The name Jessie has been around for awhile. One of the most famous Jessie’s I can think of going back into time is the famous outlaw Jessie James. Many can remember the James Gang and all of the bank robberies they had a part in. After all the shots fired in Jessie James direction and for all the men who desperately tried to hunt him down, his journey came to an end, when a young criminal inside the Jessie James network gunned him down from behind. At least that is what many believed happen; while some think this was just a decoy and Jessie James continued to live a life away from crime and punishment.

The next Jessie was a black American athlete who dominated the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Jessie Owens was so good at the track and field events, the leader of Germany Adolf Hitler turned his back on the American athlete; that no one could touch in the summer of 1936. You can’t have a history of Jessie without mentioning the accomplishments of Jessie Owens in Berlin, Germany.

It would take many years later until another Jessie made their mark in my memory of Jessies. It was a future Hollywood actor on the soap opera General Hospital, who first started out in the music industry. I am talking about Rick Springfield and his early 1980′s song Jessie’s Girl. While the video only showed a few quick shots of this beautiful girl named Jessie, who was the best friend of the singer Rick Springfield. I think a lot of guys could relate to this song and there has always been another guy who had a girlfriend; which we wished we would have found first. Just like Rick Springfield’s buddy Jessie, it’s been our best friend sometimes who has found a beautiful new girlfriend and makes us very jealous. Jessie’s Girl was a great song back then and many can still sing out a few lines to this popular song from the 80′s MTV generation.

It wasn’t just Rick Springfield who knew of a famous Jessie and many can remember Bo and Luke Duke always seeking the help of their Uncle Jessie from the Dukes of Hazard. The Dukes of Hazard was so popular in Mississippi during the early 1980′s, that they had to move their Friday night high school football games to Saturday night. No one in Mississippi was attending the high school football games, because they wanted to stay home and watch the Duke Boys run from the Hazard County law. Keep in mind this was before the VCR”s or during a time they were too expensive to afford for every family. No DVR or anything else to record the Dukes of Hazard on Friday nights in Mississippi, so this is why the high school football games got moved to Saturday nights. It was a very popular show and one of the main characters on the show was the white-bearded old man who drove the white Ford pick-up truck around the dirt roads of Hazard County. Yes, it was everyone’s favorite uncle, who we all knew as Uncle Jessie.

Before Barack Obama became the first black president, it was Jessie Jackson in the mid 1980′s who came very close to being our first black president in the United States. He gave a very powerful speech at the Democratic Party and most can still remember his speech; that almost landed him a chair in the Oval Office.

Before Arnold became the governor of California, another jock loaded with muscles became the governor of Minnesota. It was Jessie Ventura from the world of wrestling entertainment, who got enough votes to be the governor of a U.S. State. Most will agree that Jessie Ventura did a good job as governor and it wasn’t just a political stunt or circus. Ventura did a good job leading the folks of Minnesota into one of the top states in America today.

While all of these Jessie’s have been men through out history that come to my memory. There have been a few females with the name Jessie. Anyone who has ever seen the show Saved By the Bell will remember Elizabeth Berkley as Jessie Spano, the good friend to Zack Morris. Also, a lot of songs in the last 15 years or so, will use the name Jessie as a female character in a song. A 1990′s song I really like by Joshua Kadison is called Jessie and it’s a real nice song. You can go to YouTube and listen toJessie by Joshua Kadison and let me know your opinion of this Jessie song.

Do you know of any men or women by the name of Jessie that needs to be mentioned in the history of Jessie? Please put on your thinking caps and tell me the famous Jessie people you know about. I’m sure I have left out some really popular and famous Jessie names and would like to get them mentioned. Just leave a reply with your famous Jessie and we can see where they rank with some of the Jessie names I have already mentioned in this blog post. The topic is the history of Jessie and it’s important we list all of the key names. By any chance is your name Jessie? Did you read this blog post, because you share this same name? You can reply to say that you share this same name or just let me know which Jessie you were searching for and discovered their name here on the history of Jessie.