List of people from St. Joseph, Missouri

This is a list of notable people born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with the city of St. Joseph, Missouri.


 * Don Alt (1916–1988), Iowa state representative and businessman; born in St. Joseph.
 * Charles S. L. Baker (1859–1926), African American businessman and inventor, lived in St. Joseph.
 * Kay Barnes (b. 1938), mayor of Kansas City 1999–2007
 * Stephen Nikola Bartulica (b. 1970), Croatian politician, MEP for Croatia (since 2024)
 * Dwayne Blakley (b. 1979), football player, born in St. Joseph.
 * Ryan Bradley (b. 1983), figure skater
 * Norbert Brodine, cinematographer
 * Byron Browne, baseball player
 * Charles Francis Buddy, bishop, attended Christian Brothers School (now George Bode Middle School)
 * Rob Calloway, boxer
 * Harold F. Cherniss, historian of ancient Greece and Plato scholar at Princeton
 * Orson L. Crandall, Naval Officer, Navy Master Diver, Medal of Honor recipient
 * Walter Cronkite, iconic television journalist, born in St. Joseph; his father was a dentist there
 * Paul Crouch, founder of Trinity Broadcasting Network
 * Katherine Kennicott Davis, composer of "The Little Drummer Boy"
 * Eminem, rapper and songwriter, born in St. Joseph
 * Eugene Field, popular poet in his day, worked for the St. Joseph Gazette and wrote a famous poem about Lover's Lane, St. Joseph
 * Harold K. Forsen, Nuclear physicist
 * Ralph D. Foster, broadcasting pioneer
 * Betty Garrett, actress, known for On the Town and Laverne & Shirley, born in St. Joseph
 * Elijah Gates, State Treasurer of Missouri
 * Anthony Glise, guitarist
 * Jody Hamilton, wrestler
 * Larry Hamilton, wrestler
 * Fred Harman, artist, drew the Red Ryder cartoons and worked with Walt Disney, born in St. Joseph and worked at Artcrafts Engraving Company in St. Joseph
 * Coleman Hawkins, jazz saxophonist
 * Shere Hite, sex educator
 * Edie Huggins, television journalist
 * Bela M. Hughes (1817–1903), pioneer, born in Kentucky, was in the 1850s and 1860s a prominent St. Joseph lawyer
 * William Hyde (1836–1898), journalist
 * Lucie Fulton Isaacs, writer, philanthropist, suffragist
 * Jesse James, iconic outlaw, murdered in St. Joseph
 * Kagney Linn Karter, porn actress
 * Henry Krug, founded Krug Packing Company, the Saint Joseph Stockyards, the German-American Bank, The Hotel Robidoux, gave Krug Park to the City
 * Brian McDonald, writer
 * Jeff Morris, actor, known for The Blues Brothers, born in St. Joseph
 * Timothy Omundson, actor
 * Mary Alicia Owen, Missouri folklorist
 * Isaac Parker, judge
 * Travis Partridge, football player
 * Forrest E. Peden, decorated World War II soldier
 * Benjamin F. Peery, physicist, astronomer and professor, and the second African American person to earn a doctorate in astronomy
 * Tom Pendergast, political boss
 * Seraphine Eppstein Pisko, executive secretary of the Denver Jewish Hospital
 * Frank Posegate, mayor of St. Joseph
 * LeRoy Prinz, choreographer and film director
 * Arthur Pryor, trombonist
 * Randy Railsback, member of the Missouri House of Representatives
 * Sid Rogell, Hollywood producer
 * Nellie Tayloe Ross, first woman elected governor of a U.S. state; governor of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927
 * Martin Rucker, football player
 * Martin T. Rucker, politician
 * Mike Rucker, football player
 * Jay Sarno, hotel mogul, founder of Caesars Palace
 * Bill Snyder, Kansas State football coach
 * Eddie Timanus, Jeopardy! champion, won five times in 1999 despite being blind
 * Steve Walsh, musician of band Kansas
 * Ruth Warrick, actress, known for Citizen Kane and All My Children, born in St. Joseph
 * James H. Webb, U.S. Senator from Virginia, born in St. Joseph
 * Silas Woodson (1819–1896), 21st Governor of Missouri, born in Kentucky, was in the 19th century a prominent St. Joseph lawyer
 * Huston Wyeth, industrialist
 * Jane Wyman, Oscar–winning actress and first wife of Ronald Reagan, born in St. Joseph
 * Delmer J. Yoakum (1915–1996), artist
 * Olive Young, born in St. Joseph; actress and blues singer; was silent–films movie star in China but typecasting hurt her in Hollywood.