(Greenville) Abram M. Scott (1785–1833), governor (Wilkinson County) Ronnie Shows (born 1947), U.S. representative (Moselle) Jim Singleton (born 1931), New Orleans councilman (Hazlehurst) Larkin I. Smith (1944–1989), U.S. representative (Poplarville) Larry Speakes (1939–2014), presidential spokesman (Cleveland) James J. Spelman (1841–1894), journalist, state representative (Madison County) John C. Stennis (1901–1995), U.S. senator (De Kalb) Bill Stone (born 1965), state senator (Ashland) Tom Stuart (1936–2001), mayor of Meridian William V. Sullivan (1857–1918), U.S. representative and senator (Winona) Gene Taylor (born 1953), U.S. representative (Bay St. Louis) Bennie Thompson (born 1948), U.S. representative (Bolton) Jacob Thompson (1810–1885), U.S. representative, secretary of the interior (Oxford) W. H. H. Tison (1822–1882), 39th speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives (Lee County) Amy Tuck (born 1963), lieutenant governor (Maben) James K. Vardaman (1861–1930), governor, U.S. senator (Yalobusha County) Joseph Warren (born 1952), politician, state representative (Magee) Jamie L. Whitten (1910–1995), U.S. representative (Cascilla) Roger Wicker (born 1951), U.S. senator (Pontotoc) Thomas Hickman Williams (1801–1851), U.S. senator (Pontotoc County) Norris C. Williamson (1874–1949), Louisiana state senator (Benton County) William Arthur Winstead (1904–1995), U.S. representative (Philadelphia) William Winter (1923–2020), governor (Grenada) Seelig Wise (1913–2004), planter, state senator (Clarksdale) Fielding L. Wright (1895–1956), governor (Rolling Fork) Scientists and inventors Earl W. Bascom (1906–1995), inventor of rodeo equipment (Columbia) Harry A. Cole, inventor of Pine-Sol (Jackson) James A. Ford (1911–1968), archaeologist (Water Valley) Fred Haise (born 1933), engineer, astronaut (Biloxi) Elizabeth Lee Hazen (1885–1975), microbiologist, developer of nystatin (Rich) Martin F. Jue, amateur radio inventor, entrepreneur (Starkville) Ben Montgomery (1819–1877), freedman, farmer, inventor (Davis Bend) Joseph Newman, inventor of the Newman motor (Lucedale) Chester H. Pond (1844–1912), inventor of the electrical self-winding clock Henry Sampson (1934–2020), inventor (Jackson) Roy A. Tucker (born 1951), astronomer (Jackson) Supercentenarians Moses Hardy (1894–2006), lived 112 years and 335 days (Aberdeen) Bettie Wilson (1890–2006), lived 119 years and 153 days Writers William Allegrezza (born 1974), poet (Jackson) Ace Atkins (born 1970), novelist (Oxford) Howard Bahr (born 1946), novelist (Jackson) Frederick Barthelme (born 1943), novelist and professor (Hattiesburg) Earl W. Bascom (1906–1995), artist and writer (Columbia) Lerone Bennett Jr. (1928–2018), editor of Ebony magazine (Clarksdale) Douglas A. Blackmon (born 1964), journalist and historian (Leland) Maxwell Bodenheim (1892–1954), poet and novelist (Hermanville) Margaret Hunt Brisbane (1858–1925), poet (Vicksburg) Larry Brown (1951–2004), novelist (Oxford) Jack Butler (born 1944), author (Alligator) Mary Cain (1904–1984), journalist (Pike County) Hodding Carter II (1907–1972), journalist (Greenville) Hodding Carter III (born 1935), journalist