthplace: Virginia, USA
- Victor Lemonte Wooten (born September 11, 1964) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, educator, and recipient of five Grammy Awards. He has been the bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones since the group's formation in 1988 and a member of the band SMV with two other bassists, Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller. Since 2017 he has played bass for the metal band Nitro. He owns Vix Records which releases his albums. He wrote the novel The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music.Wooten has won the Bass Player of the Year award from Bass Player magazine three times and is the first person to win the award more than once. In 2011, he was ranked No. 10 in the Top 10 Bassists of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine.
- Birthplace: Idaho, USA, Mountain Home
Rob Keefe
Age: 44Rob Keefe (born November 5, 1980) is a former arena football defensive specialist and current head coach of the Albany Empire of the Arena Football League (AFL). Keefe has four championship victories and is the only person in arena football history to win ArenaCup (af2) and ArenaBowl (AFL) titles as both a player and a coach.- Birthplace: Springfield, Virginia
- Kameron Darnel Chancellor (born April 3, 1988) is a former American football strong safety. He played college football at Virginia Tech, and was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth round of the 2010 NFL Draft. He was a member of the team's Legion of Boom unit that defeated the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII. He was released following the 2018 season by the Seahawks due to a severe neck injury that kept him from playing during that entire season.
- Birthplace: Virginia
- Joe Frank Edwards Jr. (born February 3, 1958), (Cmdr, USN, Ret.), is an American aerospace engineer, and former naval officer and aviator, test pilot and NASA astronaut.
- Birthplace: Richmond, Virginia
- Abel Parker Upshur (June 17, 1790 – February 28, 1844) was a lawyer, planter, slaveowner, judge and politician from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Active in Virginia state politics for decades, with a brother and a nephew who became distinguished U.S. Navy officers, Judge Upshur left the Virginia bench to become the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of State during the administration of President John Tyler, a fellow Virginian. He negotiated the treaty that led to the 1845 annexation of the Republic of Texas to the United States and helped ensure that it was admitted as a slave state. Upshur died on February 28, 1844, when a gun on the warship USS Princeton exploded during a demonstration.
- Birthplace: Virginia, USA
Michael Schwimer
Age: 38Michael Fredarick Schwimer is an American professional baseball relief pitcher who is a free agent. The 6' 8" pitcher was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008, out of the University of Virginia. In his minor league career, he averaged 12.1 strikeouts per 9 innings, as he was 20–10 with a 2.51 ERA, and gave up 184 hits while striking out 313 batters in 233 innings. In August 2011, he made his debut in the major leagues. On February 23, 2013, he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays. He was released by the team on August 7, 2013.- Birthplace: Virginia
- Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (April 22, 1873 – November 21, 1945) was an American novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1942. A lifelong Virginian who published 20 books including seven novels which sold well (five reaching best-seller lists) as well as gained critical acclaim, Glasgow portrayed the changing world of the contemporary South.
- Birthplace: Richmond, Virginia
- In 1930, John Payne left Salem, Virginia, where he had been studying at Roanoke College. He went to New York City to study drama at Columbia University and voice at Juilliard. To pay his way, he worked various jobs, among which was singing in vaudeville. In 1934, a talent scout from the Shubert theaters, which ran some of New York's most important theater venues, noticed him and offered him work as a stock player. He toured with some of their shows and occasionally sang on radio programs. With his star on the rise, Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn offered him a contract, and he relocated to the West Coast. After working for various studios, he signed a contract with 20th Century Fox. With Fox he became a star in movie musicals, often playing the love interest of actresses like Betty Grable and Alice Faye in films like "Tin Pan Alley" (1940) and "Hello Frisco, Hello" (1943). In 1947, he landed in his best known role, starring as Fred Gailey, an attorney trying to prove Santa Claus is real, in the perennial Christmas classic "Miracle on 34th Street." In the 1950s, Payne's gentle image gave way to one of the tough guy, and he started appearing in Westerns and noir movies like "Silver Lode" in 1954 and "Hell's Island" in 1955. He took on a regular role on television from 1957 to 1959, when he starred as Vint Bonner, a gun-fighting cowboy, in the Western "The Restless Gun."
- Birthplace: Roanoke, Virginia, USA
- William Barton Rogers (December 7, 1804 – May 30, 1882) was an American geologist, physicist, and educator at the University of Virginia from 1835 to 1853. In 1861, Rogers founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The university opened in 1865 after the American Civil War. Because of his affiliation with Virginia, Mount Rogers, the highest peak in the state, is named after him.
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Hardy Cross (1885 – 1959) was an American structural engineer and the developer of the moment distribution method for structural analysis of statically indeterminate structures. The method was in general use from c. 1935 until c. 1960 when it was gradually superseded by other methods.
- Birthplace: Nansemond County, Suffolk, Virginia
- Gary Fleder made a smooth transition first from student films to television and then to features. His student short "Terminal Round," a 8-minute look into boxing, appeared at the Mill Valley (California) Film Festival in 1988 and his USC thesis project "Air Time" (1991) opened eyes to his talent at the 1992 Sundance Festival. A 48-minute thriller written by pal Scott Rosenberg, "Air Time" related the story of an ex-con threatening a late-night radio-talk-show psychologist. He returned to the world of boxing when he helmed "Animal Instinct" (1992), a 30-minute documentary detailing three years in the life of Brooklyn boxer Philip Paolina. Fleder cut his commercial teeth directing two episodes of HBO's popular "Tales From the Crypt" series ("Seance" 1992; "Forever Ambergris" 1993), both written by Rosenberg.
- Birthplace: Norfolk, Virginia, USA
