25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From the Catskills, New York

A scenic road through the Catskill Mountains during autumn in New York. Photo by Jon Bilous / Shutterstock.com.

The Catskill Mountains are famous for the historic Borscht Belt resorts of Sullivan County, the landscapes that inspired generations of American artists, and the rural towns and villages spread across Greene, Delaware, and Sullivan counties. Beyond tourism, the region has also produced an unusually varied group of writers, musicians, judges, athletes, business leaders, inventors, and public figures.

Every person on this list has a direct hometown connection to the Catskills through birth, upbringing, or local schooling. From Roxbury and Monticello to East Durham, Catskill, Walton, and Hunter, these 25 people carried their Catskill roots into careers that reached far beyond the mountains of New York.

1. John Burroughs – Roxbury, Delaware County

• Catskill Roots: John Burroughs was born in Roxbury in 1837 and grew up on his family’s farm in Delaware County. He returned to the area throughout his life and later maintained Woodchuck Lodge near his birthplace.
• Claim to Fame: Burroughs became one of America’s most influential nature writers. Across dozens of books and essays, he wrote about birds, forests, wildlife, and the changing American landscape and became closely associated with the early conservation movement.

2. Jay Gould – Roxbury, Delaware County

• Catskill Roots: Jay Gould was born in Roxbury in 1836 and spent his early years on his father’s farm. He studied at Hobart Academy, kept books for a local blacksmith, and developed skills in mathematics, surveying, and mapmaking.
• Claim to Fame: Gould became one of the best-known railroad financiers of the Gilded Age. His business interests included the Erie Railroad, Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific, and Western Union, and he played a major role in the expansion and consolidation of American transportation and communications networks.

3. Judith Kaye – Monticello, Sullivan County

• Catskill Roots: Judith Ann Smith was born in Monticello in 1938 and grew up in Sullivan County. She attended a one-room schoolhouse before moving into the village and graduated from Monticello High School in 1954 at age 15.
• Claim to Fame: Kaye became the first woman appointed to the New York Court of Appeals in 1983 and the first woman to serve as Chief Judge of the Court in 1993. She remained Chief Judge through 2008, becoming the longest-serving chief judge in the court’s history.

4. Gavin DeGraw – South Fallsburg, Sullivan County

• Catskill Roots: Gavin DeGraw was born and raised in South Fallsburg and developed his musical interests in the Fallsburg Central School District, where he studied piano, sang, and participated in music and theater.
• Claim to Fame: DeGraw became a successful singer-songwriter whose breakthrough single, “I Don’t Want to Be,” was used as the theme song for One Tree Hill. His other well-known songs include “Chariot,” “In Love with a Girl,” and “Not Over You.”

5. Blossom Dearie – East Durham, Greene County

• Catskill Roots: Blossom Margrethe Dearie was born in East Durham in 1924 and began playing piano at a very young age in her Catskill Mountains home.
• Claim to Fame: Dearie became an internationally admired jazz pianist and vocalist known for her light, distinctive voice and sophisticated phrasing. She recorded extensively for Verve, performed for decades in New York and London, and sang memorable Schoolhouse Rock! songs including “Figure Eight” and “Unpack Your Adjectives.”

6. Francis S. Currey – Loch Sheldrake and Hurleyville, Sullivan County

• Catskill Roots: Francis S. Currey was born in Loch Sheldrake in 1925 and grew up with foster parents in nearby Hurleyville. He enlisted in the United States Army shortly after graduating from high school.
• Claim to Fame: Currey received the Medal of Honor for his actions near Malmedy, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge on December 21, 1944. Under intense enemy fire, he helped knock out a German tank, inflicted heavy losses on enemy forces, rescued five American soldiers, and helped stop an attack threatening his battalion.

7. Stephanie Blythe – Mongaup Valley, Sullivan County

• Catskill Roots: Stephanie Blythe grew up in Mongaup Valley and graduated from Monticello High School in 1987. A high school trip to the Metropolitan Opera helped deepen her interest in opera before she continued her musical education at SUNY Potsdam.
• Claim to Fame: Blythe became an internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano with a long career at the Metropolitan Opera and other major opera houses. Her repertory has included leading roles in works by Wagner, Verdi, Handel, Rossini, and many other composers.

