People

Charles W. Dabney Jr., proponent of New South scientific agriculture and respected president of the University of Tennessee from 1887 to 1899, was born in Hampden-Sydney, Virginia, to Robert Lewis and Lavinia Morrison Dabney. Dabney received his early education from…

Rollin A. Daniel Jr., a pioneer in cardiac and thoracic surgery, was born June 14, 1908, in Georgia. Shortly thereafter, his parents moved to the Nashville area, and he grew up in Middle Tennessee. Daniel graduated from Goodlettsville High School…

Martha Craig Daughtrey, attorney, law professor, and judge, was born on July 21, 1942, in Covington, Kentucky. She received a B.A. (cum laude) from Vanderbilt University in 1964 and graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1968. Her academic…

Poet, essayist, and social critic Donald Davidson played a major role in shaping southern Agrarianism and left a distinguished body of writings based on Tennessee and southern materials. Born in Campbellsville, near Pulaski, in 1893, to William Bluford Davidson, a…

Maria Thompson Daviess, artist and author, was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, in 1872 to an upper-middle-class family. Before she was eight years old, her sister and her father died, and her mother moved the family to Nashville. Daviess became active…

Anne M. Davis was a native of Louisville, Kentucky, who moved to Knoxville in 1915 with her husband Willis P. Davis, the president of Knoxville Iron Company. She soon developed a lifelong love for the Great Smoky Mountains, and she…

Clifford Davis, U.S. representative from Memphis, was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, on November 18, 1897, to Odom A. and Jessie Davis. In 1911, the family moved to Memphis, where the elder Davis worked for the Illinois Central Railroad and Clifford…

Louise Littleton Davis, historian and journalist, was born in Paris, Tennessee, one of five children of LaRue Lucetta Littleton, a musician, and Grover C. Davis, a career U.S. Army officer. Davis's scholarly bent took her first to Murray State College…

"Boy Hero of the Confederacy" Sam Davis was born on his family's farm near Smyrna on October 6, 1842. A frail child, Davis grew up playing on the land around his home and learned the landscape of Middle Tennessee, knowledge…

John De Brahm, engineer and cartographer, was a native of Germany. A military engineer in the army of Charles VII, he resigned his commission in 1748 and three years later led a group of immigrants to America, settling in the…

The wealthiest Nashvillian of his time, George M. Deaderick was a wholesale merchant, real estate dealer, and pioneer banker. Born of German stock (the family name was originally Dietrich) in Winchester, Virginia, George and his younger brother Thomas already enjoyed…

Charles Decker Sr., master potter and proprietor of Keystone Pottery, was the largest producer of utilitarian and folk art ceramics in East Tennessee between 1873 and 1906. Decker was the binding influence behind a family business that produced items made…

Vincent DeFrank, founder and musical director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra (MSO) from 1960 to 1983, was born June 18, 1915, in Long Island, New York. He first studied violin under George Frenz from 1920 to 1933 before converting to…

Timothy Demonbreun, a French-Canadian fur trader, first traveled to the springs near the Cumberland River at what would be known as the French Lick around 1769. Demonbreun made frequent trips to the early Nashville settlement to engage in fur trade…

George R. Dempster, a leading twentieth-century Knoxville businessman and political figure, was born in Knoxville on September 12, 1887, to Scotland natives John D. and Ann Dempster. After his high school graduation in 1906, Dempster and his brother Tom went…

John B. Dennis, financier and creator of modern Kingsport, was born in Gardiner, Maine, the eldest son of David and Julia Bartlett Dennis. His father was a prominent businessman and president of the Merchants National Bank of Gardiner, and Dennis…

Jim Denny, music publisher, booking agent, longtime manager of the Grand Ole Opry, and promoter of Nashville's music industry, was born in Buffalo Valley, Putnam County. As a young man, Denny found work as a mail clerk with the National…

Congressman and industrial entrepreneur George G. Dibrell was born and raised in Sparta and returned to White County after attending East Tennessee University (now University of Tennessee) in Knoxville. In 1842 he married Mary E. Leftwich, and they had eight…

Minister and pioneer Samuel Doak founded the earliest schools and many of the Presbyterian churches of East Tennessee. The son of Irish immigrants, Doak was born August 1, 1749, in Augusta County, Virginia. He grew up on a frontier farm…

Isaac Dockery, an African American brickmason and builder, was born a freeman in the Jones Cove community of Sevier County. Dockery moved to Sevierville before the Civil War, where he worked as a merchant clerk in the home of Henry…