Athletics

• Randy Barnes
  Randy Barnes
  Eric Randolph Barnes is a former American shot putter who holds both the current outdoor and indoor World Records for the event. He won silver at the 1988 Olympics and gold at the 1996 Olympics....
  
   (b. 1966), professional shot putter, born in Charleston
• Larry Barnett
  Larry Barnett
  Lawrence Robert Barnett is a former umpire in Major League Baseball who worked in the American League from 1969 to 1999 before becoming the major leagues' supervisor of umpires in 2000-2001.-Career:...
  
   (b. 1945), professional baseball umpire, born in Nitro
• Clair Bee
  Clair Bee
  Clair Francis Bee was an American basketball coach, who led the team at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York to undefeated seasons in 1936 and 1939, as well as two National Invitation Tournament titles...
  
  , college basketball coach
• Vern Bickford
  Vern Bickford
  Vernon Edgell Bickford was a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played with the Braves in Boston and Milwaukee , and for the Baltimore Orioles...
  
  , professional baseball player
• Terry Bowden
  Terry Bowden
  Terry Bowden is an American football coach at the University of North Alabama. Bowden was previously the head coach at Salem University , Samford University , and Auburn University . Bowden is the son of former Florida State University head football coach Bobby Bowden...
  
  , college football analyst and commentator
• Tommy Bowden
  Tommy Bowden
  Tommy Bowden is an American football coach who served as the head coach at Clemson University from 1999 until October 13, 2008...
  
  , college football coach
• Brian Bowles, UFC/MMA fighter
• Rich Braham
  Rich Braham
  Rich Braham is a former National Football League center who played for the Cincinnati Bengals.-High school career:Braham attended University High School in Morgantown, West Virginia, where he lettered in both football and basketball...
  
  , professional football coach
• George Brett
  George Brett (baseball)
  George Howard Brett , nicknamed "Mullet", is a former Major League Baseball third baseman, designated hitter, and first baseman. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Kansas City Royals. Brett's 3,154 career hits are the most by any third baseman in major league history, and 15th...
  
  , professional baseball player
• Lew Burdette
  Lew Burdette
  Selva Lewis Burdette, Jr. was an American right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played primarily for the Boston and Milwaukee Braves...
  
  , professional baseball player
• Jesse Burkett
  Jesse Burkett
  Jesse Cail Burkett , nicknamed "The Crab", was a Major League Baseball player at the turn of the 20th century...
  
  , professional baseball player
• Necro Butcher
  Necro Butcher
  Dylan Keith Summers is an American professional wrestler best known by his ring name Necro Butcher. Throughout the years he has worked for various promotions, including Beyond Wrestling, Firestormpro, Ring of Honor, Full Impact Pro, IWA-Mid South, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Big Japan Pro Wrestling,...
  
  , professional wrestler
• Eddie Cameron
  Eddie Cameron
  -External links:...
  
  , college basketball coach
• Mark Canterbury
  Mark Canterbury
  Mark Canterbury is an American professional wrestler, best known for his stint in the World Wrestling Federation under the ring name Henry O. Godwinn.-Career:...
  
  , professional wrestler
• Bimbo Coles
  Bimbo Coles
  Vernell Eufaye "Bimbo" Coles is a retired American basketball player. Coles was a standout at Greenbrier East High School in Lewisburg, West Virginia. He played his college basketball for the Virginia Tech Hokies for four seasons . He was a member of the United States 1988 Olympic basketball team...
  
  , professional basketball player
• Wilbur Cooper
  Wilbur Cooper
  Arley Wilbur Cooper was an American left-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played most of his career for the Pittsburgh Pirates. A four-time winner of 20 games in the early 1920s, he was the first National League left-hander to win 200 games...
  
  , professional baseball player
• Larry Coyer
  Larry Coyer
  Larry Coyer is the former defensive coordinator for the National Football League's Indianapolis Colts. Prior to holding this position, he was the Assistant head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Defensive Coordinator for the Denver Broncos.-Private life:Coyer was born in Huntington, West...
  
  , professional football coach
• Mike D'Antoni
  Mike D'Antoni
  Michael Andrew "Mike" D'Antoni is an Italian-American former basketball player and is currently the head coach of the NBA's New York Knicks. While head coach of the Phoenix Suns, he won NBA Coach of the Year honors for the 2004–05 NBA season after the Suns posted 33 more wins than the previous...
  
  , professional basketball player and coach
• Jimbo Fisher
  Jimbo Fisher
  John James "Jimbo" Fisher is an American college football coach and former player. He is currently head coach at Florida State University....
  
  , college football coach
• Gene Freese
  Gene Freese
  Eugene Lewis Freese is a former third baseman in American Major League Baseball for 12 seasons . A journeyman, he played for the Pittsburgh Pirates , St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox , Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros, batting .254 with 115 home runs in 1,115 games...
  
  , professional baseball player
• Frank Gatski
  Frank Gatski
  Frank Gatski was an American football player.Gatski was born on March 18, 1919 in Farmington, West Virginia....
  
  , professional football player
• Hal Greer
  Hal Greer
  Harold Everett Greer is a retired American professional basketball player.He attended Douglass Junior and Senior High School in Huntington. He played college basketball at Marshall University and was drafted by the Syracuse Nationals of the NBA in 1958...
  
  , professional basketball player
• Lou Holtz
  Lou Holtz
  Louis Leo "Lou" Holtz is a retired American football coach, and active sportscaster, author, and motivational speaker in the United States...
  
  , college football coach
• Jeff Hostetler
  Jeff Hostetler
  William Jeffrey Hostetler is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League for the New York Giants, Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders, and Washington Redskins. His nickname is "Hoss".-Penn State:...
  
  , professional football player
• J. R. House
  J. R. House
  James Rodger "J. R." House is a catcher in Major League Baseball with the independent Long Island Ducks. House was drafted in the 5th round. He later gave up baseball, focusing instead on his love of football...
  
  , professional baseball and football player
• Chuck Howley
  Chuck Howley
  Charles Louis "Chuck" Howley is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League...
  
  , professional football player
• Sam Huff
  Sam Huff
  Robert Lee "Sam" Huff is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League for the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982....
  
  , professional football player
• Bob Huggins
  Bob Huggins
  Bob Huggins, nicknamed "Huggy Bear", is the head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball team. Huggins previously held the head coaching positions at the University of Cincinnati and Kansas State University...
  
  , college basketball coach
• Hot Rod Hundley
  Rod Hundley
  Rodney Clark "Rod" Hundley is a former professional basketball player and television broadcaster. Hundley's life has revolved around the game of basketball. His love and talent for the game led him to achieve honors in high school and most notably during his college years...
  
  , professional basketball player and broadcaster
• Dwayne Jones
  Dwayne Jones
  Dwayne Jones is an American professional basketball player.-College career:Along with senior Jameer Nelson and juniors Delonte West and Pat Carroll, Jones was an integral part of the undefeated Saint Joseph's team during the 2004 regular season. The Hawks earned a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament...
  
  , professional basketball player
• John Kruk
  John Kruk
  John Martin Kruk is a former Major League Baseball player and current baseball analyst for ESPN.-Early life and career:...
  
  , professional baseball player
• Doug Legursky
  Doug Legursky
  Wayne Douglas "Doug" Legursky is an American football center and right guard for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League. He was signed by the Steelers as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He played college football at Marshall.-High-School:He played at Woodrow Wilson High School in...
  
  , professional football player
• Gino Marchetti
  Gino Marchetti
  Gino John Marchetti is a former professional American football player in the National Football League. A defensive end, he played in 1952 for the Dallas Texans and from 1953 to 1966 for the Baltimore Colts.-Early years:...
  
  , professional football player
• Chris Massey
  Chris Massey
  Christopher Todd Massey is an American football long snapper who is currently on Chicago Bears. He was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round of the 2002 NFL Draft...
  
  , professional football player
• O.J. Mayo, professional basketball player
• Bill Mazeroski
  Bill Mazeroski
  William Stanley Mazeroski , nicknamed "Maz", is a former Major League Baseball player who spent his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates...
  
  , professional baseball player
• Leo Mazzone
  Leo Mazzone
  Leo David Mazzone is a former pitcher in minor league baseball and coach in Major League Baseball. He began working with the Atlanta Braves' organization in 1979.-Early life:...
  
