IN: Jessica Ann Johnson (nee Simpson; born July 10, 1980) is an American singer, actress and fashion designer. Simpson signed a recording contract with Columbia Records when she was sixteen, and released her debut studio album in 1999. The album sold over four million copies worldwide, and spawned the top three hit "I Wanna Love You Forever" (1999).

Jessica Ann Simpson was born in Abilene, Texas. She is the first child of Tina Ann (nee Drew), a homemaker, and Joseph "Joe" Simpson, a psychologist and Baptist youth minister. Simpson's parents married in 1978; they divorced in 2013. Simpson has stated that she grew up in Dallas, but her parents now live in McGregor, Texas. Simpson is the first child of the couple; she has a younger sister, Ashlee Simpson. She briefly attended J. J. Pearce High School in her teenage years, though had to drop out as her career began to take off; she later earned her GED. Being the daughter of a minister, Simpson was raised with a strong Christian faith. She was given a purity ring by her father when she was twelve years old. Jessica and her family moved frequently due to her father's job, though they remained in Texas. Her father would often take in unwed mothers for periods of time to provide them shelter.  She began singing in the church choir as a child. When she was eleven, she realized she hoped to achieve success as a singer while at a church retreat. Simpson auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club at the age of twelve, auditioning with a performance of "Amazing Grace" and dancing to "Ice Ice Baby" (1990). She advanced through multiple rounds, eventually being a semi-finalist for the show alongside artists such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake. Simpson claimed that she became nervous about her final audition after seeing Aguilera perform, and she ultimately was not selected for the show. Simpson resumed performing in her church choir, eventually being discovered by the head of a Christian music label. He initially asked her for an audition, and immediately signed her after she performed "I Will Always Love You" (1973) by Dolly Parton. She began working on her debut album with Proclaim Records, and began touring to promote the project. Jessica's father later claimed that she had to quit touring as the size of her breasts led to her being deemed too "sexual" for the genre.  Her debut album, Jessica, remained unreleased after Proclaim Records went bankrupt; despite this, her grandmother did personally fund a limited pressing of the album. Shortly after this, Simpson landed several auditions as Jessica was sent to numerous labels and producers. She ultimately caught the attention of Tommy Mottola, then-husband of Mariah Carey and the head of Columbia Records. He went on to sign her to the label, claiming "She had a great little look and a great attitude, a fresh new face, and something a bit different than Britney and all of them; she could actually sing." Simpson began working on her debut album in Orlando, Florida. Mottola hoped to market Simpson as a contrast to Spears and Aguilera, both of whom had launched successful careers focused on dancing and sexuality. While working on her musical debut, Simpson enlisted her father Joe as her manager; her mother became her stylist. While at a Christmas party in 1998, Simpson met 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey, and the two began a romantic relationship; Lachey claimed that he left the party and proclaimed to his mother that he would marry Simpson some day.

Where did she grow up?

OUT: Simpson has stated that she grew up in Dallas,


IN: James Maury "Jim" Henson (September 24, 1936 - May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, artist, cartoonist, inventor, screenwriter, and filmmaker who achieved international fame as the creator of the Muppets. He was born in Greenville, Mississippi and raised in Leland, Mississippi and Hyattsville, Maryland. Henson began developing puppets while attending high school. He created Sam and Friends while he was a freshman at the University of Maryland, College Park, a five-minute sketch-comedy puppet show that appeared on television.

James Maury Henson was born in Greenville, Mississippi on September 24, 1936, the younger of two children of Paul Ransom Henson (1904-1994), an agronomist for the United States Department of Agriculture, and his wife Betty Marcella (nee Brown, 1904-1992). He was raised as a Christian Scientist and spent his early childhood in Leland, Mississippi, before moving with his family to University Park, Maryland in the late 1940s, near Washington, D.C. He remembered the arrival of the family's first television as "the biggest event of his adolescence," having been heavily influenced by radio ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and the early television puppets of Burr Tillstrom on Kukla, Fran and Ollie and Bil and Cora Baird. He remained a Christian Scientist at least into his twenties when he would teach Sunday School, but he wrote to a Christian Science church in 1975 to inform them that he was no longer a practicing member.  Henson began working for WTOP-TV (now WUSA-TV) in 1954 while attending Northwestern High School, creating puppets for a Saturday morning children's show called The Junior Morning Show. He enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park as a studio arts major upon graduation, thinking that he might become a commercial artist. A puppetry class offered in the applied arts department introduced him to the craft and textiles courses in the College of Home Economics, and he graduated in 1960 with a BS in home economics. As a freshman, he had been asked to create Sam and Friends, a five-minute puppet show for WRC-TV. The characters on Sam and Friends were forerunners of the Muppets, and the show included a prototype of Henson's most famous character Kermit the Frog. He remained at WRC from 1954 to 1961.  In the show, Henson began experimenting with techniques that changed the way in which puppetry was used on television, including using the frame defined by the camera shot to allow the puppet performer to work from off-camera. He believed that television puppets needed to have "life and sensitivity" and began making characters from flexible, fabric-covered foam rubber, allowing them to express a wider array of emotions at a time when many puppets were made of carved wood. A marionette's arms are manipulated by strings, but Henson used rods to move his Muppets' arms, allowing greater control of expression. Additionally, he wanted the Muppet characters to "speak" more creatively than was possible for previous puppets, which had random mouth movements, so he used precise mouth movements to match the dialogue.  When Henson began work on Sam and Friends, he asked fellow University of Maryland sophomore Jane Nebel to assist him. The show was a financial success but, after graduating from college, he began to have doubts about going into a career performing with puppets. He spent several months in Europe, where he was inspired by European puppet performers who looked on their work as an art form. He and Jane began dating after his return to the United States. They were married in 1959 and had five children: Lisa (b. 1960), Cheryl (b. 1961), Brian (b. 1963), John (b. 1965, d. 2014), and Heather (b. 1970).

What high school did he graduated from ?

OUT:
Northwestern High School,