List of people from Roanoke, Virginia explained

The following is a list of notable people who were either born in, raised in, or were one-time residents of Roanoke, Virginia. Roanoke natives are also referred to as Roanokers.

Born in Roanoke

• Tony Atlas, wrestler^[1]
• Ronde Barber, NFL player^[2]
• Tiki Barber, NFL player
• Beth A. Brown, NASA astrophysicist
• George E. Bushnell, Michigan Supreme Court justice
• Tai Collins, model and actress
• Lew DeWitt, founding tenor and guitarist of the Statler Brothers
• Henry H. Fowler, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
• Dorothy Gillespie, artist, sculptor
• Antoinette Hale, painter
• Luke Hancock, basketball player
• Jim Harrell, professional wrestler
• K. J. Hippensteel, tennis player
• James Hylton, racing driver
• Louis A. Johnson, United States Secretary of Defense
• Danny Karbassiyoon, soccer player
• Henrietta Lacks, medical patient^[3]
• George Lynch, NBA player
• John C. Mather, astrophysicist and Nobel laureate
• John Alan Maxwell, artist
• Walter Muir, International Master of Correspondence Chess
• John Payne, actor
• Don Pullen, jazz pianist
• Billy Sample, MLB player
• John St. Clair, NFL player
• Curtis Staples, basketball player^[4]
• Lee Suggs, NFL player
• Nicholas F. Taubman, former United States Ambassador to Romania
• Lois Weaver, artist, activist, writer, director, and Professor of Contemporary Performance at Queen Mary University of London
• Eric Weinrich, NHL player

Raised in Roanoke

• George Canale, MLB player
• India Ferrah, drag queen
• Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association of America^[5]
• John McAfee, founder of McAfee
• Wayne Newton, singer^[6]
• J. J. Redick, NBA player^[7]
• Joshua Strachan, musician

One-time resident

• Fleming Alexander, minister, businessman and publisher of the Roanoke Tribune
• Nelson S. Bond, author
• Sarah Johnson Cocke, writer and civic leader
• Whitney Cummings, comedian and actress
• Nidal Hasan, shooter in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting
• Oliver Hill, civil rights attorney
• Kermit Hunter, playwright
• Johan Kriek, tennis player
• Quigg Lawrence, Anglican bishop
• Samuel W. Martien, Louisiana cotton planter and politician
• Oscar Micheaux, early 20th century filmmaker
• John Forbes Nash, mathematician and Nobel laureate
• Harry Penn, dentist and civic rights activist
• John Henry Pinkard, businessman, banker and herb doctor
• G. Samantha Rosenthal, historian, author, and academic
• Curtis Turner, NASCAR driver and Hall of Famer
• Harriet French Turner, folk artist

Notes and References

1. Web site: Tony Atlas Biography. WWE. July 16, 2022. June 30, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220630141957/https://www.wwe.com/superstars/tonyatlas/. live.
2. Web site: Hard work has put Ronde Barber on cusp of Canton. Berman. Mark. February 9, 2022. The Roanoke Times. July 16, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220209220933/https://roanoke.com/sports/high-school/hard-work-has-put-ronde-barber-on-the-cusp-of-canton/article_d80d757c-8960-11ec-b9d5-a308cfe09767.html. February 9, 2022. live.
3. Web site: WHO honors Henrietta Lacks, Roanoke native whose cells served science. WDBJ7.com. October 13, 2021 . October 13, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211023080856/https://www.wdbj7.com/2021/10/13/who-honors-henrietta-lacks-roanoke-native-whose-cells-served-science/ . October 23, 2021. dead.
4. Web site: Jerry Lundquist's Sports Memories: Catching Up with Curtis Staples. Lundquist. Jerry. June 20, 2022. Richmond Times-Dispatch. July 19, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220623053030/https://richmond.com/sports/local/jerry-lindquists-sports-memories-catching-up-with-curtis-staples/article_a3fcbbd8-999b-52b8-8293-56fd2a2d63ea.html. June 23, 2022. live.
5. News: Dan Casey . Sunday's column: Rename high school for Wayne LaPierre? . 6 October 2023 . The Roanoke Times . January 6, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211211030323/https://roanoke.com/news/local/sundays-column-rename-high-school-for-wayne-lapierre/article_6b609b06-ac2a-52c4-9f89-961c055f97ea.html . December 11, 2021 . en-us . To consider them, let's take a single school -- Patrick Henry High in Roanoke. That happens to be Wayne LaPierre's alma mater. He was in the class of '67..
6. News: For Wayne Newton, It's Viva Virginia. Quinlan. Adriane. August 1, 2006. The Washington Post. July 19, 2022. https://archive.today/20231006090456/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2006/08/01/for-wayne-newton-its-viva-virginia/03d9a8f5-bc2e-40ab-afa6-d96c5dd4712c/. October 6, 2023. live.
7. Web site: Former Cave Spring star J.J. Redick retires from the NBA. Berman. Mark. September 21, 2021. Roanoke.com. September 21, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210929014207/https://roanoke.com/sports/high-school/former-cave-spring-star-j-j-redick-retires-from-the-nba/article_21b5f808-1af7-11ec-a95c-2b7728d6c745.html. September 29, 2021. live.