Meet the most famous person from each county in Ohio

[Garrison Hilliard]

By Patrick Cooley
Cleveland.com
Sept. 2, 2016
Here's our list of the most famous person from each of Ohio's 88
counties. We considered people who were born and raised in each
county. In some cases, if a famous person was born in one place but
raised in another, we associated them with the county they grew up in.

Adams County
Jack Roush is the chairman of the board of the engineering firm Roush
Industries, but most readers probably know him as the owner of NASCAR
team Roush Fenway Racing. He's known as "The Cat in the Hat" because
he is rarely without his trademark Panama Hat. Roush was born in
Kentucky but grew up in Manchester, Ohio.
Runner-up: Cowboy Copas, country singer who died in the plane crash
that killed Patsy Cline
J Pat Carter

Allen County
Phyllis Diller was known for her over-the-top stage presence and her
cackling laugh, and she excelled at making audiences laugh by cracking
jokes at her own expense. Diller was born in Lima and attended
Bluffton College.
Runner-up: Al Jardine, founding member of the Beach Boys.

Ashland County
The late Tim Richmond won 13 races during eight years as a NASCAR
driver and was named one of the top 50 NASCAR drivers of all time.
Cole Trickle, the main character in the movie "Days of Thunder,"
played by Tom Cruise, was loosely based on Richmond He was born in
Ashland.
Runner-up: NBA coach Eric Musselman.

Ashtabula County
Urban Meyer started his college football coaching career as a graduate
assistant at the Ohio State, then came full circle, ending up there as
a head coach after winning two national championships at the
University of Florida. Meyer has a 50-4 record at OSU, and added
another national championship to his resume as a coach of the
Buckeyes. He was born in Toledo but grew up in Ashtabula.


Athens County
Four-time Golden Globe winner Sarah Jessica Parker is best known for
her role on the long-running HBO comedy, "Sex and the City." But
Parker — who is now 51 years old — got her start on Broadway at the
tender age of 11. She was born in Nelsonville.

Auglaize County
The first human being to set foot on the surface of the moon was born
in Wapakoneta in 1930. Neil Armstrong died in Cincinnati at the age of
82 after a follow-up career as a businessman and University of
Cincinnati professor.
Michael Conroy

Belmont County
NBA Hall of Famer John Havlicek, who won a national championship for
the Ohio State University, won eight NBA championships with the Boston
Celtics and was named Finals MVP in 1974. He was born in Martins Ferry
in 1940.
Runner-up: Lou Groza, Cleveland Browns great and NFL Hall of Famer

Brown County
Brian Grant spent more than two decades as a power forward and center
in the NBA and had stints with the Sacramento Kings, Portland
Trailblazers, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns. He was
born in Columbus but attended Georgetown High in Brown County.

Butler County
Kenesaw Mountain Landis was a judge who served as the first
Commissioner of Baseball from 1920 until his death in 1944. Landis was
praised for cleaning up the sport at a time of scandals involving
players allegedly throwing games. But he's also been accused of
delaying integration. He was born in Millville in 1866.
Runner-up: Ray Combs, one-time host of "Family Feud"


Carroll County
Eddie Maple was one of the top jockeys in U.S.thoroughbred horse
racing during the 1970s, '80s and '90s. He rode Secretariat to victory
in the horse's last race, the 1973 Canadian International Stakes.
Maple won 4,398 races, including the 1980 and 1985 Belmont Stakes. He
raced in nine Kentucky Derbys, finishing second in 1982 and was
inducted into the National Racing Hall of Fame. Maple was born in
Carrollton.

Champaign County
Pete Dye designed or had a hand in designing many top golf courses
across the country, including TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.,
and Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, S.C. He is an
inductee of the World Golf Hall of Fame. He came from a family of
designers and grew up in Urbana.
Runner-up: Clancy Brown, who played the head prison guard in the cult
classic film "The Shawshank Redemption."

Clark County
Music star John Legend, was born John Roger Stephens in Springfield,
Ohio. He rose to stardom with his 2004 album, "Get Lifted." Since
then, he's become one of the most successful artists in pop music,
winning 10 Grammy Awards. He teamed with rapper Common in 2014 for
"Glory," which was featured in the film, "Selma," and the
collaboration won the Oscar and a Golden Globe for best original song.
He was the salutatorian of his graduating class at Springfield North
High School.
Runner-up: Pioneering film star Lillian Gish
Reed Saxon

Clermont County
Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant began his tenure as the Commanding
General of the United States Army in 1864 and remained in that
position until he was elected President of the United States in 1869.
He was born in Point Pleasant in 1822.

