List of people from Clarksburg, West Virginia
Appearance
This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2025) |
This is a list of notable people who were born in, lived in, or are closely associated with the city of Clarksburg, West Virginia.
Athletics
[edit]- Babe Barna – Major League Baseball player (1937–1943)
- Rex Bumgardner – professional football player, Buffalo Bills (1948–1949) and Cleveland Browns (1950–1952)
- Jimbo Fisher – former head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies football team
- Bert Hamric – Major League Baseball player
- Tuffy Knight – Canadian university football coach, member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame
- Frank Loria – Virginia Tech All-American; killed in the 1970 Marshall University plane crash
- Ken Moore – professional football player, New York Giants
- Rich Newbrough – coach in Canadian university football
Arts, media, and entertainment
[edit]- Tony Anthony – actor, producer, director, and screenwriter
- Hugh Aynesworth – author and journalist
- Gray Barker – writer and publisher known for early UFO books
- Davisson Brothers Band – country and southern rock band from the Clarksburg area
- William Demby – novelist; grew up in Clarksburg
- Bumps Myers – jazz saxophonist from Clarksburg
- Mike Patrick – sportscaster for ESPN
- Christi Paul – television journalist, anchor for HLN and CNN
- Gloria Plevin – painter, born in Clarksburg
- Melville Davisson Post – author of the Uncle Abner detective stories (1911–1928)
- Jay Randolph – sportscaster, son of Senator Jennings Randolph
- Emily Shaffer – actress
- Clyde Ware – screenwriter, director, and producer
- Patty Weaver – actress, The Young and the Restless (1982–2023) and Days of Our Lives (1974–1982)[1]
- Meredith Sue Willis – novelist and educator, born in Clarksburg
- Sherilyn Wolter – television actress
- Kirsten Wyatt – Broadway actress, Grease (2007–present)
Politics and government
[edit]- Percy Ashcraft – former mayor of Clarksburg; later Virginia county administrator
- W. Robert Blair – Illinois politician
- Gideon D. Camden – judge and politician; early Clarksburg leader
- Fred H. Caplan – justice, Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia
- John S. Carlile – United States senator; one of West Virginia’s founders
- William W. Chapman – politician in Iowa and Oregon
- John J. Davis – U.S. congressman, helped found West Virginia
- John W. Davis – Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States (1924)
- Joseph S. Farland – U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq
- Ron Fragale – member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from Clarksburg
- Guy D. Goff – U.S. senator; son of Nathan Goff Jr.
- Nathan Goff Jr. – U.S. secretary of the Navy and congressman
- Howard Mason Gore – U.S. secretary of agriculture under President Calvin Coolidge
- William S. Haymond – U.S. representative from Indiana; Union Army surgeon
- Lynn Hornor – U.S. representative from West Virginia
- Edward B. Jackson – U.S. representative
- John G. Jackson – U.S. representative and federal judge; prominent Clarksburg figure
- D. Rolland Jennings – West Virginia state delegate
- Louis A. Johnson – U.S. secretary of defense under President Harry S. Truman
- Irene Patricia Murphy Keeley – U.S. district judge, Northern District of West Virginia
- Charles S. Lewis – U.S. representative
- Lloyd Lowndes Jr. – governor of Maryland
- Tim Miley – former speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates
- Alan Mollohan – U.S. representative from West Virginia (WV-1)
- Elliott Northcott – U.S. ambassador and federal judge; born in Clarksburg
- Dave Nutter – member of the Virginia House of Delegates
- Roy Earl Parrish – West Virginia politician
- James Pindall – U.S. representative; practiced in Clarksburg
- Stuart F. Reed – U.S. representative from West Virginia
- Mike Romano – former West Virginia state senator from Clarksburg
- Cyrus Vance – U.S. secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter
- Benjamin Wilson – U.S. representative; lawyer from Clarksburg
Military and public service
[edit]- Howard Mason Gore – U.S. secretary of agriculture (also listed in Politics)
- Robert Graetz – Lutheran clergyman and civil rights activist
- Mabel Grouitch – surgical nurse and Red Cross worker during World War I
- Stonewall Jackson – Confederate lieutenant general during the American Civil War
- William Lowther Jackson – Confederate general during the American Civil War
- Emisire Shahan – Medal of Honor recipient, Union Army
- John Curtiss Underwood – federal judge and abolitionist; linked to Clarksburg by family ties
- Sam Wetzel – U.S. Army general
Science, education, and business
[edit]- Ernest C. S. Holmboe – architect (Holmboe & Lafferty) known for many Clarksburg buildings
- Porter Jarvis – president of Swift & Company, Chicago; born in Clarksburg
- George Hay Lee – justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia; practiced law in Clarksburg
- Victorine Louistall Monroe – pioneering African-American educator; first Black woman to earn a graduate degree from West Virginia University
- Frederick Mosteller – founding chairman of Harvard University’s statistics department
- Jean Yancey – women's small-business consultant and motivational speaker
References
[edit]- ^ Patterson, Jessica (April 17, 2023). "10 actors you may not know are from West Virginia". WOWK 13 News. Retrieved November 2, 2025.