WAbner Maurice Aust Jr. was an American flying ace in the 506th Fighter Group during World War II, and a career fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. During World War II, Aust flew Very Long Range (VLR) fighter missions from Iwo Jima, and was one of the last pilots to become flying aces in the war. During Vietnam War, Aust commanded two fighter wings and flew more than 300 combat missions.
WDavid Reece Bowen was a U.S. Representative from Mississippi.
WJesse LeRoy Brown was a United States Navy officer. He was the first African-American aviator to complete the U.S. Navy's basic flight training program, was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the first African-American naval officer killed in the Korean War.
WHoward Gerald "Jerry" Clower was an American stand-up comedian. Born and raised in the Southern United States, Clower was best known for his stories of the rural South and was given the nickname "The Mouth of Mississippi".
WWilliam Thad Cochran was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States Senator for Mississippi from 1978 to 2018. A Republican, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 to 1978.
WBert Cumby was a United States military intelligence officer who served as head of research of the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Corps and led the debriefing of repatriated American prisoners of war (POWs) during the Korean War. In 1956 he testified to a United States Senate committee regarding an international communist conspiracy he alleged was underway, the objective of which was the admission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China. According to Cumby, this was to be partially accomplished through the brainwashing of American POWs prior to their repatriation to the United States; they would, in turn, create a nucleus of domestic support for China-friendly policies within the U.S.
WJefferson Finis Davis was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. As a member of the Democratic Party, he represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives before the American Civil War. He previously served as the United States Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857 under President Franklin Pierce.
WBryant Winfield Culberson Dunn is an American businessman and politician who served as Governor of Tennessee from 1971 to 1975. He was the state's first Republican governor in fifty years, and was just the sixth since the Civil War. Dunn was an unsuccessful candidate for a second term in 1986, losing to Democrat Ned McWherter. He has remained active in the Republican Party and the medical field since the end of his term as governor.
WJames Charles Evers was an American civil rights activist, businessman, disc jockey, and politician. Evers was known for his role in the civil rights movement along with his younger brother Medgar Evers. After serving in World War II, Evers began his career as a disc jockey at WHOC in Philadelphia, Mississippi. In 1954, he was made the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) State Voter Registration chairman. After his brother's assassination in 1963, Evers took over his position as field director of the NAACP in Mississippi. In this role, he organized and led many demonstrations for the rights of African Americans.
WMedgar Wiley Evers was an American civil rights activist in Mississippi, the state's field secretary for the NAACP, and a World War II veteran who had served in the United States Army. He worked to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi, end the segregation of public facilities, and expand opportunities for African Americans, which included the enforcement of voting rights.
WRev. Leon Dorsey Finney Jr. was an American minister, community organizer and businessman. Finney was the founder and pastor of Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Finney was also known for his association with The Woodlawn Organization, a community development initiative in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago.
WRoe Erister "Rick" Hall was an American record producer, songwriter, and musician who became known as the owner of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. As the "Father of Muscle Shoals Music", he was influential in recording and promoting both country and soul music, and in helping develop the careers of such musicians as Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Duane Allman and Etta James.
WJon Clifton Hinson was a Republican U.S. representative for Mississippi's 4th congressional district from 1979 to 1981. Following his 1981 resignation following arrest for engaging in a homosexual act, he became an LGBT activist in metropolitan Washington D.C.
WSamuel Hodges, professionally known as Eddie Hodges, is an American former child actor and recording artist, who left show business as an adult.
WRobert Edward Hogaboom was a decorated United States Marine Corps four-star General who served as chief of staff, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps between 1957 and 1959. Hogaboom was promoted to four-star rank upon retirement as a "tombstone general".
WJames Earl Jones is an American actor. His career spans more than seven decades and he has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors known for his performance in film, theater and television, and "one of the greatest actors in American history".
WJohn Trent Kelly is an American politician from Mississippi. A member of the Republican Party, Kelly is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi's 1st congressional district, following his victory in a special election on June 2, 2015.
WFrank Manning "Bruiser" Kinard Sr. was an American football tackle and coach and university athletic administrator. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a charter member in 1951 and into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.
WMajor General Catherine S. Lutz was a Mississippi National Guard officer. She began her career as a nurse before becoming a medical officer. She served in a series of postings before being promoted to the rank of brigadier general in 2009 while acting as assistant to the Chief Nurse of the Air Force, becoming the first female general officer in the history of the Mississippi National Guard. She was subsequently promoted to the rank of major general and commander of the Mississippi Air National Guard.
