Stars from the Piney Woods: Famous People from East Texas

Matthew David McConaughey was born in Uvalde, Texas.

His mother, Mary Kathleen (McCabe), is a substitute school teacher originally from New Jersey. His father, James Donald McConaughey, was a Mississippi-born gas station owner who ran an oil pipe supply business.

He is of Irish, Scottish, German, English, and Swedish descent. Matthew grew up in Longview, Texas, where he graduated from the local High School (1988)

Martindale was born in Jacksonville, Texas, the youngest of three children and only daughter of William Everett and Margaret (née Pruitt) Martindale. 

In addition to owning and operating a lumber company in Jacksonville, her father was known as a champion dog handler in Texas and throughout the Southern United States.

Forest Steven Whitaker was born on July 15, 1961, in Longview, Texas, the son of Laura Francis (née Smith), a special education teacher who put herself through college and earned two master's degrees while raising her children, and Forest E. Whitaker Jr., an insurance salesman.

Duncan was born on February 20, 1946, in New London, Texas, to Sylvia and Mancil Ray Duncan, a gas-station owner.

She spent her early years there before moving to Tyler, Texas, when she was in third grade. She performed in her first dance recital at the age of five.

Spacek was born in Quitman, Texas and grew up in Texas.

She aspired to have a career as a recording artist. In 1968, at age 18, she recorded a single, "John, You Went Too Far This Time," under the name Rainbo.

Spacek began her professional acting career in the early 1970s, making her debut as an extra in Andy Warhol's Women in Revolt (1971). 

Born in Terrell, Texas, Foxx is the son of Darrell Bishop (renamed Shahid Abdula following his conversion to Islam), who sometimes worked as a stockbroker, and Louise Annette Talley Dixon.

Shortly after his birth, Foxx was adopted and raised by his mother's adoptive parents, Estelle Marie (Nelson), a domestic worker and nursery operator, and Mark Talley, a yard worker.

Donald Hugh Henley was born July 22, 1947, in Gilmer, Texas, and grew up in the small northeast Texas town of Linden.

He is the son of Hughlene (née McWhorter; 1916–2003) and C. J. Henley (1907–1972). He has Irish, English and Scottish ancestry.

Henley attended Linden-Kildare High School, where he initially played football, but due to his relatively small build his coach suggested that he quit, and he joined the high school band instead. He first played the trombone, then in the percussion section.

Hubert Neal McGaughey Jr. was born on July 30, 1958, in Jacksonville, Texas, to an Filipino-American mother and Irish-American father.

Inspired by the variety of music that his parents listened to, which included country, rock, disco and R&B, McGaughey first sang in his church choir before founding an R&B band. He later switched his focus to country music, performing in various bars and clubs in Texas.

McGaughey, after attending junior college near his hometown, found work selling shoes at a shopping mall. In the early 1980s, he met his wife, Melinda, at the store.

Lee Ann Womack was born on August 19, 1966, in Jacksonville, Texas. At an early age she was interested in country music.

Her father, a disc jockey, often took his daughter to work with him to help choose records to play on the air.

Womack was the second of two daughters. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father was a high school principal.

As a child, Womack studied the piano and later graduated from Jacksonville High School in 1984. After graduating, Womack attended South Plains Junior College in Levelland, Texas.

Miranda Leigh Lambert was born November 10, 1983, to Rick and Bev (née Hughes) Lambert in Longview, Texas, and was raised in Lindale, Texas. She was named after her great-grandmother, Lucy Miranda. She has one younger brother.

Her parents met while Bev was attending camp at Southern Methodist University and Rick was an on-campus undercover narcotics officer, and they got together a few years later.

Rick is a former Dallas police officer who played in a country-rock group called Contraband in the 1970s. Rick and Bev later became private detectives and even worked on the high-profile case of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

After the oil crisis dampened the economy in Texas, her family lost everything.

Tomlin was born in Grand Saline, Texas in 1972 to Donna and Connie Tomlin. He has two younger brothers, Ryan and Cory.

Tomlin was given his first guitar by his father and learned how to play along with Willie Nelson records.

Mathis was born in Gilmer, Texas, on September 30, 1935, the fourth of seven children of Clem Mathis and Mildred Boyd, both domestic cooks.

Mathis is African-American and has stated that he has Native American ancestry on his mother's side.

The family moved to San Francisco when Mathis was five years old, settling on 32nd Avenue in the Richmond District, where Mathis would grow up.

Reeves was born at home in Galloway, Texas, a small rural community near Carthage.

He was the youngest of eight children born to Thomas Middleton Reeves (1882-1924) and Mary Beulah Adams Reeves (1884-1980). He was known as Travis during his childhood years.

Winning an athletic scholarship to the University of Texas, he enrolled to study speech and drama but quit after only six weeks to work in the shipyards in Houston. 

Kacey Lee Musgraves was born August 21, 1988, in Golden, Texas, to Craig and Karen (née Abrams) Musgraves.

Craig is the owner of a small printing business, M-Prints Printing, Inc., in Mineola, Texas, and Karen Musgraves is an artist.

Musgraves has stated that she was born six weeks prematurely and weighed only five pounds. Musgraves has one younger sister, Kelly Christine Sutton (née Musgraves), who is a photographer.

George Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas. He grew up in the Fifth Ward community of Houston, Texas, with six siblings.

Although he was raised by J. D. Foreman, whom his mother had married when George was a small child, his biological father was Leroy Moorehead. 

Mahomes was born on September 17, 1995, in Tyler, Texas. His father is Pat Mahomes, a former MLB pitcher.

He attended Whitehouse High School in Whitehouse, Texas. He played football, baseball, and basketball. Mahomes believes that training in pitching and playing basketball improved his quarterback skills.

In football, he had 4,619 passing yards, 50 passing touchdowns, 948 rushing yards, and 15 rushing touchdowns as a senior in high school.

In baseball, he threw a no-hitter with 16 strikeouts in a game his senior year. He was named the Maxpreps Male Athlete of the Year for 2013–2014.