Mountain Mama’s legion

All of these well-known people have one thing in common: They are West Virginians.

I knew about most of them. But a few surprised me.

Brad Paisley – Country Musician

Chuck Yeager – Aviator

Steve Harvey – TV Personality

Little Jimmy Dickens – Country Musician

Johnnie Johnson – Musician

Kathy Mattae – Country Musician

Chris Sarandon – Actor, “The Princess Bride”

Bill Withers – Musician

Chief Logan – 18th Century Native American Leader

Jay Rockefeller III – Former Governor and US Senator

Conchata Ferrell – Actress, “Two and a Half Men”

Homer Hickam – Author, “Rocket Boys”

Mary Harris “Mother” Jones – Labor Leader

Patsy Paugh Ramsey – former Miss West Virginia and mother of JonBenét Ramsey

Hoda Kotb – Journalist, Today Show Host

Bob Huggins – WVU Basketball Coach

Jerry West – Former NBA Star

Giles Snyder – Journalist, NPR

Joe Manchin – Former Governor and US Senator

Hasil Adkins – Musician

Bill Mazeroski – Former Pittsburgh Pirate

Don Knotts – Actor

Hazel Dickens – Folk Musician

Bill Stewart – Former WVU Football Coach

Pearl S. Buck – Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author and Nobel Laurete

John Knowles – Author, “A Seperate Peace”

Jimbo Fisher – Florida State Football Coach

John Corbett – Actor, “Sex in the City”

Shannon Larkin – Drummer for Godsmack

Robert Byrd – Former US Senator

Lesli Kay – Actor, “The Bold and the Beautiful”

Frankie Yankovic – America’s Polka King

Booker T. Washington – Politican, Educator, Author

Soupy Sales – Actor

Morgan Spurlock – Documentarian

Ted Cassidy – Actor, “The Addams Family”

Mylan Puskar – Founder of Mylan Pharmaceuticals

Stonewall Jackson – Civil War General

Joyce DeWitt – Actor, “Three’s Company”

Nick Swisher – MLB Star

Peter Marshall – Host, “Hollywood Squares”

David Selby – Actor, “Falcon Crest”

Josh Stewart – Actor, “Criminal Minds”

Tommy Bowden – Former Clemson Football Coach

Randy Moss – Former NFL Player

Mary Lou Retton – Olympic Gymnast

Sam Trammell – Actor, “True Blood”

Nick Saban – Alabama Football Coach

George Preston Marshall, former owner the Washington Redskins

Michael Cerveris – Broadway Actor

Aaron Staton – Actor, “Mad Men”

Bob Denver – Actor, retired to Mercer County

Morgan Morgan – Frontiersman

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. – Historian

Jessica Lynch – Prisoner of War

Cyrus Vance – Former Secretary of State

John Forbes Nash – Mathematician

Larry Gibson – Environmentalist

Jennifer Garner – Actress

Anna Jarvis – Founder of Mother’s Day

Jesse “Jesco” White – The Best Tap Dancer There Is

Cecil Roberts – UMWA President

Jon McBride – NASA Astronaut