St. George is a lovely place in Southern Utah, known specifically for its proximity to several major national parks and a lovely climate, even in the cold of winter that gives the northern part of Utah the benefit of the best snow in the world.
Several famous people have called St. George home over the years, though St. George is mostly home to a retirement community of people who like a slower-paced, quieter lifestyle than other cities such as Las Vegas that are nearby.
Jeffrey R. Holland
Jeffrey R. Holland is a member of the apostles of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He was born in St. George, Utah, and is a well-known religious leader. He has spoken in several of the church’s bi-annual general conferences in which he addresses the members of the church over spiritual and real-world problems.
It is unclear if he lives in St. George at the moment, but he spends quite a bit of time in Utah and then some in other countries and around the world as part of the church’s organizational and humanitarian outreach.
Holland was born on December 3rd of 1940, where he was raised. He married his wife, Patricia Terry, in 1963 and had three kids with her. They now have thirteen grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. In the course of his life, Holland has a variety of different accomplishments that he uses in his work as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to this day.
Holland went to Yale University and previously studied at Dixie College as well as Brigham Young University. He graduated from Yale with a master’s and a doctorate in philosophy. He was heavily involved later in his life with the college scene and served as the president of Brigham Young University in Provo for a time as well as president of the American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities also known as the AAPICU.
He was also awarded the Torch of Liberty award for his work in improving relations between Jewish culture and Christians without having to fight with their beliefs. Truly something to be inspired by and someone to be proud of.
Brendon Urie
Brendon Urie is the lead singer for the popular band Panic! at the disco. He’s the only original member of the band as all previous original members left for their own personal reasons and one was kicked out due to serious allegations against him. Brendon was born in St. George and raised in Nevada.
His family was practicing Mormons, but he decided his beliefs did not lay on that path. Brendon’s life has led him into the music world and now currently is the only lead singer of Panic! at the disco. Originally, the band was signed on by the bassist from Fall Out Boy and the two bands seem to have both a similar sound as well as some affiliations.
Brendon continues to write music and perform for the world and will most likely continue to perform as he can.
Amanda Righetti
Amanda Righetti is a popular movie actress who starred in North Shore as well as the remake of Friday the 13th while she made her own show, titled The Mentalist.
Amanda won the Best Actress Award winner by the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival and has continued to amass awards for her works, including The Mentalist. It won a People’s Choice Award for Best New Television Drama, and she is a well-known actress as well as a producer who started out at only 14 years old.
She has two children, one of which is with her divorced husband.
Jada Facer
Jada Facer is an actress and singer who was born in Utah, specifically in St. George, Utah. She originally gained her popularity from social media and then went on to be well known for her role in the ABC show ‘Melissa and Joey’. She played a character by the name of Dani who recurred for ten episodes.
Before she was cast in that role, she had her debut in 2012 on the big screen with the movie ‘Beauty and the Least: The Misadventures of Ben Banks’. She continues to create covers of popular songs on her YouTube channel and has over 154 thousand subscribers. She continues to be quite popular on social media platforms and continues to act as well.
Moroni McArthur
Perhaps not a modern-day celebrity, Moroni McArthur would come to be known as the man who saved Christmas in 1899. The story is something of a long one, but when St. George wasn’t nearly as large as it was before, there was a winter where getting supplies from a railroad station was next to impossible. Supplies were dwindling and Moroni McArthur approached someone who knew how to drive four horse team wagon and was asked to fetch the supplies.
Moroni, also and more commonly known as “Rone”, was hesitant to accept this seeing as there are many risks to traveling in the winter for any number of miles and a trip like that would take quite a long time. He eventually agreed and took two wagons with a two-horse team each. So four horses, and two wagons. His mission was to get the supplies for the town that had been ordered and left at the station.
There was another team that went before him, a simple passenger coach, whose driver McArthur eventually came across who had frozen feet and couldn’t drive as well. McArthur would walk behind his wagons and stomp his feet to keep them warm and the blood circulating so his own feet did not freeze as the frigid winds made no friend of the traveling people.
Eventually, he made it to the railroad station, and loaded up the oil that he’d come to get as an essential, as well as loaded up as many trinkets and candies and toys as he could, knowing that Christmas wasn’t far off and that it wouldn’t be the same Christmas if he didn’t make it back in time.
At one point, he got stuck and painstakingly removed everything from the wagons to get the horses to pull the wagon out. And finally, he arrived back in St. George where many hands helped unload everything to those who had ordered it and he returned home to his mother. Definitely not a modern-day celebrity by any means, but someone who garnered a lot of gratitude throughout the years for his selfless and service full actions.
Orval Hafen
Orval Hafen was a Utah State Senator and also a president of the Utah Bar Association. His actions are credited with turning St. George into the area it is as St. George is heavy on the retirement scene and continues to grow to this day.
He received a degree in law from the University of California, Berkeley in 1929 and went to Utah specifically to practice law. He settled in St. George and was integral in helping get the necessary needs to help St. George grow and for the crops to grow exponentially.
He angled for there to be more colleges, including Snow college, returned to the Dixie area where St. George is, and continually raised funding to expand on the Dixie University already there that he had attended in his younger years.
He had three kids and was closely affiliated with the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
John “Cat” Thompson
John “Cat” Thompson was an award-winning basketball player for the MSU Golden Bobcats. He was born in St. George and played basketball through high school at Dixie High School and into college at Dixie College. He would play for a while there before he was offered a scholarship to Montana State Scholarship where he played for the MSU Golden Bobcats.
He got his nickname for being surprisingly fast and possessing cat-like agility, on top of his shooting ability. Several people were known to compare him to a tree cat, in other words, a bobcat. It was fitting that he would play for a team whose mascot closely resembled a lot of his own personal skills.
Bruce Hurst
Another well-known sports star, Bruce Hurst was known for playing with and for the Boston Red Sox specifically as their left-hand starting pitcher. He would be best known for his performance during the 1986 postseason. There is a full MLB page about his stats and achievements and the man would also go to marry and have four children.
Henry William Bigler
Henry William Bigler would come to be known as the man who recorded the actual date on which gold was discovered in Sacramento. He was a former member of the Mormon Battalion and served two missions to Hawaii. He had five children and worked frequently at the St. George temple. While he wasn’t born in St. George, he came to settle there and his family lived there for most of their lives, even when he was on his religious missions to Hawaii.
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