page_title: Dothan, Alabama
section_title: Notable people
hierarchical_section_title: Dothan, Alabama / Notable people
caption_attribution_description: English: Wrapping up this busy day w/ great conversation from Dothan city officials. Thank you for dropping by &amp; filling me in on city issues in the Wiregrass area!
context_page_description: Dothan is a city in Dale, Henry, and Houston counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is the county seat of Houston County and the seventh largest city in Alabama, with a population of 65,496 at the 2010 census. It is near the state's southeastern corner, approximately 20 miles west of the Georgia state line and 16 miles north of Florida. It is named after the biblical city where Joseph's brothers threw him into a cistern and sold him into slavery in Egypt.
  Dothan is the principal city of the Dothan, Alabama metropolitan area, which encompasses all of Geneva, Henry, and Houston counties; the small portion in Dale County is part of the Ozark Micropolitan Statistical Area. The combined population of the entire Dothan metropolitan area in 2010 was 145,639. The city serves as the main transportation and commercial hub for a significant part of southeastern Alabama, southwest Georgia, and nearby portions of the Florida Panhandle. Since approximately one-fourth of the U.S. peanut crop is produced nearby, much of it processed in the city, Dothan is known as "The Peanut Capital of the World". It also hosts the annual National Peanut Festival at the dedicated "Peanut Festival Fairgrounds".
context_section_description: Andy Andrews, motivational speaker and self-help author
  Artis Gilmore, former NBA star, member of Basketball Hall Of Fame
  Bill Baxley, former Alabama Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor, born and raised in Dothan
  Brad Baxter, former NFL running back
  Tony Bowick, former NFL and Arena Football League player
  Larry Brackins, professional football wide receiver
  Johnny Mack Brown, born and raised in Dothan, Hollywood film star, and All-American, All-Southern college football player at the University of Alabama.
  Buddy Buie, songwriter, producer, and publisher
  Matt Cain, starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, born in Dothan
  Elaine Cheris, fencer who competed in the 1988 and 1996 Summer Olympics
  Kelsey Barnard Clark, chef, winner of season 16 of Top Chef
  Mike Clark, former professional football defensive end
  W. M. Cooper, who published a revision of B. F. White's popular song book The Sacred Harp in 1902, a collection of shape note hymns, important to religious revivals in the South
  Jimmy Cross, radio producer and singer
  Ashley Davis, Miss Alabama 2010
  Lawrence Dawsey, former NFL wide receiver
  Charles Bernard Day, federal judge
  Frank Dempsey, former NFL player
  Donna D'Errico, actress and model
  Gardner Dickinson, seven-time PGA Tour champion golfer, born in Dothan
  William Gray Espy, actor (the original Snapper Foster of The Young and the Restless), born in Dothan
  Terry Everett, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives
  Jim Farmer, former professional basketball player
  Richmond Flowers, Sr., former Attorney General of Alabama and opponent of segregation, born and raised in Dothan
  Richmond Flowers, former professional football player
  Artis Gilmore, Jacksonville University center and later MVP of the American Basketball Association, attended middle and high school in Dothan
  Bobby Goldsboro, singer noted for his 1968 Top 40 No. 1 hit "Honey", grew up in Dothan and graduated from Dothan High School
  Thom Goolsby, former member of the North Carolina State Senate
  Ken Grimwood, fantasy fiction author
  Gabe Gross, a former quarterback and baseball All-American for Auburn University, former pro baseball player
  Clay Holmes, current starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates; graduated from Slocomb High School
  Kevin Jackson, former professional football safety
  Robert Reynolds "Bob" Jones, Sr., evangelist and founder of Bob Jones University, reared in the Brannon Stand community west of Dothan, 1884–1899
  David Kelton, former Major League Baseball player for the Chicago Cubs
  Dale Kennington, contemporary artist working in the style of New American Realism, lived in Dothan, 1935-2017
  Eddie Kirkland, electric blues guitarist and songwriter
  Burton Lawless, former offensive lineman in the National Football League
  Mickey McGowan, former professional baseball pitcher
  Jim Parkman, criminal defense lawyer
  Eulace Peacock, track and field athlete
  Ricky Polston, Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, 2012–2014
  Izell Reese, former NFL defensive back
  Larry Roberts, former NFL defensive end
  Clint Robinson, Major League Baseball first baseman
  Robert Edwin Russ, founder of Ruston, Louisiana, lived near Dothan in his early years
  Patti Rutland, dance choreographer
  Steadman S. Shealy, former football player and attorney
  Haywood Sullivan, former Major League Baseball player
  Jamie Thomas, creator of two skateboard companies and a shoe company, grew up in Dothan
  Mark Walker, congressman from North Carolina
  P. J. Walters, Major League Baseball pitcher
  Heather Whitestone, former Miss America, born and raised in Dothan
  Charles H. Wright, physician and founder of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
caption: City officials from Dothan visiting Congressmember Martha Roby in 2019.
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