7 Famous People With Ties To RVA

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1. Patricia Cornwell

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Patricia Cornwell is a best selling crime author who once worked in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia. She also has ties to the Richmond PD.

2. Edgar Allan Poe

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Edgar Allan Poe has been considered the father of the modern detective series. His poetry and short stories are famous for their dark subject matter. He grew up in Richmond, VA.

3. Pocahontas

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Before she got such sick threads, Pocahontas lived in the area we now know as Henricus Historical Park.

4. L. Douglas Wilder

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L. Douglas Wilder was the first African American elected governor of Virginia, and first African American elected governor in the country since Reconstruction. He was most recently mayor of Richmond.

5. Shirley MacLaine

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Shirley MacLaine is an actress who has won the Golden Globe for her role in The Apartment, and won a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Terms Of Endearment. She was born in Richmond, but later moved to Norfolk as a child.

6. Matt Lauer

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Host of the Today Show, Matt Lauer used to be a local talk show host in Richmond.

7. Bill Robinson

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You may know him best as “Mr. Bojangles”, the man who danced alongside Shirley Temple, but did you know he also used his influence to get the Dallas PD to hire their first African American policeman, lobby for equal treatment of African American soldiers in WWII and was the headliner in the first African American Broadway production? Bill Robinson was born and raised in Richmond’s Jackson Ward.

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