  , professional baseball player
• Seth McClung
  Seth McClung
  Michael Seth McClung , nicknamed Big Red, is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. In his career, he has pitched as a starting pitcher and as a relief pitcher....
  
  , professional baseball player
• Renee Montgomery
  Renee Montgomery
  Renee Danielle Montgomery is an American basketball player who won a national championship with the UConn Huskies in 2009. She currently plays for the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA.-High school:...
  
  , professional women's basketball player
• Randy Moss
  Randy Moss
  Randy Gene Moss is a former American football wide receiver. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft...
  
  , professional football player
• Dustin Nippert
  Dustin Nippert
  Dustin David Nippert is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Doosan Bears of the Korean Baseball Organization. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball...
  
  , professional baseball player
• Jamie Noble
  Jamie Noble
  James Howard Gibson better known by his WWE ring name Jamie Noble, is an American former professional wrestler currently working for WWE as a trainer. He is best known for his work from 2002 to 2009 when a severe back injury forced him to retire from competition...
  
  , professional wrestler (WWE)
• Joe Pettini
  Joe Pettini
  Joseph Paul "Joe" Pettini is a former Major League Baseball player and a current major league bench coach with the St. Louis Cardinals. Joe and his family now reside in Bethany, West Virginia....
  
  , professional baseball coach
• Kevin Pittsnogle
  Kevin Pittsnogle
  Kevin Lee Pittsnogle Jr. is an American former professional basketball player. He played for the Pittsburgh Xplosion of the CBA and the Austin Toros and the Albuquerque Thunderbirds of the NBA D-League....
  
  , college basketball player
• Mary Lou Retton
  Mary Lou Retton
  Mary Lou Retton is an American gymnast and Olympic gold medalist. She was the first female gymnast from outside Eastern Europe to win the Olympic all-around title, after 14 Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.-Personal life:Retton was born in Fairmont, West...
  
  , professional gymnast
• Nick Saban
  Nick Saban
  Nicholas Lou "Nick" Saban is the head coach of the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide football team. Saban has previously served as head coach of the National Football League's Miami Dolphins and three other NCAA universities: LSU, Michigan State and Toledo...
  
  , professional and college football coach
• Heath Slater, professional wrestler (WWE)
• Tamar Slay
  Tamar Slay
  Tamar Ulysses Slay is an American professional basketball player, currently playing in Italy's LegADue for Umana Venezia. A 6 ft 8 in guard/forward, he was formerly with the NBA's New Jersey Nets and Charlotte Bobcats.Slay was the 54th overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft, selected by the New...
  
  , professional basketball player
• Stephanie Sparks
  Stephanie Sparks
  Stephanie Sparks is an on-air personality at The Golf Channel and a former golfer, whose best years in golf came as an amateur.-Golfer:...
  
  , professional golfer and commentator
• Emanuel Steward
  Emanuel Steward
  Emanuel Steward is an American boxing trainer, commentator and inductee of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame.-Life and career:...
  
  , boxing trainer
• Bill Stewart, current head football coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers
• Nick Swisher
  Nick Swisher
  Nicholas Thompson "Nick" Swisher is an outfielder for the New York Yankees. Swisher is a switch hitter who throws left-handed....
  
  , professional baseball player
• Rick Tolley
  Rick Tolley
  -External links:* *...
  
  , college football coach
• Rod Thorn, professional basketball player
• Bill Walker
  Bill Walker
  -Australian rules football:* Bill A. Walker , former Essendon player* Bill J. Walker , former Fitzroy player* Bill J. V. Walker , former University player...
  
   , professional basketball player
• Curt Warner
  Curt Warner
  Curtis Edward Warner is a former professional American football running back. A two-time All-American at Penn State University, Warner was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft...
  
  , professional football player
• Jerry West
  Jerry West
  Jerry Alan West is a retired American basketball player who played his entire professional career for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . His nicknames include "Mr...
  
  , professional basketball player
• Deron Williams
  Deron Williams
  Deron Michael Williams , nicknamed D-Will, is an American basketball player currently with the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association . Williams has also played for the Utah Jazz of the NBA and Beşiktaş of the Turkish Basketball League...
  
  , professional basketball player
• Jason Williams, professional basketball player
• Steve Yeager
  Steve Yeager
  Stephen Wayne "Steve" Yeager is an American right-handed former major league baseball catcher. Yeager spent 14 of the 15 seasons of his Major League Baseball career, from through , with the Los Angeles Dodgers. His last year, , he played for the Seattle Mariners...
  
  , professional baseball player
• Fielding H. Yost, college football coach

Business

• Don Blankenship
  Don Blankenship
  Donald Leon "Don" Blankenship was Chairman and CEO of Massey Energy Co., the sixth largest coal company in the United States...
  
  , former CEO of Massey Energy
• John Chambers
  John Chambers (CEO)
  John T. Chambers is Chairman of the Board and CEO of Cisco Systems, Inc. Chambers joined Cisco in 1991 as senior vice president, Worldwide Sales and Operations. Since January 1995, when he assumed the role of CEO, the company has grown from $1.2 billion in annual revenues to its current run-rate...
  
  , CEO of Cisco Systems
• William Luke
  William Luke
  William Luke was the founder of the Westvaco Corporation in 1888 at Piedmont, West Virginia and West Piedmont, Maryland, USA.Luke came to America from Scotland in 1852. He was a pioneer of the modern art of papermaking....
  
  , businessman and entrepreneur
• William N. Page
  William N. Page
  William Nelson Page was an American civil engineer, entrepreneur, industrialist and capitalist. He was active in the Virginias following the U.S. Civil War...
  
  , civil engineer, entrepreneur, capitalist, businessman, and industrialist
• Milan Puskar
  Milan Puskar
  Milan "Mike" Puskar was an entrepreneur and philanthropist from Morgantown, West Virginia. He was born to Serbian parents....
  
  , entrepreneur, philanthropist, co-founder of Mylan Inc.
• Alex Schoenbaum
  Alex Schoenbaum
  Alex Schoenbaum was an American collegiate football player and businessman in the hospitality industry, eventually operating a chain of motels and over 1,000 restaurants...
  
  , founder of Shoney's restaurant chain
• Harry F. Sinclair
  Harry F. Sinclair
  Harry Ford Sinclair was an American oil industrialist.-Early life:Harry Sinclair was born in Benwood, West Virginia, now a suburb of the city of Wheeling. Sinclair grew up in Independence, Kansas. The son of a pharmacist, after finishing high school, he entered the pharmacy department of the...
  
  , industrialist
• Ellsworth Milton Statler
  Ellsworth Milton Statler
  Ellsworth Milton Statler was an American hotel businessman born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.-Biography:...
  
  , hotel businessman
• Rod Thorn, president of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers
  Philadelphia 76ers
  The Philadelphia 76ers are a professional basketball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association . Originally known as the Syracuse Nationals, they are one of the oldest franchises in the NBA...
  
  
• Clarence Wayland Watson
  Clarence Wayland Watson
  Clarence Wayland Watson was a coal mining "baron" from West Virginia. Watson organized several coal companies that became the Consolidation Coal and Mining Companies in West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. Watson was president of the company until 1911, then became its chairman...
  
  , businessman

Entertainment

• Hasil Adkins
  Hasil Adkins
  Hasil Adkins was an Appalachian country, rock and roll, and blues musician, though he was frequently considered rockabilly and sometimes primitive jazz...
  
  , rockabilly musician
• Michael Ammar, magician
• Samuel Ball
  Samuel Ball (actor)
  Samuel Ball is an American actor.Ball got his start as the third Drew Buchanan on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live in 1998. He has appeared in various roles in film and television, including Urbania, Sex and the City, Charmed, and 13 going on 30.-External links:...
  
  , actor
• Charlie Barnett
  Charlie Barnett (actor)
  Charlie Barnett was an American actor and comedian.Barnett was born in Bluefield, West Virginia, USA. He first made a name for himself in the late 1970s and early 1980s, performing several shows of raunchy comedy a day at outdoor parks in New York City, most notably in Washington Square Park,...
  
  , actor and comedian
• Lina Basquette
  Lina Basquette
  Lina Basquette was an American actress noted as much for her more than 75 years in entertainment beginning in the silent film era, as her tumultuous personal life and nine marriages.-Early years:...
  
