In honor of America’s semiquincentennial, here are 100 important figures with ties to Southern Arizona who made history over the past 250 years (with separate profiles for each of the names in bold):
- Edward Abbey, author
- Mary Bernard Aguirre, teacher and the U of A’s first female professor
- Rex Allen, actor and singer
- Juan Bautista de Anza, Spanish explorer
- Antonio Azul, Akimel O’odham chief
- Michael Bates, football player, Olympic medalist
- Baxter Black, cowboy poet
- Rosa Goodrich Boido, suffragist, first woman licensed as a doctor in Arizona
- Joseph Bonanno, organized crime boss
- Frank Borman, Apollo astronaut
- Eulalia "Sister" Bourne, pioneering schoolteacher
- Charles Bowden, author and journalist
- Mike Candrea, softball coach
- Richard Carmona, U.S. surgeon general
- Leopoldo Carrillo, entrepreneur
- Nellie Cashman, prospector, businesswoman, philanthropist
- Raul Castro, Arizona governor
- Cesar Chavez, labor leader
- John Clum, newspaper editor and politician
- Cochise, Apache leader
- William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, hunter and showman
- Dr. Jack Copeland, pioneering heart transplant surgeon
- Edward Cross, Arizona newspaperman killed at Gettysburg
- Dennis DeConcini, politician
- Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia, artist
- Cedric Dempsey, athletics administrator
- Maynard Dixon, painter
- Andrew Ellicott “A.E.” Douglass, father of tree-ring research
- Wyatt Earp, lawman
- Barbara Eden, actor
- Sean Elliott, basketball player
- John Fife, Presbyterian minister who helped found Sanctuary movement
- Lisa Frank, businesswoman
- Geronimo, Apache leader
- Gabby Giffords, politician and gun-control activist
- Isabella Greenway, politician and businesswoman
- Raúl Grijalva, politician
- Lalo Guerrero, musician
- Savannah Guthrie, broadcast journalist
- Emil Haury, archaeologist
- Ira Hayes, Iwo Jima flag-raising Marine
- Doc Holliday, gunfighter
- Josephine Brawley Hughes, teacher and suffrage advocate
- Louis Cameron "L.C." Hughes, newspaper publisher and politician
- Samuel Hughes, businessman
- Cord Jefferson, Oscar-winning screenwriter
- Tom Jeffords, Army scout and Indian agent
- Josias Joessler, architect
- Ann-Eve Mansfeld Johnson, civic leader and preservationist
- Stan Jones, Western singer and songwriter
- Mark Kelly, astronaut and politician
- Steve Kerr, basketball player and coach
- Jerry Kindall, baseball player and coach
- Barbara Kingsolver, author
- Gerard Kuiper, father of planetary science
- Lorna Lockwood, first female chief justice of a state supreme court
- Danny Lopez, Tohono O’odham educator
- Patricia Preciado Martin, author and historian
- Ethel Maynard, politician and civil rights activist
- Isaiah Mays, buffalo soldier and Medal of Honor recipient
- Pop McKale, athlete, coach, athletic director
- Linda McCartney, photographer and musician
- Larry McMurtry, author
- Estevan Ochoa, politician and businessman
- Sandra Day O'Connor, Supreme Court justice
- Hugo O’Conor, Tucson Presidio founder
- Lute Olson, basketball coach
- William Oury, politician, lawman and Confederate who led Camp Grant Massacre
- Henry "Hank" Oyama, teacher and civil rights pioneer
- Palma, Quechan chief
- Charles Poston, politician and prospector
- Thamar Richey, educator
- Regina Romero, first Latina mayor of Tucson
- Federico Ronstadt, businessman and community leader
- Linda Ronstadt, singer and musician
- Anson P. K. Safford, territorial governor
- Father Jean Baptiste Salpointe, Catholic archbishop
- Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood founder
- Ed Scheffelin, Tombstone mine founder
- Clara Schell, optometrist and women’s rights activist
- Garry Shandling, comedian and actor
- Anna Moore Shaw, Akimel O'odham author and civic leader
- “Texas” John Slaughter, lawman
- W. Eugene Smith, photojournalist
- Fred Snowden, basketball coach
- Susan Sontag, writer and political activist
- Sarah Herring Sorin, first woman to argue U.S. Supreme Court case unassisted
- Hiram Stevens, politician and businessman
- Kerri Strug, Olympic gold medal gymnast
- Elsie Toles, Arizona's first female Superintendent of Public Instruction
- Morris “Mo” Udall, politician
- Stewart Udall, politician and Interior secretary
- María Urquides, mother of bilingual education
- José de Urrea, Mexican general
- George Warren, prospector
- David Foster Wallace, writer
- Lou Waters, CNN anchor
- Harry Wheeler, union-busting lawman
- Charles Young, buffalo soldier and Army officer
- Ofelia Zepeda, poet, intellectual and linguist
Raúl Grijalva in 1977.
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@tucson.com. On Twitter: @RefriedBrean
Henry Brean
Reporter
