> in CentOS/Fedora/RHEL your files need to be owned by group apache.
I don't think so. Files only need to be READABLE by the apache process.
Directories also need to be executable so Apache can "cd" into them, for
example to generate dynamic directory listings (mod_autoindex).
# cd <document_root>; chmod --recursive 755 *
For directories that contain scripts or CGIs, Redhat recommends
assigning ownership to root.
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-8.0-Manual/security-guide/s
1-server-http.html