# Who do you think of when you think of Famous Southerners? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 14, 2008, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249 "2008-05-14T04:31:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249/41 "2008-05-16T16:28:38Z")
Bill Moyers Dan Rather Walter Cronkite Ross Perot Louis Armstrong Robert Johnson Leadbelly Woody Guthrie Renee Zellweger Lyndon Johnson Lady Bird Johnson ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249/42 "2008-05-16T17:07:49Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] For a project I’m working on, who are some of the faces that come to mind immediately when you think Famous Southerners? They can be real or fictional, male or female, human or non. [/QUOTE] Without reading other replies and taking the “immediately” into account, my first 5 were: Robert E. Lee William Faulkner Huey Long Flannery O’Conner Lewis Grizzard (I did limit the Civil War guys to the first I thought of, else the whole list would be Confederate Generals and such). ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249/43 "2008-05-16T19:22:09Z")
Robert E. Lee Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson William Faulkner Eudora Welty Belle Watling My grandmother (I know she’s not famous - but she epitomized Southern womanhood) ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249/44 "2008-05-17T02:09:58Z")
Edward R Murrow Joanne Woodward Ava Gardner Robert Penn Warren\* Patricia Neal James Agee Erskine Caldwell The West Tennessee Quintet: Dixie Carter Cybil Shepherd Cherry Jones Kathy Bates Tina Turner From the same “wide place in the road” in West Tennessee: Alex Haley Earle Palmer Halliburton \*One of a group of writers and poets know as The Fugitives during the 1920s and 1930s at Vanderbilt University. ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249/45 "2008-05-17T04:52:58Z")
After reading the thread title, I immediately thought: 1. Faulkner 2. Faulkner 3. Faulkner But I just read 4 of his novels last year, and I am absolutely infatuated (haunted?). “that letter bringing with it that very September evening itself (and he soon needing, required, to say “No, neither aunt, cousin, nor uncle, Rosa. Miss Rosa Coldfield, an old lady that died young of outrage in 1866 one summer” and then Shreve said, “you mean she was no kin to you, no kin to you at all, that there was actually one Southern Bayard or Guinevere who was no kin to you? then what did she die for?” and that not Shreve’s first time, nobody’s first time in Cambridge since September: _Tell us about the South. What’s it like there. What do the do there. Why do they live there. Why do they live at all_) - that very September evening when…” (then Shreve again, “Wait. Wait. You mean this old gal, this Aunt Rosa-” “Miss Rosa,” Quentin said, “All right all right. -that that this old dame, this Aunt Rosa-” “Miss Rosa, I tell you.” “All right all right all right. - that this old - this Aunt R-- All right all right all right all right. that hadn’t been out there, hadn’t set foot in the house even in forty-three years, yet not only said there was somebody hidden in it but found somebody that would believe her, would drive that twelve miles out there in a buggy to see if she was right or not?” “Yes,” Quentin said. …) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249/46 "2008-05-17T04:59:19Z")
Skipping to the bottom without reading other answers so as not to be influenced… Robert E. lee Mark Twain W Bill Clinton Foghorn Leghorn Billy Graham Johnny Cash Dolly Parton ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249/47 "2008-05-17T12:06:29Z")
Southern Men - Louis Armstrong Wynton Marsalis Tennesee Williams Southern Women - Flannery O’Conner Jesse Norman Sharyn McCrumb ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249/48 "2008-05-17T13:33:30Z")
Walker Percy, Robert Johnson That’s all that’s coming to mind right now. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249/49 "2008-05-17T19:41:54Z")
Before I looked at anyone else’s, these were the first six of each sex who popped into my mind: **Male:** Ronnie Van Zandt Lightnin’ Hopkins Truman Capote Robert E. Lee Robert Johnson Colonel Sanders **Female:** Harper Lee Flannery O’Connor Rosa Parks Marie Laveau Zora Neale Hurston Frances King ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249/50 "2008-05-17T23:40:38Z")
I made the mistake of reading all the posts in this thread so my entries are probably influenced by them. In any case, here the ones–for better or worse–that came to mind. **Male** William Faulkner Robert Penn Warren George Wallace Dr. Martin Luther King Huey Long David Duke Greg Allman Duane Allman Dickie Betts Ronnie Van Zandt Sam Ervin Strom Thurmond Rev. Jerry Falwell Rev. Pat Robertson Rev. Jim Bakker Bill Clinton Jimmy Carter Little Richard Otis Redding James Brown Johnny Cash Those creepy in-bred “mountain folk” from **Deliverance** Atticus Finch The Hatfields The McCoys **Female** Harper Lee Patsy Cline Dolly Parton Loretta Lynn Blanche Dubois Rosa Parks Paula Jones Susan Sarandon Holly Hunter This girl I knew in college who was from North Carolina and resembled Holly Hunter and who I would’ve asked out were it not for the fact she had too many issues. I excluded Texas because it was a large sub-category by itself and Missouri which is a border state that can be more easily included as part of the Midwest. ---
**Author:** ![BluePitbull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249/51 "2008-05-18T00:18:19Z")
Which states are considered Southern states? I was thinking of Colonel Sanders. Is Julia Roberts a southener? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-do-you-think-of-when-you-think-of-famous-southerners/449249.md?page=2)