Vicksburg

The Old Vicksburg Bridge, also known as Mississippi River Bridge, is a cantilever bridge carrying one rail line across the Mississippi River between... Delta, Louisiana and Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Until 1998, the bridge was open to motor vehicles and carried US 80 across the Mississippi River, though one road lane runs through the bridge for inspection by workers.
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Jan-Michael Vincent is a retired American actor best known for his role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the 1980s U.S. television series... Airwolf . Vincent was born July 15, 1944 in Denver, Colorado, to Doris and Lloyd Vincent. His family moved to Hanford, California, when Jan-Michael was in his teens. Vincent attended Ventura College in Ventura California. He was finishing a stint in the National Guard when a talent scout was struck by his all-American looks. Jan-Michael Vincent's first acting job was in the movie The Bandits , co-directed by and starring Robert Conrad, in 1967. His career took off in the late 1960s when casting agent Dick Clayton signed him to Universal Studios. Vincent made an appearance on the Dragnet 1968 episode, "The Grenade," as a muscular high school student who suffered an acid attack by a mentally unstable classmate. He also appeared in the "Danger Island" segments of Hanna-Barbera's Banana Splits series as Link .
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Evelyn Preer, born Evelyn Jarvis , was a pioneering African-American stage and screen actress and blues singer of the 1910s through the early 1930s.... Evelyn was known within the black community as "The First Lady of the Screen." She was the first black actress to earn celebrity and popularity. She appeared in ground-breaking films and stage productions, such as the first play by a black playwright to be produced on Broadway, and the first New York-style production with a black cast in California in 1928, in a revival of a play adapted from Somerset Maugham's short story, Rain. Born Evelyn Jarvis in Vicksburg, Mississippi, she migrated with her mother to Chicago after her father died prematurely. She completed grammar and high school in the city. Jarvis began her performance career in early vaudeville and minstrel shows. She changed her surname to Preer. Her first film role was in Oscar Micheaux's 1919 debut film The Homesteader, when she was 23. Micheaux promoted Preer as his leading actress with a steady tour of personal appearances and a publicity campaign. Her most well-known film role is in his Within Our Gates, .
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Jeanne Nicole "Nikki" Griffin is an American actress. Though Griffin was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, several years of her childhood were spent... living in Germany. She came back to the United States at 8 years old and went on to attend high school at New Hanover High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. In high school, Griffin developed a love for films. She took a film class at her high school, where she was taught by Marc Matney . After she graduated from high school, Griffin moved out to Los Angeles to try and make it in the entertainment business. She landed her first acting role on television's Dawson's Creek in 2000, and a larger role, also in 2000, in a part of the TV movie Darktales. After a string of small roles in television and movies, Griffin landed a recurring guest-starring role on FOX's The O.C., in 2005, and then briefly in 2006. On The O.C. Griffin played party girl and drug addict Jess Sather, also known as 'Floater Girl'. In the summer of 2005, she played Katie Johnson in The Dukes of Hazzard, as the sexy college girl that caught the eye of cousins Bo and Luke Duke.
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Mart Crowley is an American playwright. Crowley was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. After graduating from The Catholic University of America in... Washington, D.C. in 1957, Crowley headed west to Hollywood, where he worked for a number of television production companies before meeting Natalie Wood on the set of her film Splendor in the Grass. Wood hired him as her assistant, primarily to give him ample free time to work on his gay-themed play The Boys in the Band, which opened off-Broadway on April 14, 1968 and enjoyed a run of 1001 performances. Crowley became part of Wood's inner circle of friends that she called "the nucleus", whose main requirement was that they pass a "kindness" test. The Boys in the Band was adapted into a film in 1970 directed by William Friedkin. Crowley's sequel to The Boys in the Band was entitled The Men From The Boys. Crowley's second work, Remote Asylum, was mounted with great expectations at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in 1970, but it failed to garner the raves his debut had. In that same year, he enjoyed greater success with the motion picture adaptation of The Boys in the Band.
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William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was... proficient on both the upright bass and the guitar and as a vocalist, Dixon is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. He is recognized as one of the founders of the Chicago blues sound. Dixon's songs have been recorded by countless musicians in many genres as well as by various ensembles in which he participated. A short list of the man's most famous compositions includes "Little Red Rooster", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Evil", "Spoonful", "Back Door Man", "I Just Want to Make Love to You", "I Ain't Superstitious", "My Babe", "Wang Dang Doodle", and "Bring It On Home". These tunes were written during the peak of Chess Records, 1950–1965, and performed by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Little Walter, influencing a worldwide generation of musicians. Next to Muddy Waters, he was the most influential person in shaping the post World War II sound of the Chicago blues.
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Odia Coates was an American singer, best known for her work with Canadian singer-songwriter Paul Anka. The daughter of an evangelical minister, Odia... Coates was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi but as a young girl her family moved to Watts, California. From an early age, she sang in her church choir and eventually became a member of the Southern California State Youth Choir. Coates is best remembered for her duet with Paul Anka called " Having My Baby" that went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1974. They recorded several more duets that produced Top 10 & Top 20 hits such as 1974's "One Man Woman/One Woman Man" plus in 1975 "I Don't Like To Sleep Alone" and " There's Nothing Stronger Than Our Love". Coates also recorded "Make It Up To Me in Love", a sequel to "One Man Woman/One Woman Man", with Anka in 1977. Though the disco-flavored track was one of producer Tom Moulton's best works, the single failed to chart. She had minor success as a solo artist with the Anka-penned track "You Come And You Go" and a cover of the Electric Light Orchestra song Showdown. Coates went on to record on her own, meeting with modest success.