  , actress
• Leon "Chu" Berry, jazz saxophonist
• Chris Booker
  Chris Booker
  Chris Booker is an American radio and TV personality.-Career:Chris Booker is a TV/radio personality. He has worked as a correspondent for TV Guide Channel covering red carpet events such as "Live at the Grammys with Joan and Melissa Rivers," and "Live at the Kids Choice Awards." He also served as...
  
  , radio DJ and TV personality
• Byzantine
  Byzantine
  Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
  
  , progressive extreme metal band
• Bobby Campo
  Bobby Campo
  Robert Joseph "Bobby" Camposecco is an American actor. Known for his appearances in CSI: Miami, Mental, Legally Blondes and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, he is also known for his most successful main role in the 2009 horror film The Final Destination.-Biography:Campo was born in Wheeling,...
  
  , actor
• Jean Carson
  Jean Carson
  Jean Carson was an American stage, film and television actress best known for her work on the classic 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show as one of the "fun girls".-Biography:Born to Alexander W...
  
  , actress
• Bernie Casey
  Bernie Casey
  Bernard Terry "Bernie" Casey is a professional actor who initially had a career as an interscholastic, intercollegiate and professional football player. Casey was also a record-breaking track and field athlete for Bowling Green State University...
  
  , actor
• Ted Cassidy
  Ted Cassidy
  Theodore Crawford Cassidy , known as Ted Cassidy, was an American actor who performed in television and films. At 6 ft 9 in in height, he tended to play unusual characters in offbeat or science-fiction series such as Star Trek and I Dream of Jeannie...
  
  , actor
• Joe Cerisano
  Joe Cerisano
  Joe Cerisano, , is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and President of Outta' the Woods Records. He is often referred to as "possibly the most famous anonymous singer in America".-Early life:...
  
  , singer, songwriter
• Larry Combs
  Larry Combs
  Larry Combs is an American clarinetist. His principal teachers were Stanley Hasty at the Eastman School of Music and Leon Russianoff in New York....
  
  , clarinetist
• Wilma Lee Cooper
  Wilma Lee Cooper
  Wilma Lee Leary , known professionally as Wilma Lee Cooper, was an American bluegrass-based country music entertainer.-Biography:...
  
  , country/bluegrass singer
• Stoney Cooper
  Stoney Cooper
  Dale Troy Cooper , known professionally as Stoney Cooper, was an American country star and member of the Grand Ole Opry. He was a master of the fiddle and the guitar.-Biography:...
  
  , country/bluegrass singer
• John Corbett, actor
• Billy Cox
  Billy Cox
  William "Billy" Cox is an American bassist, best known for performing with Jimi Hendrix.-Early years:Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, Cox was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended Schenley High School. He first met Jimi Hendrix in the early 1960s, when they were both in the United States...
  
  , Drummer
• George Crumb
  George Crumb
  George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...
  
  , composer
• Joyce DeWitt
  Joyce DeWitt
  Joyce Anne DeWitt is an American actress most famous for playing Janet Wood on the ABC sitcom Three's Company.-Early life:...
  
  , actress
• Joanne Dru
  Joanne Dru
  Joanne Dru was an American film and television actress, known for such films as Red River and All the King's Men.-Career:...
  
  , actress
• Virginia Egnor, AKA Dagmar - actress, pin-up model, TV personality
• Little Jimmy Dickens
  Little Jimmy Dickens
  James Cecil Dickens , better known as Little Jimmy Dickens, is an American country music singer famous for his humorous novelty songs, his small size, 4'11" , and his rhinestone-studded outfits...
  
  , country singer
• Hazel Dickens
  Hazel Dickens
  Hazel Jane Dickens was an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist and guitarist. She was the eighth child of an eleven-child mining family in West Virginia. Her music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provocative pro-union, feminist songs...
  
  , bluegrass singer
• Brad Divens
  Brad Divens
  Brad Divens was the bassist and lead vocalist for Souls At Zero, formerly known as Wrathchild America. His vocal style often draws comparisons to James Hetfield...
  
  , former vocalist/bassist for Wrathchild America, former guitarist for Kix
• Paul Dooley
  Paul Dooley
  -Personal life:Dooley was born Paul Dooley Brown in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the son of Ruth Irene , a homemaker, and Peter James Brown, a factory worker. Dooley was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. He joined the Navy before discovering acting while at...
  
  , actor
• Brad Dourif
  Brad Dourif
  Bradford Claude "Brad" Dourif is an American film and television actor who gained early fame for his portrayal of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and has since appeared in a number of memorable roles, including the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise, Younger Brother in...
  
  , actor
• Greg Dulli
  Greg Dulli
  -Biography:Greg Dulli was born and brought up in the working-class city of Hamilton, Ohio. Although he was raised a Catholic, he is now agnostic. Dulli first came to public attention in the late 1980s with The Afghan Whigs when he joined D.C. transplant bassist John Curley and Louisville, Kentucky,...
  
  , Afghan Whigs singer
• Conchata Ferrell
  Conchata Ferrell
  Conchata Galen Ferrell is an American actress. She is best known for playing Berta the housekeeper in the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, for which she received two Emmy Award nominations in 2005 and 2007.-Personal life:...
  
  , actress
• Virginia Fox
  Virginia Fox
  Virginia Fox was an American actress who starred in many silent films of the 1910s and 1920s. In 1924 she married film producer Darryl F. Zanuck, with whom she had three children, Darrylin Zanuck, Susan Zanuck, and Richard Zanuck...
  
  , silent film actress, frequent co-star of Buster Keaton
• Jennifer Garner
  Jennifer Garner
  Jennifer Anne Affleck , better known as Jennifer Garner, is an American actress and film producer. Garner gained recognition on television for her performance as CIA agent Sydney Bristow in the thriller drama series Alias, which aired on ABC for five seasons from 2001 to 2006...
  
  , actress
• Larry Groce
  Larry Groce
  Larry Groce is an American singer-songwriter and radio host. Since 1983, Groce has served as the host and artistic director of Mountain Stage, a two-hour live music program produced by West Virginia Public Radio and distributed by NPR. He first entered the national spotlight in 1976 when his...
  
  , musician, radio personality
• Ed Haley
  Ed Haley
  James Edward "Ed" Haley was a blind professional American musician and composer.- Biography :Ed Haley was born in August 18851 on the Trace Fork of Big Harts Creek in Logan County, West Virginia. His father, Thomas Milton Haley, was a well-known fiddler in the Guyandotte and Big Sandy Valleys. His...
  
  , blind professional fiddler
• Joshua Harto
  Joshua Harto
  Joshua Denver Harto is an American actor, television writer and television producer.He has guest starred in a number of notable television series, including American Dreams, Carnivàle, Crossing Jordan, JAG, Strangers with Candy, The Practice, Cold Case and more...
  
  , actor
• Steve Harvey
  Steve Harvey
  Broderick Steven "Steve" Harvey is an American actor, comedian, entertainer, television and radio personality and best-selling author. He is best known as the star of the WB sitcom The Steve Harvey Show, and as one of the four comedians featured in the Spike Lee film The Original Kings of Comedy...
  
  , actor, stand-up comedian
• Katie Lee Joel
  Katie Lee Joel
  Katie Lee is a television food critic and chef.-Biography:Lee is from Milton, West Virginia. She is a graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a Bachelor's degree in English and Journalism. While there she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta...
  
  , TV host
• Johnnie Johnson
  Johnnie Johnson (musician)
  Johnnie Johnson was an American pianist and blues musician. His work with Chuck Berry led to his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.-Career:...
  
  , blues musician
• Daniel Johnston
  Daniel Johnston
  Daniel Dale Johnston is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist. Johnston was the subject of the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He currently lives in Waller, Texas....
  
  , musician, artist, subject of 2006 Sundance winning documentary "The Devil and Daniel Johnston"
• Lawrence Kasdan
  Lawrence Kasdan
  Lawrence Edward "Larry" Kasdan is an American film producer, director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Kasdan was born in Miami, Florida, the son of Sylvia Sarah , an employment counselor, and Clarence Norman Kasdan, who managed retail electronics stores.His Brother is the writer/producer Mark...
  
  , movie director, producer, screenwriter
• Fuzzy Knight
  Fuzzy Knight
  John Forrest "Fuzzy" Knight was an American film and television actor. He appeared in over 180 films between 1929 and 1967, usually as a cowboy hero's sidekick.-Biography:...
  
