A-Z

Fred Rose, a prime mover in Nashville’s rise as a music center, was born in Evansville, Indiana. Rose initially made his mark in Chicago as a pop songwriter, radio performer, and recording artist during the 1920s, when he penned such…

Wickliffe Rose, born in Saulsbury in 1862, became a leading administrator for the Rockefeller philanthropies. Rose earned degrees from the University of Nashville, the University of Mississippi, and Harvard. He began his career at Peabody College and the University of…

John Ross, son of Daniel and Mollie McDonald Ross, was born in the fall of 1790 in present-day Cherokee County, Alabama. At the age of seven, the Ross family settled in southern Tennessee near the northern end of Lookout Mountain.…

Naval medical officer associated with the fight against yellow fever, John W. Ross was born January 11, 1843, near Clarksville, the son of educator John Ross and Mary Parker Ross. In 1861 young Ross enlisted in the Confederate cavalry and…

Carl T. Rowan, journalist, government worker, media personality, and author, broke racial barriers throughout his career. He was born on August 10, 1925, to Thomas David and Johnnie Bradford Rowan and grew up in White County and then McMinnville. Challenged…

Rowing, sometimes called crew, was America's first professional sport. Even today, the single largest sporting event in America is a rowing race. It is no wonder, with Tennessee's network of rivers and lakes, that crew is a popular pastime. Tennessee…

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Ruby Falls is one of Chattanooga's major tourist attractions. Its entrance is situated in a medieval-style stone edifice, Cavern Castle, located on the side of Lookout Mountain along Scenic Highway, from whence…

The Tigerbelles Women's Track club at Tennessee State University became the state's most internationally accomplished athletic team in the mid-twentieth century. The sprinters won some twenty-three Olympic medals, more than any other sports team in Tennessee history. Mae Faggs and…

Rudy's Farm, once home to the Rudy Sausage Company, was a family operation dating back to 1881. Daniel Rudy made and sold his own sausage in Nashville on a farm near the railroad on Lebanon Road. His son, Jacob Ludwig,…

A Victorian-era village at the northern tip of Morgan County, Rugby was founded by a company of British and American capitalists who cleverly traded on the popularity of Thomas Hughes, a noted English author and social reformer of the time,…

Ferdinand Rugel was a professional field botanist who primarily collected in the Southern Appalachians, Florida, and Cuba. His collections were sold in Europe, mainly through Robert James Shuttleworth, a British-born botanist who lived in Switzerland and France. Rugel was born…

Marvin T. Runyon, past president of Nissan, U.S.A., chairman of the board of Tennessee Valley Authority, and postmaster general, was born in Ft. Worth, Texas, on September 16, 1924. He did not become a Tennessean until 1980, but in the…

The Rural African American Church Project seeks to identify and document historic African American churches located in rural areas throughout Tennessee. Administered by the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University, the program began in 1997 as a…

The Ruskin Cooperative Association (RCA) existed in Dickson County from 1894 until 1899. Established at Tennessee City, the colony soon moved five miles away to a site by a large cave on Yellow Creek which still bears the name Ruskin.…

Born August 27, 1906, and raised in Wartrace, Tennessee, Fred McFerrin Russell was known to thousands of readers for his “Sidelines” column in the Nashville Banner. Russell first entered Tennessee sports pages, however, as an athlete. He came to Nashville…

Created in 1803, Rutherford County came from sections of Davidson, Wilson, Williamson, and Sumner Counties and is named in honor of Griffith Rutherford, an Irish immigrant who served on the council of the Southwest Territory. The county's 619 square miles…

Griffith Rutherford was born in Ireland in 1720. Soon after his birth his parents took voyage to America. Unfortunately, both of his parents died at sea, and Griffith arrived in America a homeless orphan. It is thought that he lived…