List of people from Clarksburg, West Virginia

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

• Babe Barna – Major League Baseball player (1937–1943)
• Rex Bumgardner – professional football player, Buffalo Bills (1948–1949) and Cleveland Browns (1950–1952)
• Harry Courtney (baseball) – professional baseball pitcher and professional football player (1919–1922)
• Jimbo Fisher – former head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies football team
• Bert Hamric – Major League Baseball player
• John D. Jamerson – NCAA basketball player for Ohio University; NBA player selected by the Miami Heat (1990)
• 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 (American football) – professional football player, New York Giants
• Rich Newbrough – coach in Canadian university football
• Thomas Thomas (boxer) – heavyweight boxer once rated #6 in the world
• Jarrod West (basketball) – college basketball player for West Virginia University

Arts, media, and entertainment

• Tony Anthony (actor) – actor, producer, director, and screenwriter
• Hugh Aynesworth – author and journalist
• Gray Barker – writer and publisher known for early UFO books
• Christi Paul – television journalist, anchor for HLN and CNN
• Mike Patrick – sportscaster for ESPN
• 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
• Patty Weaver – actress, The Young and the Restless (1982–2023) and Days of Our Lives (1974–1982) ^[1]
• Sherilyn Wolter – television actress
• Kirsten Wyatt – Broadway actress, Grease (2007–present)
• Clyde Ware – screenwriter, director, and producer
• William Demby – novelist; grew up in Clarksburg
• Davisson Brothers Band – country and southern rock band from the Clarksburg area
• Bumps Myers – jazz saxophonist from Clarksburg
• Meredith Sue Willis – novelist and educator, born in Clarksburg

Politics and government

• W. Robert Blair – Illinois politician
• 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)
• Gideon D. Camden – judge and politician; early Clarksburg leader
• 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
• Benjamin Wilson (congressman) – U.S. Representative; lawyer from Clarksburg
• James Pindall – U.S. Representative; practiced in Clarksburg
• John G. Jackson (politician) – U.S. Representative and federal judge; prominent Clarksburg figure
• Charles S. Lewis – U.S. Representative
• Lloyd Lowndes Jr. – governor of Maryland
• Nathan Goff Jr. – U.S. Secretary of the Navy and congressman
• Guy D. Goff – U.S. senator; son of Nathan Goff Jr.
• Howard Mason Gore – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President Calvin Coolidge
• Louis A. Johnson – U.S. Secretary of Defense under President Harry S. Truman
• Cyrus Vance – U.S. Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter
• Elliott Northcott – U.S. ambassador and federal judge; born in Clarksburg
• Irene Patricia Murphy Keeley – U.S. District Judge, Northern District of West Virginia
• Joseph S. Farland – U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq
• Percy Ashcraft – former mayor of Clarksburg; later Virginia county administrator
• Ron Fragale – member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from Clarksburg
• Tim Miley – former Speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates
• Mike Romano (politician) – former West Virginia state senator from Clarksburg
• Alan Mollohan – U.S. Representative from West Virginia (WV-1)
• D. Rolland Jennings – West Virginia state delegate
• J. B. McCuskey – attorney general of West Virginia
• Bruce Marks (politician) – politician and attorney
• Dave Nutter – member of the Virginia House of Delegates
• Roy Earl Parrish – West Virginia politician
• Stuart F. Reed – U.S. Representative from West Virginia
• Fred H. Caplan – West Virginia Supreme Court justice

Military and public service

• Robert Graetz – Lutheran clergyman and civil rights activist
• Mabel Grouitch – surgical nurse and Red Cross worker during World War I
• William Lowther Jackson – Confederate general during the American Civil War
• Stonewall Jackson – Confederate lieutenant general during the American Civil War
• Sam Wetzel – U.S. Army general
• Emisire Shahan – Medal of Honor recipient, Union Army
• Howard Mason Gore – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (also listed in Politics)
• John Curtiss Underwood – federal judge and abolitionist; linked to Clarksburg by family ties

Science, education, and business

• Frederick Mosteller – founding chairman of Harvard University’s statistics department
• Victorine Louistall Monroe – pioneering African-American educator; first Black woman to earn a graduate degree from West Virginia University
• Porter Jarvis – president of Swift & Company, Chicago; born in Clarksburg
• Jean Yancey – women’s small-business consultant and motivational speaker
• Ernest C. S. Holmboe – architect (Holmboe & Lafferty) known for many Clarksburg buildings
• George Hay Lee – justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia; practiced law in Clarksburg

References

1. Patterson, Jessica (April 17, 2023). "10 actors you may not know are from West Virginia". WOWK 13 News. Retrieved November 2, 2025.