Famous Jacksonians


Town & Country has installed a Wall of Fame to recognize those indivduals whose name or deed is widely known.

Members of our Wall of Fame include:

John Luther Jones lost his life in a railroad accident in April of 1900 leaving a widow and four small children in Jackson. A co-worker wrote a ballad about him which circled the globe in Vaudeville and stage performances resulting in John Luther becoming the world’s most famous railroad engineer-Casey Jones.

Jackson was home to Carl Perkins, a contemporary of Elvis, John Cash, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis. Carl was perhaps best known for his influence on the Beatles and his song Blue Suede Shoes.

M.D. Anderson grew up in Jackson and after a brief stint in banking, entered the cotton brokerage business in Houston. He provided the seed money which founded the now world famous M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Hospital.

Joe Rogers grew up in Jackson and after World War II service he entered the restaurant business. He opened Waffle House #1 in Atlanta with borrowed funds and today there are some 1300 throughout the nation. Mr. Rogers and his family still run the business from Atlanta.

Jackson was home to Wink Martindale, game show host and radio music syndicator in Los Angeles.

Ed “Too Tall” Jones was the #1 NFL draft pick of 1974. He was chosen by Coach Tom Landry and played his entire career for Coach Landry and the Dallas Cowboys.

Davy Crockett, although considered to be a mythical character by many, was a citizen of Tennessee. He served as the U.S. Congressman from the Jackson area in the 1830’s. He and President Andrew Jackson had a disagreement and President Jackson’s opponent defeated Congressman Crockett in 1835. Davy Crockett migrated to Texas where he lost his life 6 months later in the Battle of the Alamo.

Eddy Arnold attended school in South Madison County, sang first on Jackson radio and went on to become RCA’s most prolific performer in record sales.

Jackson now has four young men who have played or are now playing in the NFL- Al Wilson, Trey Teague, Jabari Greer, and Artis Hicks.

Paul “Bear” Bryant started his coaching career fresh out of the University of Alabama in the spring of 1935 at Union University in Jackson. He went on to become one of the all time winningest coaches, ending his career at the University of Alabama in the early 1980’s.

Jackson is the home town of Isaac Tigrett who founded the Hard Rock Café chain in London and later brought it to the United States. He sold his interest in the venture and is now involved in the House of the Blues Restaurants.

I.B. Tigrett was a young banker and he was asked to take over a near bankrupt short line railroad in the early part of the twentieth century. Mr. Tigrett through acquisitions built it into a 3,000 mile railroad later known as the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio. He maintained his office in Jackson throughout his business life. Interestingly, Jackson was the hometown of five railroad presidents.