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Jeanne Nicole "Nikki" Griffin is an American actress. Though Griffin was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, several years of her childhood were spent... living in Germany. She came back to the United States at 8 years old and went on to attend high school at New Hanover High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. In high school, Griffin developed a love for films. She took a film class at her high school, where she was taught by Marc Matney . After she graduated from high school, Griffin moved out to Los Angeles to try and make it in the entertainment business. She landed her first acting role on television's Dawson's Creek in 2000, and a larger role, also in 2000, in a part of the TV movie Darktales. After a string of small roles in television and movies, Griffin landed a recurring guest-starring role on FOX's The O.C., in 2005, and then briefly in 2006. On The O.C. Griffin played party girl and drug addict Jess Sather, also known as 'Floater Girl'. In the summer of 2005, she played Katie Johnson in The Dukes of Hazzard, as the sexy college girl that caught the eye of cousins Bo and Luke Duke.
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Katherine Bailess is an American actress best known for playing the role of Erica Marsh on the CW's hit show One Tree Hill, and Life and Death... Brigade member Stephanie on Gilmore Girls. She also starred in the 2003 film From Justin to Kelly, playing the role of Alexa. Katherine played a small role as a news reporter, Colleen Lipman, in "Bring It On Again". Kat is a host on afterbuzz and bio updates this entry. Kat Bailess, a true Southern Belle, was born and raised in Mississippi. She is a trained actor, singer and dancer studying with some of the best teachers and coaches in NYC. After school, Kat headed to LA and quickly started booking films and television. She starred in the Fox feature film From Justin to Kelly and Universal’s Bring it On Again. Her TV credits include recurring roles on the popular WB shows Gilmore Girls and One Tree Hill. Kat also recurred on Fox’s The Loop, Sordid Lives the Series and guest starred on NCIS. Kat recently made two films. The much anticipated Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale, is the first film in which she has had a dual role, producer and star.
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Mart Crowley is an American playwright. Crowley was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. After graduating from The Catholic University of America in... Washington, D.C. in 1957, Crowley headed west to Hollywood, where he worked for a number of television production companies before meeting Natalie Wood on the set of her film Splendor in the Grass. Wood hired him as her assistant, primarily to give him ample free time to work on his gay-themed play The Boys in the Band, which opened off-Broadway on April 14, 1968 and enjoyed a run of 1001 performances. Crowley became part of Wood's inner circle of friends that she called "the nucleus", whose main requirement was that they pass a "kindness" test. The Boys in the Band was adapted into a film in 1970 directed by William Friedkin. Crowley's sequel to The Boys in the Band was entitled The Men From The Boys. Crowley's second work, Remote Asylum, was mounted with great expectations at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in 1970, but it failed to garner the raves his debut had. In that same year, he enjoyed greater success with the motion picture adaptation of The Boys in the Band.
more

William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was... proficient on both the upright bass and the guitar and as a vocalist, Dixon is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. He is recognized as one of the founders of the Chicago blues sound. Dixon's songs have been recorded by countless musicians in many genres as well as by various ensembles in which he participated. A short list of the man's most famous compositions includes "Little Red Rooster", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Evil", "Spoonful", "Back Door Man", "I Just Want to Make Love to You", "I Ain't Superstitious", "My Babe", "Wang Dang Doodle", and "Bring It On Home". These tunes were written during the peak of Chess Records, 1950–1965, and performed by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Little Walter, influencing a worldwide generation of musicians. Next to Muddy Waters, he was the most influential person in shaping the post World War II sound of the Chicago blues.
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Milton John "Milt" Hinton , "the dean of jazz bass players," was an American jazz double bassist and photographer. He was nicknamed "The Judge".... Hinton was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he resided until age eleven when he moved to Chicago, Illinois. He attended Wendell Phillips High School and Crane Junior College. While attending these schools, he learned first to play the violin, and later bass horn, tuba, cello and the double bass. As a young violinist out of school, he found gainful employment as a bassist. He later recounted in interviews, released in 1990 on Old Man Time, how this prompted him to switch to double bass. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he worked as a freelance musician in Chicago. During this time, he worked with famous jazz musicians such as Jabbo Smith, Eddie South, and Art Tatum. In 1936, he joined a band led by Cab Calloway. Members of this band included Chu Berry, Cozy Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Jonah Jones, Ike Quebec, Ben Webster, and Danny Barker.
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Henry "Hank" Jones was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and... impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award. He was also honored in 2003 with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Jazz Living Legend Award. In 2008, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. On April 13, 2009, the University of Hartford presented Jones with a Doctorate Degree for his musical accomplishments. Jones recorded over sixty albums under his own name, and countless others as a sideman. Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Henry "Hank" Jones moved to Pontiac, Michigan, where his father, Henry Jones Sr. a Baptist deacon and lumber inspector, bought a three-story brick home. One of seven children, Jones was raised in a musical family. His mother Olivia Jones sang; his two older sisters studied piano; and his two younger brothers—Thad, a trumpeter, and Elvin, a drummer—also became prominent jazz musicians.
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