List of people from Roanoke, Virginia
The following is a list of notable people who were either born in, raised in, or were one-time residents of Roanoke, Virginia. Roanoke natives are also referred to as Roanokers.
Born in Roanoke[edit]
- Tony Atlas, wrestler[1]
- Ronde Barber, NFL player[2]
- Tiki Barber, NFL player
- Beth A. Brown, NASA astrophysicist
- George E. Bushnell, Michigan Supreme Court justice
- Tai Collins, model and actress
- Lew DeWitt, founding tenor and guitarist of the Statler Brothers
- Henry H. Fowler, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
- Dorothy Gillespie, artist, sculptor
- Antoinette Hale, painter
- Luke Hancock, basketball player
- Jim Harrell, professional wrestler
- K. J. Hippensteel, tennis player
- James Hylton, racing driver
- Louis A. Johnson, United States Secretary of Defense
- Danny Karbassiyoon, soccer player
- Henrietta Lacks, medical patient[3]
- George Lynch, NBA player
- John C. Mather, astrophysicist and Nobel laureate
- John Alan Maxwell, artist
- Walter Muir, International Master of Correspondence Chess
- John Payne, actor
- Don Pullen, jazz pianist
- Billy Sample, MLB player
- John St. Clair, NFL player
- Curtis Staples, basketball player[4]
- Lee Suggs, NFL player
- Nicholas F. Taubman, former United States Ambassador to Romania
- Lois Weaver, artist, activist, writer, director, and Professor of Contemporary Performance at Queen Mary University of London
- Eric Weinrich, NHL player
Raised in Roanoke[edit]
- George Canale, MLB player
- India Ferrah, drag queen
- Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association of America[5]
- John McAfee, founder of McAfee
- Wayne Newton, singer[6]
- J. J. Redick, NBA player[7]
- Joshua Strachan, musician
One-time resident[edit]
- Fleming Alexander, minister, businessman and publisher of the Roanoke Tribune
- Nelson S. Bond, author
- Sarah Johnson Cocke, writer and civic leader
- Whitney Cummings, comedian and actress
- Nidal Hasan, shooter in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting
- Oliver Hill, civil rights attorney
- Kermit Hunter, playwright
- Johan Kriek, tennis player
- Quigg Lawrence, Anglican bishop
- Samuel W. Martien, Louisiana cotton planter and politician
- Oscar Micheaux, early 20th century filmmaker
- John Forbes Nash, mathematician and Nobel laureate
- Harry Penn, dentist and civic rights activist
- John Henry Pinkard, businessman, banker and herb doctor
- G. Samantha Rosenthal, historian, author, and academic
- Curtis Turner, NASCAR driver and Hall of Famer
- Harriet French Turner, folk artist
References[edit]
- ^ "Tony Atlas Biography". WWE. Archived from the original on June 30, 2022. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
- ^ Berman, Mark (February 9, 2022). "Hard work has put Ronde Barber on cusp of Canton". The Roanoke Times. Archived from the original on February 9, 2022. Retrieved July 16, 2022.(subscription required)
- ^ "WHO honors Henrietta Lacks, Roanoke native whose cells served science". WDBJ7.com. October 13, 2021. Archived from the original on October 23, 2021. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
- ^ Lundquist, Jerry (June 20, 2022). "Jerry Lundquist's Sports Memories: Catching Up with Curtis Staples". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Archived from the original on June 23, 2022. Retrieved July 19, 2022.(subscription required)
- ^ Dan Casey (January 6, 2013). "Sunday's column: Rename high school for Wayne LaPierre?". The Roanoke Times. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
To consider them, let's take a single school -- Patrick Henry High in Roanoke. That happens to be Wayne LaPierre's alma mater. He was in the class of '67.
- ^ Quinlan, Adriane (August 1, 2006). "For Wayne Newton, It's Viva Virginia". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 6, 2023. Retrieved July 19, 2022.(subscription required)
- ^ Berman, Mark (September 21, 2021). "Former Cave Spring star J.J. Redick retires from the NBA". Roanoke.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved September 21, 2021.(subscription required)