  , actor
• Jake E. Lee
  Jake E. Lee
  Jakey Lou Williams , commonly known as Jake E. Lee, is an American guitarist best known for playing with Ozzy Osbourne in the mid-1980s and later in his own band Badlands.- Musical education :...
  
  , rock guitarist; formerly w/ Ozzy Osbourne, Badlands
• Kristi Lee
  Kristi Lee
  Kristi Lee, whose real name is Theresa Renee Rose, is the longtime news director of the nationally-syndicated radio show The Bob & Tom Show and is responsible for delivering newscasts of various headlines during the show.Lee often hosts or participates in Bob and Tom Radio: The Comedy Tour shows...
  
  , air personality/news director, The Bob and Tom Show
• Karma to Burn
  Karma to Burn
  Karma to Burn, sometimes known as K2B, is a desert rock/stoner metal band from Morgantown, West Virginia comprising guitarist William Mecum, bassist Rich Mullins, and drummer Rob Oswald...
  
  , instrumental alt-metal band
• Lesli Kay
  Lesli Kay
  Lesli Kay Coulouris previously Lesli Kay Sterling is an American actress, who is known primarily for her role on the CBS soap As the World Turns.-Career:...
  
  , soap actress who played Molly Conlan on As The World Turns, and now plays Felicia Forrester on The Bold And The Beautiful
• Don Knotts
  Don Knotts
  Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards...
  
  , actor
• Shannon Larkin
  Shannon Larkin
  Shannon Larkin, born James Shannon Larkin on April 24, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois, is a musician best known for being the drummer of the heavy metal band Godsmack. He replaced the previous drummer Tommy Stewart in June 2002...
  
  , drummer for Godsmack, former Amen, Wrathchild America
• Ann Magnuson
  Ann Magnuson
  Ann Magnuson is an American actress, performance artist, and nightclub performer who first gained prominence in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan...
  
  , actress
• Peter Marshall
  Peter Marshall
  Peter Marshall may refer to:* Peter Marshall , British author whose works include Demanding The Impossible: A History of Anarchism and Europe's Lost Civilization...
  
  , host of "Hollywood Squares" from 1966-1981
• Kathy Mattea
  Kathy Mattea
  Kathleen Alice "Kathy" Mattea is an American country music and bluegrass performer who often brings folk, Celtic and traditional country sounds to her music. Active since 1983 as a recording artist, she has recorded seventeen albums and has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot...
  
  , country and bluegrass performer
• Charlie McCoy
  Charlie McCoy
  Charles "Charlie" Ray McCoy is an American musician noted for his harmonica playing. In his career, McCoy has backed several notable musicians including Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Tom Astor, Elvis Presley and Ween. He has also recorded thirty-seven studio albums, including fourteen for Monument Records...
  
  , musician
• Garnet Mimms
  Garnet Mimms
  Garnet Mimms is an American singer, influential in soul music and rhythm and blues...
  
  , soul singer
• Tim O'Brien
  Tim O'Brien (musician)
  Tim O'Brien is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to singing, he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and mandocello...
  
  , bluegrass musician
• Devon Odessa
  Devon Odessa
  Devon Odessa is an American actress and film producer most famous for her role as Sharon Cherski on My So-Called Life....
  
  , film producer, actress - "My So-Called Life"
• Brad Paisley
  Brad Paisley
  Brad Douglas Paisley is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His style crosses between traditional country music and Southern rock, and his songs are frequently laced with humor and pop culture references....
  
  , country singer and songwriter
• Wilber Pan
  Wilber Pan
  Wilber Pan also known as Will Pan was born on 6 August 1980. He is an American-born Taiwanese Mandopop singer, rapper and actor, who started his career as a host of Channel V programs.-Biography:...
  
  , singer, rapper and actor
• Sam Pancake
  Sam Pancake
  Sam Pancake is a American actor. He is the brother of Catherine Pancake and Ann Pancake, a writer. He graduated from Hampshire High School and currently resides in Los Angeles....
  
  , actor
• Squire Parsons
  Squire Parsons
  Squire Enos Parsons, Jr. , is a Southern Gospel singer and songwriter. He was born in Newton, West Virginia, to Squire and Maysel Parsons, and was introduced to music by his father, who was a choir director and deacon at Newton Baptist Church...
  
  , gospel singer
• Johnny Paycheck
  Johnny Paycheck
  Johnny Paycheck was the legal name of Donald Eugene Lytle , a country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member most famous for recording the David Allan Coe song "Take This Job and Shove It"...
  
  , country musician
• Rachel Proctor
  Rachel Proctor
  Rachel Christine Proctor is an American country music artist. Before signing to a record deal, she co-wrote Martina McBride's 2002 single "Where Would You Be". By 2003, Proctor had signed to BNA Records, releasing her debut single "Days Like This" that year...
  
  , country singer and songwriter
• Walter E. "Jack" Rollins, songwriter
• Soupy Sales
  Soupy Sales
  Soupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his...
  
  , actor and comedian
• Frank "Poncho" Sampedro, musician
• Chris Sarandon
  Chris Sarandon
  Chris Sarandon is an American actor who was married to actress Susan Sarandon between 1968 and 1979. He is best known for playing Prince Humperdinck in the film The Princess Bride, the vampire Jerry Dandridge in Fright Night and Detective Mike Norris in the first entry of the Child's Play series,...
  
  , actor, activist
• Scenes from a Movie
  Scenes from a Movie
  -History:Scenes from a Movie members Tony Bush and Jon Ewing were friends in high school, but Ewing attended the University of Charleston while Bush went to college at Bowling Green. Ewing, together with guitarist Luke Del Papa, then convinced Bush to drop out of school, and the group expanded to a...
  
  , a Charleston based pop-punk band
• David Selby
  David Selby
  David Lynn Selby is an American character and stage actor. He has worked in movies, soap operas and television. The naturally black-headed Selby is best known for playing the roles of Quentin Collins on the ABC-TV serial, Dark Shadows , and as the evil and compassionate...
  
  , actor
• Bill Slater
  Bill Slater
  William John "Bill" Slater , OBE is an English former professional footballer....
  
  , radio personality, sportscaster, host of game show "Twenty Questions"
• Fred "Sonic" Smith, guitarist for the MC5
• Connie Smith
  Connie Smith
  Connie Smith is an American country music artist. She began her career in 1963 after winning a local talent contest near Columbus, Ohio, which attracted the attention of country songwriter Bill Anderson...
  
  , country singer
• Michael W. Smith
  Michael W. Smith
  Michael Whitaker Smith is a Billboard top ten Billboard Hot 100 recording artist and Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. He is one of the best-selling and most influential artists in Contemporary Christian music. Smith also has achieved a considerable amount of...
  
  , Contemporary Christian singer, songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist
• Red Sovine
  Red Sovine
  Woodrow Wilson Sovine , better known as Red Sovine, was an American country music singer associated with truck driving songs, particularly those recited as narratives but set to music...
  
  , country singer
• Morgan Spurlock
  Morgan Spurlock
  Morgan Valentine Spurlock is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, television producer, screenwriter and journalist best known for the documentary film Super Size Me...
  
  , independent film director and screenwriter
• Blaze Starr
  Blaze Starr
  Blaze Starr is an American former stripper and American burlesque star. Her vivacious presence and inventive use of stage props earned her the nickname "The Hottest Blaze in Burlesque"...
  
  , stripper and burlesque star
• Aaron Staton
  Aaron Staton
  Aaron Staton is an American actor. He is known for his role as Ken Cosgrove in Mad Men and his role as Cole Phelps in the video game L.A. Noire.-Personal life:...
  
  , actor, Mad Men
• Sam Trammell
  Sam Trammell
  Sam Trammell is an American stage, film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Sam Merlotte in the HBO vampire series, True Blood, which saw him nominated for a 2009 Scream Award for "Breakout Performance - Male."...
  
  , actor, True Blood
• Teddy Weatherford
  Teddy Weatherford
  Teddy Weatherford was a jazz pianist, an accomplished stride pianist.Weatherford was born in Pocahontas, Virginia and was raised in neighboring Bluefield, West Virginia. From 1915 through 1920 he lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he learned to play jazz piano...
  
  , jazz pianist
• Patty Weaver
  Patty Weaver
  Patty Weaver and 1967 Alumni of Fairborn High School is an American actress who played the role of Gina Roma on The Young and the Restless on a contract basis from 1982 until August 2005, when she was dropped to recurring status, and she last appeared in early 2009.She was born in Clarksburg, West...
  
