Famous names with Hartsville connections
LEEZA GIBBONS, entertainer and TV personality, was born in Hartsville in 1957 but did not grow up there. Her family moved to the Columbia area while she was still a baby. She may be best known for her role as a reporter and anchor on “Entertainment Tonight.”
AZIZ ANSARI, actor and comedian, graduated from the Governor’s School for Science and Math in Hartsville. He was born in Columbia and grew up in Bennettsville. Ansari had a prominent role in the TV series “Parks and Recreation” and since then has branched out into making films.
JAMES LIDE COKER, businessman who founded the Southern Novelty Company, now better known as Sonoco, and also founded Coker College, now Coker University.
CAPT. THOMAS EDWARD HART founded the town of Hartsville in 1817.
JERYL PRESCOTT, actress (Jacqui on “The Walking Dead” TV series) was born in Washington, D.C., in 1964, and raised in Hartsville. She currently lives in Winston-Salem, N.C. Prescott said in a 2011 interview: “I’m from a tiny town in South Carolina called Hartsville, population 8,500, [now] 8,499 since I left. Everybody knows everybody and my mother is everybody’s mother. She feels she can discipline everybody’s child, but she also feeds everybody’s child who comes to the house. So, I consider her to be the mother of the community.”
BOBO NEWSOM, a former Major League Baseball pitcher; a Darlington County highway is named for him.
RODERICK BLAKNEY, a former pro basketball player who played for a number of international teams. He played for Greek League clubs such as Iraklis Thessaloniki (2001-02), AEK Athens (2002-03), Maroussi (2003-06), Olympiacos Piraeus (2007-08). He played with the Russian Superleague club Dynamo Moscow in 2006-07.
SHANNON “PEE WEE” JOHNSON, a former pro basketball player, WNBA All Star, and a member of the gold medal-winning USA Basketball team in the 2004 Olympics. She has played for teams including the Orlando Miracle, San Antonio Silver Stars, Detroit Shock and Houston Comets.
CHAD DAWSON, boxer. Dawson gained attention in 2007 when he defeated Tomasz Adamek to become WBC light heavyweight champion. Later, he defeated Antonio Tarver in 2008 to win IBF and IBO titles.
