Famous Citizens:

Paul "Bear" Bryant
Paul Bryant was born in Moro Bottom and raised in Fordyce, Arkansas. He earned his nicknamed as a young man by wrestling a bear at the Fordyce Theater. He served as the head coach of the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide from 1958-1983 and became the college football coach with the best record having earned 323 victories and six national championships. Five weeks after retiring as head coach, he died of a heart attack.

 

 

Pearl S. Buck
Pearl Buck was born Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker in Hillsboro, Arkansas, the daughter of Southern Presbyterian missionaries who spent most of their lives in China. Pearl was born while her parents were on a furlough in the US, but returned to China when she was only 3 months old. She enrolled in Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Virginia, and returned to China after graduation where she met John Lossing Buck, an American agricultural economist. Pearl and her husband both took teaching positions at Nanking University. In the 1920s, Pearl began to publish stories and essays, and her first novel East Wind, West Wind, was published in 1930. Her second book, The Good Earth won a Pulitzer Prize, was a best selling book of both 1931 and 1932, and was adapted as a major film in 1937. By 1938, Buck had won the Nobel Prize in literature, the first American woman to do so.

 

 

Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash was born in Kingland, Arkansas, the son of Baptist sharecroppers. He began playing guitar and writing songs at age 12 and during high school, performed frequently on the local radio station. Known as the "Man in Black," he has been an established country music star for decades. The Hall of Famer is known for such hits as "A Boy Named Sue," "Orange Blossom Special," and "I Walk the Line." He had his own TV series "The Johnny Cash Show" (ABC, 1969-71) and "Johnny Cash and Friends" (CBS, 1976).

 

 

William Jefferson Clinton
Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blyth IV in Hope, Arkansas. His father died three weeks before he was born, and when he was four, his mother married Roger Clinton and raised Bill in Hot Springs. Clinton graduated from Georgetown University and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. After receiving a law degree from Yale University, he entered Arkansas politics. He was elected Attorney General of Arkansas in 1976, and Governor in 1978. In 1992, he was elected President of the United States, and then became the first Democratic president to win re-election since FDR. He also became only the second President to be impeached by the House of Representatives after he was accused of lying about a relationship he had with a White House intern. He was found not guilty of the charges.

 

 

John Grisham
John Grisham was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the son of a cotton farmer. His father also was an itinerant construction worker, and moved the family throughout the Deep South. Although neither of his parents attended college, they encouraged him to pursue his education, and he entered the University of Mississippi law school to prepare for a career as a tax lawyer. He established a practice and was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1983. Inspired by cases he had observed in his law career, he decided to begin writing novels, and eventually closed his law practice to write full time. He is now the best-selling author of such books as "A Time to Kill," "The Rainmaker," "The Firm," "The Pelican Brief," "The Client" and "The Chamber," all of which) have been successfully translated into movies.

 

 

General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur was born at the Little Rock Arsenal while his father was its commandant. He rose to become a Five-star U.S. Army general and Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific during World War II. He accepted the Japanese surrender in 1945. His accomplishments include: first in class at West Point; Superintendent of West Point; Army Chief of Staff; U.S. Far East Commander; Congressional Medal of Honor recipient; Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers; and first UN Commander.