  , actress
• Donald Ray White, mountain dancer
• Jesse "Jesco" White
  Jesco White
  Jesco White, the "Dancing Outlaw", is an American mountain dancer and entertainer. He is best known as the subject of three American documentary films that detail his desire to follow in his famous father's footsteps, while trying to overcome depression, drug addiction, and the poverty that...
  
  , mountain dancer
• Steve Whiteman, former Kix singer
• Melvin Wine
  Melvin Wine
  Melvin Wine was an American old-time fiddler from the state of West Virginia. He lived in Copen, in Braxton County, West Virginia....
  
  , fiddler
• Bill Withers
  Bill Withers
  William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. Some of his best-known songs are "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands"...
  
  , singer and songwriter
• J. T. Woodruff, Hawthorne Heights
  Hawthorne Heights
  Hawthorne Heights is an American rock band from Dayton, Ohio, formed in 2001. Their line-up currently consists of lead-singer and rhythm guitarist JT Woodruff, lead-guitarist and vocalist Micah Carli, bassist and backing vocalist Matt Ridenour, and drummer Eron Bucciarelli...
  
  singer, songwriter, guitarist
• Wrathchild America
  Wrathchild America
  Wrathchild America was an American thrash metal band formed in Martinsburg, West Virginia in 1978. They are regarded as the first thrash metal band. They released two studio albums through Atlantic Records, and gained charting success through the Billboard 200...
  
  , a power/thrash metal band
• Frankie Yankovic
  Frankie Yankovic
  Frankie Yankovic was a Grammy Award-winning polka musician. Known as "America's Polka King," Yankovic was the premier artist to play in the Slovenian style during a long and successful career.-Background:Of Slovene descent, he was raised in South Euclid, Ohio...
  
  , polka musician

Frontiersmen

• Patrick Gass
  Patrick Gass
  Patrick Gass served as sergeant in the Lewis and Clark Expedition . He was important to the expedition because of his service as carpenter and he published the first journal of the expedition in 1807, seven years before the first publication based on Lewis and Clark's journals.-Early life:Gass...
  
  , frontiersman
• Morgan Morgan
  Morgan Morgan
  Colonel Morgan Morgan is traditionally believed to have founded the first permanent white settlement in present day West Virginia at Cool Spring Farm, and he is credited with founding the first church in what is now West Virginia.-Early life:Little direct evidence of Morgan's early life and...
  
  , frontiersman
• Lewis Wetzel
  Lewis Wetzel
  Lewis Wetzel was a frontiersman and Indian fighter who roamed the hills of what is now the state of West Virginia and Ohio. Wetzel County, West Virginia is named for him. Zane Grey, the great Western novelist, wrote about Wetzel in his books Spirit Of The Border, Betty Zane, and The Last Trail...
  
  , frontiersman

Journalism

• John S. Knight
  John S. Knight
  John Shively Knight was an American newspaper publisher and editor.He was born in Bluefield, West Virginia to Charles Landon Knight and Clara Scheifly. He attended Cornell University but never graduated, leaving early to enlist in the Army. While at Cornell he was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa...
  
  , newspaper publisher and editor
• Hoda Kotb, television reporter, host of Today.
• Herbert Morrison
  Herbert Morrison (announcer)
  Herbert Morrison was an American radio reporter best known for his dramatic report of the Hindenburg disaster, a catastrophic fire that destroyed the LZ 129 Hindenburg zeppelin on May 6, 1937, killing 36 people.-Hindenburg disaster:...
  
  , radio reporter, known for his dramatic coverage of the Hindenburg disaster
• Asra Nomani, Indian-American journalist, author, and feminist
• Mike Patrick
  Mike Patrick
  Mike Patrick is an American sportscaster.-Career:Patrick began his broadcasting career in the fall of 1966 at WVSC-Radio in Somerset, Pa. In 1970, he was named Sports Director at WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, Fla., where he provided play-by-play for Jacksonville Sharks' World Football League telecasts...
  
  , sportscaster
• Michael Tomasky
  Michael Tomasky
  Michael Tomasky is a liberal American columnist, journalist and author. He is the editor in chief of Democracy, a special correspondent for Newsweek / The Daily Beast, a contributing editor for The American Prospect, and a contributor to The New York Review of Books.-Biography:Tomasky was born...
  
  , newspaper writer and editor
• Carter G. Woodson
  Carter G. Woodson
  Carter Godwin Woodson was an African-American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Woodson was one of the first scholars to study African American history. A founder of Journal of Negro History , Dr...
  
  , historian, author, and journalist

Literature & Art

• Allen Appel
  Allen Appel
  Allen Appel is an American novelist best known for his series about time traveler Alex Balfour. In the series, fictional characters are interwoven with actual historical people and events....
  
  , novelist
• John Peale Bishop
  John Peale Bishop
  John Peale Bishop was an American poet and man of letters.Bishop was born in Charles Town, West Virginia, to a family from New England, and attended school in Hagerstown, Maryland. When 18, Bishop fell victim to a severe illness and lost his sight for some time...
  
  , poet and man of letters
• Pearl S. Buck
  Pearl S. Buck
  Pearl Sydenstricker Buck also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu , was an American writer who spent most of her time until 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932...
  
  , writer and Nobel prize winner
• Willa Cather
  Willa Cather
  Willa Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
  
  , novelist
• Stephen Coonts
  Stephen Coonts
  Stephen Coonts is an American thriller and suspense novelist.Coonts grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia, a small coal-mining town and earned an B.A. degree in political science at West Virginia University in 1968...
  
  , novelist
• Che Elias
  Che Elias
  Che Elias is an American novelist and poet now based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Elias relocated to Pittsburgh to attend Pittsburgh Filmmakers and remained in the area, subsidizing his primary interest of writing by working as a camera operator for Stroon Vision...
  
  , author and poet
• Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
  Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
  Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual. He was the first African American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards for his teaching, research, and...
  
  , author, educator, and scholar
• Denise Giardina
  Denise Giardina
  Denise Giardina is a novelist. Her book Storming Heaven was a Discovery Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and received the 1987 W. D. Weatherford Award for the best published work about the Appalachian South. The Unquiet Earth received an American Book Award and the Lillian Smith Book Award...
  
  , author
• Linda Goodman
  Linda Goodman
  Mary Alice Kemery popularly known as Linda Goodman was a New York Times bestselling American astrologer and poet.-Early life and background:...
  
  , poet, novelist, best-selling astrology writer
• Davis Grubb
  Davis Grubb
  Davis Grubb was an American novelist and short story writer.-Biography:Born in Moundsville, West Virginia, Grubb wanted to combine his creative skills as a painter with writing and as such attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
  
  , novelist
• Homer Hickam
  Homer Hickam
  Homer Hadley Hickam, Jr. is an American author, Vietnam veteran, and a former NASA engineer. His autobiographical novel Rocket Boys: A Memoir, was a #1 New York Times Best Seller, is studied in many American and international school systems, and was the basis for the popular film October Sky...
  
  , writer
• John Knowles
  John Knowles
  John Knowles was an American novelist best known for his novel A Separate Peace. He died in 2001 at the age of seventy-five.-Early life:...
  
  , novelist
• Brooke McEldowney
  Brooke McEldowney
  Brooke McEldowney is responsible for 9 Chickweed Lane, a print comic strip, and also for Pibgorn, a webcomic. 9 Chickweed Lane has been syndicated by United Media since 1993, and has one published collection, Hallmarks of Felinity....
  
  , cartoonist, creator of 9 Chickweed Lane comic strip.
• Ehrman Syme Nadal
  Ehrman Syme Nadal
  Ehrman Syme Nadal, A.M. was an American author, born at Lewisburg, West Virginia. He graduated from Yale in 1864. His employment included serving as second secretary of the United States Legation at London in the 1870s, being on the staff of the New York Nation for several years in the 1880s, and...
  
  , author
• Breece D'J Pancake
  Breece D'J Pancake
  Breece D'J Pancake was an American author of short fiction. Pancake was a native of West Virginia and published several stories in The Atlantic Monthly during his lifetime...
  
  , author
• Roger Price
  Roger Price (comedy)
  Roger Price was an American humorist, author and publisher, who created Droodles in the 1950s, followed by his collaborations with Leonard Stern on the Mad Libs series...
  
