Lizzie Borden (1860 - 1927)

Despite being the descendant of wealthy, influential area residents, Lizzie Borden’s father, Andrew Jackson Borden, grew up in very modest surroundings and struggled financially as a young man. He eventually prospered through the manufacture and sales of furniture and caskets, and went on to become a successful property developer. He directed several textile mills including […]

Jerry Quarry (1945 - 1999)

Jerry Quarry Quarry was a durable and smart counter-puncher/action fighter, often noted for his surprising agility in the ring. He had fast hands, an excellent left hook, and punched well with both hands. He also had a remarkable chin, although his major flaw was a tendency to cut easily and the bad luck to box […]

Joe Frazier (1944 - 2011)

Joe Frazier Hall of Fame Professional Boxer. Olympic Gold Medalist. World Heavyweight Champion (1970 until 1973). Regarded by may as being one of the greatest fighters of his era, he is famed for his epic bouts against Muhammad Ali, notably the contest referred to as the “Thrilla in Manila”. The son of a sharecropper, he […]

Donna Douglas (1932 - 2015)

American Actress. Douglas, who grew up in Baton Rouge, will best be remembered for her role as Elly May Clampett in the 1960s CBS television series, ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’. Born Doris Smith, she attended a Catholic High School where she was active in sports. In 1957, she was named “Miss Baton Rouge” and was later […]

Billy McCrary (1946 - 1979)

Billy McCrary Born in Hendersonville, North Carolina, he along with his brother Benny, were identical twins. At 743 and 723 pounds and having 84 inch waists, the brothers were discovered by Life Magazine. They entered show business as carnival performers and appeared in Las Vegas, Nevada, where they were in a act playing trumpets and […]

Benny McCrary (1946 - 2001)

Benny McCrary Benny McGuire, half of the famous giant McGuire twins, died Monday of heart failure in Hendersonville, N.C. at 54. Benny and Billy, whose real last name was McCrary, at 814 pounds and 784 pounds in the Guinness Book of World Records, are most widely recognized in a famous photograph of them on motorcycles. […]

Barry Sadler (1940 - 1989)

Barry Sadler Singer, United States Army Soldier. Born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, he was introduced to music at a young age when he spent some time at a logging camp. In 1958, he enlisted into the United States Air Force as a radar specialist, but discharged one year later to begin touring and playing music. […]

Bob Luman (1937 - 1978)

Bob Luman Luman was born in Blackjack, Texas, but raised in Nacogdoches, Texas. His early interest in music was influenced by his father, an amateur fiddle, guitar and harmonica player. Bob Luman received his first guitar when he was thirteen years of age. Luman attended high school in Kilgore, where the family had moved after […]

Westley Allan Dodd (1961 - 1993)

Westley Allan Dodd was born in Toppenish, Washington, on July 3, 1961, the oldest of Jim and Carol Dodd’s three children.  Dodd claimed he was never abused or neglected as a child. He also reported that he grew up in a wealthy, happy family. However, The Seattle Times reported that Dodd described in a diary […]

Carroll Cole (1938 - 1985)

Carroll Cole was born in Sioux City, Iowa, the second son of LaVerne and Vesta Cole. His younger sister was born in 1939 and soon afterwards, his family moved to California, where LaVerne found work in a shipyard. Not long after that, LaVern went to fight in World War II. While his father was away, […]

Arthur Gary Bishop (1952 - 1988)

Arthur Gary Bishop was born in Hinckley, Utah, the eldest of six brothers. Bishop was raised as a devout Mormon, and was an Eagle Scout and an honor student. When he was 19, Bishop served as a missionary in the Philippines.  Bishop was arrested for embezzlement in February 1978 and given a five-year suspended sentence, […]

Jake Bird (1901 - 1949)

Jake Bird (December 14, 1901 – July 15, 1949) was a convicted murderer and self-confessed serial killer who was tried and executed for the axe murders of Bertha Kludt (age 53) and her daughter Beverly June Kludt (17) in Tacoma, Washington on October 30, 1947. Bird may have killed as many as 46 people. The […]

Anna Marie Hahn (1906 - 1938)

Hahn was the youngest of 12 children. As a teenager she allegedly had an affair with a Viennese physician, though no records have been found of a Viennese doctor by the name she gave. They had a son named Oskar (also spelled “Oscar”). Her scandalized family sent her to America in 1929, while her son […]

Velma Barfield (1932 - 1984)

Velma Barfield was born in rural South Carolina, but grew up near Fayetteville, North Carolina. Her father reportedly was abusive and she resented her mother who did not intervene in the beatings. She escaped by marrying Thomas Burke in 1949. The couple had two children and were reportedly happy until Barfield had a hysterectomy and […]

Del Wood (1920 - 1989)

Del Wood A lifelong resident of Nashville, Del Wood is recognized as being the most successful female country solo instrumentalist. From 1953 until her death in 1989 she was a fixture at the Grand Ole Opry, playing rollicking piano instrumentals from the days of ragtime jazz. Her stage name was created by combining part of […]

Dixie Hall (1970 - 2015)

