This is the second installment in my 47-part series titled:  Getting To Know Famous People From Wilkes County.  (Read the first installment here.)  This week we get to know stand-up comedian Zach Galifianakis.

You know him from movies such as The Hangover and Dinner For Shmucks, and most recently as host of this weekend's Saturday Night Live.  But, he was also born in Wilkes Co as suggested in a post on the Wilkes County Tourism twitter feed.  He graduated from Wilkes Central High School.

You can read all about Zach on the web, but what about his Wilkes Co heritage?  He born in 1969 to Harry Galifianakis and Mary Francis Cashion.  While the Galifianakis family emigrated from Greece, the Cashions spent several generations in Wilkes.  Mary Francis Cashion was the daughter of Paul L. Cashion who was born in Wilkes in 1916.  Among many other things, he served a term as president of the North Wilkesboro Lions Club in the 1940s.

Paul was the son of Archie Andrew Cashion (1886-1969).  He owned and operated a service station in North Wilkesboro and also served as the town's mayor at one point.

Archie was the son of John A. Cashion (1856-1934) who moved his family from Huntersville, NC, to Wilkes Co about 1900.  Archie seems to have lived near Hopewell, VA, for a few years between 1915 and 1923.  John A. Cashion (Zach's great-great-grandfather) was a prominent leader in North Wilkesboro.  He was the first to buy a town lot in what would become the main part of the city.  He was a construction supervisor at a tannery, and he also owned a grocery business.

An article in the Wilkes County Heritage Book, Volume 1 includes additional information on the family as well as a family picture (below) apparently taken in the early 1930s.    The three men on the right represent Zach's great-grandfather Archie, grandfather Paul, and gg-grandfather John A. Cashion.



While it's hard to see through his bushy beard, you can see a slight resemblance between Zach and these older members of his family.  His Wilkes County connection may be common knowledge, but it was news to me!  I'll end this with a Zach Galifianakis quote to ponder:  "At what age do you think it's appropriate to tell a highway it's adopted?"