# Who has made your state proud? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 30, 2007, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482 "2007-08-30T12:18:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/1 "2007-08-30T12:18:36Z")
I currently live in NJ but I am not a native. People who have done the state proud include Allan Ginsberg, Meryl Streep, Bruce Springstein, Philip Roth, Alfred Kinsey, Judy Blume and Thomas Edison. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/2 "2007-08-30T13:17:44Z")
Gaylord Nelson [http://www.wilderness.org/AboutUs/Nelson\_Bio.cfm](http://www.wilderness.org/AboutUs/Nelson_Bio.cfm) ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/3 "2007-08-30T13:20:20Z")
Jack Kevorkian General Custer ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/4 "2007-08-30T13:28:36Z")
Louisiana - There are a bunch of famous people but the one I pick is Louis Armstrong and his influence on music. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/5 "2007-08-30T13:47:01Z")
7 U.S. Presidents (more than any other state), plus: Neil Armstrong Clarence Darrow Thomas Alva Edison Clark Gable John Glenn Toni Morrison Paul Newman Tyrone Power William Tecumseh Sherman Steven Spielberg Gloria Steinem The Wright Brothers Cy Young ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/6 "2007-08-30T13:58:53Z")
While I live in New Jersey, I’m half NYC-er. Notoby will ever equal the post-9/11 Rudy Giuliani. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/7 "2007-08-30T14:03:24Z")
New York. Too many people to completely list, but for me, the top spot belongs to Teddy Roosevelt. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/8 "2007-08-30T14:18:18Z")
Texas. Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards, Molly Ivins. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/9 "2007-08-30T15:52:06Z")
West Virginia Chuck Yeager, Kathy Mattea, Henry Louis Gates, Homer Hickam (Rocket Boys), Chris Sarandon ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/10 "2007-08-30T16:23:15Z")
Thomas Jefferson. Jim Webb. Same as the other thread: 'nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/11 "2007-08-30T16:27:16Z")
Illinois. Jesse Jackson falls in both this thread and the “who embarrasses your state the most” thread. Kind of like a thermos! ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/12 "2007-08-30T16:27:36Z")
Arizona. Sandra Day O’Conner William Rehnquist Lori Piestewa Don Bolles Barry Goldwater (?) Bruce Babbit And, of course, the USS _Arizona_ ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/13 "2007-08-30T16:37:12Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord] Gaylord Nelson [http://www.wilderness.org/AboutUs/Nelson\_Bio.cfm](http://www.wilderness.org/AboutUs/Nelson_Bio.cfm) [/QUOTE] And [Fightin’ Bob La Follette](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._La_Follette%2C_Sr.). ---
**Author:** ![Smooth\_Jack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Smooth\_Jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smooth_Jack)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/14 "2007-08-30T16:50:09Z")
A few Hoosier writers: Ernie Pyle Booth Tarkington Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Lew Wallace James Whitcomb Riley ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/15 "2007-08-30T17:02:02Z")
[QUOTE=dalej42] Texas. Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards, Molly Ivins. [/QUOTE] Seconded. Also, some personal favorites: Willie Nelson Waylon Jennings Roy Orbison Buddy Holly Bob Wills Janis Joplin Michael Lee “Meat Loaf” Aday Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter Blind Lemon Jefferson Robert E. Howard Stevie Ray Vaughan Audie Murphy The Butthole Surfers ZZ Top 13th Floor Elevators Van Cliburn (born LA, moved TX age six) Dwight Eisenhower (born TX, moved KS age two) Chester Nimitz Jack Johnson George Foreman Wes Anderson Jamie Foxx Mike Judge Kris Kristofferson Randy & Dennis Quaid Thomas Haden Church Richard Linklater Gene Rodenberry Lance Armstrong Michael Johnson Nolan Ryan Ilya Prigogine Dr. Denton Cooley Dr. Michael DeBakey Matthew McConaughey Luke & Owen Wilson Renée Zellweger Kinky Friedman Steve Martin Bill Hicks Tex Avery Danny Elfman ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/16 "2007-08-30T18:09:14Z")
Maryland Harriet Tubman Thurgood Marshall Edgar Allen Poe F. Scott Fitzgerald Billie Holliday Frederick Douglass Eubie Blake Jim Henson ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/17 "2007-08-30T20:48:46Z")
Vermont Ethan Allen Fred Tuttle Jim Jeffords M. Emmet Walsh Ben & Jerry Calvin Coolidge Howard Dean Luis Guzman Justin Morgan E. Annie Proulx Jodi Picoult ---
**Author:** ![Micro\_Dot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Micro\_Dot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Micro_Dot)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/18 "2007-08-30T21:17:44Z")
Gerald Ford for Michigan. For years we’d never had any presidents to compare to our rival Ohio with several. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/19 "2007-08-31T04:22:06Z")
Al Gore, (environmentalist, elected President by popular vote in 2000) Jasper Newton (better known as Jack Daniel) Alex Haley (Pulitzer Prize winning author) Davey Crockett (Congressman, martyr) Alvin York (war hero) Cordell Hull (Nobel Peace Prize Winner) Bettie Page (pinup, movie star) Admiral Farragut Edward E. Barnard, astronomer Senator Estes Kefauver (fought the mob) Sen. Fred Thompson (future candidate for President) James Agee, Pulitzer Prize winning writer Sir John Marks Templeton (philanthropist, now a British subject) Nancy Ward (warrior and prophet of the Cherokee nation) Oprah Winfrey Peter Taylor (Pulitzer Prize winning short story writer) Quintin Tarantino Robert Penn Warren (multi-Pulitzer prize winning poet, novelist, literary critic) Sequoyah (invented Cherokee alphabet) T.S. Stribling (Pulitzer Prize winning author) That’s so that you won’t think that all our famous people are in the music business like: Greg Allman Isaac Hayes Aretha Franklin Tina Turner Carl Perkins Dinah Shore and that guy from Graceland Seems like I’m leaving some musicians out…I live in Nashville and I don’t get out much. We have some actors or movie people you may have heard of: Reese Witherspoon Quinton Farantino Samuel L. Jackson Morgan Freeman Kathy Bates Cherry Jones Dixie Carter Cybil Shepherd Patricia Neal Olivia Cole Polly Bergen Nichole Kidman lives around here now, but she’s a newcomer. Married some singer. It is possible to list famous Tennesseans without focusing on banjo and fiddle players. (Pardon this chip on my shoulder…) ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482/20 "2007-08-31T04:38:20Z")
[Jim Tressel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Tressel) for one. > [@](#): > > Since becoming Ohio State’s 22nd head football coach, his team has won a National Championship, achieving the first 14-0 season record in major college football since Penn (15-0) in 1897. He has an overall record of 62-14, including a 4-2 bowl record and a 5-1 record against arch-rival Michigan. If I beat **DrainBead** to this one as well, she might never forgive me. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-made-your-state-proud/417482.md?page=2)