page_title: Galveston, Texas
section_title: Notable people
hierarchical_section_title: Galveston, Texas / Notable people
caption_attribution_description: English: Jack Johnson, 1915
context_page_description: Galveston is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of 209.3 square miles, with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galveston County and second-largest municipality in the county. It is also within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area at its southern end on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
  Galveston, or Galvez' town, was named after the Spanish military and political leader in the 18th century: Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez, who was born in Macharaviaya, Málaga, in the Kingdom of Spain. Galveston's first European settlements on the Galveston Island were built around 1816 by French pirate Louis-Michel Aury to help the fledgling Republic of Mexico fight for independence from Spain, along with other colonies in the Western Hemisphere of the Americas in Central and South America in the 1810s and 1820s. The Port of Galveston was established in 1825 by the Congress of Mexico following its independence from Spain.
context_section_description: Galveston has been home to many important figures in Texas and U.S. history. During the island's earliest history it became the domain of Jean Lafitte, the famed pirate and American hero of the War of 1812. Richard Bache, Jr. who represented Galveston in the Senate of the Second Texas Legislature in 1847 and assisted in drawing up the Constitution of 1845. He was also the grandson of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and Deborah Read. In 1886, the African-American Galveston civil rights leader Norris Wright Cuney rose to become the head of the Texas Republican Party and one of the most important Southern black leaders of the century.  Noted portrait and landscape artist Verner Moore White moved from Galveston the day before the 1900 hurricane. While he survived, his studio and much of his portfolio were destroyed. A survivor of the hurricane was the Hollywood director King Vidor, who made his directing debut in 1913 with the film Hurricane in Galveston. Later Jack Johnson, nicknamed the "Galveston Giant", became the first black world heavyweight boxing champion.
  During the first half of the 20th century, William L. Moody Jr. established a business empire, which includes American National Insurance Company, a major national insurer, and founded the Moody Foundation, one of the largest charitable organizations in the United States. Sam Maceo, a nationally known organized crime boss, with the help of his family, was largely responsible for making Galveston a major U.S. tourist destination from the 1920s to the 1940s. John H. Murphy, a Texas newspaperman for seventy-four years, was the longtime executive vice president of the Texas Daily Newspaper Association. Douglas Corrigan became one of the early transatlantic aviators, and was given the nickname "Wrong Way" for claiming to have mistakenly made the ocean crossing after being refused permission to make the flight. Grammy-award-winning singer-songwriter Barry White was born on the island and later moved to Los Angeles.
  Cody Lynn Boyd, Texas singer-songwriter was raised as a child in Galveston, Texas until Hurricane Rita. He moved to the North Texas area after. A portion of his music has some influence from the ghost culture in Galveston, Texas.
  George P. Mitchell, pioneer of hydraulic fracturing technology and developer of The Woodlands, Texas, was born and raised in Galveston.
  Anita Martini, pioneering female sports journalist who was the first woman allowed in a major league locker room for a post-game press conference, was born in Galveston. Surfer Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz was born in Galveston.
  More recently Tilman J. Fertitta, part of the Maceo bloodline, established the Landry's Restaurants corporation, which owns numerous restaurants and entertainment venues in Texas and Nevada.
  Kay Bailey Hutchison was the senior senator from Texas and the first female Texas senator.
  Gilbert Pena, incoming 2015 Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from Pasadena, was born in Galveston in 1949 and lived there in early childhood.
  Jonathan Pollard, who spied for Israel and was convicted in the US and sentenced to life in jail, was born in Galveston. The film and television actor Lee Patterson, a native of Vancouver, British Columbia, lived in Galveston and died there in 2007.
  Other notable people include Matt Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals, Mike Evans, wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1998 Heisman Trophy runner-up and pro quarterback Michael Bishop, Pittsburgh Steelers great Casey Hampton, comedian Bill Engvall, actresses Valerie Perrine and Katherine Helmond, painter Ethel Fisher, Tina Knowles fashion designer and creator of House of Deréon, mother of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, and Grammy award-winning R&B and Jazz legend Esther Phillips, born in Galveston in 1935.
caption: World heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson, nicknamed the "Galveston Giant"
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