  , author, cartoonist, and humorist
• Jedediah Purdy
  Jedediah Purdy
  Jedediah S. Purdy is a professor of law at Duke University and the author of two widely-discussed books: For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today and Being America: Liberty, Commerce and Violence in an American World...
  
  , author and professor
• Mary Lee Settle
  Mary Lee Settle
  Mary Lee Settle was an American writer and winner of the National Book Award for her 1978 novel Blood Tie...
  
  , author
• Beau Smith
  Beau Smith
  Beau Smith is anAmerican comic book writer and columnist, best known for hiswork for DC Comics, Image Comics, IDW Publishing and as vice president of marketing for Eclipse Comics.-Early career:...
  
  , comic book writer
• Jean Edward Smith
  Jean Edward Smith
  Jean Edward Smith, Ph.D is professor at Marshall University and biographer. Currently he is the John Marshall Professor of Political Science at Marshall University and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto after having served as professor of political economy there for thirty-five years...
  
  , biographer
• David Hunter Strother
  David Hunter Strother
  David Hunter Strother was a successful 19th century American magazine illustrator and writer, popularly known by his pseudonym, "Porte Crayon" .-Early life:...
  
   (aka Porte Crayon), artist
• Timothy Truman
  Timothy Truman
  Timothy Truman is an American writer, artist and musician. He is best known for his stories and Wild West-style comic book art, and in particular, for his work on Grimjack , Scout, and the reinvention of Jonah Hex, with Joe R. Lansdale...
  
  , writer, artist, and musician
• Jeannette Walls
  Jeannette Walls
  Jeannette Walls is a writer and journalist widely known as former gossip columnist for MSNBC.com — and author of The Glass Castle, a memoir of the nomadic family life of her childhood, which stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for 100 weeks.-Early life and education:Walls was born...
  
  , author and columnist
• Booker T. Washington
  Booker T. Washington
  Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...
  
  , political leader, educator, and author

Military

• John James Abert
  John James Abert
  John James Abert was a United States soldier. He headed the Corps of Topographical Engineers for 32 years, during which time he organized the mapping of the American West....
  
  , explorer and soldier
• Earl E. Anderson
  Earl E. Anderson
  General Earl Edward Anderson , the youngest active duty Marine ever promoted to the rank of General and the second active duty Marine Naval Aviator to be promoted to a 4-star rank, became Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps on April 1, 1972. He was promoted to General on March 31, 1972...
  
  , United States Marine Corps general
• John Ashby
  John Ashby (militiaman)
  John Ashby was a Colonel in the Virginia Militia.During the French and Indian war there was a siege at present day Fort Ashby, West Virginia. In 1756 Colonel John Ashby was out of the fort at that location and was attacked by Indians and made a remarkable escape to the fort. The fort was named for...
  
  , frontiersman and soldier
• Woodrow Wilson Barr
  Woodrow Wilson Barr
  Woodrow Wilson Barr was a United States Marine with the 1st Marine Raider Battalion. He was killed in action at Tulagi, Solomon Islands, August 7, 1942 — and was posthumously awarded the Silver Star medal for his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepedity in action" during the action at...
  
  , United States Marine
• Frank Buckles
  Frank Buckles
  Frank Woodruff Buckles was the last surviving American veteran of World War I. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1917 and served with a detachment from Fort Riley, driving ambulances and motorcycles near the front lines in Europe.During World War II, he was captured by Japanese forces...
  
  , last surviving U.S. veteran of World War I
• French Ensor Chadwick
  French Ensor Chadwick
  Rear Admiral French Ensor Chadwick USN was a United States Navy officer who became prominent in the naval reform movement of the post-Civil War era...
  
  , naval officer and educator
• Lynndie England
  Lynndie England
  Lynndie Rana England is a former United States Army reservist who served in the 372nd Military Police Company. She was one of eleven military personnel convicted in 2005 by Army courts-martial in connection with the torture and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad during the occupation...
  
  , U.S. Army reservist involved in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal
• Stonewall Jackson
  Stonewall Jackson
  ຄຽשת״ׇׂׂׂׂ֣|birth_place= Clarksburg, Virginia |death_place=Guinea Station, Virginia|placeofburial=Stonewall Jackson Memorial CemeteryLexington, Virginia|placeofburial_label= Place of burial|image=...
  
  , soldier and teacher
• Albert G. Jenkins
  Albert G. Jenkins
  Albert Gallatin Jenkins was an attorney, planter, representative to the United States Congress and First Confederate Congress, and a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War...
  
  , general and politician
• Jonah Edward Kelley
  Jonah Edward Kelley
  -External links: *Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry for...
  
  , US Army soldier, Medal of Honor recipient
• Edwin Gray Lee
  Edwin Gray Lee
  Edwin Gray Lee was an American soldier from Virginia and a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War. He was a member of the Lee family and second cousin of Robert E. Lee.-Biography:...
  
  , Confederate general
• John P. Lucas
  John P. Lucas
  John Porter Lucas was an American Major General and one of the commanders of VI Corps during the Italian Campaign of the Mediterranean Theater of World War II.-Early career:...
  
  , American general, commander at Anzio
• Jessica Lynch
  Jessica Lynch
  Jessica Dawn Lynch is a former Private First Class in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. Lynch served in Iraq during the 2003 invasion by U.S. and allied forces. On March 23, 2003 she was injured and captured by Iraqi forces but was recovered on April 1 by U.S...
  
  , prisoner of war
• William E. Shuck, Jr.
  William E. Shuck, Jr.
  William Edward Shuck, Jr. was a United States Marine who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during the Korean War on July 3, 1952....
  
  , U.S. Marine, Medal of Honor recipient
• Hershel W. Williams
  Hershel W. Williams
  Hershel Woodrow "Woody" Williams is a retired United States Marine who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II.-Early years:...
  
  , U.S. Marine, Medal of Honor recipient
• John Yarnall
  John Yarnall
  John Joliffe Yarnall was an officer in the United States Navy during the War of 1812 and the Second Barbary War.Born in Wheeling, Virginia , Yarnall was appointed midshipman in the Navy on 11 January 1809...
  
  , U.S. Navy officer
• Chuck Yeager
  Chuck Yeager
  Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a retired major general in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. He was the first pilot to travel faster than sound...
  
  , aviation legend

Politics & Government

• Newton D. Baker
  Newton D. Baker
  Newton Diehl Baker, Jr. was an American politician who belonged to the Democratic Party. He served as the 37th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio from 1912 to 1915 and as U.S. Secretary of War from 1916 to 1921.-Early years:...
  
  , politician
• William Wallace Barron
  William Wallace Barron
  William Wallace "Wally" Barron was a Democratic machine politician in West Virginia. He was the state's 26th Governor from 1961 to 1965. He later served a prison term due to his corrupt actions....
  
  , politician
• John J. Beckley
  John J. Beckley
  John James Beckley was an American political campaign manager and the first Librarian of the United States Congress, from 1802 to 1807...
  
  , frontiersman and Librarian of Congress
• Ephraim Bee
  Ephraim Bee
  Ephraim Bee was an American pioneer, blacksmith, and inn-keeper from Doddridge County, West Virginia. He represented Doddridge County in the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1863 and 1866-1867....
  
  , frontiersman and politician
• Charles Bent
  Charles Bent
  Charles Bent was appointed as the first Governor of the newly acquired New Mexico Territory by Governor Stephen Watts Kearny in September 1846....
  
  , frontiersman and politician
• Arthur I. Boreman
  Arthur I. Boreman
  Arthur Inghram Boreman was the first Governor of the U.S. state of West Virginia and a United States Senator.-Biography:...
  
  , politician
• Harry F. Byrd
  Harry F. Byrd
  Harry Flood Byrd, Sr. of Berryville in Clarke County, Virginia, was an American newspaper publisher, farmer and politician. He was a descendant of one of the First Families of Virginia...
  
  , politician
• Robert Byrd
  Robert Byrd
  Robert Carlyle Byrd was a United States Senator from West Virginia. A member of the Democratic Party, Byrd served as a U.S. Representative from 1953 until 1959 and as a U.S. Senator from 1959 to 2010...
  
  , U.S. Senate majority leader, longest-serving member in history of the United States Congress.
• Gaston Caperton
  Gaston Caperton
  William Gaston Caperton III was the 31st Governor of the U.S. state of West Virginia from 1989 until 1997. He is currently the president of the College Board, which administers the nationally recognized SAT and AP tests. Caperton announced his intention to step down as president of the College...
  
