Leroy Kincade - AC/DC's "Cold Hearted Man"

Stagger Lee

Delta Dawn

Off the top of my head
 

I nominate two more John (Cougar) Mellencamp songs/characters:

Jackie Brown Lyrics Song

Martha Lyrics

And for an Australian cultural landmark, I Was Only Nineteen, by Redgum (no relation), and the unnamed protagonist therein: Video Lyrics

the guy in bob dylans tangled up in blue
any character in a tom waits song (especially on raindogs)
zacharia from the jesus lizard
and jesus from 99% of the x-mass songs.

great characters.

The protagonist in "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" by Richard Thompson

Rael in "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" by Genesis

The guys in "Wooden Ships" by Jefferson Airplane or CSNY

The sniper in "Sniper' by Harry Chapin (based on a real person)

That unnamed Minstrel Boy of Thomas Moore's.

Some others --

It's a showtune, but there's Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier -- even if it gets me to imagining Davy habitually going to a burlesque theater and being King of the Wild Front Tier.

Other Zevon-ery: The Excitable Boy, that subversive Gorilla who's a Desperado.

Johnny B. Goode and The Ghost of Tom Joad off the top of my head

how much is that doggy in the window

Tommy & Gina - Bon Jovi

Sister Christian - Night Ranger

American Girl - Tom Petty

Mary's New Car - Tom Petty (written about a real woman he worked with, named Mary, who got a new car one day, and the whole studio went out into the parking lot to check it out when she announced her big news.)

I got another one:

Ethel, the 'shameless hussy', and I guess her husband ('Yea I did!') from "The Streak" by Ray Stevens.

she was standin' there over by the dermaters...

The serial killer/narrator of Bruce Springsteen's "State Trooper"

Bloody Red Baron - The Royal Guardsman

Flying Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley