Who are some famous people from your state?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Every year Mrs. H’s friend, a third grade teacher, has the kids research a famous Missourian, and every year the same handful of names comes up: Walt Disney, Omar Bradley, Edwin Hubble, etc.

I, however, was born and raised in Illinois. So when I did this assignment in my own head, I went to people from, you know, Illinois. I used a rather loose definition of “from Illinois,” as Mrs. B—– uses a rather loose definition of “from Missouri” (Walt Disney wasn’t born here and only actually lived here for about 15 years, for example). Anyway, here’s my list:

Abraham Lincoln (though not born here)
Ronald Reagan (born here but is known mostly as being “from” California)
Jane Addams
Michelle (Robinson) Obama
Richard Pryor
Vachel Lindsay
Carl Sandburg
Edgar Lee Masters
Bill Murray
Frank Lloyd Wright
Al Capone

…and many others.

2

New Jersey:

Jon Stewart, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Jack Nicholson, Derek Jeter, Danny DeVito, Kevin Smith, Bruce Willis, Shaq, Whitney Houston, Meryl Streep, Lou Costello, Bud Abbot, Jerry Lewis, Joe Pesci, Thomas Edison, Queen Latifah, James Gandolfini, Michael B. Jordan, Anne Hathaway, Paul Rudd, George R.R. Martin, Jason Alexander, Samuel Alito, John Travolta, Kirsten Dunst, Bill Parcells, Calista Flockhart, Kelly Ripa, Mike Trout, Dionne Warwick, Frankie Valli, Buzz Aldrin graduated from Montclair High School, Martha Stewart, Nathan Lane, Joe “Joey Pants” Pantoliano, Susan Sarandon, David Copperfield, Dick Vitale, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Forbes, Judy Blume, Count Basie, Zach Braff (JD from Scrubs), Joe Dante film director, Gremlins, Tommy DeVito (of the Four Seasons), Peter Dinklage, Michael Douglas, Janet Evanovich (Novelist), Vera Farmiga, Joe Flacco, Connie Francis, Al Leiter, Todd Frazier, Kerri Green of the Goonies, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Ed Harris, Franco Harris NFL, etc.

Of course Einstein called Princeton, NJ his home for the 2nd half of his life.

3

A (very) tiny sample of famous Californians:
Mel Blanc
Julia Child
Ansel Adam’s
Robert Frost
Joe DiMaggio
Frank Zamboni
Sally Ride
George Patton
Bruce Lee
Merle Haggard

4

Oregon doesn’t have very many famous natives. The ones I can think of off the top of my head:

Beverly Cleary
Matt Groening
Terry Irwin (wife of the late Steve Irwin)
Bill Bowerman (co-founder of Nike and who may or may not be famous outside of Oregon)
River Phoenix

Googling doesn’t help as a lot of famous people who live here, like Sam Elliott, weren’t born here.

5

A few famous Virginians:

  • George Washington
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • James Madison
  • James Monroe
  • Patrick Henry
  • Pocahontas
  • Arthur Ashe
  • Booker T. Washington
  • Dave Grohl

This thread makes me wonder which state I would be “from,” myself: I was born in CA and grew up mostly in MD – with stints in Germany, NJ, TX, and England – but moved to VA at the age of 27, and have now lived here for half my life. If I got famous tomorrow, would I be from Virginia?

6

I guess it would depend on if you were as famous as a bunch of dead presidents. Move to Wyoming and you might have a better shot.

7

As I was born in NY but raised in NJ and as I’ve lived the bulk of my life here, I should count for NJ and not NY.

8

Michiganders: Yeah that’s what they’re called. And there are several missing from the list.

Anyway:

Alice Cooper
Burt Reynolds
Bob Seger
Casey Kasem
Charles Lindbergh
Christie Brinkley
David Spade
Dax Shepard
Diana Ross
Francis Ford Coppola
Henry Ford
Iggy Pop
J.K. Simmons
Judy Greer
Ken Jeong
Kate Upton
Kristen Bell
Larry Page
Lee Majors
Lily Tomlin
Madonna
Magic Johnson
Mitt Romney
Robert Wagner
Serena Williams
Smokey Robinson
Sonny Bono
Steve Jobs
Steven Seagal
Stevie Wonder
Ted Nugent
Terry Crews
Tom Sellick

9

Minnesota

Bob Dylan
Prince
Al Franken
Judy Garland
Charles Schulz
The Andrews Sisters
The Coen Brothers
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Garrison Keillor
Kevin McHale
Jesse Ventura

Alaska (my home state)

Ummmmm. . .