  , politician
• Shelley Moore Capito
  Shelley Moore Capito
  Shelley Moore Capito is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2001. She is a member of the Republican Party...
  
  , politician
• Thomas R. Carper
  Thomas R. Carper
  Thomas Richard "Tom" Carper is the senior United States Senator from Delaware and a member of the Democratic Party. He was previously the 71st Governor of Delaware and a United States Representative....
  
  , economist and politician
• John J. Cornwell
  John J. Cornwell
  John Jacob Cornwell was a Democratic politician from Romney in Hampshire County, West Virginia. Cornwell served as the 15th Governor of the US state of West Virginia...
  
  , politician
• Henry G. Davis
  Henry G. Davis
  Henry Gassaway Davis was a self-made millionaire and U.S. Senator from West Virginia. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1904. His brother was U.S...
  
  , politician
• John W. Davis
  John W. Davis
  John William Davis was an American politician, diplomat and lawyer. He served as a United States Representative from West Virginia , then as Solicitor General of the United States and US Ambassador to the UK under President Woodrow Wilson...
  
  , politician and attorney, Democratic Party nominee for U.S. President - 1924
• Stephen Benton Elkins
  Stephen Benton Elkins
  Stephen Benton Elkins was an American industrialist and political figure. He served as the Secretary of War between 1891 and 1893...
  
  , politician
• Walter Lowrie Fisher, United States Secretary of the Interior
• Mark Funkhouser
  Mark Funkhouser
  Mark Funkhouser is a former mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, serving one four-year term from May 1, 2007 until May 2, 2011. Prior to serving as the city's mayor, Funkhouser served as Kansas City's city auditor.-Early life and education:...
  
  , politician, Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri
• William E. Glasscock
  William E. Glasscock
  William Ellsworth Glasscock was an American politician who served as the 13th Governor of West Virginia as a Republican from 1909 to 1913....
  
  , politician
• Nathan Goff, Jr.
  Nathan Goff, Jr.
  Nathan Goff, Jr. was a member of the United States Congress from West Virginia, who also served briefly as United States Secretary of the Navy during the Rutherford B. Hayes administration, and as a United States federal judge.-Biography:Goff was born at The Waldomore in Clarksburg, Harrison...
  
  , politician
• Howard Mason Gore
  Howard Mason Gore
  Howard Mason Gore served briefly as the United States Secretary of Agriculture at the very end of the first presidential administration of Calvin Coolidge...
  
  , politician
• Henry D. Hatfield
  Henry D. Hatfield
  Henry Drury Hatfield was a Republican politician from Logan County, West Virginia. He served a term as the 14th Governor of the state, in addition to one term in the United States Senate...
  
  , politician
• Ken Hechler
  Ken Hechler
  Kenneth William Hechler is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented West Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1959 to 1977 and was West Virginia Secretary of State from 1985 to 2001....
  
  , politician and author
• John J. Jacob
  John J. Jacob
  John Jeremiah Jacob was a Democratic politician from Green Spring , West Virginia. Jacob served two terms as the fourth Governor of the US state of West Virginia...
  
  , politician
• Elizabeth Kee
  Elizabeth Kee
  Maude Elizabeth Kee , known more generally as Elizabeth Kee, was a U.S. Democratic politician. She was the first woman elected to Congress from West Virginia.-Biography:...
  
  , politician
• John E. Kenna
  John E. Kenna
  John Edward Kenna was an American politician who was a Senator from West Virginia from 1883 until his death....
  
  , politician
• Chief Logan
  Chief Logan
  Logan the Orator was a Native American orator and war leader born in the Iroquois Confederacy. Although he was of the Cayuga nation, after his 1760s move to the Ohio Country, he was sometimes referred to as a Mingo. His revenge for the killing of family members by American frontiersmen helped...
  
  , Native American leader
• William A. MacCorkle
  William A. MacCorkle
  William Alexander MacCorkle , was a United States teacher, lawyer, prosecutor, the ninth Governor of West Virginia and state legislator of West Virginia, and financier.-Biography:...
  
  , politician
• Joe Manchin
  Joe Manchin
  Joseph "Joe" Manchin III is the junior United States Senator representing West Virginia. Manchin, a Democrat, was Governor of West Virginia from 2005 to 2010...
  
  , politician
• William C. Marland
  William C. Marland
  William Casey Marland , a Democrat, was the 24th Governor of West Virginia from 1953 to 1957. He is best known for his early attempts to tax companies that depleted the state's natural resources, especially coal, as well as overseeing the generally non-violent implementation of school...
  
  , politician
• Arch A. Moore, Jr.
  Arch A. Moore, Jr.
  Arch Alfred Moore, Jr. was the 28th and 30th Governor of West Virginia from 1969 until 1977 and from 1985 until 1989. He was a Congressman from 1957 until entering the governor's office. He is a member of the United States Republican Party. He ran for reelection in 1988, but was defeated by...
  
  , politician
• Dwight Morrow
  Dwight Morrow
  Dwight Whitney Morrow was an American businessman, politician, and diplomat.-Life:Born in Huntington, West Virginia, he moved with his parents, James E. and Clara Morrow to Allegheny, Pennsylvania in 1875. His father James, was principal of Marshall College, which is now Marshall University...
  
  , businessman, politician, diplomat; father-in-law of Charles Lindbergh
• Matthew M. Neely
  Matthew M. Neely
  Matthew Mansfield Neely was a Democratic politician from West Virginia. He is the only West Virginian to serve in both houses of the United States Congress and as the Governor of West Virginia...
  
  , politician
• Bob Ney
  Bob Ney
  Robert William Ney is an American politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. A Republican, Ney represented Ohio's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 until November 3, 2006, when he resigned...
  
  , politician
• Okey L. Patteson
  Okey L. Patteson
  Okey Leonidas Patteson was born in Mingo County, West Virginia. He was the 23rd Governor of West Virginia for the term following the 1948 election...
  
  , politician
• Francis Harrison Pierpont, politician and "Father of West Virginia"
• Nick Rahall
  Nick Rahall
  Nick Joe Rahall II is the U.S. Representative for West Virginia's 3rd congressional district, serving since 1977. Rahall is currently Ranking Member of the House Resources Committee. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes much of the southern portion of the state, including...
  
  , politician
• Jennings Randolph
  Jennings Randolph
  Jennings Randolph was an American politician from West Virginia. He was a member of the Democratic Party and was the last surviving member of the United States Congress to have served during the first 100 days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration.-Early life and career:Randolph was born in...
  
  , politician
• Absalom Willis Robertson
  Absalom Willis Robertson
  Absalom Willis Robertson was an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician from Lexington, Virginia. Also known as A. Willis Robertson, he represented Virginia in both the U.S...
  
  , politician
• Jay Rockefeller
  Jay Rockefeller
  John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV is the senior United States Senator from West Virginia. He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as Governor of West Virginia, a position he held from 1977 to 1985...
  
  , politician
• Hulett C. Smith
  Hulett C. Smith
  Hulett Carlson Smith served as the 27th Governor of West Virginia from 1965 to 1969.The son of West Virginia Congressman Joe L. Smith, Hulett C. Smith was born in Beckley, West Virginia. He served in the Navy during World War II. Active in community service and civic affairs, he served as...
  
  , politician
• William E. Stevenson
  William E. Stevenson
  William Erskine Stevenson was an American cabinet-maker, farmer, and Republican politician from Parkersburg, West Virginia. He was the third Governor of West Virginia from 1869 until 1871....
  
  , politician
• Cyrus Vance
  Cyrus Vance
  Cyrus Roberts Vance was an American lawyer and United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980...
  
  , United States Secretary of State
• Charles Washington
  Charles Washington
  Charles Washington was the youngest brother of United States President George Washington. He was a son of Augustine Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington....
  
  , statesman
• Erik Wells
  Erik Wells
  Erik Patrick Wells is an American politician and former television news anchor. Wells was born and raised in California but moved to West Virginia in the early 1990s to further his career in journalism...
  
  , politician and news anchor
• Bob Wise
  Bob Wise
  Robert Ellsworth "Bob" Wise, Jr. is an American politician. A Democrat, Wise served as the 33rd Governor of West Virginia from January 2001 to January 2005.-Early life:...
  