Dixie Hall Dixie Hall, bluegrass and country music songwriter and wife of Country Music Hall of Fame member Tom T. Hall, passed away on Jan. 16. “Miss Dixie,” as she was often known, was 80 years old. She had, in recent years, been diagnosed with a brain tumor and had other health troubles. Born Iris […]

Kevin Sharp (1970 - 2014)

Kevin Sharp Kevin Sharp was born in 1970 in Redding, California. When he was seven years old, his family moved to Weiser, Idaho to open a restaurant. Sharp performed in local musicals in high school, and stayed active in music after his family moved back to California in 1985. Starting in 1989, he began to […]

Vern Gosdin (1934 - 2009)

Vern Gosdin Country singer/songwriter Vern Gosdin, known as “The Voice” for his distinctive tone and heart-wrenching way with a lyric, died Monday night in Nashville following a recent stroke. He was 74. Born in Woodland, Alabama, Gosdin’s singing and writing style was influenced most by the Louvin Brothers. He came from a musical family, which […]

Foster Brooks (1912 - 2001)

Foster Brooks Brooks regularly appeared on The Dean Martin Show television program in the 1970s (for which he garnered an Emmy Award nomination in 1974) as well as many situation comedies, talk shows, and a few films. Although he had only one basic signature character, he exhibited such extraordinary timing and subtlety that he was […]

Ed Gein (1906 - 1984)

Edward Theodore Gein was born in La Crosse County, Wisconsin on August 27, 1906, the second of two boys of George Philip (August 4, 1873 – April 1, 1940) and Augusta Wilhelmine (née Lehrke) Gein (July 21, 1878 – December 29, 1945), the daughter of Prussian immigrants.[citation needed] Gein had an older brother, Henry George […]

Aileen Wuornos (1956 - 2002)

Wuornos was born Aileen Carol Pittman in Rochester, Michigan, on February 29, 1956. Her mother, Diane Wuornos (born 1939), was 14 years old when she married Aileen’s father, Leo Dale Pittman, on June 3, 1954. Less than two years later, and two months before Aileen was born, Diane filed for divorce. Aileen’s older brother Keith […]

Jeffrey Dahmer (1960 - 1994)

Serial Killer, having killed an estimated 16 men and boys.   Jeffrey Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960 in West Allis, Wisconsin, the first son of Joyce Annette (née Flint) and Lionel Herbert Dahmer. Dahmer’s mother worked as a teletype machine instructor, whereas his father was a student at Marquette University, working towards a degree […]

Jerry Reed (1937 - 2008)

Jerry Reed Musician, Songwriter, Actor. Born Jerry Reed Hubbard, he caught the eye of Chet Atkins and was signed by RCA records after a failed attempt with Capitol Records, a stint in the United States Army and another failed attempt with Columbia Records. His time with RCA under Chet Atkins nurtured his session playing skills, […]

Bob Wills (1905 - 1975)

Bob Wills American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western swing,he was universally known as the King of Western Swing (after the death of Spade Cooley who used the moniker “King Of Western Swing” from 1942 to 1969.) Wills formed several bands and played radio stations around […]

Spade Cooley (1910 - 1969)

Spade Cooley One of the groups which played at the Venice Pier Ballroom in Venice, California, was led by Jimmy Wakely with Spade Cooley on fiddle. Several thousand dancers would turn out on Saturday night to swing and hop. “The hoards (sic) of people and jitterbuggers loved him.” When Wakely got a movie contract at […]

Joe Simon (1913 - 2011)

Joe Simon was born in 1913 as Hymie Simon and raised in Rochester, New York, the son of Harry Simon, who had emigrated from Leeds, England, in 1905, and Rose, whom Harry met in the United States. Harry Simon moved to Rochester, then a clothing-manufacturing center where his younger brother Isaac lived, and the couple […]

Christopher Hitchens (1949 - 2011)

Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British American author, philosopher, polemicist, debater, and journalist. He contributed to New Statesman, The Nation, The Atlantic, The London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement and Vanity Fair. Hitchens was the author, co-author, editor and co-editor of over thirty books, including five […]

Vaclav Havel (1936 - 2011)

Vaclav Havel Václav Havel (Czech pronunciation: [ˈvaːt͡slav ˈɦavɛl] ( listen); 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech writer, philosopher, dissident, and statesman. From 1989 to 1993, he served as the first democratically elected president of Czechoslovakia in 41 years. He then served as the first president of the Czech Republic (1993–2003) after […]

Sam Rivers (1923 - 2011)

Rivers was born in El Reno, Oklahoma. His father was a gospel musician who had sung with the Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Silverstone Quartet, exposing Rivers to music from an early age. Rivers was stationed in California in the 1940s during a stint in the Navy. Here he performed semi-regularly with blues singer Jimmy […]

Millie Kirkham (1923 - 2014)

Millie Kirkham Singer. Kirkham will best be remembered for her soaring soprano vocals which were heard on classic recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others on a number of pop, country and rock ‘n’ roll recordings from the mid-1950s through the 1980s. […]