Carlos Boozer - actually born in Germany but grew up in Juneau
Fred Machetanz and Sydney Laurence - both famous artists who spent many years in Alaska

10

Illinois undoubtedly has a much bigger list, so I’ll share a list from where I grew up: Wisconsin.

  • Harry Houdini
  • Don Ameche
  • Golda Meir (raised in Milwaukee, but born in Kiev)
  • Gene Wilder
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Willem Dafoe
  • Eric and Beth Heiden (Olympic speedskaters)
  • Mark Ruffalo
  • Tony Shaloub
  • Orson Welles
  • Spencer Tracy
  • Chris Farley
  • J.J. and T.J. Watt
  • David and Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abahams (creators of Airplane! and The Naked Gun)
  • Gary Gygax (creator of Dungeons & Dragons; born in Chicago, but moved to Lake Geneva as a child)
  • Frank Lloyd Wright
  • Bob Uecker
  • Bonnie Bartlett
  • Allen Ludden
  • Liberace
  • Les Paul
  • Steve Miller (who is Les Paul’s godson)
  • Deke Slayton (Mercury 7 astronaut)
  • Rocky Bleier (pro football)
  • Bud Grant (pro football coach)
  • Mike Webster (pro football, Hall of Famer, one of the first documented cases of CTE among former football players)

And, infamously:

  • Ed Gein
  • Jeffrey Dahmer
  • Aldrich Ames (double agent spy)
11

The most famous person ‘from’ Kansas was Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ike, however, was born in Texas. His family moved to Abilene, KS, when he was about 18 months old, so we claim him.

A few notables born in Kansas:

Amelia Earhart
Joe Walsh
Charles Koch
Dennis Hopper
Buster Keaton
Kirstie Alley
Melissa Etheridge
Gordon Parks
Barry Sanders

12

Here are some Hoosiers:

Axl Rose

David Letterman

Jane Pauley

Jim Davis

A bunch of Jacksons

A few Gaithers

Hoagy Carmichael

Red Skelton

Jenna Fischer

Babyface

John Mellencamp

David Lee Roth

Greg Kinnear

Adam Lambert

Shelly Long

Steve McQueen

Dean Norris

Ernie Pyle

Florence Henderson

Cole Porter

Orville Redenbacher

Kurt Vonnegut

Larry Bird

13

Jewel (Kilcher)

14

Senators Bob Dole and Arlen Specter were both from Russell KS. Others that I know from road signs seen driving across Kansas on I-70 are Joe Engle (astronaut) and Walter Chrysler (Chrysler Motors).

15

Wow, I had no idea he was from Detroit.

mmm

16

I live in California now, but I was born and raised in North Carolina, so here are some famous North Carolinians (Just off the top of my head without looking it up):

Andy Griffith
Carl Kassel (NPR newscaster and scorekeeper on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me)
Ben Folds
Ayesha Rascoe (Another NPR journalist)

And every student who attended North Carolina public schools was taught, the three presidents from NC were Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson. But that’s using the very loose definition is simply having been born within the state. Woodrow Wilson was probably the president who actually spent the most time living there, and was actually a student at Davidson College just a few miles from my home.

Some other people who weren’t necessarily born in NC, but spent their formative years there:

Michael Jordan
David Sedaris
Amy Sedaris

I’m sure there are more but I don’t feel like looking it up right now.

17

Mississippi (off the top of my head): Elvis Presley, Oprah Winfrey, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams (born here, although his family moved away when he was a child), William Faulkner, Medgar Evers, James Earl Jones. As well as, of course, some less admirable folks like Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest.

18

Some from Pennsylvania are:
Tony Dorsett
Dan Marino
Joan Jett
Tina Fey
Grace Kelly
Mary Cassatt
Wilt Chamberlain
Billie Holiday
Kevin Bacon
Patti LaBelle

19

I always wanted a Zamboni ride

20

We moved into Idaho a week ago and still learning about the place. So far, all i have learned about is a Mr. Potato Head. There are bits and pieces of him all over the place, particularly at meals.