  , politician

Religion

• Alexander Campbell
  Alexander Campbell (Restoration movement)
  Alexander Campbell was an early leader in the Second Great Awakening of the religious movement that has been referred to as the Restoration Movement, or Stone-Campbell Movement...
  
  , Restoration Movement leader
• B. R. Lakin
  B. R. Lakin
  Bascom Ray Lakin was a Baptist preacher and evangelist.B. R. Lakin was born on a farm near Fort Gay, West Virginia, on the Kentucky border. His mother had prayed for a "preacher man" and had dedicated him to God even before he was born. Lakin attended a one-room schoolhouse in West Virginia...
  
  , evangelist
• Matthew W. Clair, Methodist Episcopal Church bishop
• T. D. Jakes
  T. D. Jakes
  Thomas Dexter "T. D." Jakes Sr. is the chief pastor of The Potter's House, a non-denominational American megachurch, with 30,000 members, located in Dallas, Texas.T.D...
  
  , televangelist

Science

• Eugene Aserinsky
  Eugene Aserinsky
  Eugene Aserinsky , a pioneer in sleep research, was a graduate student at University of Chicago in 1953 when he discovered REM sleep. He made the discovery after hours spent studying the eyelids of sleeping subjects...
  
  , discovered REM sleep
• Maurice Brooks
  Maurice Brooks
  Maurice Graham Brooks was an American educator and naturalist whose name became synonymous with the natural history of Appalachia.-Biography:...
  
  , ornithologist
• Homer Hickam
  Homer Hickam
  Homer Hadley Hickam, Jr. is an American author, Vietnam veteran, and a former NASA engineer. His autobiographical novel Rocket Boys: A Memoir, was a #1 New York Times Best Seller, is studied in many American and international school systems, and was the basis for the popular film October Sky...
  
  , former NASA
  NASA
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
  
   engineer
• Mahlon Loomis
  Mahlon Loomis
  Mahlon Loomis was an early wireless telegraph experimenter.-Early history:...
  
  , inventor of the wireless telegraph
• Jon McBride
  Jon McBride
  Jon Andrew McBride is retired United States naval officer and a former NASA astronaut.-Biography:Jon McBride was born August 14, 1943, in Charleston, West Virginia, but considers Beckley, West Virginia, to be his hometown...
  
  , NASA astronaut, pilot of Challenger mission STS 41-G
• Adrian Melott
  Adrian Melott
  Adrian Lewis Melott is an American physicist. He is one of the pioneers of using large-scale computing to investigate the formation of large-scale structure in a Universe dominated by dark matter...
  
  , physicist and cosmologist
• John Forbes Nash
  John Forbes Nash
  John Forbes Nash, Jr. is an American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations have provided insight into the forces that govern chance and events inside complex systems in daily life...
  
  , mathematician
• James Rumsey
  James Rumsey
  James Rumsey was an American mechanical engineer chiefly known for exhibiting a boat propelled by machinery in 1787 on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown, now West Virginia, before a crowd of local notables, including Horatio Gates...
  
  , inventor and mechanical engineer

Other

• James J. Andrews
  James J. Andrews
  James J. Andrews was a Kentucky civilian who worked for the Union Army during the early years of the American Civil War. He led a daring raid behind enemy lines on the Western and Atlantic Railroad, known famously known as the Great Locomotive Chase...
  
  , espionage agent
• Bill Blizzard
  Bill Blizzard
  right|thumb|Bill Blizzard William H. "Bill" Blizzard was a union organizer, a commander of the miners' army during the Battle of Blair Mountain, and president of District 17 of the United Mine Workers. Blizzard is most remembered for his role in the Battle of Blair Mountain, leading the miners...
  
  , labor leader
• Julia Bonds
  Julia Bonds
  Julia "Judy" Bonds was an organizer and activist from the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, United States. Raised in a family of coalminers, she worked from an early age at minimum wage jobs. Bonds was the director of Coal River Mountain Watch...
  
  , environmental activist, winner of Goldman Prize
• Belle Boyd
  Belle Boyd
  Isabella Marie Boyd Isabella Marie Boyd Isabella Marie Boyd (May 9, 1844 – June 11, 1900, best known as Belle Boyd or Cleopatra of the Secession, was a Confederate spy in the American Civil War...
  
  , espionage agent
• Nancy Hanks
  Nancy Hanks
  Nancy Hanks Lincoln was the mother of Abraham Lincoln and of Sarah Lincoln after her marriage to Thomas Lincoln. After the family moved from Kentucky to Spencer County, Indiana, Nancy Lincoln died of milk sickness at the Little Pigeon Creek settlement...
  
  , mother of Abraham Lincoln and relative of actor Tom Hanks
• Devil Anse Hatfield
  Devil Anse Hatfield
  William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield was the patriarch of the Hatfield clan in the infamous Hatfield–McCoy feud which has since formed a part of American folklore. Devil Anse himself survived the feud, and agreed to end the feud in 1891.Hatfield was born in Logan, West Virginia, the son of...
  
  , Hatfield-McCoy feud
• Sid Hatfield
  Sid Hatfield
  William Sidney "Sid" Hatfield , was Police Chief of Matewan, West Virginia during the Battle of Matewan, a shootout that followed a series of evictions carried out by detectives from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency....
  
  , Matewan police chief, prominent figure in labor history
• Jacob and Samuel Hawken
  Jacob and Samuel Hawken
  Jacob and Samuel Hawken were American gunsmiths and traders that operated from their shop in St. Louis, Missouri from 1825 to 1855. They are famous for designing the famous "plains rifle" named after them .-History:...
  
  , designers of the Hawken rifle
  Hawken rifle
  The Hawken rifle was a brand of black powder long rifle used on the prairies and in the Rocky Mountains of the United States during the early frontier days. It has become synonymous with the "plains rifle", the buffalo gun, and the fur trapper's gun...
  
  
• Glen and Bessie Hyde
  Glen and Bessie Hyde
  Glen and Bessie Hyde were newlyweds who disappeared while attempting to run the rapids of the Colorado River through Grand Canyon, Arizona in 1928...
  
  , disappeared raftsmen
• John Henry
  John Henry (folklore)
  John Henry is an American folk hero and tall tale. Henry worked as a "steel-driver"—a man tasked with hammering and chiseling rock in the construction of tunnels for railroad tracks. In the legend, John Henry's prowess as a steel-driver was measured in a race against a steam powered hammer,...
  
  , the steel driving man of folklore
• Julia Neale Jackson
  Julia Neale Jackson
  Julia Beckwith Jackson was the mother of Confederate General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson.- Short and tragic life :...
  
  , mother of Stonewall Jackson
• Anna Jarvis
  Anna Jarvis
  Anna Marie Jarvis is the founder of the Mother's Day holiday in the United States.-Biography:...
  
  , founder of Mother's Day
• Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, labor and community organizer
• Randal McCloy, lone survivor of the 2006 Sago Mine disaster
• John Marshall
  John Marshall
  John Marshall was the Chief Justice of the United States whose court opinions helped lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court of the United States a coequal branch of government along with the legislative and executive branches...
  
  , last person in the United States to be executed by being hung in chains (April 4, 1913)
• Patsy Paugh Ramsey
  Patsy Ramsey
  Patricia Ann "Patsy" Ramsey was the mother of JonBenét Ramsey, a 6-year-old American beauty pageant contestant who was murdered on December 25, 1996.-Background:...
  
  , former Miss West Virginia and mother of slain beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey
• Walter Reuther
  Walter Reuther
  Walter Philip Reuther was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party in the mid 20th century...
  
  , labor leader
• Cecil Roberts
  Cecil Roberts
  Cecil Edric Mornington Roberts was an English journalist , poet, dramatist and novelist.Roberts worked as a journalist on the Liverpool Post during World War I, as literary editor and then as a war correspondent. From 1920 for five years he edited the Nottingham Journal...
  
  , United Mine Workers president
• Harry Randall Truman, volcano victim, owner of Spirit Lake Lodge at Mount St. Helens
• Jack Whittaker
  Jack Whittaker (lottery winner)
  Andrew Jackson “Jack” Whittaker, Jr. is a West Virginia businessman who became famous when he won US$314.9 million in the Powerball multi-state lottery. At the time it was the largest jackpot ever won by a single winning ticket in the history of American lottery...
  
  , lottery winner