WJohn Sidney "Slew" McCain was a U.S. Navy admiral and the patriarch of the McCain military family. He held several command assignments during the Pacific campaign of World War II. McCain was a pioneer of aircraft carrier operations. Serving in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II, in 1942 he commanded all land-based air operations in support of the Guadalcanal campaign, and in 1944–45 he aggressively led the Fast Carrier Task Force. His operations off the Philippines and Okinawa and air strikes against Formosa and the Japanese home islands caused tremendous destruction of Japanese naval and air forces in the closing period of the war. He died four days after the formal Japanese surrender ceremony.
WJames Harrison "Babe" McCarthy, was an American professional and collegiate basketball coach. McCarthy was originally from Baldwyn, Mississippi. McCarthy may best be remembered for Mississippi State's appearance in the 1963 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament when his all-white team sneaked out of town in order to face Loyola University Chicago, which had four black starters.
WAaron Stanton Merrill also known as Tip Merrill was an American rear admiral during World War II who led American naval forces during the Solomon Islands campaign as well as the first admiral to solely use radar for fire control during wartime.
WJohn William Mitchell was an officer of the United States Air Force, a flying ace and the leader of Operation Vengeance, the mission to shoot down Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. He served in World War II and the Korean War.
WFrank Alexander Montgomery was an American politician best known for his memoir of life as a Confederate cavalry officer in the Western Theater of the American Civil War (1861–1865) called Reminiscences of a Mississippian in Peace and War (1901).
WWalter Louis Nixon Jr. is a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi who in 1989 was impeached by the House of Representatives and removed from office by the Senate. Because Nixon's impeachment was for perjury, the case was cited as a precedent in the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.
WEdmond Favor Noel was an American attorney and politician who served as governor of Mississippi from 1908 to 1912. The son of an early planter family in Mississippi, he became a member of the Democratic Party.
WJeremiah Joseph "Jerry" O'Keefe III was an American World War II veteran and decorated fighter pilot ace. In addition, he served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives and was the mayor of Biloxi, Mississippi from 1973 to 1981.
WMilton Lee Olive III was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of America's highest military decoration — the Medal of Honor — for his actions in the Vietnam War. At the age of 18, Olive sacrificed his life to save others by falling on a grenade. He was the first African-American recipient of the Medal of Honor from the Vietnam War.
WSteven McCarty Palazzo is an American politician who has been the U.S. Representative for Mississippi's 4th congressional district since 2011. The district takes in Mississippi's Gulf Coast and includes Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagoula, Laurel and Hattiesburg. Palazzo is a member of the Republican Party.
WDonald Herod Peterson was a United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut. Peterson was originally selected for the Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program, but, when that was canceled, he became a NASA astronaut in September 1969. He was a mission specialist on STS-6 on board Challenger. During the mission Peterson performed a spacewalk to test the new airlock and space suits. He logged 120 hours in space. Peterson retired from NASA in 1984.
WJohn Jones Pettus was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd Governor of Mississippi, from 1859 to 1863. Prior to being elected in his own right to full gubernatorial terms in 1859 and 1861, he served as acting governor from January 5 to 10, 1854, following the resignation of Henry S. Foote. A member of the Democratic Party, Pettus had previously been a Mississippi state representative, a member and president of the Mississippi Senate. He strongly supported Mississippi's secession from the Union in 1861 and sought cooperation with the Confederate States Government.
WStacey Eugene Pickering is the former State Auditor of Mississippi, a position that he filled from 2008 until his resignation in July 2018. His resignation came after accepting the position as the head of the Mississippi Veterans Affairs Board.
WElvis Aaron Presley, also known simply as Elvis, was an American singer, musician and actor. He is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century and is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King". His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to great success—and initial controversy.
WCarey Allen Randall was a highly decorated officer in the United States Marine Corps with the rank of major general. A veteran of World War II, he is most noted for his service as Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense from 1951 to 1960.
WViola Brown Sanders was an American naval officer who served as deputy director of Women in the Navy from 1958 to 1960, and in 1962 was appointed as the 6th director of Women in the Navy.
WRichard F. "Dickie" Scruggs is an American former A6A naval aviator, a formerly prominent trial lawyer, now disbarred, and the brother-in-law of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Scruggs first came to the public eye after successfully suing the asbestos industry on behalf of ill shipyard workers. He later represented the state of Mississippi in the tobacco litigation of the 1990s. He also represented hundreds of homeowners in lawsuits against insurance companies following Hurricane Katrina, and a national class action of patients against HMOs in the early 2000s.
WRoscoe Turner was a record-breaking American aviator who was a three-time winner of the Thompson Trophy air race and widely recognized by his flamboyant style and his pet, Gilmore the Lion.
WRoger Frederick Wicker is an American attorney and politician who is the senior United States Senator from Mississippi, in office since 2007. A member of the Republican Party, Wicker previously served as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the Mississippi State Senate.