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Payton, Walter Jerry

(Encyclopedia)Payton, Walter Jerry, 1954–99, American football player, b. Columbia, Miss. He played at Jackson State College (now Jackson State Univ.) in Mississippi before being drafted as a running back by the ...

Brown, Jerry

(Encyclopedia)Brown, Jerry (Edmund Gerald Brown, Jr.), 1938–, American political leader, b. San Francisco. The son of Edmund Gerald (Pat) Brown (1905–96), governor of California (1959–67), Brown abandoned ear...

West, Jerry

(Encyclopedia)West, Jerry (Jerome Alan West), 1938–, American basketball player, b. Cheylan, W.Va. One of the game's great shooting guards, he led West Virginia Univ. to the 1959 National Collegiate Athletic Asso...

Buss, Jerry

(Encyclopedia)Buss, Jerry (Gerald Hatten Buss), 1933–2013, American businessman and basketball executive, b. Salt Lake City. He worked in the aerospace industry until the late 1950s, when he struck it rich in the...

Adler, Jerry

(Encyclopedia)Adler, Jerry: see under Adler, Larry.

Lewis, Jerry

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Jerry, 1926–2017, extremely popular and influential American comedian, b. Newark, N.J. as Jerome Levitch. The son of vaudevillians, he entered show business early and entertained in the borsc...

Falwell, Jerry Lamon

(Encyclopedia)Falwell, Jerry Lamon fôl´wl, –wl [key], 1933–2007, American fundamentalist Baptist pastor, b. Lynchburg, Va. A popular preacher and founder of the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Fa...

Rawlings, Jerry John

(Encyclopedia)Rawlings, Jerry John (Jeremiah John Rawlings), 1947–, Ghanaian political leader. Of Scottish and Ghanaian descent, Rawlings attended military schools throughout his early life, becoming a skilled pi...

Rice, Jerry Lee

(Encyclopedia)Rice, Jerry Lee, 1962–, American football player, b. Crawford, Miss. Winning national attention while at the otherwise obscure Mississippi Valley State College, Itta Bena, Miss., Rice subsequently p...

Lewis, Jerry Lee

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Jerry Lee, 1935–, American singer and composer, b. Ferriday, La. Combining country music elements with an energetic performance style, he was an early star of rock music. His songs include Wh...