folk hero

plural folk heroes · alternative folk-hero

1. A real or mythical person who is widely revered by ordinary people, for championing their interests, values, or aspirations.

   The American folk hero Woody Guthrie will be honored at the Kennedy Center, but rabble-rousing, not respectability, was his goal.

   2012 August 18, Lawrence Downes, “As Woody Turns 100, We Protest Too Little”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 Apr 2013

   2 more examples

   That hallowed American folk hero, the lean cowboy with six-gun at hip, swinging smoothly into the saddle—somehow he never had to go to school to learn that stuff.

   1966 June 10, “Vocational Education: Cowhand School”, in Time

   Deuladeu Martins is a woman folk-hero dating from the 12th century; she is thought of as a hugely tall and strong woman whose actions were so feared by invaders that, because of her, the country of Portugal itself came into being.

   1996, Robin Morgan, Sisterhood is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, →ISBN, page 571