Secret divorce for Mary Lou

Mary Lou Retton, the West Virginia with Olympic gold medals in gymnastic, got a divorce . . . NINE MONTHS AGO.

She and Shannon Kelley, a former football player, kept it a secret till Mary Lou revealed her divorce on “Dancing With the Stars.”

They were married 27 years. They have four daughters -- Shayla, 23, McKenna, 21, Skyla, 18, and Emma, 16.

Mary Lou was eliminated from the show. No connection to the divorce.

West Virginian is ‘Star Wars’ screenwriter

“Star Wars” screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan grew up in Morgantown and is a graduate of Morgantown High School.



Lawrence Kasdan

He was born in Miami, where his mother Sylvia Landau Sarah was an employment counselor and his father Clarence Norman Kasdan  managed retail electronics stores.

Kasdan has an impressive history as screenwriter, director and producer. He was a co-writer of “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Return of the Jedi.”

With his son, he will co-write the Han Solo spin-off movie.

Kasdan has been nominated for four Oscars (“The Big Chill,” “Grand Canyon” – a great but unheralded movie – “The Accidental Tourist.”

The University of Michigan graduate first planned to be a teacher. Then switched to his fantastic career.

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

 

 

Roy Lee Cooke, one of the Rocket Boys made famous in fellow Rocket Boy Homer Hickam’s novel, “Rocket Boys,” landed at Fairmont Catholic High School today (Friday, Nov. 6).

Writes teacher Greg Patrick, also the leader of the Jenna Won’t Sing Band:

“How great that we were fortunate to have Mr. Roy Lee Cooke, one of the Rocket Boys, come to Fairmont Catholic today! Thank you, Mr. Cooke!”

The book was made into a movie called “October Sky,” which is an anagram of Rocket Boys. With an anagram, you take the letters from a word or two and rearrange them to form another word or two.

The film, which changed the name of Sonny in the book to Homer in the movie, tells how the Big Creek Missile Agency, really a group of talented teenagers from Coalwood, West Virginia fascinated by rocketry, wound up working for the National Aeronatics and Space Agency.

Roy’s character was played by William Lee Scott. Jay Gyllenhaal played Homer. Chris Owen played Quentin Wilson. Chad Lindberg played Jimmy “O’Dell” Carroll. Apparently Sherman Siers and Billy Rose were left out of the film even though they were part of the Big Creek Missile Agency.

Laura Dern played Miss Riley, the teacher who encouraged Big Creek High school’s Rocket Boys.

Roy was born Dec. 25, 1941, 18 days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. His parents were coal miner Wiley Clay Cooke and Carrie Austin Cooke of Coalwood in McDowell County. He was both a football star and a thespian, a combination you didn’t see a lot in those days. He retired after 25 years as a banker. He lives in Irmo, South Carolina but still spends time in West Virginia tending to his businesses.

Homer was born Feb. 19, 1943 to Homer, Sr. and Elsie Hickam. His first book in 1989 was “Torpedo Junction,” about U-boat sinkings of ships. “Rocket Boys” exploded into national consciousness in 1989. “October Sky” movie came out in 1999.

Homer is a prolific writer: “The Coalwood Way” (2000), a memoir of his hometown; “Sky of Stone” (2001); in 2002 the longest title in the history of books, “We Are Not Afraid: Strength and Courage from the Town That Inspired the #1 Bestseller and Award-Winning Movie October Sky”; a series of novels featuring Coast Guard officer Josh Thurlow; a trio of Helium-3 novels; “Red Helmet,” about a coal miner’s wife; and “The Dinosaur Hunter,” a modern-day thriller set in Montana.

Homer and wife Linda Terry Hickam, an artist and his first editor and assistant, have homes in Alabama and the Virgin Islands.

The Rocket Boys Festival switched to Tamarack in Beckley in 2012 when Coalwood decided it couldn’t handle it any more after 13 RB festivals. Tamarack houses products by West Virginians and has in-house demonstrations by West Virginia artists and craftsmen.



Roy Lee Cooke autographs his book at Fairmont Catholic