Famous Citizens:

Davy Crockett
Davy Crockett was perhaps best known in Tennessee as a noted hunter and for his unique style of backwoods oratory. Crockett was born August 17, 1786 in what is now northeastern Tennessee. He didn’t learn to read and write before he was eighteen, and about that time, he married and started a family of several children.

He first became involved in politics as magistrate of his local community. By 1821, he was elected to the State Legislature, and was reelected to that position in 1823. From 1827 through 1833, Crockett served in the Congress of the United States. However, in his run for a fourth term in Congress, he was defeated by a narrow margin.

Disgusted by that time with politics, Crockett bid farewell to Tennessee and headed for Texas in the fall of 1835. There he was well received and seemed to enjoy his new environment. Less than one month later, however, Crockett and a few of his fellow Tennesseans were among the 189 defenders that sacrificed their lives at The Battle of the Alamo in the interest on Texas independence.

 

 

Aretha Franklin
The daughter of the Rev. C.L. Franklin, Aretha Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee on March 25, 1942. Both her parents were musical and sang gospel. As a teenager, she too sang gospel with her two sisters Carolyn and Erma. She made her first recordings as a gospel artist at the age of 14. In the late '60s, Franklin became one of the biggest international recording stars in all of pop. Many also saw Franklin as a symbol of Black America itself, reflecting the increased confidence and pride of African-Americans in the decade of the civil rights movements and other triumphs for he Black community. The chart statistics are impressive in and of themselves: ten Top Ten hits in a roughly 18-month span between early 1967 and late 1968, for instance, and a steady stream of solid mid-to-large-size hits for the next five years after that. Her success has earned her the nickname "Lady Soul" or "the Queen of Soul."

 

 

Al Gore
Al Gore, Jr. was born on March 31, 1948, the son of former U.S. Senator Albert Gore, Sr. and Pauline Gore. Raised in Carthage, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., he received a degree in government with honors from Harvard University in 1969. After graduation, he volunteered for enlistment in the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam. Returning to civilian life, Gore became an investigative reporter with The Tennessean in Nashville. He attended Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Vanderbilt Law School and operated a small homebuilding business. Gore's Congressional career began when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976 where he served eight years representing the then 4th District of Tennessee. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and was re-elected in 1990. A candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1988, Gore won more than three million votes and Democratic contests in seven states. After the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, Al Gore was inaugurated as the 45th Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1993.

 

 

Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton grew up as the fourth of 12 children on a rundown farm in Locust Ridge, Tenn., near the Smoky Mountains National Forest. While the young Parton was much-ridiculed for her poverty, she turned to music for comfort. After learning to play a guitar that was a gift from her uncle, she began making public music appearances. By the age of 12, she made her debut on a Knoxville television station, and by the age of 14, she had already landed a recording contract with Mercury, and was making appearances on the Grand Old Opry. Today she continues her music career, has starred in movies and on television, and has her own theme park Dolly Wood.