Celebrities Born in the Great State of S. Carolina Quiz

Answer:

FYI - All incorrect answers are people born in Alaska or Hawaii.

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- Joe Frazier (Beaufort) was an American professional boxer widely regarded as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers ever. He was the first man to ever beat Muhammad Ali in the ring. Their first fight is widely considered the greatest boxing match in history.

- Eartha Kitt (North) was an American singer and actress. She was virtually exiled from the United States after making anti-war statements during a White House luncheon with Lady Bird Johnson in 1968. However, she was welcomed back to the White House in 1978 by Jimmy Carter, after a successful return to Broadway in the original production of the musical "Timbuktu!".

- Dizzy Gillespie (Cheraw) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. The trademark bend in Gillespie's trumpet came about due to a dancer falling on it during a show in 1953. He liked the effect that the bend had on his tone, and he had his trumpets custom-made to include it for the rest of his performing career.

- Althea Gibson (Clarendon County) was an American tennis player and professional golfer, and one of the first Black athletes to cross the color line of international tennis. She was the first African-American player to play in Wimbledon in 1951. She won the French Championship in 1956. Gibson was the first African American woman named Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press.

- Vanna White (North Myrtle Beach) is an American television personality and game-show hostess, best known as the co-host of the game show "Wheel of Fortune", a position she has held since 1982. Although she has been on "Wheel of Fortune" regularly since 1983, she did not host an episode until December 9, 2019, when regular host Pat Sajak took a three-week hiatus to recover from surgery. Before that, White and Sajak switched places for a single bonus round in 1996 when Sajak had laryngitis.

- William Westmoreland (Charleston) was a United States Army general, most notably the commander of United States forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968. He believed that if he attacked the National Liberation Front with overwhelming force he could win by attrition. This included massive bombing, artillery, and defoliation campaigns. This strategy did result in the Vietnamese suffering heavy losses, an estimated 2 million people. However, it did not break their will. This strategy only increased the number of people willing to fight the United States Army.

- Andrew Jackson (Waxhaw Settlement) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. He was the target of the first attempted presidential assassination. A deranged house painter named Richard Lawrence fired a pistol at the president. When the gun misfired, he pulled out a second weapon that also misfired. A subsequent investigation found the pistols to be in perfect working order. The odds of both guns misfiring were found to be 125,000 to 1.

- Jesse Jackson (Greenville) is an American civil rights activist, politician, and ordained Baptist minister. He and Ralph Abernathy were both waiting at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis for Martin Luther King Jr. the very day he was assassinated, on April 4, 1968. The friends had planned to have dinner together that evening.

- Chubby Checker (Spring Gully) is an American singer and dancer. His name, Chubby Checker, is a play on the name of another famous singer of his era, Fats Domino. The name was suggested by the wife of "American Bandstand" host Dick Clark. Rumor always had it that he was a chicken-plucker in Philadelphia before he made it big with "The Twist".

- Andie MacDowell (Gaffney) is an American actress and former fashion model. She has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" (1989) and "Groundhog Day" (1993). She has also been the International L'Oreal celebrity spokesperson for over 25 years.

- Alex English (Columbia) is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and businessman. He was the first NBA player to score 2,000 points in eight consecutive seasons, and he has the distinction of being the top NBA scorer in the 1980s. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997.

- Cale Yarborough (Florence) was an American NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver and owner, businessman, farmer, and rancher. He was the first driver to win three consecutive NASCAR championships (1976, 1977, and 1978) and was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1994.

- Viola Davis (St. Matthews) is an American actress and film producer. She is one of the few performers to have been awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony (EGOT). In 2012 and 2017, "Time" magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

- Lauren Hutton (Charleston) is an American model and actress. When she began working at the Playboy Club upon first arriving in Manhattan, she was still going by her birth name, Mary. There were already several bunnies named Mary, however, so management suggested that she choose another name. Using actress Lauren Bacall as her inspiration, she went with Lauren. She has also appeared on the cover of "Vogue" magazine 25 times.

- Chris Rock (Andrews) is an American comedian, actor, and filmmaker. He has the rare distinction of being in two movies that opened on the same day in the United States: "The Longest Yard" (2005) and "Madagascar" (2005) (May 27, 2005). Both of them stayed at the two top spots at the box office the following weeks, knocking down the last installment of the "Star Wars" saga, "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" (2005). Both became members of the $100 million club.