Amedeo Obici (1876-1947)
Founder of Planters, Amedeo Obici was born in 1876 in the small town of Oderzo near Venice, Italy. At age eleven, he immigrated to Brooklyn, New York not knowing any English. He started his career as a bellhop and fruit stand vendor in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Later, Obici moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and opened his own fruit stand and invested in a peanut roaster. In a few years, Obici became a peddler, using a horse and wagon, and called himself: The Peanut Specialist. In 1906, Obici went into partnership with Mario Peruzzi. He had developed his own method of blanching whole roasted peanuts, doing away with the troublesome hulls and skins; and so with six employees, two large roasters and crude machinery, Planters was founded. Two years later, the firm was incorporated as Planters Nut and Chocolate Company. In 1916, at forty, Obici married Louise Musante. She had been for many years an operator of a small peanut stand in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Business growth had accelerated, so Obici established a Planters factory in Suffolk. Obici was a generous benefactor and endowed a hospital for the town to memorialize his beloved wife.

Governor Mills E. Godwin (1914-1999)
The only Governor elected twice by popular vote, Governor Godwin served in both houses of the General Assembly and as Lieutenant Governor. An attorney from Nansemond County (now the City of Suffolk), Godwin instituted the first sales tax in Virginia during his first administration to invest in a newly-created Community College system. During his second term, Governor Godwin guided the revision of the State Constitution, reinstated the death penalty and reorganized the penal system. Riddick's Folly House Museum has a permanent exhibit on display dedicated to the life and career of Governor Godwin.

Charlie Byrd (1925 - 1999)
Charlie Byrd was born in Suffolk and raised in the northern community of Chuckatuck. Inspired by local musicians who congregated at his father's general store, Byrd began studying the guitar at age 10. What originated as a hobby evolved into high school dance performances and eventually into an impressive collection of more than 100 albums.

Byrd enrolled at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1942 in an accelerated war-time program, playing in the University's renowned Southern Colonels orchestra. During World War II, he served in the Army, first as an infantryman and then in the Special Services division entertaining troops. While stationed in France, he discovered a love for jazz and later returned to the United States to study jazz theory and composition at Harnett National Music School in New York. In the 1950's, Byrd became interested in classical music, playing with noted artists Andres Segovia and Sophocles Papas. Recording music for the U.S. Department of Agriculture films in the late 1950's led Byrd to South America in 1961 on a State Department Tour. Byrd's Brazilian experience inspired him to merge the bossa nova sounds of South America with his jazz stylings, creating a signature style critics referred to as delicate and precise.

Hope Spivey (1971 - )
Suffolk native Hope Spivey competed in gymnastics on the national and international level for 11 years, capping her career as a member of the U. S. Olympic team that finished 4th in the 1988 Games. Additionally, she had an outstanding career at the University of Georgia from 1991-94 when the Bulldogs won four Southeastern Conference championships. In 1991, she was named the top collegiate gymnast in the U. S. after finishing first in the all-around, vault and floor exercises. In a 10-year span, she earned 27 perfect scores of 10. Spivey was a member of the U. S. gymnastic teams that won the Pan-American Games championship in 1987. In college, she was an 11-time All-American and 5-time national champion.

LaSalle "Sallie" Corbell Pickett (1843-1931)
Chuckatuck native, LaSalle Pickett outlived her husband, General George E. Pickett, by five decades, spending much of her widowhood as an author and lecturer on the Civil War. Though their life together lasted only twelve years, LaSalle her life writing and speaking about her husband and his military career. Appointing herself Pickett's official biographer, she became a self-proclaimed authority on the war and the Old South. On March 21, 1998, LaSalle Corbell Pickett was reburied next to her husband's monument at the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA.

Judith Godwin (1930 - )
Suffolk's own, Judith Godwin, is a renowned artist who's Abstract Expressionism has won her critical acclaim. Godwin attended Mary Baldwin College from 1948-1950, exhibited in the Irene Leache Memorial show in 1951 (winning the "most popular in the show" award), attended Richmond Professional Institute, College of William and Mary from 1951-1952, attended the Art Students League, New York in 1953... Godwin's paintings are found in numerous public and private collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Yale University Gallery, The Art Institute of Chicago and The Hirshhorn Museum.

Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, Jr. (1907-1998)
An Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Powell was known as a master of compromise and consensus building. Born in Suffolk, he attended Washington and Lee University, earning both an undergraduate and a law degree. He attended Harvard Law School for a master's degree. During World War II, he spent more than three years in Europe and North Africa. He started as a First Lieutenant, but rose to the rank of Colonel. He worked mostly in intelligence, decoding German messages. Upon Powell's passing, President Bill Clinton said, "Hillary and I are deeply saddened by the death of Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., one of our most thoughtful and conscientious Justices. For over 15 years on the Supreme Court, he approached each case without an ideological agenda, carefully applying the Constitution, the law, and Supreme Court precedent regardless of his own personal views about the case ... Justice Powell was an admirable public servant..."

Michela English ( )
Michela English retired in June 2005 after more than three terms as a member of Virginia's Sweet Briar College (SBC) Board of Directors. Under English's leadership, new Master of Arts in Education and Teaching degrees were instituted, along with the nation's first Engineering Programs at a women's college. Additionally, an environmental sciences department was established, as well as, bachelor's degrees in fine arts and business management. English, a Suffolk native describes her career path as "episodic" rather than planned, with early stints as a social worker and federal employee after earning a bachelor's in international affairs at Sweet Briar. In 1979 she earned a master's from Yale School of Management. In 1996, Michela English was named president of Discovery Enterprises Worldwide. She was responsible for directing the company's existing brand, including extension businesses Discovery Channel Video, Discovery Channel Multimedia, Discovery Channel Online, Discovery Channel Publishing and Discovery Channel Education as well as Discovery's consumer products licensing program. In June 1997, English also assumed responsibility for Discovery Channel Retail, including Discovery Channel Stores and The Nature Company. English has also served as senior vice president of the National Geographic Society, where she was responsible for book publishing, Traveler magazine, World magazine for children, educational media and international publishing. Since 2002, English has served as a Director with Gladstone Management, financial investment advisors in McLean, Virginia.

Bobby Norfleet ( )
Bobby Norfleet calls Suffolk his hometown but is truly home on the race track. Norlfeet owns and operates a racing team that is slated to compete in NASCAR's 2006 Busch and Nextel Cup Series, the premier auto racing competition in North America. Most recently, the FUBU Collection has signed on to become a major sponsor of the team in a multi-year partnership. The team will operate out of their racing facilities in Mooresville, North Carolina.




Della H. Raney was born in Suffolk, Virginia, January 10, 1912. A graduate of the Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing in Durham, NC, Raney was the first African-American nurse commissioned as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps (ANC) during World War II.