Roy Rogers, the "King of the Cowboys," appeared on his horse Trigger and starred in 104 films from 1935 to 1959, with his final film, "Macintosh and TJ," released in 1975; his boyhood home stands on Roy Rogers Road, and Portsmouth holds an annual summer Roy Rogers Festival downtown. During the devastating 1937 flood, Chillicothe Street filled with scenes of residents stranded on rooftops awaiting rescue, long lines waiting for water at Kinney Spring, and the Tomlin family’s capsized boat, in which all were saved except Bessie Tomlin, who was seen holding her 18-month-old baby Alberta Tomlin Parker; Sea Scouts were pressed into service where needed during the disaster. Branch Rickey, shown at the height of his career signing Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, helped make that club the first major league baseball team to break the color barrier; he was also connected to the Portsmouth Red Birds in 1938 through the Saint Louis Cardinals, was born near Stockdale on Duck Run northwest of Portsmouth, and received his early education in Lucasville. In the early 1900s, Kentucky ferry boats carried travelers to and from Kentucky until the U.S. Grant Bridge, opened in 1927, became the preferred river crossing, and in 1932 the George Washington passenger train began service between Cincinnati, Ohio and Washington D.C.; Jesse Stuart, Kentucky’s poet laureate and a world-renowned author, taught school in Portsmouth and expressed his love for the city.