Jefferson Davis (b. KY 1808-1889) President of the Confederacy; U.S. senator for the state of Mississippi.
Walker Percy (1916-1990) Novelist who lived in Mississippi; used the state as a setting for many of his works.
Elvis Presley (1935-1977)Singer, movie star, and teen idol known as "The King of Rock nΓÇÖ Roll." Born Tupelo, Mississippi.
Eudora Welty (b. 1909) Short story writer and novelist who set her works in Mississippi, where she was born. Works include Delta Wedding, The Ponder Heart, The Golden Apples, and others.
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) Famous playwright; wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). Born Columbus, Mississippi.
Richard Wright (1908-1960) Short story writer and novelist; author of Black Boy, an autobiographical account of his Mississippi childhood; the first black American to gain international acclaim as a writer.
Popular blues singers and musicians from Mississippi include Riley "B. B". King, Howlin' Wolf (Chester Arthur Burnett), Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield), and John Lee Hooker.
Country music singers from Mississippi include Jimmie Rodgers, Conway Twitty, and Charley Pride.
Fascinating Fact
Joseph Biedenharn of Mississippi bottled Coca-Cola for the first time in history so that it could be taken to the workers in the cotton fields. Today the event is commemorated at Mississippi's Biedenharn Candy Museum.
Mississippi adopted its state flag in 1894. The flag is a combination of two Confederate flags: the Stars and Bars Flag and the Battle Flag; both include the national colors of red, white, and blue.