8. James Bogardus – Catskill, Greene County

• Catskill Roots: James Bogardus was born in Catskill in 1800 and left school at 14 to apprentice with a local watchmaker, beginning the mechanical training that shaped his later inventions.
• Claim to Fame: Bogardus became one of America’s pioneers of cast-iron architecture. His patented methods for prefabricated iron structural systems helped advance a form of commercial construction that became especially important in 19th-century American cities.

9. Thurlow Weed – Cairo, Greene County

• Catskill Roots: Thurlow Weed was born in the hamlet of Acra in the town of Cairo in 1797. His family later lived in the village of Catskill before Weed began a career in printing and newspaper publishing.
• Claim to Fame: Weed became an influential newspaper editor, political organizer, and strategist in 19th-century New York. Through the Albany Evening Journal, he became an important figure in the Whig Party and later in the early Republican Party.

10. Lawrence H. Cooke – Monticello, Sullivan County

• Catskill Roots: Lawrence H. Cooke was born and raised in Monticello in 1914. After graduating from Albany Law School, he returned to Sullivan County to practice law and begin a long career in public service.
• Claim to Fame: Cooke served as a Sullivan County judge, a New York Supreme Court justice, a judge of the Court of Appeals, and finally Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1979 through 1984.

11. William B. Ogden – Walton, Delaware County

• Catskill Roots: William Butler Ogden was born in Walton in 1805 and grew up in Delaware County. As a teenager he assumed major responsibility for his family’s land, lumber, and business interests.
• Claim to Fame: Ogden became the first Mayor of Chicago in 1837 and later emerged as a major railroad executive. He served as the first president of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad and played an important role in the early development of the Union Pacific.

12. Bill Stafford – Catskill and Athens, Greene County

• Catskill Roots: Bill Stafford was born in Catskill in 1938, grew up in nearby Athens, and attended Coxsackie-Athens High School before signing with the New York Yankees.
• Claim to Fame: Stafford pitched in the major leagues from 1960 through 1967 and won World Series championships with the Yankees in 1961 and 1962. He was the winning pitcher in Game 3 of the 1962 World Series against the San Francisco Giants, allowing two late runs in a 3-2 Yankees victory.

13. Tammi Reiss – Eldred, Sullivan County

• Catskill Roots: Tammi Reiss was born in Eldred in 1970 and starred at Eldred Central School before becoming one of the nation’s top college basketball players.
• Claim to Fame: Reiss became an All-American guard at the University of Virginia and helped the Cavaliers reach three consecutive Final Fours. She was selected fifth overall by the Utah Starzz in the 1997 WNBA Draft and later moved into college coaching.

14. Lucius Robinson – Windham, Greene County

• Catskill Roots: Lucius Robinson was born in Windham in 1810 and attended schools in the region before studying law. He later served as Greene County district attorney.
• Claim to Fame: Robinson served as New York State Comptroller and later as Governor of New York from 1877 through 1879. His administration coincided with the continuing development of the new State Capitol in Albany and other state institutional reforms.

15. Henry Baldwin Hyde – Catskill, Greene County

• Catskill Roots: Henry Baldwin Hyde was born in Catskill in 1834 and attended local schools before moving with his family to New York City as a teenager.
• Claim to Fame: Hyde founded the Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1859 and helped build it into one of the world’s largest insurance companies of its era. Equitable’s 1870 headquarters in Manhattan became an important early example of a tall office building equipped with passenger elevators.

16. Randall Batinkoff – Monticello, Sullivan County

• Catskill Roots: Randall Batinkoff was born in Monticello in 1968 and spent part of his childhood in Upstate New York before beginning a professional acting career at a young age.
• Claim to Fame: Batinkoff became known for film and television roles including For Keeps, School Ties, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Player, and As Good as It Gets. He later also worked as a writer, producer, and director.