Clinton County
Charles Murphy — who began his professional career as a sportswriter
for the Cincinnati Enquirer — bought the Chicago Cubs in 1905 with a
loan from Enquirer owner Charles Phelps Taft. He owned the franchise
when it won its only two World Series championships in 1907 and 1908.
Murphy was born in Wilmington in 1868.
Runner-up: General James W. Denver, for whom Denver, Colorado is
named.
Paul Beaty, Associated Press

Columbiana County
Mark Hanna was a key ally and close personal friend of President
William McKinley. Hanna quit a career in business to work on
McKinley's presidential campaign in 1895, and served as a U.S. Senator
for Ohio. He spent most of his professional career in Cleveland, but
was born in Lisbon, the seat of Columbiana County.

Coshocton County
Bob Brenly played catcher for the San Francisco Giants in the 1980s,
but he's most recognized as the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks
when the franchise won its only World Series in 2001. He was born in
Coshocton.

Crawford County
Jack Harbaugh was a football player and coach, but is best known as
the father of NFL coach John Harbaugh and University of Michigan head
football Jim Harbaugh. The elder Harbaugh was born in Crestline in
1939.

Cuyahoga County
Paul Newman — who won an Academy Award for his 1986 role in "The Color
of Money," and starred in iconic films such as "The Hustler," "Cool
Hand Luke" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" — was born in
Shaker Heights in 1925.
Runners-up: Bob Hope, President James A. Garfield, Halle Berry, George
Steinbrenner, Hal Holbrook, Patricia Heaton, Drew Carey, Wes Craven,
Carl Stokes, Arsenio Hall, John D. Rockefeller.
Associated Press

Darke County
Annie Oakley rose to international fame as a sharpshooter and member
of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The Broadway musical, "Annie Get
Your Gun," is inspired by her life. She was born in 1860 near
Willowdell.


Defiance County
The so-called "Four Horsemen" — a quartet of football players — led
the Irish to a perfect record and a national championship in 1925. One
of the Four Horsemen was Don Miller, who was born in Defiance.

Delaware County
Rutherford B. Hayes was elected the 19th President of the United
States during the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War.
Prior to his career in national politics, he served as a city
solicitor in Cincinnati before joining the Union Army. Hayes was born
in Delaware, Ohio in 1822.
Runner-up: Jack Hanna, television personality and Director Emeritus of
the Columbus Zoo.

Erie County
Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, the motion picture camera and
the first long-lasting light bulb. He also changed the way products
were mass produced, earning the nickname "The Wizard of Menlo Park."
But before he made his way to New Jersey, Edison was a native of
Milan, where he was born in 1847.

Fairfield County
William Tecumseh Sherman was a Major General for the Union Army when
the Civil War began. Sherman was commended for his battlefield
command, but implemented a "scorched earth" policy that some saw as
unnecessarily brutal. He commanded the United States Army under
President Ulysses S. Grant and was born in Lancaster.

Fayette County
Ohio State quarterback Art Schlichter started all four years of his
tenure with the Buckeyes, but is perhaps best known for throwing the
pass that was intercepted by Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the
1978 Gator Bowl. Buckeye coaching great Woody Hayes punched Bauman at
the conclusion of that play, ending his career. Schlichter was drafted
into the NFL by the Colts in 1982. But his career was cut short by
legal and personal problems brought on by compulsive gambling. He was
in and out of jails frequently between 1995 and 2006 on various fraud
and forgery charges related to his gambling addiction. In 2012, a
federal judge sentenced him to nearly 11 years in prison for scamming
participants in a sports ticket scheme. He was born in Washington
Court House.

Franklin County
Jack Nicklaus has the third most PGA tour wins of all time and is
widely regarded as the greatest golfer who ever lived. Nicklaus was
born in Upper Arlington and attended the Ohio State University. A
museum chronicling his career sits on his alma mater's campus.
Runners-up: World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, author James
Thurber, two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin, Olympian
Simone Biles.

Fulton County
Barney Oldfield, an auto racing legend, was the first man to drive an
automobile faster than 60 miles per hour. He was born near Wauseon.

Gallia County
Bob Evans owned a chain of sausage farms in the mid 20th Century, and
founded the Bob Evans restaurant chain in the early 1960s when he was
unable to find enough eateries to buy his product. Evans was born in
Sugar Ridge, but his family moved to Gallia County when he was a small
boy and he grew up there.

Geauga County
Harmonica virtuoso and Blues Traveler frontman John Popper was born in
Chardon in 1967.

Greene County
Hall of Fame football coach Woody Hayes led the Ohio State Buckeyes to
13 Big Ten championships and five national championships between 1954
and 1977. His tenure with the Buckeyes ended abruptly when he punched
Clemson guard Charlie Bauman after the Tigers defender intercepted an
Ohio State pass in the 1978 Gator Bowl. Hayes was born in Clifton,
Ohio, which straddles the border of Greene and Clark counties. Hayes
himself was unsure what side of the line he was born on, once
cracking: "Greene countians claimed I was born in Clark County, and
Clark countians claimed I was born in Greene county." We checked with
the Ohio Department of Health, who pulled Hayes' birth certificate and
confirmed that he was born on the Greene County side of Clifton.
Runner-up: Shawnee war chief Tecumseh, comedian Jonathan Winters