17. Stanley Finch – Monticello, Sullivan County

• Catskill Roots: Stanley Wellington Finch was born in Monticello in 1872 before beginning a long career with the United States Department of Justice.
• Claim to Fame: Finch became the first leader of the federal investigative force created within the Justice Department in 1908. That organization was later named the Bureau of Investigation and eventually evolved into the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

18. Ned Buntline – Harpersfield, Delaware County

• Catskill Roots: Edward Zane Carroll Judson, better known by his pen name Ned Buntline, was born in Harpersfield in 1821. He left the region while still young and eventually pursued a restless career at sea, in journalism, and in popular publishing.
• Claim to Fame: Buntline became one of the best-known writers and publishers of 19th-century dime novels. His sensational stories and stage productions helped popularize the legend of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody for a national audience.

19. Robert S. Kapito – Monticello, Sullivan County

• Catskill Roots: Robert S. Kapito was born in Monticello in 1957 and grew up in a working-class family whose tire and auto-repair business operated in the community for decades.
• Claim to Fame: Kapito co-founded BlackRock in 1988 and became the firm’s president. He has played a central role in the growth of BlackRock into one of the world’s largest asset-management companies.

20. Mickey Brantley – Catskill, Greene County

• Catskill Roots: Mickey Brantley was born in Catskill in 1961 and attended Catskill High School before continuing his baseball career in college.
• Claim to Fame: Brantley played four major-league seasons as an outfielder for the Seattle Mariners and later worked as a professional hitting coach. He is also the father of former Major League All-Star Michael Brantley.

21. Charles Becker – Callicoon Center, Sullivan County

• Catskill Roots: Charles Becker was born in Callicoon Center in 1870 and grew up in Sullivan County before moving to New York City and joining the police department.
• Claim to Fame: Becker became an NYPD lieutenant whose career ended in one of the most notorious police-corruption scandals of the early 20th century. He was convicted of arranging the 1912 murder of gambler Herman Rosenthal and was executed at Sing Sing in 1915 after a retrial and second conviction.

22. Joseph “Diamond Jo” Reynolds – Fallsburg, Sullivan County

• Catskill Roots: Joseph Reynolds was born in Fallsburg in 1819 to a Quaker farming family. As a young man, he operated local businesses before moving west.
• Claim to Fame: Reynolds became a successful transportation entrepreneur and founded the Diamond Jo Line of steamboats on the upper Mississippi River. He later developed the Hot Springs Railroad in Arkansas and left an educational and philanthropic legacy through the University of Chicago.

23. Phineas F. Bresee – Franklin, Delaware County

• Catskill Roots: Phineas F. Bresee was born on a farm near Franklin in 1838 and grew up in Delaware County before moving west with his family.
• Claim to Fame: Bresee became a Methodist minister and one of the principal founders of the Church of the Nazarene. His work in religious education also helped establish institutions that became part of the modern Point Loma Nazarene University.

24. Jeremy Transue – Hunter Mountain, Greene County

• Catskill Roots: Jeremy Transue was born and raised in the Catskill Mountains and began skiing at Hunter Mountain as a toddler, where his father worked in mountain operations.
• Claim to Fame: Transue became a member of the U.S. Ski Team and competed internationally in downhill and Super-G. He won the North American Cup downhill title for the 2007-08 season and later moved into alpine coaching.

25. Frank McLaury – Kortright, Delaware County

• Catskill Roots: Frank McLaury was born Robert Findley McLaury in Kortright in 1848 and spent his early childhood on the family’s Delaware County farm before the family moved to Iowa.
• Claim to Fame: McLaury became part of the cattle-ranching world around Tombstone in the Arizona Territory. He and his brother Tom became associated with the group known as the Cowboys, and both were killed during the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881.

Quick Reference: 25 Famous People From the Catskills

Readers interested in more notable New Yorkers can continue with 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From the Hudson Valley, New York, 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From Upstate New York, and Beyond the Spotlight: 25 Legends Who Found a Quieter Life in Upstate New York.